Conclusions After “Cleansing” Part 1

Our dinner tonight: Meatless Taco’s on a Plate

I feel like I’ve sufficiently warned everyone that I would have a lot to say once I completed this ‘cleanse,’ so if you aren’t interested, feel free to skip this post entirely. I need to write about it though, even if only to help me process all my newly acquired information and ideas and send them out into the universe, and to get my mind off of other not so happy things that are happening around me these days. 

So without further ado…

I mentioned in a couple previous posts that Mike and I had embarked on a month long ‘cleanse’ where we were entirely cutting out of our diets processed foods, white, refined flour and sugar, anything with gluten, all dairy products, and red meat. It turned out to be an adventure, to say the very least.

Let me start by saying that I have often been quite critical of people who I viewed as being ‘fanatical’ about eating a super healthy, clean diet. The reasons for my critical attitude were (and still are) many, and I won’t go into them here, but I now would like to say loudly and clearly, “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.” I’ve always read, and heard, from those around me who do it, about all the benefits of eating a mostly plant based, and whole foods diet that is low in sugar, processed foods, dairy, and meat; but never having been willing to try it for myself, I let most of what I read and heard go in one ear and out the other.

Now I’ve had my own experience and it’s changed my mind about a lot of things, and solidified my ideas about other things. Basically, there are many pros and several cons about eating this way, and I’ve kept a running list of these that I want to share…

…First, and for this post, the pros; because what I want to start with is the positive.

1- My, sometimes up to four or five, weekly head aches…gone. I kept track, and I only had two headaches all month. One I could chalk up to PMS, and the other to a long day of tears after I heard about the return of my cousin Alisa’s cancer. I used to think my constant headaches were due to my extremely loud children, lots of daily stress, and lack of sleep. Turns out that’s not the case at all. My children are still loud, my stress level the same, and I get the same amount of sleep as I did before, but the headaches are all gone. I also saved myself lots of money and gave my liver and kidneys a much need break as I stopped popping Ibuprophen like it’s candy.

2- My daily fatigue…vanished. Several months ago I went to my doctor and had my blood work done in fear that I had a severe iron deficiency, thyroid problems, a hormone imbalance or something much worse, because I would get so incredibly tired during the day that I could barely keep my eyes open. I figured I was getting older, but that I was still to young to be so  exhausted. Turns out it’s not any of the things I feared, because all that fatigue is no more. I have more energy than I’ve had in years! Mike has reported the same thing, he says his daily runs are so much easier and efficient now.

3- I normally suffer quiet badly from Restless Leg Syndrome. Although it hasn’t completely gone away, I’ve noticed a significant difference in how often I have it; only now and again instead of every day.

4- I’m sleeping like a baby every night. During the first week of the cleanse and through the first half of the second week I wasn’t sleeping well at all (tossed and turned all night), but now I’m sleeping great! Mike has noticed a significant improvement in his sleeping patterns as well.

5- I lost some weight. I’m not a believer in the ‘all mighty scale of depression’ so I haven’t keep track of my weight loss by pounds, but I have most certainly dropped poundage because my pants and skirts are much loser. I’d have to guess that I’ve trimmed down at least a pant size. (I’m still wearing my same pants, but they don’t fit very well)  The weight loss hasn’t been dramatic (and this undertaking wasn’t about weight loss for me) but I have noticed a slow and steady loss. FYI: we did not count calories, control portions, or go without food when we were hungry, all we did was change the kinds of foods we ate.

6- My mood is much more steady these days. Strangely enough, during the first few weeks of this whole thing I was HIGHLY emotional. I cried about everything. It was like I was detoxing through my eye balls. I’m much more stable now, but it was weird.

7- I’ve learned a thing or two. Mostly, that you can have meal after delicious meal that include no meat whatsoever and be very satisfied. I know there are many of you that already know this, but it was a revelation to me. I’ve learned how to cook with all kinds of plants that I had never even glanced at before. Although we missed lots of our favorite eats, there wasn’t one thing that we ate this month that we didn’t enjoy. In fact, I would go so far as to say, we’ve never eaten better.

8- My constant cravings for crappy food are not completely gone, but much, much lessened. Cravings for healthy food…much increased; although it will probably never be carrot sticks I crave when I get the munchies. I’m still human.

9- I apologize right now for this one maybe being more information than you wanted to know, but regularity in the BM department was a major plus with all the fiber doing the job it was intended to do in my digestive track. I HATE being backed up almost more than anything I can think of, and I had no problems with that whatsoever. “Cleanse” turned out to be a right and proper name for this whole adventure.

10- Mike likes to eat Salmon now. I never thought that would happen and I’m ecstatic about it.

These are ten of the pros that come to mind right away. I’m sure I could come up with more, and I will probably discover more as I continue on, but this post is already much too long. Now don’t run out right now and buy the magazine and grocery cart full of produce quiet yet, because there is also a list of cons that must be given it’s fair share of blog post time. I’m a realist, and even though this list is lovely and wonderful there were some down sides to the cleanse as well. Tomorrow I’ll post about all that, but right now I’m going to go to bed and sleep like a baby.

*One last thing I thought I’d also mention…I was hoping my heartburn would be cured by this cleanse. It was mostly gone the first week when all we were eating was fruits, vegetables and nuts, but once we added fish, and whole grains the heartburn returned and has stuck around. This leads to me to believe that there are foods that may aggravate my heartburn, but I’m now pretty certain that my reflux is due to a mechanical problem that might only be fixed with surgery. It’s a bummer, but it was a helpful discovery.