The past 3 months or so have been crazy with travel and other engagements, and while I’ve enjoyed it ALL, I have noticed over the past 6 weeks or so that I’ve felt a little…blah.
I’ve felt sluggish, a little bit “foggy” mentally and…ahem…my “monthly” symptoms have NOT been pleasant. Since most of the folks who read this will be women, I don’t mind telling you that PMS has been a beast – moodiness, puffiness, swollen, tender breasts, abnormal cravings, etc. And while some people might welcome swollen breasts, I am NOT one of those people lol. Ugh.
Looking back over things, I can pinpoint where my typical life of moderation has crossed the line a bit into overindulgence – especially where wine and coffee are concerned. And while I’ve kept my nutrition and exercise pretty much the same, I have definitely let those two things work their way in a wee bit too much. I know from past experience that when I do this, my PMS is much worse.
So, over the past week, I’ve dialed in the coffee consumption…having my usual one cup in the morning, and subbing organic tea at other times. I also did NOT have wine most nights, which had become a bit of a ritual over the past few months. I will never give these two things up completely – they both bring me much pleasure, but again…moderation…not deprivation, but not overindulgence either.
This past week served as a bit of a prep for a 9 Day Nutritional Cleanse that Nick and I are starting TODAY!
It has been quite awhile since I’ve done one, and given how I’ve been feeling lately, I knew it was time. Once you’ve done it, you can definitely tell when you need it – lol. Before I had ever done one, I didn’t really know how it felt to feel really, really good. It’s like being tired and having slow recovery from exercise, etc. had become my norm. I just thought it was because I was getting older. But when I did my first cleanse over 3 years ago, I realized that wasn’t the case.
Even when you eat clean and are fit, you are still being exposed to toxins every day. You just can’t avoid it. Everything from the air we breathe, the water we drink, the cleaners we use, the potions we put on our skin…all of that contributes to toxicity in the body. ESPECIALLY if you are an athlete who is super-fit – you probably are more toxic than you think given you don’t have a lot of body fat to protect your organs from toxins. That’s a subject for another post, but just know that pretty much everyone is carrying some amount of toxicity around.
ANYWAY…back to today, and what this cleanse will consist of.
First off, it is NOT one of “those” cleanses, where I’ll be in the bathroom all day. It’s a full-body cellular cleanse. It aids the body’s own natural detoxification system by gently helping it remove impurities.
The schedule looks like this:
2 nutritional cleanse days, 5 normal, healthy days, 2 nutritional cleanse days…done!
It’s basically an intermittent fast. The difference being that while my digestion will be getting a break on cleanse days, I’ll be flooding my body with tons of nutrients via the products you see in the pic. And yes, I get to eat dark chocolate on my cleanse days :-).
What can I expect?
Usually the first day is the hardest – your body works through stored sugar/glycogen, and there can be some hunger and fatigue. Most of this is mental, however, and I’ve been prepping myself mentally for about a week – ha! I also chose to start on a day when I knew I could sleep in. I’ll keep myself distracted by doing things around the house, and Nick and I will go on a long leisure walk later today.
On Day 2, the magic starts to happen. HGH and other fat-burning hormones increase, and typically so does energy. For me, it is the easier of the two cleanse days.
I know that by Day 3, I will already be feeling so much better – cravings will be diminished, and water I’ve been holding onto will be released, and that mental fog will clear. For those who have some fat to lose will lose it, although that is not my intention. I basically am using this as a “body reboot”.
I will keep you posted each day with how things go. Tomorrow, I’ll post the exact schedule of what I’m doing and also check in to let you know how today went, how I’m feeling, etc.
Finally, I took these pics today just to see if any outward changes occur over these next 9 days. Now before you go and say I don’t need to lose weight, remember that that is NOT what I’m after here. It’s a reboot – a way to get back to feeling as good as possible. When I look at the pics, I’m totally fine with them. I took them more out of curiosity than anything :-).
If you want to learn more about the Cleanse, you can check it out here.
HERE WE GO!! Wish us luck!!!
Stayed tuned…