T’was the Night Before Cleansing…

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring…not even …..not even my typical Thursday night snack which usually consists of cheese, crackers, and a celebratory glass of red wine for surviving yet another week. Uh. Why am I so tense?
The prep email I received Tuesday morning from my BP (Blue Print) friends I think fluttered me a bit. In a sudden rush of fear that my gut wasn’t in check, I decided that all intake of obvious junk food would be ceased immediately (although really...I don’t consume much junk food anyway). As for the caffeine, I went down to one large cup on Wednesday and one small cup (8oz) this morning. Yes, rather than completely going cold turkey I decided to slowly decrease the fluid ounces instead. Around 3pm when I usually hit up my favorite vegan spot on
west 23rd street for my second cup of coffee for the day; I instead these last 2 days opted for tea. My vegan, “raw food/nature/fans of "chill music"” type friends who work at the café suggested the lemon lavender mint tea. All I could think was “am I really doing this? Am I really capable of subbing out my second cup of coffee today for something that sounds like it should be made into a potpourri bowl?” But lemon- lavender- petals- galore tea I had. Actually, it wasn’t half bad. I may sound odd here, but it tasted clean. That is the exact word I thought by the time I reached the bottom of my cup. Yes, it had a clean fresh feeling to it. It was nothing like the coffee breath with a dash of milk and table sugar on the tongue that I am left with typically.
My final “prep” decision was that today, Thursday, I would eat completely vegan. I think 24 hours dairy free is definitely a step in the right direction before drinking juiced parsley. To clarify: Vegans are different from vegetarians, because vegans consume absolutely no animal products. While a vegetarian avoids meats, poultry, and fish…a vegan wouldn’t have cow’s milk in their cereal, or scrambled eggs. So today I went vegan. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stick to the sample menu BP gave me of vegetable broth and cucumber slices. I was feeling more anxious as the day went on, so I decided that eat I was going to…and that giving up my cheese and yogurt for the day was enough of a sacrifice “pre cleanse”. I mean c’mon…I’m giving up solid foods. Now you want my stomach to make funny noises the night before I even begin? Below is what I ate today, a diet high in fruits and vegetables, and low on sugars, dairy, & meats (well, not even low..basically eliminated).
Breakfast: Kashi Cinnamon Harvest Cereal with Soy Milk with an 8oz organic coffee (added soy milk and agave nectar). Mid Morning Snack: Smoothie (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, soy milk, banana, agave). Lunch: ½ cup of Organic split pea soup, & a salad wrap. Salad wrap included: spinach leaves, chickpeas, apples, almonds, and craisins, rolled up in a whole wheat flat wrap with white balsamic dressing. Small herbal tea (my flower pot). Dinner: 4 “chicken” nuggets with steamed string beans. I quote “chicken” because they are vegetarian nuggets. I know some of you are re reading this and feeling confused as ever. I love my fake little nuggets, and these are actually soy free as well as meat free (obviously) which makes me feel even better since I try to not overdose on all the soy that tends to replace meat in so many vegetarian products. They are made from a mushroom protein, and breaded just like any other nugget, except no chickens were harmed in the making. I also consumed two water bottles today, and am wrapping up with a final treat: One Kashi Cookie. They are oatmeal raisin cookies that are baked with flaxseed and supplemented with omega-3. If you are going to have dessert, one of these certainly shouldn’t keep you up at night with guilt. And I find having one a day really keeps me from barging into the famous Serendipity’s in east midtown, and going nuts on a Broadway blackout sundae and a frozen hot chocolate.
My juices were delivered at 3:45pm today to my office. It was at that moment, I actually felt my first real moment of pressure and a teeny bit of anxiety. The box was heavy as I carried it into our company kitchen. I opened the lid, and there they were. Everything (and the only thing) I would be consuming for the next 3 days. I felt nervous, but kind of excited. Maybe the question of whether or not I would fail at this seemed to thrill me. Nevertheless, they are there waiting for me for when I get to my office at 8:30am tomorrow and have my first one for breakfast. My main fear is that I am going to feel sick on this. I don’t want to find myself hungry, and therefore suffering from all my normal symptoms that occur when I am hungry: headache, weakness, & irritability. I have chosen not to stick to my normal workout routine on this cleanse, despite many people swearing that you can. As a first timer, I am staying out of the gym (a great chance to catch up on all my nutrition homework) and have decided on day 3, depending how I feel, the furthest I will go is to my 10am yoga class. I wonder if I will be able to yoga on day 3 of no solids?
I feel as if I am being such a ridiculous American right now. People all over the world go days without food, whether it’s for fasting, cleansing, or simply not having enough food accessible to them to remain full. I only need to get through 3 days, (and my nutrients have been carefully calculated and juiced for me). I do hope that thought registers with me should my stomach start to growl and I should start to feel cranky. Besides, while I can’t site where I may have heard this, I am pretty sure there are some hardcore yogis out there who are practicing yoga for 11 hours a day with nothing by cumin, lemons, and cayenne pepper in their system. And some of them take vows of silence on top of this behavior (something I won’t even kid myself with by entertaining the thought).
I am such a rookie in this spiritual, cleansing world.

Prepare Prepare Prepare:

This marks the first blog entry where I begin discussing the journey that is “my cleanse”. It is Tuesday morning and I woke up to an email from my juicy friends over at BluePrint. Apparently…giving up solid food to drink nothing but fresh pressed juice everyday isn’t something you just wake up and do. What I am told today is that I need to start preparing my body for the experience it is about to encounter. This being, my digestive system catching a break from having to break down solid foods, toxins being flushed out, and getting a major overdose of vitamins and minerals through these 6 different juices I will be drinking each day. This can be a lot for a body to handle all at once, which is why it makes sense I suppose to start prepping your stomach, as well as your small and large intestines. Luckily for me, I know exactly how our digestive system works. I understand the changes that would take place should someone decide to not eat solid foods. I understand the pros, and cons, to cleansing and fasting. All of this knowledge I have acquired has made me very (very) selective on what cleanse I would select, and how long I would do it for.
But why am I cleansing in the first place? And what are some reasons you may or may not want to do the same? I will start with the most popular myth. If you want to cleanse because you want to lose weight, don’t waste your time, or your emotional investment in a cleanse. Cleansing is not (I repeat: not) a permanent weight loss solution. Sure, giving up solid food will definitely make you appear thinner, at least for a short while. Once you return to food however, its game on. Especially for those who cleanse for a week, and then feel that they’ve put in the work to earn back their frequent meals at applebees. But lets think practical here; we also can’t spend the rest of our lives living off nothing but juiced kale and coconut water. It is not only unrealistic, but horrific for our digestive system. Our esophagus (you know…that tube our food goes down to reach our stomach) is a muscle. And just like any other muscles in our body, if it is not worked…it becomes weak, lazy, flabby, however you want to picture it. Our esophagus pushes our food down after we swallow with a one way movement called “peristalsis”. This wavelike motion wouldn’t need to do half the work when we swallow nothing but liquids, nor would our stomach need to do as much churning. Overtime, no solid foods lead to a deteriorating digestive system, which can affect how our bodies eventually absorb nutrients. If we cannot absorb nutrients, we are not benefitting from eating any food at all. Long term affects: Wasting away of muscles, malabsorption, higher risk for illness, and eventual starvation. So, just like any other muscles in our bodies…lets keep our digestive system at work, by giving it a variety of wholesome food that it needs to break down, churn, mix, and push through our intestines. Bottom line: cleansing with a hope that you will lose tremendous amount of weight, and keep it off, even if it means cutting back on solid foods permanently, is not how I want your brain thinking.
I am cleansing, because I am reaching a point where my body, and the decisions I have recently made for it, is catching up to me. I am very much in tune with my body, which is excellent because I know when things are going wrong almost immediately. My schedule these days has contributed to a combination of symptoms including lack of sleep, increase in caffeine intake, increased likelihood to accept a glass of red wine after work, and more lunches then id care to admit being purchased “on the go”. My skin is dry (dehydration), I am tired, feeling sluggish, and bloated. I am cleansing to give my digestive system a break, put nothing but fruit and vegetables into my body, and allow myself the opportunity to rid my system of caffeine and alcohol. When I return to eating solids, I will return with a “clean slate,” and that is exactly what I feel I need. While this may help me drop a few pounds, I view those pounds as the toxins being flushed out of my system (goodbye bloat!) and know that I will need to keep healthy once I eat my first real breakfast again next week.
Back to my welcoming email I received this morning though. I have one issue with it. They are telling me to start preparing, by weaning off my coffee now. As I sit in my bedroom, reading through my morning emails, holding a giant cup of coffee…I looked down at my cup after reading this particular sentence, almost as if to say “im sorry” to it, as it stared back at me. What would I do? Is this my last cup? I mean, I wasn’t exactly prepared to hit this bump until Friday. And believe me, I knew when signing up for this that it would mean no coffee…I think I was lying to myself by ignoring that fact when sharing with my friends what I was about to do. I have two midterms this week (both of which really are requiring more commitment from me), so am I not to have caffeine on the days of these exams? If there is a God, now would be the time Id need to call on his help. If I really had my last cup of coffee this morning for the next week…I may go postal before this cleanse is over.
The rest seemed simple though. No meat (check! For the last 3 years), wean off dairy (not too difficult for me since the only dairy I really eat is yogurt, and cheese) and cut back on those added sugars (I only add sugar to my coffee, so again, I can deal). I am also given a sample menu of the foods I should stick to the day before I begin my cleanse. It’s what I would refer to as a “starve yourself” diet…but it’s only for one day, and I understand it will help prep my stomach for the pure juiced goodness it will need to rely on for the upcoming days. The menu tells me to stick to fruit for breakfast, cucumber, avocados, lettuce, and maybe some olive oil drizzled on top for lunch…and (ready for this?) vegetable broth (low sodium) for dinner. Good god. Are they kidding? Granted, I feel my stomach is already slightly better prepared then someone who eats fast food and is about to do this. I drink fresh squeezed juices frequently as a supplement to my lunches. However, without the support of the cleanse juices, I will be consuming less than 800 calories on this day if I follow their menu, and I fear that I will be left, well…clawing at the glass windows of my neighborhood bakery by 7pm.
So here it goes. I think I just drank my last cup of coffee. I am about to snack on my last stoneyfield yogurt cup for a while, and I will be carefully monitoring everything I eat for the next 3 days until my juices get delivered Friday morning. By the way, did I mention they are getting delivered to my office? This excites me. Friday morning I will come into work for my 9am meeting, and my juices will be there, in our refrigerator, waiting for me to start the day. One can only hope that no one else enters the meeting this Friday eating a buttered croissant, or an egg and cheese McMuffin.

Dormir = To Sleep

I remember having dinner with a friend back this summer, and speaking about this blog. Over two fresh squeezed juices, and a bowl of vegetarian meatballs in a small Asian restaurant downtown; we laughed for a minute about how all my entries seemed to be “rainbows and giggles” (meaning, I made a serious attempt to not write anything negative on here). That’s true. If there is anything I can’t stand, its reading peoples facebook status’s when they are complaining about life, their long day, how everyone “sucks”, or even better…the subtle messages of hatred towards the opposite gender that just let them down and was “such a disappointment”. I made a decision that reading my blog would leave you feeling happy, motivated, or at least a little more educated in the overall health department. However, at times I questioned my method. This stream of constant "happy" posts...How long would it take before my writing voice became annoying to anyone reading who was having a bad day? I am only human. I do not wake up to fresh fruit parfaits waiting for me, nor do I plant vegetables in my own organic garden here on the upper east side (although one day I’d love to have a garden, no matter where I live, city or no city). I work full time, I am a full time graduate student, and I am involved in two local community organizations. I am busy, stressed, and a type- A New Yorker. Yes, sometimes I order breakfast online and have the delivery man come right to my cubicle. Bottom line: I study nutrition and health because I care about it, but day to day decisions happen for me too. So I decided to change it up a bit, and write tonight to let you in on whats not going so well right now for me, which is my sleeping pattern. But rather than make this negative, I want to share what I am doing about it. How can we apply our basic health knowledge to bettering our situations? I want to share with you my little sleep story. So here you go …my not-so-perfect health situation.
Since late August, I haven’t slept more than 6 hours a night. Earlier in the summer, I remember writing a blog entry that opened up with how I sleep for 9 hours every night, and sadly that used to be true. My co workers at the time teased me often, because I would swear by my perfect 9 hours that left me smiling and bright eyed each day in the office. Like clockwork I fell asleep at 11, and woke up at 8. So what happened? I have been asking myself this for weeks. Sure, I have a lot on my plate, but I didn’t think that differed from any other time in my life considering I became a multi-tasker in the 3rd grade. I think It started with a slight change of lifestyle. Towards the end of summer I started going out more, (which I am blaming on a direct anxiety about returning to school). Knowing between school and work that the “fun might be over” until December, I think I justified too many Weeknights out. Our bodies adjust pretty quickly, so it only took about a week of this behavior to start not going to sleep until 1am. It was too early to notice, but I had a much later “bed time” and this was just the beginning. I started complaining at work that I was only sleeping 6-7 hours a night now because “I can’t fall asleep at night”. So, one Friday night during this time, I decided to take my health knowledge and put it to the test. Something to think about if you are having trouble falling asleep at night:1. Those who sit at a desk all day and are not very active may have more trouble falling asleep at night, since you are not using your muscles enough throughout the day. It’s kind of like a “couch potato” syndrome (although that is not what I am calling you). Unfortunately, many of our jobs keep us strapped to a desk 9 hours a day. Try exercising 30 minutes a day, and you may find yourself wiped by the time you lay down at night.
2. Baths: I’ve said it before, but a hot bath can relax your muscles and be a free spa treatment for improving rest and relaxation. Try warm baths with lavender scents, and even a cup of sleepy time tea to accompany it, and get “in the mood” for sleep.
3. Although this is never what I recommend…we all know that a glass of wine (when had in moderation) can make you a little sleepy. Sometimes, a small glass of red wine can be the trick to calming down and drifting off. I hope this one doesn’t get confused for me pushing alcoholism. I promote moderation.

On this Friday night…I did all three. I went to the gym after work, worked myself hard. Left the gym with my gal pal Morgan where we sat at a nice bar to catch up about our week over (one) glass of red wine. Then, I hopped in a cab and went home. I filled up a bubble bath, turned my bathroom into my free spa, and exited an hour later. I actually said to my roommate “if this all doesn’t work tonight, I am going to see a doctor”. But it did. Praise my pillows. I fell asleep that Friday night by 11pm, and got decent sleep. Unfortunately, I cannot do all 3 of those things every night, and of course this was a one night fix that didn’t last long. Soon after, I went from not being able to fall asleep until 1am, to falling asleep late AND waking up sporadically numerous times throughout the night. To ice this cake, soon after that it was all of the above, AND waking up before the alarm went off in the morning.

Yes, September came. The new job started, the classes started, my commitments began getting plugged into the calendar. I was amazed at the idea that subconsciously I could be so nervous about something that it would affect me this much. But if it were you who were writing to me about this, I would tell you to listen to your body. Our bodies work in a delicate balance. I don’t have a sleep issue…I have an issue that is making it difficult for me to shut down at bed time. So,…fix the issue and get your sleep back. The one thing I wanted to do was fix the reason why I wasn’t sleeping, and not medicate myself with sleeping pills.

My thoughts: Reasons people can’t sleep- stress, dehydration, eating too much before bed (yes your digestive system can keep you awake as it does all that work), not moving enough during the day to become adequately tired, & the classic…unable to turn off the brain.

My tip to myself (and others who suffer): If you are going to pick a time to think about everything you need to do, people you need to call back, and obligations you have coming up….pick the morning. Because that’s where they will all be when you wake up, regardless of how much sleep you get the night before. Right before bed is not the time to start writing “to do” lists and evaluating decisions you’ve recently made. You may as well leave it alone, because it’s not going anywhere before breakfast.

So what happened here? Well, I reached a breaking point. At a month and a half of no sleep, I cracked. I became so upset, saying things like “I can’t keep going like this. I just want to sleep! I can’t do my homework, or my job, or anything this exhausted!” With tears at this point flowing out of my eyes, I once again thought about where I could go from here. And then bam, I remembered something. I went to Duane Reade and purchased Melatonin. Melatonin my friends, is all natural. In fact, our bodies make it! It’s what physiologically speaking, has programmed us to feel sleepy in the dark, rather than the daytime. Amazing isn’t it? Although I never wanted to take anything for my sleep issue, I felt myself becoming more ill from the severe lack of sleep, than I would have been if I took a little Melatonin. If I was going to take anything, it would have to be 100% natural (which this is). Consider it an extra boost of mother nature. While the melatonin has helped me through a few nights, I am still working on this issue. What I want to stress though, is that after a few nights of losing sleep I did not run to prescriptions. We need to think about why we suffer. Why do we have headaches? Why do we have stomach cramps? And remember that the real goal should be to fix the reason, and not mask the pain with alternative solutions. I thought hard about what I was eating during this time, if I was drinking enough water, and how my relationships with friends and family were at the current time as well.
Overall health is defined as physical, social, and mental. If you do not have all 3, regardless of how often you hit the gym, you are not considered “healthy”. I am active at the gym, and I choose my foods carefully each day, but if stress is keeping me awake at night even when I am trying so hard to stay asleep…than this is a health problem for me, and only myself can tackle it and beat it. That of course, is exactly what I plan to do. Overall health is not easy to accomplish all the time. We live in a crazy crazy world. One that keeps us in the office until 10pm, or tells us we are saving money if we go the next size up with our French Fry order. But we can do it. We can be healthy.

Wishing you hours of deep sleep (because sleep promotes weight loss, and less wrinkles).
And thank you for listening <3
Jess