Scribbles

Four days after the cleanse seems about the right amount of time to reflect on it, which is about how long it took for me to resume normal eating habits. My conclusion is that it was good for me; I feel better, I’m much more conscious of what I put in my system, and I unintentionally lost 10 pounds. I will likely do it again within 6 months. The biggest drawback for me was the hit I took socially in the duration of the cleanse. Outside of a few highlights, the last two weeks have been flat out boring. Not only was the diet restrictive, but during some of the heavier detox days, my body directed most of its energy to clearing house and left me unsociable.

I followed the daily intake of 6-12 cups of lemonade. After a while, I got tired of the same taste and monotonous routine of squeezing juice, measuring the right proportions, and mixing up the concoction. In the morning, I drank the salt water flush, consisting of a quart of water and two teaspoons of sea salt. Other than that, there was nothing radical in terms of enemas, colonics, vitamins, or any herbal supplements. While boring, the process was continuously cathartic. I experienced cleaning up my system and clearing my digestive track. If anything, I feel like keeping myself clean and not polluting it with junk. It’s like buying that new car and you do everything you can to keep it pristine, the weekly hand washes, assiduously avoiding dents, cursing at insouciant drivers.

The hunger and cravings were manageable. I think day 7 and 8 were the worst, when I thought constantly about the foods I wanted to eat after the cleanse. That was the first of my two major mistakes. I got it in my mind that I was so close to finishing and then I would be free to eat things soon. That attitude really tormented me. Surprisingly, that disappeared by day 9, where I felt tired and sleepy for two days, a sign of more detoxing occurring. Unfortunately I ended my cleanse after day 10, the minimum suggested duration, when my body was telling me it need a few more days.

I decided call it victory after day 10 because I had a big social commitment coming up, a family gathering to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday. And that led to my second mistake of not taking a smooth enough transition to solid foods. The suggested transition period of 3 days consisted of a first day of juicing, the second day of juicing and soups, and the third day of eventual simply solid foods, with avoidance to meat. I shortened that and after eating even a little bit of food, my entire system didn’t feel right. It’s hard to describe because I’ve never experienced it before. It was a feeling of a little bit of bloat, which I ascribe to as a symptom of my digestive track being confused. After 10 days of non-solid food, it needed some time to warm up.

The next time around, I plan to allocate more buffer time, in case I decide to continue the MC past 10 days, and to take the transition period seriously. The good news is that I did a ton of reading during the time and still made it to the gym and dance regularly. My work didn’t suffer either. I would recommend anyone with the desire and will to take out 2 weeks during the winter, when things are slower, to give it a try. We give our cars tune ups. We clean our homes. There’s no reason not to give our bodies the same chance to heal itself and refresh.