Day 8: Never eat "fat free" dressing

Yesterday was my last day of using the intestine scouring SP Cleanse supplement.  Hooray!  I promised my friend Ali that I wouldn't talk about the end products of digestion, but I think it is OK if I share how excited I am to get back to a "regular schedule."

Actually, things have been getting better in that department for a while.  Perhaps I am not consuming "half total vegetable amount raw," as recommended.  Or maybe I've figured out how to survive the cleanse by adding enough oil to my raw food to slow down its transit time.  Yes, fat slows down, and enhances, the digestion of raw vegetables, especially leafy greens like lettuce and spinach.

The longer a food is in the stomach and small intestines, the more time the digestive enzymes have to digest it and extract nutrients from the mess of fibers in which they are entangled.  Eating fat with raw vegetables also aids in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as D, E, and beta-carotene (the precursor to vitamin A).  It is not what you eat, but what you absorb!  So all you people who like to eat your healthy salad with "fat free" dressing, think twice!

Lunch: mix spring greens, topped with kale & chia seeds.
Dressing: balsamic vinegar olive oil (no added sugar)

I am still struggling to get enough calories because I get full so quickly on this diet.  To compensate, I find myself eating every 1-2 hours.  Yesterday I ate at 8am, 9:30am, 10am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, 3:30pm, 5pm, 7pm, 8pm, and 9pm.  That is ten separate meals!  I feel like a whale, eating tiny amounts of calories, continuously throughout the day.

Science Lesson: Did you know that blue whales (80 ft long) can eat up to 8000 pounds of krill (2.4 inches) per day.  That is 4% of their body weight!  The whales swim along, hunting for areas with high concentration of krill.  When they find such an area, they open their mouth and ingest the krill, along with copious amounts of seawater.  Then, whale spits out the water, but the unfortunate krill remain, stuck in the whale's baleen plates, and are subsequently swallowed.

Yep, I have become a baleen whale.  I spend my whole day hunting low-calorie fruits and vegetables and drinking copious amounts of water.  Except that, unlike the whale, I do not spit out my water.

Day 6: The cravings begin!

I really wish I could eat Chipotle, or drink hot chocolate, or have toast with butter.  But I can't because I am doing The Cleanse.  Instead, I just ate a teaspoon of unrefined coconut oil.  It went down easy.  Then I added 10 grams of protein powder to grape juice.  It almost tasted like sorbet.  Almost.

This is the first day I've had serious emotional cravings.  I think it is because my day was so long, boring, and disappointing.  I will spare you the details.  But I'll say this: I hope the next 15 days are not like today!

Let's focus on the positive.  I am glad to be eating 1 cup lentils instead of 1/2 cup brown rice (way more flavor and calories).  I have used my new cast iron pan almost every day (yay for residual beef fat from pre-cleanse steak).  And I am very much looking forward to adding chicken and fish on Day 11.

Ok, I don't feel so bad anymore.

Day 5: Health care professional required

I think I finally ate enough calories!

And I strongly encourage everyone who does The Cleanse do so under the supervision of a health care professional.  Preferably under the supervision of registered dietitian, like myself.  Without expert support and direction, how else will the cleanser know if they are getting enough to eat?  Some people feel awful on The Cleanse because they are mobilizing toxins within their bodies but are too constipated to eliminate them.  Others feel awful because they are only eating 50% of the calories they need.  Heck, I'm a registered dietitian and it's taken me five days to figure out how to get enough calories while eating only fruits and vegetables!

I didn't waste any of this apple

As a side note, I really wish I could eat nuts and seeds on The Cleanse.  It would make my snack of raw fruit much more balanced and satisfying.  Fact: the protein and fat in nuts and seeds help to slow digestion and lead to increased satiety.

Fact: The Cleanse does not support vigorous exercise.  While hiking for 2 hours today, I first prepared with a BIG breakfast (461 kcal, 19.5 g protein) and then ate a pear and an apple during the hike.  Unfortunately, the apple and pear digested quickly without protein and fat to slow down the acid and enzymes in my stomach and I was soon hungry again  And I didn't waste any of the fruit, either.  Most people leaving a lot of the flesh on the core when they eat fruit.  But I ate the WHOLE thing, except for the seeds, which are poisonous (see picture on right).

When I returned home from my hike, I ate a large and satisfying late lunch of 650 kcal and 42.5 g protein.  It felt so good to be full!  And I stayed full all the way until dinner.

Day 4: Sweat it all out

Today I signed up for a free 3-day pass to my local gym for the sole reason of utilizing their sauna and steam room.  Best. Idea. Ever!  I'm naturally a cold person.  My fingers and toes have a tendency to feel like ice cubes, especially in the winter. All the frozen fruit smoothies and raw vegetables (which have a cooling effect) that I have been eating exacerbate the situation.  So it felt extra nice to sit in the 185 degree sauna for 15 minutes and let the sweat bead up on my skin.

Having a sauna or steam room is not just warming, it is also therapeutic.  Sweating is a great way to open up pores and rid the body of toxins.  Or at least the water-soluble ones.

As a side note, my sweat smells like curry.  Which is curious because I have not eaten any curry.  It must be an ingredient in all those supplements I've been taking for The Cleanse.

Thank you, http://www.mccoysauna.com/, for the picture!

Day 3: Tired (and cranky)

The Cleanse is exhausting.  Food preparation takes so much more time and energy when eating only fresh food - the shopping, the chopping, the assembling or cooking.  It makes me realize how much I rely on convenience foods and grains for energy.  Eating fresh foods takes longer, too.  It took me 15 minutes to eat a head of raw broccoli today.  Yeesh, that is half of my lunch break!  Did you know that eating celery actually burns calories because it takes more energy to chew and digest than there are calories to be digested?  No wonder our ancestors struggled to get enough to eat - by the time they cooked and ate their fiber-rich whole food, it was time to go hunt and gather again.

(added on Day 5: can you tell this was my worst day on the cleanse?)