Merry Cleanse-mas!

 

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays !!

I’m a Jew, so I got all this holiday stuff over with weeks ago.  But I did get myself a Christmas gift and have been plotting for days to use it starting tomorrow.  But I (or maybe my body) can wait no longer.

As of today, I have embarked on a 21-day long challenge to clean out my body and “reset” myself.  Yes, technically it’s a “cleanse” but no I’m not only consuming juice and/or some version of cayenne-lemonade-maple syrup water.   It’s called the “Ultimate Reset” and is a product/program through the Beachbody folks (who make p90x/Insanity/etc..).  I’m doing it now, in advance of the triathlon season starting and hoping to get my body in good working order.

I’m not doing it just for weight loss, though yes, I do anticipate that I will de-bloat and reverse some of the holiday damage over the last few weeks.  Really, this is about health.  Some things have started to heavily shift my views of food in the last few weeks – my mother’s cancer battle, my looming 35^th birthday, watching movies like Forks over Knives and Vegucated, and reading a book called Thrive by a vegan Ironman triathlete named Brendan Brazier.  Yes I wonder after all of these things if maybe our diets CAN reverse the aging process, stem the tide of disease and cancer, and calibrate our bodies to be more efficient and high-functioning.  Exercise is only one piece of the puzzle and for years I’ve been trying to pretend that it could maybe eclipse the much larger food piece.

After several weeks of backsliding and falling into eating (and feeling) like crap, I am tired.  I’m tired of being tired.  I’m tired of having sugar cravings.  I’m tired of not sleeping well and of having aches and pains.  I’m tired of feeling a low-grade brand of depression.  I’m tired of my body NOT running like a well-oiled machine, which I think we are all capable of actually having.  And maybe I’m a little worried of aging before my time.  So cleansing is the game.

The cleanse goes something like this:

– 3 meals a day, gradually eliminating any animal protein consumption by week 2
– Tons of water (no alcohol obvi)
– Supplements to restore the body back to some kind of detoxified equilibrium
– Enough Sleep
– No exercise for the duration (or very light activities – yoga, walking, tango(?)

I’m interested to see how I feel at the end of this.  Is my goal to be vegan when this concludes?  Not necessarily, but because I’m only on day 1, this is TBD – I’ll let you know at day 21.

My top 3 goals are these:
1.Reduced pain (neck/back/hand) – experiment to see if Inflammation plays a role
2. Increased energy/outlook
3.Better sleep
3a. Ok, fine some weight loss 🙂

The next 21 should be a doozy and I’m kinda excited/nervous to tune into my body and see what happens.

Cleanse-ho!

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