Wow ~ I just love doing cleanses. It’s such an amazing way to re-boot the digestive system and the emotional/mental system! I feel so tremendous and I had such ginormous break throughs on limiting thoughts and beliefs that I had that were holding me back. I began to think about how I had drifted so far away from eating mostly raw and remembered how when I tried the 80/10/10 diet that it really threw me off. I don’t want to say that everyone would have the same experience as me, but the fruitarian diet was not for me. I really believe that my lifestyle is just too active for it. Anyways, now that I’m back on board with raw, I was playing with PINterest and finding some awesome links!
Nouveau Raw Nutritional “Cheese” Puffs and Curls
I’m also really enjoying not drinking coffee. It’s so refreshing to know that all of my energy is my own. *Esp if you are a naturally anxious person. I found a affordable dehydrator on Amazon too! Check this out!!!Click this Click this
So pumped to start this cleanse! I thought it would be nice to try something a little different instead of doing a juice cleanse. This is a 100% RAW cleanse. So check out my downloadable 7day raw menu:
So this cleanse is inspired by the amazing Penni Shelton and her book Raw Food Cleanse. If you want to learn more, buy this book! You can go on Pinterest or google recipes for smoothies, juices, soups, salad dressings and even raw food entrees. The rules are semi-flexable too, as long as you keep it raw and healthy. I’ll be sharing some sites with you soon. Subscribe to blog and like me on Facebook to stay tuned in!
PS ~ deep tissue massages, yoga (*esp hot), any kind of exercise for at least 30 minutes a day and even colonics are suggested but not required.
So, I lasted 13 days and then I had to break the cleanse. I can’t tell you how hard it was to let myself end the cleanse, because I’m a very strong willed person and there’s not fast or cleanse that I can’t do! I even tried to make it to day 14, but ultimately decided that my energy was just too low. I believe that intuition is key with everything and, I was getting very clear signs that my body was not doing well on this challenge.
I want to stress to everyone reading this that this may not even apply to you. I teach HOT Vinyasa Flow Yoga and I believe that I was unable to balance the delicacy of eating large “meals” and teach yoga. It was very complicated to eat at the proper time and make sure I had the energy. Then, I would burn off so many calories with the teaching of the classes, not to mention all the water that I needed to ingest. I normally average 2-3 liters of water a day, but the Banana Girl Diet stresses the importance of at least 3 liters a day. So, with the Hot Yoga, I need an average of 5 liters a day!
I can’t say enough good things about the support group on Facebook! They were so informative and helpful and encouraging. However, only you know your body and listening to that should always be a priority. Bottom line, I had no energy, felt hazy and was very spacy. I kept reading everyone else’s posts about feeling great and high energy and I knew, that my body was not adjusting like I’d hoped.
You better trust that I was following the dietary guidelines religiously too! I was counting all my calories and averaging 2700 Calories a day. Sometimes falling a bit short on my water, but getting my 8 hours of minimum sleep. No matter how hard I tried, I woke up lethargic and started feeling a little depressed.
I intentionally hung in there for as long as I could, hoping to see a turn around in my energy because it’s perfectly natural to have a lull in energy for the first few days of any dietary change. Again, I can not stress how fabulous Freelee is and I have no doubts in the dietary lifestyle, however, I question if it is conducive to MY lifestyle.
Since, I ended the cleanse, I ate more poorly in 5 days than I have in the last year. I also had a tremendous emotional release. I am stunned by the power of this cleanse and am still analyzing what it means to me. My energy was back to it’s normal high range as before the cleanse too. I also find that I really am enjoying more fruit in my diet now.
At this point, I don’t plan on trying this cleanse again unless I begin to teach less yoga. However, I will be doing other cleanses 🙂
OK ~ I have definitely been feeling the Raw Food Blues. This is tough for me! I’m frankly a bit surprised because I’ve been eating mostly raw for at least 5 months now and I’ve done several cleanses and diets before. I felt pretty stupendous for the first 3 or 4 days. However, I started encountering some digestive issues and then with all the yoga I’ve been teaching, I’ve had problems getting my smoothies within a reasonable time frame. Trust me, it is not easy to teach a hot vinyasa flow class with a belly full of banana and date smoothie! No to mention the amount of water required to eat.
So, I’ve gotta be real with you. This is a time consuming and high maintenance program. I’m sure that with time you adjust, but my inner rebel is very frustrated with all the rules and limitations. It seems simple enough to just eat fruit…..lots and lots of fruit. We’re talking about aiming for 2500 to 3000 calories a day in fruit. It’s doable if you focus on eating bananas and dates because they’re rich in calories. However, it can be a bit tedious. Then with all the tracking and logging my foods in…well, I stopped tracking for a day. I took a day of no tracking yesterday because I needed it.
I’m sure this comes down to personality types, but for me, the constant monitoring and tracking and the lack of little things that I’ve come to enjoy like nuts, salt and raw cacao have me a bit irritable.
On the bright side, I feel much lighter and cleaner. I wake up feeling fresh without any bloating or water retention. My skin is definitely glowing and people are noticing. I indulged in a few items off the fruitarian menu yesterday so that I could be fresh and involved again today. I know some purest would poo poo me for doing that, but, for me, it was like ” I better do this or else I’m going to flip my lid.” I’m just following the AA policy of 1 day at a time right now. Let’s see if I make it to 30 days. I might based on sheer will alone 😉
Ultimately, follow your intuition! Rome wasn’t created in a day!!! Onward and upward 🙂
Hello Hello HELLOOOOO BlissFULL Hearters 😀 Hope this video and blog post finds you feeling joyous and super pumped up about participating in the ‘mini’ cleanse that will be starting Sunday Jan. 15th. Now, I want to make sure to express to those of you that work a standard M-F 9-5 job may want to do this cleanse the following weekend (Jan. 20th -23rd) I say this because it is recommend to do any kind of cleanse or significant dietary change in a space where you won’t be too hectic or hurried. I happened to work on weekends, so a Sunday is a good day for me to start and I REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT YOU to join me, but if not DO IT THIS MONTH and find 3 days that will work for you.
I am seriously looking forward to this. We’re going to feel so amazing ….well, MORE amazing!!!!
First things first… You SHOULD NOT be starving on this cleanse! If you’re hungry, eat a healthy raw snack, drink water, drink tea, make some juice, have fruit, have dried fruit…just as long as it’s RAW and try to avoid too much sugar. It’s a common misconception that when you detox or cleanse that you starve. The only thing that starves are the nasty addictions you have to sugar, greasy foods, caffeine and starch. lol. We WANT to starve those bad habits to death….make em disappear 😉
Watch this 🙂
So, here’s the outline (recipes to follow) * Make sure you get some form of daily exercise however small, DRINK LOTS OF WATER and Make sure Scrape your tongue and GET A FULL NIGHTS REST every night 🙂:
DAY 1
Wake up ~ drink a large glass of pure water (alkaline if possible) with lemon (can be hot or cold)
Breakfast ~ Green smoothie or bowl of yummy fruit
Lunch ~ Super Amazing Salad
Snack ~ Laxative tea with Lemon (such as Smooth Move) and fresh fruit
Dinner ~ Taco Salad
Day 2
Wake up ~ drink a large glass of pure water with lemon (can be hot or cold)
Breakfast ~ BIG Green Juice (*take a nice 15 stroll or other form of exercise)
Lunch ~ Waldorf Salad
Snack ~ Herbal or Green tea with Lemon and/or Sexy Elixer
Dinner ~ Simple Salad with Avocado and Delicious Miso Soup or Raw Soup
Day 3
Wake up ~ drink a large glass of pure water with lemon (can be hot or cold)
Breakfast ~ BIG Green Smoothie
Lunch ~ Any of the amazing salads
Snack ~ 30 minutes of exercise and Sexy Elixer or herbal tea for a treat
Dinner ~ Amazing Salad with Steamed Broccoli and onions
I know that it doesn’t look so exciting there, but wait till you see the recipes AND let me remind you that greens will super power you!!! It is seriously the purest and cleanest energy high you can have. Once you experience a energy high from eating lots of greens, you’ll laugh at things like 5 hour energy. I’m not kidding. You might even feel so amazing after 3 days that you’ll want to stay on cleanse and continue with a healthy raw lifestyle 😀
Lifestyle Makeover 2012 ~ 3 day Cleanse Menu
* just a quick word about this menu…I kept it simple yet exciting. I think that too many choices can be overwhelming, but don’t let that stop you for diggin up different recipes on your own if these one’s don’t turn you on the net is full of info. here are a couple of my favorite sites:
Rockstar Morning Smoothie ( I drink this everyday)
1 frozen banana
1 cup of Almond Milk
1/4 cup of raw cashews
1 tsp of Coconut Oil
1 Tbs of raw Shredded Coconut
1 Scoop of Spirulina powder (or WheatGrass Powder or 1/2 bunch of Spinach)
1 TBS of Raw Cacoa Nibs
3 -4 Dates
SALADS
Super Amazing Salad ~ This is a creative freebie! Get wild have fun use raw fresh ingredients. Dressing can be olive oil, lemon juice with sea salt or some Bragg’s liquid Amino’s with olive oil. Here’s a example of my sassy salad.
bunch of spinach
fresh sprouts of any kind (whatever looks great at the market)
1 head Romaine lettuce, chopped into bite-size pieces
2 Fuji and 2 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 C red seedless grapes
1/2 C raisins
1/2 C walnuts, soaked
1 C Almond Mayonnaise (recipe below)
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss well.
Almond Mayonnaise
from Rawsome! by Brigette Mars
1 C almonds, soaked overnight & rinsed
1/4 C water
1/2 tsp Celtic salt
4 dates, soaked 20 minutes
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 C extra-virgin olive oil
Combine all ingredients except the olive oil in a blender and blend until ground and thoroughly mixed. While blending, slowly drizzle in the olive oil as the mixture thickens.
directions
• Make the walnut taco meat first and set aside.
• In a food processor fitted with an “S” blade, pulse the walnuts, half a tomato, cumin, and salt until chopped but still a little chunky.
• To a bed of chopped romaine, add the walnut taco meat, the other half of tomato (chopped), sliced onion, a bit of sliced jalapeno, chopped avocado, and olives.
• Top with a couple scoops of cashew cream.
cashew cream
• 1/2 cup cashews ($2.00)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice ($.20)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend all ingredients in small blender until very smooth. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.
nutritional information
calories: 398 fat: 30 gr carb: 26 protein: 13
Soups
Simple Miso Soup ~ I love Miso Soup. It’s the best and you can pretty much put all kind of veggies in it! So have fun with this too. I use white miso but you can use red or yellow or a combo. So to keep it mostly raw, I boil the water and miso, then turn off the heat and add veggies. They get warm enough to be soft and not soggy 😉
Place all ingredients into a martini shaker and gently mix. Pour into chilled martini or wine glasses. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint. Savor and allow the tensions of the day fall away.
I bet you’re feeling really excited now! I know I am 🙂
BlissFULLHeart 