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.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The crazy Chiropractor
A few months after GI doc #1 I was still having quite a few problems. After talking with my Celiac friend I decided to go see her doctor, who was actually a chiropractor that did muscle testing.
As a side note, muscle testing is probably one of the weirdest things I've done so far. The patient lays down on a table and holds one arm vertical. The practitioner then holds a vial of whatever substance they are testing (gluten, corn, vegetables, etc.) over the patient's body and the pulls the patient's arm down. The patient is supposed to resist the pulling, and based on how well they resist the practitioner can tell what foods are bad for them and which ones they can tolerate. Also, the patient is not consciously aware of what is in the vial until afterward, which is key to the testing. I told you, it's weird. I've never had so many vials involved in my health care until I started looking more into alternative medicine.
I went for my initial appointment and after the muscle testing was told that I am intolerant to gluten, corn, dairy, and MSG. He also told me that MSG is found in everyday foods like broccoli. The weirdest part about the testing was that when he held the "bad" things over me, I couldn't resist his pushing on my arm, even if he tried twice. After the muscle testing he then put me on a very intense full body cleanse.
If you aren't familiar with cleanses, their purpose is to rid the body of toxins that build up in the body through environmental exposure. You can be exposed either by inhaling, ingesting, or absorbing these toxins through the skin. Now our bodies are designed to be able to filter out these toxins all the time, and they shouldn't build up. Of course build ups do still happen occasionally, like with heavy metal toxicity; but these types of things aren't common unless you are exposed to extremely high amounts (such as eating fish every day, or having high levels in your home). Although I do occasionally do cleanses, I'm not convinced of their necessity or validity.
Next time: The cleanse
As a side note, muscle testing is probably one of the weirdest things I've done so far. The patient lays down on a table and holds one arm vertical. The practitioner then holds a vial of whatever substance they are testing (gluten, corn, vegetables, etc.) over the patient's body and the pulls the patient's arm down. The patient is supposed to resist the pulling, and based on how well they resist the practitioner can tell what foods are bad for them and which ones they can tolerate. Also, the patient is not consciously aware of what is in the vial until afterward, which is key to the testing. I told you, it's weird. I've never had so many vials involved in my health care until I started looking more into alternative medicine.
I went for my initial appointment and after the muscle testing was told that I am intolerant to gluten, corn, dairy, and MSG. He also told me that MSG is found in everyday foods like broccoli. The weirdest part about the testing was that when he held the "bad" things over me, I couldn't resist his pushing on my arm, even if he tried twice. After the muscle testing he then put me on a very intense full body cleanse.
If you aren't familiar with cleanses, their purpose is to rid the body of toxins that build up in the body through environmental exposure. You can be exposed either by inhaling, ingesting, or absorbing these toxins through the skin. Now our bodies are designed to be able to filter out these toxins all the time, and they shouldn't build up. Of course build ups do still happen occasionally, like with heavy metal toxicity; but these types of things aren't common unless you are exposed to extremely high amounts (such as eating fish every day, or having high levels in your home). Although I do occasionally do cleanses, I'm not convinced of their necessity or validity.
Next time: The cleanse
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