Cleanse: The End, No More, I Promise

Honestly, hand on Bible swear, this will be my last post about the cleanse.  But I just wanted to wrap it up and give my final thoughts.

I ended up eating yesterday, cutting the cleanse short after three days.  I felt that I was as emptied out and "clean" as I could possibly get and since I wasn't having any sort of spiritual breakthroughs, and was feeling pretty bad I decided to call it good.  And yes, I did feel "cleansed", so I guess in that regard the cleanse did it's part, but to be perfectly frank, you can get the exact same outcome by taking a laxative and drinking 12 cups of water in a day.  I assure you, you'll spend just as much time in the bathroom as I did, and a lot less time not eating.

I'm glad I did the cleanse, because I wanted to give it a chance to win me over and there are plenty of people who find them to be beneficial.  But I can say with a fair degree of certainty, I won't be doing another one.  Over the course of writing these posts, I tried to find a reputable source that recommended cleansing as a benefit to your body, but the only information I could find pro-cleansing was from sources that were either trying to sell a cleanse kit, or had copied information directly from other sites who were trying to make a sale.  And all of their claims were very vague, about how you need to clean the "toxins" from your body that it takes in from your food and environment.  Everything I could find from the medical field said the same thing over and over again: your body is MADE to cleanse itself and making healthy eating choices is the best way to keep your body clean.

There is one good result from the cleanse.  I was surprised to find that through the hunger, the things I was most craving were fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.  I spent an embarrassing amount of time thinking about how good a salad would be, or strawberries, or a juicy chicken breast.  It was as if my body knew exactly what it needed to take in to function optimally, and that's what it wanted.

Yesterday, I had plain scrambled eggs for breakfast, a Kashi granola bar as a post-run snack, salad for lunch, a banana and blackberries as a snack, and a brown rice California roll for dinner.  And oh, it was heavenly.

And what everyone always wants to know about a cleanse, did I lose weight?  Well, obviously, yes.  I "lost" five pounds over the course of three days. Since I started eating again, I gained a pound of that back.  It was absolutely not a way that I would recommend to lose weight, and I don't expect the weight to stay off.  And this is another post for another day, but I've made amazing strides in the past couple of months about the shape and size of my body, and I really don't feel that I needed to lose weight.  I did this cleanse because I was hoping that it would make my body feel healthy and clean.

But what made me feel healthy and clean was picking out healthy foods to eat at the grocery store, and then filling my body with the nutrients that it needs.  And hey, if you love cleansing, I'm happy for you that you found what works for you, and I'm not going to judge.  However, I'll just be sitting over here, reveling in the simple pleasure of chewing.  A joy that I will never take for granted again!

Comments

[Melissa B]

Reading this post made me feel less guilty about not doing any cleanses thus far. I've also read that the best way to "cleanse" your body is to eat foods without preservatives, additives, trans fats or extra sugars (especially high fructose corn syrup,) and eat lots of whole foods instead. Avoiding pesticides/herbicides by choosing organice produce is also big.

Eliminating refined sugars, excess salt and white flour alone would probably make a huge difference.

Of course, I don't follow all of those guidelines all the time, but knowing them often steers me toward better choices.

I'm proud of you for giving this a try, and am thankful for your review. I think many others are like me in that they have heard a lot about cleanses and considered doing them, yet haven't taken the plunge.

Enjoy your newfound appreciation for food :)

[Kate P]

Wisely put about cleanses, and about taking care of yourself. I'd guess that we have to be kind to our bodies by not subjecting them to extremes, you know?

One of the moms of my students talked about "clean eating," and while I'm not totally sold, I picked up a magazine and found some recipes I might like to try. I wish it came more naturally to me to make all the good choices, though!