Spring Cleanse, Day 5

Today is day five of my spring cleanse. Overall, things are going along quite well. One of the interesting things I have noticed this time around, because each cleansing experience is a little bit different, is that I am not very hungry at all. My meals have been pretty small. For example, yesterday my food consisted of:

½ cup cooked Teff grain with raisins and cinnamon for breakfast.
3 ounces (approx) of cooked salmon (leftovers-served chilled)
1 slice cantaloupe
And for dinner:



3 ounces of grilled cod
Chinese pea’s sautéed with garlic
Mixed green salad with chopped yellow pepper, mushrooms, celery and alfalfa sprouts, dressed with fresh lemon juice.

I couldn’t eat all of my dinner. In fact, I ate the cod, about half the peas (gave the other half to Chris) a few bites of my salad, but by then I was content. I didn’t need any more food. I wasn’t hungry. So, I put my salad in a container and will use that and the rest of the leftover chilled salmon for my lunch today.

I know this isn’t a lot of food, but I’m just not hungry! Such an unusual state for me.

One of the benefits of cleansing is the increased energy, which until this morning, I have been feeling! Yesterday morning, for the first time in forever, I got up early and did some yoga and Pilates first thing in the morning. I followed that up by a trip to the gym where I hit the elliptical, treadmill and upper body weight machines for an hour combined. By the end of that I was weak and hungry! The cantaloupe and dinner took care of that, but I think I over did it.

One of the recommendations when cleansing is not to overdo your activity while cleansing. The body needs to be able to process the cleanse and over exertion is counter intuitive to doing so. I have not had this problem in prior cleanses, so now I am learning that lesson.

One of the side effects of cleansing can also be a general feeling of lethargy and feeling, for lack of a better term, blah. This general malaise feeling is part of the process of the body removing the toxins. This can include headaches, congestion, fatigue and even a little mental fogginess.

It is important to drink lots of fluids while cleansing in order to assist the body in flushing these toxins out.

Well, I know all of this stuff, but yesterday was feeling so great and energetic and good that I wasn’t really paying attention to any of it. I worked out hard! I sweated and pushed and felt great! What I didn’t do was drink enough fluids. What I failed to pay attention to was that I shouldn’t be exerting myself quite so much while cleansing.

This morning I have awoken with a headache in one little spot on the left side of my head. I feel it is a combination of dehydration, and the over exertion yesterday in conjunction with the cleansing. My body is telling me to be gentle to it. So I am listening.

Today I am going to drink more fluids, even though this will mean bathroom trips while at school, which I hate. ( I am not a fan of public bathrooms!) But, caring for my body is more important, so I have started the day with warm lemon water and green tea. Breakfast is going to be a nice green juice. I will drink plenty of water today throughout the day. Lunch is salad with salmon and dinner tonight will likely just be some steamed veggies and salad. I might throw some fruit in there somewhere if I am feeling like I need a snack.

I’m not sure if I will exercise today. If I do, it will likely be some gentle yoga to stretch out my body, which incidentally is feeling all that exercise from yesterday. That is a good thing!

The lesson for today is to be gentle to your body, to listen when your body speaks to you and to remember that life is not a sprint, it is a marathon.

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” - Goethe