You are what you eat so don’t be cheap, easy, fast, greasy, or gross!

I’ve tested this theory. For pretty much my whole life I didn’t pay much attention to what I ate.  It never occurred to me that a night of soda and pizza was what was causing my lethargy and foggy mindedness. So I got into yoga a few years ago, took my teacher training and still would think it was “flakey” when they would talk about their latest cleanse. But I started wondering if it could be true. Would I have more energy if I cleansed my whole visceral body? Would my face look brighter? Would my thoughts be better? So I tried it just to see what all the hype was about.

I did the Wild Rose 12 day herbal detox. It was right for me because my life is so active I didn’t want to starve. A liquid cleanse was asking to fail for me. So this one you are allowed to eat but just no dairy, sugar, or gluten. I gave up coffee about a week before and it actually made me sick. Coming off of coffee is no joke. I swore I wouldn’t touch the stuff again…. It’s been over a month now and I love coffee again…could be worse. I crave sugar all the time anyway but this was hard to fight. Sometimes I would sneak a little spoon of peanut butter on a celery stick…. I know its cheating but it’s better than the creme brulee I was being tempted with. But out of everything I was the most lost without bread. I realized I was eating bread for almost every meal. And without it I had no idea what to eat. This was the hardest part for me. I’ve never been a cooker so thinking of new meals everyday with several restrictions was tricky. I ended up eating a lot of kale salads with apples and cucumber, sweet potatoes, quinoa with sauteed vegis… and that’s pretty much it… for 12 days. On my nights off I would make fish or something a little more elaborate but I didn’t have many nights off throughout this. 

Discipline all the way. It took discipline not to eat what everyone at work was eating and to make my own food before I went into work in the evening and to take all of those giant herbs before every meal and to not cheat while no one was around…except for my occasional spoonful of peanut butter! I really wanted to see if this changed anything within me.

The first 6 days were not easy. I was pretty miserable actually. Moody, extremely hot (not sure if that was a side effect of the cleanse or not but I couldn’t stop sweating), tired, hungry to the point of pain in my tummy because I was on a very different time clock of eating because I work at night. But I got through it and by the end of the cleanse, while I was for sure ready for it to be over so I could have the option of eating whatever I wanted, I didn’t want to go back to my old eating habits again. I felt this lightness inside of me. My body image was different. I was no longer looking for flaws I was happy with my appearance. My skin was very bright and glowy!! My energy level and motivation was super high! I felt regular. I felt really really really good!

This cleanse showed me some habits I had of eating when I wasn’t hungry out of boredom or stress. Taught me to make new things up with food. Showed me how amazing it feels to eat healthy.

So fast forward about 3 weeks after the cleanse. Still no dairy or bread. I wanted a grilled cheese. So I ate one and it was yummy, yes, but I biked home after and went to sleep. The next day I slept til about 10:30 when I had been waking up at 8:30 or 9 and I still felt tired. Really tired. I couldn’t help thinking that eating like shit is correlated. 

It was this huge learning experience for me and I’m ready to do another one soon for my liver. I just want to live healthy so I can think clearer and love myself and others. Be fully prepared when going into a cleanse that there will be some challenges but that nothing worth it is ever easy.

Let me know if you have more questions and tell me about cleanses you have tried. Also, I got mine from Down to Earth but they have at Whole Foods and online too. 🙂

xoxoxox