I grew up with a lot of food allergies. I was born with allergies to dairy, corn, peanuts, beef, and eggs. I've grown out of the beef, eggs, and most recent, dairy (that one was just about two months ago). And if you didn't know...Corn is in EVERYTHING! Like...everything. There are even hidden names for it, like malt and maltodextrin.
When I was 11 years old, I went to an allergist who told me that I had outgrown ALL of my allergies. I knew this was NOT true, because anytime I accidentally ate or touched dairy, I would get hives. We proved that to her by putting peanut butter and chocolate milk on my arm. For the test, it was supposed to be on my arm for 15 minutes. They had to stop the test at five minutes because my reaction was so bad. Hives were covering my whole arm, all the way up to my shoulder and neck. That was an adventure.
Those were the only two allergies I was okay to "keep". My allergies to beef, eggs, and corn were the ones I readily gave up. After all, who wants to sit around eating a plain chicken burger with no bun while everyone else is having beef on a corn-and-egg-filled bun, with corn-and-egg-filled condiments? Thankfully, I had actually grown out of the beef and egg allergies. The corn...Not so much. Regardless, I ate corn for three years. I was desperate to appear "normal". However, during this time, my eczema grew out of control and spread like wildfire. EVERYWHERE. The most noticeable was my hands. I had terrible dry, red, itchy patches all over my hands. It was so embarrassing. Eventually, I became so miserable that I was ready to give up corn. (Rabbit trail: Before I cut corn, I fount out that Sodium Laurel Sulfates caused around 40% of my eczema. I now use sulfate-free soaps and shampoo. I have to carry my own soap in my purse wherever I go, or I'll get a flair up. End of rabbit trail.) Sometimes, though, (because corn is in EVERYTHING) it accidentally sneaks into my diet, undetected. It's always a horrible experience, and takes weeks to get out of my system.
Phew! Anyway...All this to say: I've accidentally had some corn in the past few days. Big oops. I can't seem to trace it back, but whatever it was...I'm mad at it. My hands have been torture for the past week. They itch soooo badly. They have ugly red patches. (Mostly only I can see them right now, because it isn't that bad yet. I'm kind of self conscious about it, though...) I've tried to nip it in the bud with some cortisone cream, but it just isn't cutting it. It takes the edge off the itch, but it isn't helping to take it away. So I've decided to take drastic measures. I'm starting a detox juice cleanse tomorrow morning. And so this brings us to the title of today's post...I'm insane. Not really, though. I just feel like it. I've seen a lot of people posting about their juice cleanses, and Avery and her mom just went through one. The owner of the local health food store (where I just happen to work) just did one. I guess it's my turn. I've decided to follow this detox plan (I found it on Pinterest. Shocking, right?) from Doctor Oz. I don't usually follow/agree with everything he puts out there, but this seemed like my kind of plan. It only takes three days, and all of the smoothies look pretty good. My mom and I went raw a few summers ago (we have since stopped), and I got a little burnt out on smoothies. But hopefully these will refresh my smoothie palate. Frankly, I'm desperate. I'm totally okay with doing this. I went shopping today to get all of the ingredients I needed, and as I was shopping, I was getting excited about it. So. Tomorrow marks the start of my very first detox cleanse. I'm sure I'll be documenting and posting pictures along the way, so stay tuned. Let's get started...
-Moriah
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