14 Day Cleanse -Day 7

Today I am going to write a few words about what is working well and what is not.

First I want to say that I am LOVING this cleanse and I think it's going really well. I am looking forward to the next 7 days. But, I will list a few things that I can do better with next week....

Preparation is so important.  I let a few things slide. I didn't consistently buy fruit. In the beginning I was really good about keeping the kitchen fully stocked with various fruits. Then I slowly stopped replacing them. This includes non-sweet fruits. I never replaced the tomatoes that I ate early on, then today, I started to crave complicated recipes that had tomatoes in them. If I would have keep tomatoes in the house, I wouldn't be 'craving' them. I would be eating them!

I began to slip into higher fat raw again without thinking. I bought a little box of young coconuts because I was going to start another Bikram yoga challenge and I wanted to have the coconut water to drink after class if I felt dehydrated. Well, I didn't begin that Bikram challenge, I decided to cleanse (for now) instead. I forgot the coconuts were not on my original 14 day cleanse list and I started eating them. The very interesting thing that I noticed was, my bowel movements changed. Before in the young coconuts my BMs were amazing! I was so happy.  After 3 days of just fruit & greens (on this cleanse) my digestion improved and my BMs got much fuller and longer. Before the cleanse I was having inconsistent BMs. Some days they were fully formed, some days they looked small and inadequate. After 3 days of just fruit & greens I was going as soon as I woke up and not long after my main meals. Things were running smoothly. As soon as higher fats came in, they slowed down and thinned out. Also, my energy dropped a bit and I needed a little more rest than the days with no overt fats.

Another thing I noticed is that I feel much better when I drink water first thing in the morning. The last few days I have been playing catch-up, by drinking my water later in the day or in the evening. It doesn't work as well then. Better than nothing of course, but when I try to drink at least 1 liter of water earlier in the day I feel better (and I choose better). Then I get around to another liter later on. Lately I've been skipping that morning liter. I can definitely see and feel the difference. It doesn't feel so good. I didn't notice it in the beginning, but now that a week has passed, I can really notice the side effects.

Softer leafy greens vs. tougher leafy greens. I noticed that I bought way too many tough leafy greens (like dinosaur kale) for this cleanse. My fridge is still loaded with it. I haven't liked it much with fruit. I think celery, fresh herbs, dandelions (if you like bitter), baby lettuces and spinach are much better for fruit combos. 

Tomorrow I will have lots of veg juice & mono veggie meals to catch up on green produce (-that will soon go brown!). I will also try a week without coconut. That was the original plan, but I some how got young coconuts in. (-Opps, take 2!)

I think exercise has really helped. I started an exercise support link on '30Bananas-a-day'. It's a fun site for low-fat vegans (..or wanna be low-fat vegans, ...or low-fat vegan lovers, etc..) ..and just plain ol' fruit lovers of course! You can sign on to be part of my exercise thread. I would love to have your support and to support you in your fitness goals!