Purify Me

I am back…I know it has been awhile – a long while and for that I am sorry – the only excuse I have is I’ve been busy.

I am still crafting in my spare time, what little I have. Toothless Wonder and Pantiewad girl are doing great – as they have gotten older more and more of my “me” time has been chipped away – and that is OK.

The main reason for jumping back into blogging is to hold myself accountable…

Accountable for what you ask?

I am going to do a Cleanse…I know, I know – you read cleanse and all sorts of bad images come to your mind…believe me I have researched this to death to see if I really wanted to do this…

Why a cleanse? Well if you read back through some of my posts you know I have been trying to eat and live a healthier lifestyle over the past few years. I have had some success – cut out soda and vast majority of processed food from my diet – I have increased my exercise – I found a great cardio kickboxing class I take twice a week. But after all that I still feel like my body is holding on stuff it shouldn’t have. I have had people comment about the weight I have lost…ummmm haven’t lost any – toned up yes – loss no.

Don’t get me wrong I am not doing the cleanse just to loose weight – hopefully that is just a good side effect – I didn’t start eating better or exercising more to loose weight – I did it to make my body better with the hopeful side effect of dropping a few lbs.

So here is the thing – there are A LOT of different cleanses out there…the thing about them is you have to do your research – read labels – check out reviews – etc…what good is a cleanse if all you are putting in your body is a bunch more chemicals. There are also different cleanses for different things…I have to admit the first time I heard of a cleanse I had a vision of not being able to be more than 3 steps away from a bathroom…and if you are doing a colon cleanse that would be true.

So what am I doing? I am doing the 21 day Standard Process Cleanse - It is one that my chiropractor recommended. I already take Standard Process vitamins with great success so I figured what the hell. The main component of this cleanse is whole foods. All the supplements and pills are made of whole foods – no chemicals, no weird fillers, none of that…all natural whole foods.

The first 7 days you are limited to eating fruits, veggies, lentils and brown rice with the addition of 2-3 smoothies a day plus some cleansing and fiber pills. One may ask why not just eat fruits and veggies for a week and call it good. I’ve done that before – doesn’t do much…and you can’t get all the vitamins, minerals and protein you need – hence the use of smoothies and pills. After 7 days you can add in lean protein in the form of chicken and fish – easily done. After 21 days you can slowly add back in other things – but the goal is to do it one food type at a time…the cleanse basically strips your body for it to begin anew.

I am hoping I do ok on this program – I am already used to eating a modified Paleo type diet and drinking lots of water each day so hopefully this shouldn’t be as hard for me as it might for others who eat a lot of fast or processed food. I have also decided to take this time to try foods I have been turning my nose up at …Lentils – haven’t ever touched them – brussel sprouts, kale, beets – OH MY…

I think the hardest thing will be to give up my protein sources for the first week – I love my chicken and fish…oh and my coffee - I have been told I can have a small cup of coffee a day while on the program – but I think for the first 7 days I am going to go all in…The program suggests drinking green tea – so at least for the first 7 days I will be switching my morning coffee with morning green tea…

So the question is why am I blogging about it – well I did some research and found a few blogs about the program and they enjoyed it – I figured if I blog about it then I have the whole internet to keep me accountable – right? I paid a nice chunk of change for the program so I will be brutally honest about how I feel and what I eat…if I don’t like it you will know – if I find it to be fantastic you will know.