ECO baby + kids

I am now back to eating solid foods. Wednesday evening, the 8th of July after 10 days of lemonade, I broke the fast with some fresh juice prepared with a juicer: apple, kale, and celery. After your body has not been digesting for a while it takes some conditioning for it to get back in gear and if one were to throw some whole foods straight in they would feel the pain. Even easing into it with juice I had some pains, actually beginning to eat again was the most painful part this time around.

Days 8,9 & 10 were not that notable I still had plenty of energy, was not hungry and felt really well. I was, however, incredibly bored with the lemonade. I began scouring my various detox books for recipes, reading the recipes and planning for eating helped me stay the course towards the light I could see at the end of the tunnel.

For about a day you should consume juices, then for another day eat only steamed or sauted veggies. As you begin to introduce foods go slow and relish in the flavors that are bursting in your mouth. This has got to be one of my favorite results: a bunch of Kale sauteed with garlic and a touch of salt and pepper was so wonderful and satisfying that I had to eat it three meals in a row. Now I LOVE veggies, but not as much as sweets; post cleanse I would rather have the veggies, the flavor is that good. Then on day three start introducing some cooked gluten-free grains (e.g., amaranth, quinoa, teff, buckwheat, and millet) and legumes (e.g., beans & lentils)… initially stay away from peanuts. On day four introduce other proteins.

For myself, the Master Cleanse has been a wonderful reset to my body and mind. I have never been officially diagnosed, but I am fairly certain that I have some candida overgrowth in my intestines. Candid is a yeast that naturally occurs in the body that can become pathogenic through improper diet, over use of antibiotics, and other lifestyle factors. While my core diet has been very healthy for a few years now, I still over indulge on sweets that directly feed candida. I have not taken antibiotics in 8 years now; however, I pretty much took them like a nutritional supplement when I was younger. And I have to admit that my diet through my teens and early 20s was far from ideal. Which puts me at a point where I have imbalance in intestinal flora which is not really getting worse, but could definitely use an overhaul.

As I mentioned sugar directly feeds yeast and the Master Cleanse calls for maple syrup to give your body the needed glucose to produce energy, without the sugar your body will feed off body muscle sooner. I chose to go ahead and feed the yeast a little over loosing too much muscle mass. There are many that say to steer away from the Master cleanse if you have candida overgrowth; for me I needed the mental reset to become willing to submit to a candida healing diet a low carb diet which omits sugars (even fruit sugar to begin with). Post fast, I have become obsessed with seeking and trying new yummy healthful recipes. Over the past week I have made almond milk, yogurt cheese, seaweed and veggie salad, chickpea fiesta salad, cabbage stir fry, steamed garlic kale and kombu, carob almond milk flax and a touch of stevia smoothies, and ginger spritzer just to name a few. Once you start looking there are so many wonderful resources: raw foods recipes, vegan recipes, detox recipes, gluten-free recipes, teff recipes… it just goes on and on. Today I am venturing into the world of Chia… you know, the seed that grows the pets! Turns out it is pretty nutritious as well as a fast grower.

On top of my new view of food as something to heal my body I have also incorporated some exercise into my daily routine. While over the past several years I have become more and more natural, and subsequently more and more healthy, I have had some hormonal issues that have required the use of antidepressants. The research on pregnancy and antidepressants is so inconclusive that I would not want to risk it… enter another motivating factor for the Master Cleanse. I stopped taking my antidepressant for the fast and have been incorporating 2 daily walks on top of nutritional supplementation and deep breathing exercises and so far I feel better than I have in years. They key to stress reduction: a well balanced nutritional diet that you are not allergic to, daily exercise, meditation and spiritual enrichment.

More blogs to follow as I continue on my wellness path and prepare and train for pregnancy .

Lemons, Lemons, Lemons! Okay I still have not been hungry; however, I am growing VERY TIRED of LEMONS! The 4th of July was especially tough, for about 30 minutes I inwardly contemplated breaking the fast. It is a good thing I had supportive reading material along, The Detox Diet by Dr. Elson Haas, that gave me just enough inspiration to hang in there. It is now the end of Day 7, my energy has been good, I feel very well and enlightened… and I am determined to hang in there for 3 more days for detox purposes.

Up until day 4 I did not even have any cravings for foods and was completely motivated by my sense of well being. Around day 4 I began to grow tired of the monotony of flavors entering my mouth. It really is interesting to evaluate my emotional connection to food and observe various cravings come and go.  As the various cravings have emerged I have been able to find emotional connections and think about how my emotional eating could have long term negative health effects. This experience and introspection will most definitely give me tools to help combat eating to cope with stress (e.g., over indulging on cake, ice cream, and cookies).

I have also begun to plan for the breaking of the fast. Wednesday will be my last day of lemonade (yea!) and since my body is now flushed and has not been digesting food for a while it will be necessary to gently reintroduce foods. Thursday I will only drink vegetable and fruit juices and some kombucha and may have a fruit smoothie later in the day. Along with the juices, kombucha and smoothie I will take some probiotics to help further colonize my digestive tract with benefiical bacteria. Friday I will eat steamed veggies and some quinoa. From there I will have a vegetarian, hypoallergenic diet for a while. I already know that I have gluten and dairy sensitivities; however, I have a number of foods that I would like to test and coming off a fast is the perfect time to slowly reintroduce foods to see if there are any adverse reactions (e.g., loss of energy).

As a side note, while I am following the same cleansing program that I did two years ago it is a completely different experience. I am learing so much more about myself, my habits, and my relationship to food. What began as a detox to help prepare for pregnancy has become healing in many other ways.

I was a little nervous that today would be painful, but it was the best day so far.  I slept through the night, managed the salt water flush quite well, had tons of energy (productive energy), and cooked diner!

The keys to the salt water flush seem to be:

• Drinking the salt water at room temperature
• Sitting in a semi reclined position
• Steady intake (not too slow, not too fast)
• As few breaks as possible
• Short breaks

On various master cleanse sites people talk about the tongue getting fuzzy and that you should stay on until it clears up… I am not quite sure how much merit there is to this, but my tongue did get fuzzy today. I won’t be too graphic here but there are other indications of where you are in the cleanse and I seem to be on target.

That aside, today was a wonderful day. As I stated, I had lots of energy, focused energy that allowed me to take care of things I have been putting off for a while now. I cleared the grass from a new perennial bed that we are putting in in the backyard, reorganized the closets, cleaned the house, dropped off some donations, went to Dwelling Spaces to spend my birthday gift certificate (from April), fixed a summer squash, sausage and tomato dish for dinner and made some pasta sauce for tomorrow night — all without licking my fingers! Luckily, by the time I was fixing dinner I had tasters around to let me know how I was doing on the seasonings.

My motivation for fixing dinner…

A lovely eggplant and Black Krim tomato were ripe and ready to go. While I could not enjoy their wondeful flavor, it was a pleasure to make two scrumptious dishes for Jeremy and mom… I never thought I would say this but, the delicious smells and contented smiles were reward enough.

This is the first post in what I hope to be a series documenting my journey on the Master Cleanse a.ka. Lemonade Master Cleanse a.k.a. Lemonade Diet. In the winter of 2007, Jeremy and I were preparing for a hiking trip through Utah’s canyons. Along with exercise and a nutritious diet we began to contemplate the various cleanses. One stood out amoung them all: The Master Cleanse which was introduced to the world in 1976 by Stanley Burroughs’ book “The Master Cleanser”. Since we were looking for a quick and thorough detox we decided this was the cleanse for us. That time around we had a goal of 10 days, but made it only 7.

This cleanse changed the way I viewed food in many wonderful ways and was followed by a year of vegetarian diet. I had planned on cleansing at least once a year. Last year my plan was to be on the Body Ecology Diet for the entire year, I think I lasted 3 weeks. With our plans to start our family in the next year or so, detox has moved to the forefront of my mind.

Biomonitoring studies consistently report higher and higher chemical levels being found in umbilical cord blood and exposure does not start at birth, not even with pregnancy, but with preconception and I want to give our children the most chemical free start that I can. A little discipline on my part for a few months seems nothing when compared to a lifetime of health and the Master Cleanse is just what I need to get  me going.

The Master Cleanse Ingredients:

• Organic Grade B Maple Syrup (grade a is too refined)
• Organic Lemons
• Organic Cayenne Pepper
• Sea Salt: like Celtic Sea Salt or Real Salt
• Senna Tea
• Filtered Water

The Lemonade Recipe:

• 2 TBS Grade B Maple Syrup
• 2 TBS Fresh Squeezed Organic Lemon Juice
• A Dash of Cayenne Pepper
• 10 oz Filtered Water

The Salt Water Flush Recipe:

• 1 Liter of Filtered Water
• 1 tsp of Sea Salt

The first day of the cleanse is pretty easy, it was a little difficult coming home to a house full of wonderful aromas, but I just diverted my attention to a book and drank my lemonades while others were eating. As for day 2… The senna tea that I drank before bed woke me up around 4:30 am at which point I realized that I had a pretty significant headache. Then around 7:30am I attempted the salt water flush which I was not able to keep down. I then let my stomach settle down and tried again around 9:00am. The second time was a success, I made sure to drink the water room temperature in a semi reclined position. Sometime in the morning my headache went away completely, my sinuses cleared out and I got a burst of energy.

Once again I am home surrounded by the sweet smells of food and sounds of eating. I have not had any hunger pains, just a desire to taste the wonderful flavors of the aromas in the air.