If at first you don't succeed...

The first week of my 21 day cleanse went superbly, for the first 6 days. Come Saturday night and all of Sunday, I failed, miserably. So on Monday I started from day one again. And with better equipment as well, as I got my blender back (it isn't really mine, it's a remnant from a previous relationship, recycling all the way!) and my precious raw food cookbook. In light of my previous failure, I'm determined to make it this time, and have so far been better at planning my meals etc. As I'm working almost all the time, every day, I need to have meals which are easy to take with me to work and to prepare in advance.

I start every day with a glass of water with some lemon juice and cayenne pepper in it. To work I bring my green morning juice, which looks absolutely poisonous but is totally delish. I also take some lunch, which today consisted of zucchini "pasta" with vegan pesto, and some snacks, which can be nuts, fruits or a smoothie if I feel like making one at 4am. When I get home I have dinner, which can be pretty much whatever I feel like making. Today I had a delicious avocado and sprout salad with parsley and chickpeas.

The effect of eating like this has so far been tons of energy, a bit too much actually, and bad skin-a sign that the toxins are making their way out of my system. My tummy is also much happier, apart from the times I od on raw chocolate, which has happened once so far, and it was completely nauseating so that won't happen again. I eat less than I would normally, which is a good thing. I'm never starving, and my blood sugar levels seem to be fairly stable, ie I don't crash at any point. Thus my conclusion is that I feel better all over by eating like this, I only wish my skin would clear up already. I will now start working on my meditation, and to incorporate yoga into my work-out routine.

Anna

21 day cleanse

On Monday I embarked upon my very first 21 day cleanse, which I found in a book called Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr. The deciscion to do so had been made a long time ago, when I bought the book, and I'd just been waiting for "the right time" which we all know is whenever you want it to be. So I quit making excuses, and decided to go for it.

The cleanse in the book isn't really what I was expecting, I thought it would be more like fasting. Turns out it's just 21 days on a vegan, whole raw food based diet. Low-carb, no alcohol, no nicotine, no caffeine, no sugar, no nasties. This is actually exactly what I need, and a super good way to start your new life. A life in which I plan to ditch pretty much all carbs, all gluten, definitely all dairy, and try to have an about 70% raw diet. Nothing too challenging you know.

The first day I started with was is to be my breakfast every day for the coming three weeks, a green juice filled with veggie goodness. It was the first time I used my brand new juicer, which I fell in love with immediately. If there is even the slightest bit of the "destoyer" gene in you, you will love this appliance. Can there be a better way to start your day than to watch celery, broccoli, apples, kale, romaine lettuce and ginger be shredded and pressed for every single drop of juice in them and the end result is you left with a big glass of green tastyness? The answer is no.

For lunch I had an eggless-egg-salad for two days, and for dinner a huge kale salad and some quinoa salad. This has all been quite a winning combo, and today I had one of the tastiest quinoa beetroot salads I've ever had. I still haven't managed to buy a blender (my old one is at my sister's apartment as my living arrangements at the moment are quite a mess) so I haven't had that big of a variety in my foods. What strikes me as the biggest change with this diet is, once you let go of basing your whole meal around carbs, which is what we do most of the time, you are left with so many choices I sometimes have a hard time choosing what to eat. I have the entire produce section of the store available to me, and my options are limitless, so I don't see it as a very hard thing to continue with these eating habits for a long long time.

I have also noticed a lightness i haven't had before, my body feels weightless and I feel like I', able to do pretty much anything. So to conclude this post, I can say that, three days in, I can definitely recommend this to everyone.

Anna