This post is both awesome & bizarre. It’s the colliding of two worlds (my less than healthy college years & my new Mama-days). And, for a blogger who writes as if no one is reading, it still surprises me when people from my past pop up in comments/greet me on twitter.
Alison is a friend, an amazing, inspiring runner and, as of recently, a CLEANSER. Ive invited her here to share her experience & hope she’ll return with an update, too.
Big Lake marathon.I’ve completed 28 marathons in 25 states.
You’d think I’d be stick-thin, right? WRONG!
And you’d think I’d be really healthy, right? WRONG again.
My diet was pretty atrocious. My food choices included things like Skittles, cheese puffs, and frozen yogurt.
Someone once said to me
I don’t know why you’re not stick-thin with all of the running you do.
Ouch.
Did this hurt me? Yes. Did I change? No. Until I did The Cleanse.
What is The Cleanse?
Cleanse can mean different things to different people. I chose a 5-day Summer Cleanse through the Watertown Holistic Center (note: everything is online).
What I liked about it is that you are not consuming *only* liquid.
On this cleanse you can actually EAT. It’s also about lifestyle changes, too. For example, we were instructed to take an Epsom salt bath every night, massage our skin with sesame oil, & cleanse our liver daily with water & lemon or lime.
The cleanse was hard.
Really hard. So hard I was tempted to eat just one little Skittle or peanut. But I never cheated. Not once.
If I was going to do it, I was going to DO IT.
For five days I followed all of the food instructions: all I ate was fruit and vegetables.
I was also allowed “add ins” in smoothies (nuts, seeds, hemp protein powder, chia seeds etc) & we had salads most days and quinoa/other whole grains on two days. It’s not a totally liquid experience. PHEW!
A big reason the cleanse was hard is that I was surrounded by other people who were not cleansing.
I went to a Red Sox game surrounded by thousands eating ballpark food–but I didn’t budge. I bought water instead.
This face drank only water!Did I mention we were supposed to drink 10-15 glasses of water per day?? (Hello, bathroom breaks!)
There were detox symptoms. Many people in my group got headaches, but luckily I did not. Instead, I was blessed with things like diarrhea, shakiness, weakness, and lethargy. Fun stuff!
As a runner, it was hard to not have the energy to run–but instead of lying on the couch like I wanted to, I walked. If I didn’t have the energy to run I could at least walk! And the symptoms went away.
As the cleanse came to a close, I was getting *really* nervous about re-introducing things like sugar, fat, protein, and diary to my diet. Would they make me vomit? Would I get nauseous? Would I get diarrhea?
We were told to slowly re-introduce food groups to our diet.
I started with granola then added things like herbal popcorn and pretzels. By the end of the first day, I was back to a more regular diet. I eventually went for ice cream, but I walked 3 miles for it.
It’s been 4 days post-cleanse. What has changed?
My appetite has been greatly reduced and I don’t crave processed foods.
Seriously.
Did I say I didn’t eat any processed foods? No! But I’m not craving them!
I’ve never been a fan of completely eliminating a food from my diets so I *will* have Skittles, cheese puffs, and frozen yogurt again. I’m just not sure when. Or how many I’ll eat.
Time will tell, of course.
For now I’m anxious to get back to running, continue to monitor my appetite and cravings, and integrate some long-term changes into my routine. Check back with me in a few months to see how I’m doing 
. 