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Nutrition Best food/diet program for someone in detox?

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steve-in-kville

steve-in-kville

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I am helping a family member through a rough spot, even though the family has tried in the past. She was heavy drinker and just started using heavier drugs. At various times over the years, she would sober up and at most it would last a few weeks. That's a different story for another day...

Anyway, this time I am taking her more seriously than some other family. She wants to get fit, get back into running (she did some marathons in her youth) and wondered what diet program she should follow. She knew I had done paleo in the past with good results, and one that I still works well for me, just not as strict about it.

She's only a week into sobriety, working a recovery program and all that. I told her she should concentrate on her recovery, healthy eating, as all that booze may take a bit to detox. Being in those shoes myself back in the day, I told her to drink water with reckless abandon to allow her body chemistry to flush, then look at a new eating system.

She seems adamant to making changes now. What do I tell her? Slow down and give it time? I appreciate any comments or suggestions.
 
@steve-in-kville, good for you for helping your family member through this.

I think one of the best changes a person can make is to rethink how they eat, IOW, forget about paleo, keto, IF, or anything else and simply buy better food and learn how to cook. In our house, that means we don't eat out much, and we expect to spend more on groceries than we used to. We do almost all of our food shopping at Whole Foods and Fresh Markets. It costs more, and it's more work, too, but for us, this kind of approach is foundational. Build on top of that later.

I also recommend to anyone who switches from restaurants, take-out, and prepared foods to cooking that they make sure they're getting enough salt. Salt is too often vilified because it's present in such high quantities in prepared foods, but salt performs a kind of disappearing act in food. Even if you cook at home, you'll often find that when you go to finish the leftovers from a previous day's cooking, you'll want to re-season it. The more freshly cooked, home-prepared food you can eat, the better. We keep an open dish of sea salt on our stove, and many days I'll walk by and just take a pinch and eat it straight.

That in place, I remain a bit fan of the Warrior Diet form of IF, which is what I practice. A typical day for me isn't a complete fast but something 200-calories-ish, often a Raw Rev protein bar these days, with my vitamins and coffee in the morning, and another in the afternoon if I'm hungry, and then waiting until dinner for a real "meal" isn't such a big deal.

I also highly recommend the WD order of things - start with a salad or other uncooked veggies, then have your main protein/fat foods and cooked veggies, and only then some carbohydrates if you still want them. The logic, as I understand it, is based on getting your digestive system "revved up" by starting it off with the hardest-to-digest foods. This approach makes "food coma," at least in my experience, happen less often and less severe when it happens.

-S-
 
Thank you for the reply. The last we communicated I told her to keep a water bottle nearby all day and all night. Get up to use the restroom? Drink some water. Alcohol detox is initially 3 -5 days, depending. She will need to get past the night sweets and the insomnia first, then we shall look at workout and diet options.
 
I think Elle McPherson got it right, years ago she talked about eating “clean” when that just meant eating wholesome fresh food prepared from minimally processed ingredients. If you do that, it’s hard to go wrong. And I say that as someone who’s been on over 100 different diets
 
John Durant, whose book I own and have read a few times makes some good points: cutting out sugar is a huge start for anyone!
 
LukeV said:
I think Elle McPherson got it right, years ago she talked about eating “clean” when that just meant eating wholesome fresh food prepared from minimally processed ingredients. If you do that, it’s hard to go wrong. And I say that as someone who’s been on over 100 different diets
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steve-in-kville said:
John Durant, whose book I own and have read a few times makes some good points: cutting out sugar is a huge start for anyone!
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I agree completely. But I've also found that a couple of squares of dark chocolate don't seem to hurt, either.

-S-
 
steve-in-kville said:
I am helping a family member through a rough spot, even though the family has tried in the past. She was heavy drinker and just started using heavier drugs. At various times over the years, she would sober up and at most it would last a few weeks. That's a different story for another day...

Anyway, this time I am taking her more seriously than some other family. She wants to get fit, get back into running (she did some marathons in her youth) and wondered what diet program she should follow. She knew I had done paleo in the past with good results, and one that I still works well for me, just not as strict about it.

She's only a week into sobriety, working a recovery program and all that. I told her she should concentrate on her recovery, healthy eating, as all that booze may take a bit to detox. Being in those shoes myself back in the day, I told her to drink water with reckless abandon to allow her body chemistry to flush, then look at a new eating system.

She seems adamant to making changes now. What do I tell her? Slow down and give it time? I appreciate any comments or suggestions.
Click to expand...
I am coming up on 3 years clean (heroin, meth, crack). I’d be happy to give you any advice I can. Maybe have a few non-diet related tips to share too! Shoot me a private message!!!
 
Josh Hillis's book "Lean and Strong" is one of the best resources for starting healthy eating.

It doesn't start out with telling you what to eat. It starts out with building healhty habits in an easy and trackable way. For instance, for the first couple weeks he has you do things like put the fork down between every bite. You can borrow his book free from his publisher here: Josh Hillis new book Lean & Strong

It cuts through all the nonsense that people try to sell you like "carbs cause obesity" or "lose weight by drinking this special coffee with 300 calories of butter in it and call it fasting" and his the basic issues and habits people have that got them there.

I'd highly recommend it.
 
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