Let’s talk about what I think went well, what I will change next time I do a cleanse and my final thoughts.
Disclaimer Alert: The contents found in this post are not intended to treat, diagnose or cure. If you have any concerns, please contact a doctor before altering your health care routine or changing your diet. I am sharing my experience and it is for informational purposes only.
What Went Well
-Having a detailed plan.-Keeping my essential oil morning and evening routines the same.
-Making sure that grocery shopping for the cleanse was done before starting.
-Preparing a couple of meals for my family to eat from while I was on the cleanse since I do the majority of the cooking.
-Letting my family know well in advance. Meals are something that we love to share and being at the table together is very important to us so wanted to give them a head’s up. My family and I did eat together anytime we were home together while I was on the cleanse.
-Including Ningxia Red, Kombucha and Black Strap Molasses with the juice of ½ a lemon in warm water.
-Including caffeinated tea because I did not want to add a detox from caffeine on top of the other detoxes that were occurring.
-Including a green juice everyday.
-Getting as many organic ingredients as possible but not worrying that a couple of things were not.
-Ditching dairy during cleanse.
-Including some foam rolling in the morning and before bed.-Not having any plans to leave the house.
-Letting myself relax and rest as much as I needed to.
-Planned that if any emergency occurred that I would stop cleanse. Nothing occurred where I felt stopping was necessary. It is important to keep things in perspective, trying to deal with any emergency situation along with a juice cleanse was not something I wanted to do.
-Including Natural Calm. Keeping up on a Magnesium Supplement was important to me and I did find that I stayed fairly calm and I know it helped me to sleep better than I would have without it. Here is my video on Magnesium Deficiency & Solutions:
What I Will Change Next Time
-I will not do a cleanse so close to a holiday as I did this one. It ended on Christmas Eve. A lot of people commented to me that I was strong and/or crazy. The only reason I picked this time was because I felt it was necessary for my health. I did not feel right and had to do something more than I had been doing and it needed to be something that would reset my system or give it a rest at the very least.
It sucked in a way because I had to enjoy foods in very small doses right after the cleanse ended but it was awesome because I had to enjoy foods in very small doses. LOL See, holidays can be a time when I go overboard so this forced me to be very conscious of my decisions. Just coming off a cleanse, I wanted to be sure not to upset my system.
-I will include bone broth. I want to see if this will help me feel more satisfied and perhaps less weak. Plus it is so great for your gut and my main goal with cleanses is improving my digestive health. I made some just the other day and already froze a portion of it to have on hand specifically for this purpose!
-I will include Detoxyme which is a Young Living Product. It combines a range of powerful enzymes that complete digestion, help detoxify and promotes cleansing. I totally forgot I had this. I had purchased it a few months back and used it and felt my digestion was much better so put it away and apparently my brain erased any memory of it! Then I was looking in a cupboard for something else and found it! Here is information about Young Living Essential Oils and products and how to order.
-I’m going to get myself a detox buddy! I think it would be super fun to compare notes and just have someone to tell when you get hungry, tired, weak, grumpy or whatever other things you might experience! Also for something so challenging, the support would be great! If you are interested in being my buddy, let me know in the comments!
-I am going to do Yoga daily. I was doing a little stretching and foam rolling but I wanted to add a little more than my physical therapy exercises. I just started a 30 Day Yoga Camp with Adriene. I have been intimidated to do yoga since you need to get into some poses that take a lot of strength and flexibility and I don't have much of either right now. Most of the teachers I have come across on YouTube either have an attitude where they push you, believe their audience is composed of only expert yogis or are just oblivious to any other level of practice.
Adriene is a breath of fresh air for sure! I love how realistic she is. She realizes that some people are truly beginners and lets you know to go at your own pace. She mentions that if you can’t do a pose the way she is then who cares! She will point out modifications and alternative poses to give you ideas! She is not what she called a “yoga robot” and encourages you to move and sway and really be in your body!
Here is day 1 of the 30 Day Yoga Camp!
-I will make a batch of fresh veggie juice on hand so I have something for when I get very hungry.
My Final Thoughts
When you research detox diets, juice and smoothie cleanses and liquid diets, you will find all kinds of information and opinions. Maybe you will read that if you do a cleanse it could be harmful. Maybe you will read that it will cure everything or that they are completely unnecessary but they won’t hurt you. Ultimately you know what feels right. If it feels like a good idea, try it for a day or 3 and decide if it is for you.
I read an article recently that I really enjoyed and it helped me to decide how I would approach this cleanse. It was talking about making anything you want to change into an experiment. Here is the article if you are interested in reading it. It really inspired me.
I made a detailed plan, took notes while on the cleanse about side effects, how I was feeling physically as well as emotionally, wrote down exactly what I consumed each day and so on. Doing this made the cleanse easier.
I can keep doing this and improving the process. I can add days or decrease them, include certain foods or exclude them, up my exercise or decrease it. If I change something during the cleanse because it is not working, I can document it so I can analyze it later. This whole method made this process way more doable as well as interesting and fun! Knowing I would be sharing it with you helped as well!
There were so many benefits and I enjoyed the process so much that I will continue to do smoothie and/or juice cleanses in the future!
Thank you so much for joining me for this series.
Watch the video for this post here:
Catch up on my smoothie and juice cleanse series!
Check out the video for 3 Day Smoothie Juice Cleanse Part 1 here:
Check out the video for 3 Day Smoothie Juice Cleanse Part 1 here:
Here is the blog post for 3 Day Smoothie Juice Cleanse Part 1.
Check out the video for 3 Day Smoothie Juice Cleanse Part 2 here:
Here is the blog post for 3 Day Smoothie Juice Cleanse Part 2.
Check out the video for 3 Day Smoothie Juice Cleanse Part 3 here:
Here is the blog post for 3 Day Smoothie Juice Cleanse Part 3.
Be Well,
Darlene
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