My goals:
1) As part of my IIN nutrition school "homework", experiment with a raw food diet (inspired by David Wolfe) and juicing (inspired by Joe Cross)
2) Take a break from sugar (I've been a sugar junky since I was 5 - probably earlier but that's as far back as I can remember) so every once in a while I need to reset my sweet tooth as my old behaviors start creeping back in.
3) Add in more organic fruits and veggies plus skin care products and self care (detoxing from crap is just as much about what we put on our skin and how we take care of ourselves as it is what we eat).
The 5 day detox was a bit of a roller coaster ride...
Day 1: I'm so excited to start!
Day 2: I have a headache :(
Day 3: I'm so excited (to get the juice!)
Day 4: I'm so hungry!
Day 5: I'm so excited! ( The finish line is near AND people are asking me "What are you doing? You look great. Your skin is glowing" :)
As with most new adventures and challenges in life, the journey is way more important that the destination. And we have to earn it! There really aren't any short cuts...
I had this quote in mind on day 2 through 4 when the going got tough. But I figured I had endured harder things in life, and part of my "rules" for my fellow detox team members was "no whining" allowed. It was OK to share that we had headaches, fatigue, hunger pangs, cravings... But honestly, we're eating and drinking fabulously healthy, delicious, nourishing foods to heal our bodies from disease and inflammation. There is no room to be anything other than grateful for that! Sounds sensible in theory, until you're try working all day and managing a household with a migraine!It would be different if we were on a retreat somewhere, but we were home, living our normal Mon - Fri lives with work, making dinner for our families, and some even had dinner parties to attend during the cleanse!
Day 1: I'm so excited! Beginning a new journey is always thrilling. There were 5 of us in the group and I think we all started off with enthusiasm and excitement.
The detox started on a Monday AM so we all shopped on Sunday and prepped clean healthy foods like salads, cut up veggies, made lemon water and I even made a lemon cilantro salad dressing, a chia seed pudding and a sunflower seed pate. My fridge was stocked with healthy snacks!
I was so excited in fact, I decided to get a gentle start on Sunday by making a healthy quinoa salad for dinner with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and parsley from my garden and a lemon and olive oil dressing. It was a very satisfying dinner actually! And I felt like being a Vegan for the week would be pretty easy! I actually prefer eating Vegan / Raw anyway, despite having Type O blood and the Paleo trend (although I do plan to experiment with that during my IIN school year too).
I woke up early Monday morning (5:30AM) and made a hot lemon water and sat my butt down on my yoga mat for a little meditation / Intention setting followed by 10 minutes of Sun Salutations. After that I made a quick green smoothie and out the door I went for my 7AM client. By 9AM I was already hungry again so I ate some pepitas and an herbal tea and then taught yoga at 9:30. I met a friend for lunch at Wegman's at 11:30 and chose the Avocado veggie roll and a Kombucha. By 2pm I was starving again. Sesame seed pate and veggies snack. Perfect - phew, glad I prepped all that the day before! Dinner was early - HUGE salad with homemade avocado dressing and tons of veggies and sprouts. Hungry again by 7pm so made a fresh peach smoothie with coconut milk and Sunwarrior Raw protein powder. Slept like a baby.
Day 2: Woke up with a headache. Had a little green tea to take the edge off. Worked like a charm but wasn't as fun without the Coconut sugar and almond milk. Had another big green smoothie with spirulina and felt so good I went for a 4 mile run with my dog. I ran slow and felt a little sluggish (but I'm always a slow runner). Drank lots of water and decided to hit the Bio Mat at Natural Vibrant Health to help with the headache and general fatigue plus to boost my detoxification. After that had a few clients and errands so ended up eating a raw food bar that thankfully I picked up at Natural Vibrant Health after my Bio Mat session (which I really didn't want to eat unless it was an "emergency") but I felt my blood sugar dropping so the bar kept me going. Again, another huge salad for dinner and peach smoothie "dessert" in the evening. Rubbed some Magnesium oil on my neck, upper back and shoulders before bed to help relax the headache away. Sleep was OK and woke up NO headache!
Day 3: I'm so excited (to get the juice!!!) Phase two of the detox was when we got to pick up our juices and at this point, I had eaten all the food I had prepped on Sunday and was looking forward to not have to prep more and plus excited to take this detox to the next level.
The juice pick up unfortunately wasn't until 1pm so I made a Ginger Shot (pic left) and another huge green smoothie and went to meet one of my fellow IIN students and detox friend for a 6 mile walk on the NCR trail. Beautiful. We shared stories and 1 1/2 hour walk went by in a blip. I had taken the morning off, thankfully and prior to the walk felt REALLY hungry and tired. But after the green smoothie and walk I was feeling pretty darn fabulous!
Picking up the juices was fun. I busted out one of the Antioxidant juices out ASAP and it tasted like heaven. Very refreshing and to me, I feel like I can just taste the "Prana". That may sound a little "woo woo". But honestly, fresh juices are so full of Life Force energy. I sort of like to imagine every single cell in my body smiling as I drink the juice. OK, maybe I'm losing a few of you here. But seriously, so much of what we eat lacks any sort of real nourishment. Much of our foods are processed, packaged with appealing labels and shipped around the planet. They simply can't compare with real fruits and veggies. And in one bottle of fresh, unpasteurized juice you get like 5 - 8 servings of fruit and veg in one bottle! Talk about fueling your Prana!
Day 4: I'm so hungry!
I'll admit I eat a lot for a girl :) And I'm OK with it! But I really wanted to try to go all day with juice only. Just to see what it was like. But at the same time I woke up with so much energy I really wanted to run too! So this was the big dilemma. Again, I took the day off (lucky timing that two of my regular clients were out of town anyway). The weather was perfect for running and I so rarely have a weekday morning off to run so I was super tempted. But today was more about resting and being restored so I skipped the run for a little meditation, Sun Salutations and gentle stretches.
At 2pm my nephew came over and we filmed a few segments for my Youtube channel. Felt a little woozy but for the most part surprisingly energized. On a whim, he even filmed an Ice Bucket Challenge segment for me but I had to do it three times to get it right! I kept missing my head. But I won't blame that on the juice! Haha.
Another juice during our video shoot (my nephew actually took a shot of my super green juice and didn't hate it :)
By 5PM I was seriously ready to eat! But I had come too far to give up at that point! But the wheels started coming off when I had to garden the gazillions of tomatoes and cucumbers in our garden since my husband and I were leaving to out of town on Saturday. I never in a millions years thought I'd be so tempted by a tomato. And I had to spend hours chopping and cooking tomato sauce so this was when I eventually caved.
I had my final 6th juice of the day at 6pm and was drinking lots of water but I was still VERY hungry. So at 8pm I ate a few cups of my fresh (sugar free) tomato sauce and it was crazy delish. All that was in it was sea salt and fresh oregano and basil also from my garden, so it was basically a veg juice (I told myself). But the truth is I know I wouldn't have been able to sleep if my tummy was growling! And I actually did sleep pretty darn good! OK PHEW glad that day was over!
Day 5: I'm so excited! The finish line is in sight (and people are saying "wow your skin is glowing").
Again got up at 5:30AM for an early client and packed a little cooler with ice and three juices. After my client, I met up with a fellow detox friend for a yoga class. I rested in child's pose a good bit but really enjoyed taking a class and my energy felt great. I stopped by Wegman's for a few post detox / beach weekend supplies and while I was shopping got a text message from a client who wanted a session. I was planning on juicing all day, but I needed energy to stretch this client! So I bought two Raw Food bars and ate those, then decided at that point that I was still detoxing but no longer just juicing. So I had a salad for dinner and boy was that enjoyable!)
My husband and I left for the beach Saturday AM and I packed the last two of my juices (since I didn't do juice only on Friday I had a few extras) and I drank my last juice on the beach in Ocean City (wishing I had saved an Island Breeze juice as my finale, but I slammed that one the night before!)
The rest of the weekend I was somewhat challenged to eat healthy, as Ocean City seems to be the land of candy, funnel cakes and fried food. But we had great meals at The Blacksmith in Berlin, Liquid Assets and The Grove Marketplace.
All in all the Juice Detox was a GREAT experience! Doing it with an awesome and enthusiastic group made a big difference. We all encouraged and cheered each other on and had fun with it.
And you'll all be disappointed that I didn't weigh myself (just not in that habit and in the midst of packing to leave for the beach Sat AM I just forgot!) but I can tell you that I FEEL GREAT and that's what matters most.
I enjoyed the detox so much, that I plan to do another Fall detox and a New Years detox as well. Email if you'd like to join me! And in the meantime, if you want to do a detox sooner, check out Juice Fresh and use the coupon code "yogadubs" at check out (and I can help coach you through it if you like - just email me for details).
Enjoy these last few days of summer my friends!
Namaste
Karen
www.flexiblewarrior.com
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