Clean Living!

So in Jan/feb this year looking grey and feeling absolutely knackered every moment of everyday I took myself to the doctor. The only reason I hadn’t seen him before was that I presumed that the feelings were related to the natural fatigue of a one year old waking me up several times a night.. But when the child started to sleep better I noticed that even after a few ‘reasonable nights’ nights sleep it wasn’t much better. So The doctor did the standard blood tests and diagnosed me with ‘chronic vitamin D deficiency’ which equates to lack of holidays in my mind! But I couldn’t get my head around how this feeling of utter exhaustion, and greyness was wholly related to Vit D but none the less I took the prescribed dosage and decided to do my own Body Reset as well…

I’d done a ‘Clean Detox’ some 3 years earlier and it did prove beneficial, if only for shedding a few KG. So I dug out the Clean book and set about doing a detox. Although this time I was going to do it properly! Which meant preparing the fridge rather than presuming all it means is to live on salad! Which is not what it’s about. The short description is this, cut out all common allergens for 21 days and afterwards figure out which triggers you to feel bad. Simple enough right? No Coffee, No Sugar, No alcohol, No Gluten etc.. it’s only 21 days..

But the results were truly amazing this time around. Now, one could argue that it was the Vit D, accept for my prescribed course was 8 weeks, and the clean program had me back on form within 3 weeks. Now here’s the rub, it takes discipline and a strong sense of focus. Because I felt like crap for the first 5 days, caffeine withdrawal headaches (even though I only drank 2 cups a day), cravings, and a feeling of being even worse than what took me to the doctors in the first place! BUT after day five my energy returned, and by day 7 I was back to feeling ‘normal’ ish. Day 14 and I was feeling younger and more energetic, and 21 my skin was glowing again. So much for the expensive mositurerisers that I’d be using since then arrived as Christmas presents, all it took was 21 days of eating healthy!

So the program isn’t rocket science and it’s not a diet as such but it’s based on giving you body foods that are easy to digest (smoothie in the morning, solid lunch, smoothie in the evening, and a 12 hour break between meals). But getting the ingredients prepared is the absolute key. You need stuff that your not probably going to have there. Such as Almond Butter. (Which is the key to not being hungry from day 4 onwards, day 1-3 you’re going to have to ride that out because it comes with cravings too! Peppermint tea is the way forward as it suppresses the hunger pangs) but gathering the ingredients isn’t hard these days, as Amazon now owns whole foods so you can get it all delivered easily! Other musts, are things like supplements such as Glutamine (repairs leaky gut, so vitamins start to work rather then get wasted) and probiotics.
Suffice to say I wouldn’t have been compelled to blog about it if it didn’t have such a profound affect on my well being..

And even though it’s only typically a 21 day program as it’s made such a difference I’m still living 60% Clean… shakes for breakfast and dinner take the hassle out of meal times. It’s merely a lifestyle adjustment. And there’s nothing stopping me having a night out, or a meal out either, just the rest of the time I’m trying to be conscious. Coffee has been replaced with Green Teas to date!

I will deliver a copy of the book to my doctor at some point.

PS. For the record I’m not getting paid to promote the program, or a kick back from the corporate animal of Amazon, it’s purely it seems like a good idea for others that maybe feeling fatigued..