Monday night January 19th we ate our “last meal” some tasty homemade Macaroni Grill style pasta with Tofu instead of chicken. That meal marked the start of our 3 day cleanse also known as the “Master Cleanse” or the “Lemonade diet”. I cringe at the word diet however, so I shall call it "The Cleanse".
Cleanses allow the digestive system to do what it does naturally and remove toxins from the body. It allows the digestives system to rest. The first day was rough-I could feel the toxins coming out, as I felt like I had a slight flu. The second day was better and the third day was great. I was surprised that my desire to eat food was more of an emotional need than a physical one. Not eating physically was quite easy- but not going through my daily routines was difficult. My day revolves around what food I’m making and when. Literally everything revolves around that. It’s a time for connecting with and doing something to show the people I love that I care about them. Cooking is a learning experience for me and I am happy to say I am getting better and better at it. It’s also a way we eat healthy, and save money by not eating out.
I’m surprised at just how much time and energy it takes to eat healthy, the planning, the shopping, the preparing, the actual cooking, the serving, the eating and then the clean-up. It takes a lot more time than I ever would have thought, and yet it is worth it. Now I know what is in the foods I’m making. I am in control of our health and wellness and since I can think of nothing more important than our health it is well worth all this time and effort.
I didn’t miss doing the dishes while on my cleanse, in fact I refused to even finish the dishes from dinner on Monday night until Saturday morning. I did however miss the energy I put into preparing our meals. I missed the routine of sitting down together to share a meal with the people I love. I missed that more than any food I actually ate. I didn’t really crave anything while on the cleanse, except, oddly enough tater tots. For some reason they sounded so good to me. Now that I’m off the cleanse I have yet to eat them. We ended our cleanse Thursday morning, by eating a banana and some fresh blue berries. From there we have started introducing more foods back into our diet.
After feeling the benefits of the cleanse-I have only been eating the healthiest foods I can. I was already eating pretty healthy before the cleanse, but after the cleanse I have opted not to eat refined sugar and to avoid meat. I lost 7 lbs in 3 days on the cleanse. I think I put it all back on since I started eating again but haven't got on the scale yet.
It was bizarre. It was a bit trippy getting back on the treadmill. Seems I may have picked up a cold/flu virus my son may have brought home post-cleanse. I also worry perhaps there may be a blood pressure issue as each time I increase my heart rate for any extended period of time whether it be from hoop-dancing or walking on the treadmill, I feel light headed and dizzy for a few minutes afterwards.
I have to do a family health history for my Foundations of Nutrition class. I find it challenging at best because I am not in contact with most of my Dad’s side of the family and nearly everyone on my mom’s side of the family is dead. You may think, well your health is a good reason to contact these relatives. But I find it difficult to use that as my reason for calling them. Hi we haven’t spoken in more than 7 years, but I need to know personal and specific details about your health. Yeah...it isn’t going over well for me.
I know I could just use the few family members’ information I have and go from there. The assignment is not specific and doesn’t require that we use ALL of our relatives. However, because both sides of my family do have a very bad health history, I wonder if it is no accident that this assignment has come into my space at just the precise moment in time where I am noticing some possibly blood pressure related symptoms and nearly everyone in my immediate family has a history of high blood pressure. My mother’s mother was diagnosed and put on medication for her high blood pressure at just 18 years old. She suffered with it her entire life.
I believe the power of the mind and I fear that if I presence all the ills of my family, that my mind will believe I am predisposed to those ailments and that I in fact may get them because of that when I may not have otherwise. On the same hand I cannot be ignorant to the medical facts, especially if I am planning to go into the medical industry myself. Ignorance is not bliss if it could have been information that may have assisted me in getting screenings for conditions more often than I would have otherwise because I may be predisposition to certain genetic illnesses. And that is what this assignment is to do. It is to help us figure out what pre-screenings may be more beneficial to us because of our family history and it could actually save our lives. It’s really amazing. Scary and amazing.
Since health is very important to me as I feel it is my greatest asset, I think it might be time to contact all of the family. I may not be able to get everything I need from them by the time the assignment is done, and that is ok, but I can get it so that I can draw some very important conclusions about what I may be genetically predisposition to. This will also be information that may be helpful for my son when he gets older as well.
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