My personal journey with this blog has taken me through a lot of emotional territory. I’ve also documented the physical, the frivolous and one too many stories about my husband that got me into hot water. My current focus in life is on my body and my health. As you know, blog readers, wherever my mind goes, my keyboard follows. So here I am, almost six weeks into a vegan lifestyle, perched on the brink of starting a crazy 60 day intense fitness program, exhausted from the application process for grad school and now I’m doing a cleanse.
A cleanse is a great thing in theory. Our bodies suffer through all the damage we inflict on a daily basis. The sugar, salt, chemicals, fat, and animal byproducts all test the efficacy of our internal organs. A cleanse is intended to do just what it says, cleanse the body and blood of toxins to bring us back to an optimum level of internal healthy balance. Sounds good right? Well, the bad part is that most cleanses require a fast. It makes sense, in order to clean the body of toxins and food and digestive tract blocking goop one needs to cut all those things out from the diet.
I am doing the Master Cleanse to help me flush out all the bad stuff and that means a delicious liquid diet consisting of homemade organic lemonade with cayenne pepper and maple syrup mixed in. That and water is pretty much the sum total of consumption for TEN FREAKIN’ DAYS!!! I have done this cleanse before, but by day six I give it up because I get headaches around day three. My focus in the past was usually to lose weight, but this time it’s different. Of course I want to drop a few pounds, show me a woman who doesn’t, but for me this is an important step toward future good health.
I don’t want to be “skinny fat,” nor do I want to be healthy, but not fit. True health and fitness is a joint project and while I have been eating healthier than ever these last five weeks, I’ve also gained weight due to a lack of activity. So I have pledged to myself to do whatever it takes to change my life, get healthy, get happy and be the best me I can be. The cleanse is exhausting. Because I’m only consuming about 600 calories a day, I’m tired, a lot. I am also cold and cannot stop peeing. That might be more than you needed, but it is me after all. There is a certain amount of detoxing that naturally happens when you suddenly become a vegan and I’m hoping that this cleanse will finally purge all the bad stuff and put me on the path to a healthy weight, clear skin and the will to exercise regularly.
Right now, it’s pretty much just making me wish it were over and a little cranky. My will is strong and after discovering that I am indeed capable of sticking to a radical life change such as veganism, I’m also confident that I can finish this cleanse (or at least six days of it) and start that crazy new workout regime I have planned. I am an all or nothing girl that is so often why I fail. I throw myself whole-heartedly into something, but when perfection proves unattainable, I lose my will. This is different. The only person I can disappoint on this journey is myself. There are days when I think I’ll have a Diet Coke. It sounds so good and my body still craves it, besides, no one will have to know. That’s when it hits me, this isn’t about other people’s perceptions of me or my health. The only person benefitting from my success is me and the same is true of my failures. I want to be healthy and fit and while yes, the journey is a pain in the ass and dining in restaurants can be trying, I am finally becoming the woman I always knew I could be. I just hope my outward appearance catches up fast, because, my flabby thighs need a little encouragement.
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Hi. My name is colleen, and I'm a chronic responder. Sorry fellow readers.
ReplyDeleteI just want to share my experience with the cleanse, which lasted four days, and I deemed successful. First, I did not limit my calories to 600/day. Tablespoons of maple syrup have quite a few calories, and I drank as much as I wanted/needed. Second, I coupled the cleanse with the saltwater flush each day, and by the end, what came out of me was so clean I could have drank it. I shit you not. Third, after two days of cutting and juicing, I bought lemon juice in a jar (I did read the NEVER use anything but fresh organic lemons, but I would have starved as I simply didn't have the time, even making mega batches at once. (yes, I also read to make it fresh each time...obviously whoever makes these rules didn't do so while working and caring for a vegan family of six). Finally, my body was 'clean' after four days. I didn't feel the need to continue.
Read the rules, but follow your body. I did four days, 2xs, 1 month apart, and will use it again as needed. but it took my system almost a week to flow normal again, so I don't intend to do it too often.