IMO This Is A Great Solution For When You're Stuck In A Funk
Listen to this blog instead of reading!
MY FUNK
Hey, friends!
I recently had to retest IgG reaction food sensitivities (which simultaneously tests for candida and can reveal how much leaky gut you’ve got going on— here’s a link for the test if you’re interested in doing it yourself).
To test this, you need to eat the foods you want to be tested 24-48 hours prior to taking it. Both times I’ve taken this, it felt like a green light to eat whatever I wanted (I don’t really advise this and have regretted it each time. OR perhaps stick to one day of it.). I indulged in gluten, dairy, things with eggs, sugary treats, and an array of fruits, veggies, and proteins. I wanted to get it all in so that all sensitivities could be analyzed (side note: the test will still give you feedback on things you didn’t eat but that it tests for).
After this two-day feast, I had put on three to four pounds of inflammation. You don’t gain that much weight from two days of poor-ish/random eating, but when your body reacts to it and decides to blow up, that inflammation is reflected on the scale. I felt horrible—huge, sluggish, tired, anxious, irritated, and obviously bloated.
WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO
I racked my brain as I tried to decide how I wanted to fix this situation. I’ve done a couple juice cleanses/juice+soup cleanses before, and each time my stomach has de-bloated, and my mood and sleep has improved. For the longer cleanse I did (5 days), my skin had dramatically changed and my eyes brightened like crazy. I remember reading a thread about gut issues and one lady going off on some girl who asked if a juice cleanse would help. She basically told her she was crazy, that it was a horrible decision, and it would mess it up even more. That scared me a bit, truthfully. To each their own opinion, though. I’m not a doctor, but that has 0% been the case for me when doing them.
I’m happy to share my experiences on different cleanses (from delivered ones to DIY ones that I’ve made at home following a book), but for the sake of this article, I would like to stick with this most recent cleanse/ food sensitivities scenario. So, onto the story of my third juice cleanse!
THE CLEANSE
Due to time and traveling, I opted to purchase a pre-made cleanse (as in a cleanse I wouldn’t have to make myself—it’s time consuming!). I was going to be in the MA/RI area over the weekend, so I checked out Fully Rooted’s cleanse. I had got a juice from them while at a farmer’s market previously (thanks to my sister for introducing me), and it was so yummy. They are freshly-made and use local ingredients, the best options you could ask for in a cleanse, as both those factors ensure that you’re getting the max amount of nutrients and enzymes possible. They offer two versions of it, and I decided to to the Deep Detox, which meant 6 juices a day and no food for 3 days.
The first day
...just felt like a normal day. I was sleepy from the weekend. It was a struggle to hit the gym at the end of the day, but I did it!* While I was hungry, largely due to stress, too, the smell of food in the office actually comforted me and minimized my hunger. This usually happens to me when fasting or cleansing or whatever; all I need is the smell of food to feel satisfied. I know that may sound crazy, but I read that Tom Brady is the same way. If I have the same needs as Tom Brady, well, God bless.
The second day
...was definitely the “hardest,” although by that I mean I was craving healthy foods, specifically chickpeas and broccoli. That’s a good craving to have, eh? I feel like cleanses always get me back on a healthy mindset and readjust my cravings, which is all I could ask for and more. The week before, I was scooping vegan, gluten-free cookie dough out of a container justifying it as “pre-workout.” Ya, I’ll take the broc cravings. My energy was alright, but I called it quits for bed around 9:00 PM. My sleep cycle is usually on the fritz; I struggle a lot with falling asleep and staying sleeping despite taking the best aids/implementing supportive practices. It felt great to get rest!
The third day
... I really wasn’t hungry at all. It took me a slower time to drink the juices throughout the day as I felt no rush to have them, and I just felt kind of calm. I really good energy (enough so that I worked out in the AM AND PM) for not having eaten for three days, but that made sense to me… think about it: you’re not depriving yourself of calories, carbs, or nutrients on a juice cleanse, so you’re body should still feel very nourished and fulfilled.
*I worked out each day on the cleanse.
ALL ABOUT RESULTS
As a final result, I dropped 4.6 pounds. Clearly in 3 days, that’s not 4.6 pounds of fat. It’s inflammation. When you take out those inflammatory foods, such as the ones I was consuming when I was testing foods, your body is able to settle back down to its natural, un-inflamed state. Sounds nice, right? If your body fluctuates in weight, you should definitely play around with foods you think you could be bothered by.
Juice cleanses are so great for healing the body; you’re giving your digestive system a total rest while filling it with tons of nutrients. Something you should know is that a smoothie is much different from a juice, because a smoothie still contains all the fruit/vegetable fiber. This can be great and serves its own purpose (our bodies need fiber!), but because of it, the nutrients enter the body more slowly, so for cleansing and healing purposes, it may not benefit you as greatly. On the other hand, juicing rapidly delivers nutrients to the body since the body doesn’t need to focus on/ use energy for digesting the fiber. This is why you can see such a difference in energy, mood, and appearance in such a short amount of time while juicing. It also helps boost your immune system!
I would include a very proud and satisfied photo, but I kind of made the mistake of taking that photo, ugh, in my birthday suit, so I can’t share that publicly. When I do my next one, I’ll definitely remember to put some dang clothes on so I can share the results! I hope that the facts are enough to persuade you try out a juice cleanse, though! You won’t regret it!
Have you tried one? Let me know!
