The Cleanse

Oh the Cleanse. This was the most intense dieting thing I've ever done, and hopefully ever will do. The chiropractor I saw had written this plan himself, and it was intense. The first week was pretty much a fast. I had to drink 2 liters of water a day and 5 protein shakes spread out (about every 3 hours). The protein shakes were meant to make sure I still got vitamins and other essential daily nutrients. The first day or two went alright, my digestive system adjusted to not having solid food in it, and aside from my crap looking like slightly more concentrated protein shakes (and burning like none other) my stomach was quite content to be empty. But there were 2 big hurdles that I ran into the first week. The first one was the worst, I started having heart palpitations. Now this had also happened a year or so before when I had tried birth control pills to control my PMS symptoms, but just because it had happened before didn't mean it didn't freak me out. I called him right away slightly panicky and tried to figure out why I still trusted this guy. He tried to calm me down as best he could, and told me to take large amounts of magnesium. I did heed his advice and the palpitations subsided (I've actually had this problem more recently, and have found daily magnesium supplements to be quite important for me). The second hurdle I encountered during that first week was feeling myself go slightly insane from not having solid food for multiple days. I finally had my mom cook me a sweet potato so I could eat tiny pieces of it and have something solid in my mouth (I do have a slight oral fixation). That was probably the best sweet potato I've ever eaten.

The following weeks of the cleanse consisted of re-introducing foods into my diet; pretty much trying to reset my digestive system. Unfortunately about a month into this cleanse I ended up going to a camp as a counselor and "cheated" the entire time. I was mostly concerned about not eating gluten, than sticking to a cleanse that had gone on too long for my own sanity. I did have a couple more rechecks with him, but once I realized I just couldn't stick with it, and that he was a little bit too alternative for me, I decided to just go it alone once again.

As a side note; cleanses are very tricky things to do. I don't think that a safe cleanse will ever ask you to stop eating for an extended amount of time like that. The most recent cleanse I did was just some herbal pills that I took morning and evening (made me smell like one big herb, that's for sure). There are cleanses out there that tell you to drink only green tea and lemon juice for a certain number of days, or to drink their "tonic" and nothing else for __ days. I had a friend try to lose weight fast by not eating and increasing caffeine, and he ended up in the hospital. Cleanses sound like a good idea, like something we need to do because of the way they are marketed. But honestly, you don't. Your body will take care of things itself. We crap to get rid of toxins, we urinate to get rid of toxins, and when we get sick we're getting rid of toxins and "invaders." Our bodies, as long as they are healthy and fed properly, are more than able to take care of themselves.