A Late Winter / Early Spring Cleanse

A week ago, I was sitting in my naturopath's office for a regular check-up when she asked, in an offhanded way "would you be interested in a 21 day detox / cleanse?"

Without any significant information or a whole lot of calculation, I said "sure" - and came back home to sign up. $199, a pile of PDFs to download (which I printed out and GBC bound, because that's how I roll), and signed up for a Facebook support group. Certainly a spur of the moment decision, tapping in to my intuition I guess. That's how it usually is with me - I've come to expect "when the student is ready, the teacher appears" and so when opportunities, resources, professionals pop up in my path, I often jump aboard without a lot of doubt or ruminating.

So far, so good. It's a pretty simple regimen, focusing on cutting out foods that may be inflammatory,. So for 21 days, I'm abstaining from:

• Wheat / Gluten
• Dairy
• Nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant)
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Sugar
• Peanuts
• Corn
• Fermented soy (tofu, tempeh, etc.)
• Animal protein (save seafood and clean / organic chicken)
• Sweet fruits (bananas, pineapple, mangos)
• Anything artificial (sweeteners, etc.)
• Anything processed (mixes, soups, etc.)

What does that leave? Here's what's filling up my fridge and pantry these days:

• Quinoa
• Brown Rice
• Greens (salad, kale, chard)
• Veggies (celery, carrots, cukes, broccoli, cauliflower)
• Beans (black, adzuki, garbanzo, etc.)
• Sea Vegetables
• Herbal Teas
• Chicken (for weeks 1 & 3, anyways)
• Eggs

So I've been cranking up the Magic Bullet for smoothies, the electric kettle for tea, the electric pressure cooker (great hard boiled eggs!), the rice cooker.  And I've put the coffee-pot and toaster into semi-permanent retirement.

So far, so good. I feel good - lighter, less creaky in the joints, albeit a little less solid, a tiny bit spacey. I'm assuming any health benefits (weight, blood pressure, AIC, etc.) will be slower to show up, but so far so good. And the much feared caffeine withdrawal headache (I'm a pretty regular coffee drinker usually) which I expected never materialized.  And I have been remarkable compliant - I've gotten prepared food just a few times - sushi with brown rice (teacher training weekend), prepared macro meals (also TT weekend, we get it catered in for staff and trainees), and some Stew Leonard's Sushi (once with evil white rice, one with riced cauliflower). But mostly I've been putting together meals from the supplied recipes or my own cleanse friendly concoctions. 

 My one quibble is with the individual who is running this / facilitating the support group. S/he keeps posting pictures of otherwise healthy food we can't have! It's nice you had a "1/2 sprouted grain english muffin with organic, natural peanut butter" and "Pho with beef meatballs" but it's kind of cruel to post pictures to folks you are theoretically supporting, who might be struggling with staying on the cleanse, and who cannot have that, no? I'll save my comments / feedback for the end of the cleanse (no need to stir stuff up now) but seriously....I've been in the social media and the holistic health fields for a long time, and it's common sense not to do that.