For years, the Enneagram has been an insightful personality tool for me in developing a deeper knowledge of myself and deeper grace for others. One of the insights of the Enneagram is the way it highlights a “deadly sin” that impacts each personality style. For me, as an Enneagram 7, that sin is gluttony.
Gluttony, or overindulging to excess, has shown up in many forms in my life. In my teenage years, it came in the form of buying too many clothes and shoes. When I visit Jeni’s Ice Cream, I want to sample everything twice. I will run myself ragged with too many commitments and social engagements, because more has often felt like, well, more.
Yet, over the past year, I’ve been enrolled in a health program that has trained me to form habits rooted in discipline. One of the pillars of this program is detox, giving the body the opportunity to naturally remove toxins from the system by limiting things that may create inflammation from the diet we consume. My first detox took place this past July and lasted for 21 days, following six weeks of dietary transitions that progressively eliminated foods that would be restricted during the detox.
Colleen Cook works full-time as the Director of Operations at Vinyl Marketing in Ashland, where she resides with her husband Mike and three young daughters. She’s an insatiable extrovert who enjoys finding reasons to gather people.
That first detox was scary, challenging and empowering. I eliminated foods I’d been eating each day from my diet entirely for three weeks. The anxiety I felt about eating differently and the struggle I felt when I couldn’t numb my emotions with sugar or alcohol was shocking, to be honest. I hadn’t realized I was even doing that in my everyday life. Since completing that detox, I’ve been working to form healthier habits, developing a new rotation of meals in our meal plan to try to eat as close as possible to how I ate during my detox.
Throughout the holidays, while I strove to continue to eat healthfully, increasingly I noticed I wasn’t being as strict and began to not feel as well as I had been feeling. In the midst of a season of gluttony, I found myself craving the discipline I’d experienced in the summer. The balance of a fast, of sorts, after a feast felt right to me, particularly as I embarked on a fresh decade.
So, beginning January 1, my husband and I began another detox. We immediately eliminated all sugar and sweeteners, caffeine, alcohol, gluten, dairy and a litany of other foods that can cause inflammation that day and maintained those restrictions for three weeks. I felt no anxiety this time, just excitement about the choice we were making for ourselves.
During this second detox, I was surprised by how intense my cravings for sugar were, particularly in the first few days. I found it much harder to be disciplined entering a detox following a season of indulgence. Having been out of the habit of being disciplined, it was much harder to stay disciplined than it had been the first time.
When I experienced a sugar craving, it was remarkable how strongly my body and my mind wanted to give in. I’d despair a bit about how long it would be until I could give into that craving, and that would only make it worse. But, if I practiced mindfulness in that moment and allowed the craving to wash over me and consider how it made me feel and let it pass on by, eventually it did fade away. Each day I resisted the urge to have some sugar, the cravings lessened until they were altogether absent. As an Enneagram 7, that’s a significant lesson to learn, the lesson that I can endure discomfort. On the other side, I feel stronger, more aware and more in control.
Following my detox, I feel much better than I did three weeks ago. I have healthier habits and rhythms right now. For example, I have a stronger affinity for the ritual of a warm mug of herbal tea during my days, and I’m drinking tons of water each day. My digestion feels healthy, my mind feels sharper, my energy is better, I lost a few pounds and my skin is soft and glowing. I am learning that we need seasons of discipline in the same way we need to enjoy seasons of indulgence, all things in balance.
