Spring Cleaning

Blueprint Cleanse - Day 1

So it’s that time of year again--spring cleaning for the house and for me. I decided once again to do the Blueprint cleanse which is a juice fast that consists of 6 different raw, organic juices per day (4 green, one lemonade and one nut milk)

The juices are really tasty, much better than if you went to the juice bar in a health food store. They mix in just the right amount of lemon and apple in the green juices so it doesn’t taste like you’re drinking dirt and the lemonade (sweetened with agave of course) and the nut milk are really good too.

The whole thing is pretty pricey but they do all the work for you--the juices are labeled by number so you know when to drink what. Now that’s the kind of pampering I’m happy to pay for. No thinking about it, just follow the numbers. You have the option of doing a one day, three day, five day or 10 day cleanse. I did the three day last year and was really nervous about it. I’ve always been afraid to fast. Let’s see, could that be because my mother pounded into my head that if I didn’t eat enough and my blood sugar got too low I would pass out, hit the floor and crack my head open on the hard surface and bleed to death? Correct! So even though I had heard great things about the benefits of fasting, it took me a long time to get up the courage to finally do it. I’m doing the 5 day program this time. Last year I only did the 3 day and I breezed through it. Even though I did a really good preparation: for the last 3 weeks I had no alcohol, sugar,wheat, dairy I was kind of struggling today. I did decide to go to the gym and then take a yoga class which may be why I’m super hungry but hopefully tomorrow will be better.

So what’s up with the juice fast you ask. Well yes, in the whole idea of “spring cleaning” does apply to the body and I suffer with very bad hay fever in the springtime which I knew the cleaning out my diet would help with (especially no alcohol--that is the worst thing to have if you have allergies), but I must say I had a lot of congestion yesterday before I started the juices and today I have no symptoms which is great. I’d just kill for some solid food.

I had a really bad winter food-wise and spent a lot of time eating things I would not normally eat and the whole thing just kind of spiraled out of control. Since overeating behavior has both a physical and psychological component to it, I decided that in addition to addressing the psychological it would be helpful to address the physical.

Here’s the biology: The more sugar and high calorie crap food you eat, the more you want to eat and cleaning out your system makes a lot of the physical cravings go away so that you’re not constantly having to fight the cravings off. I guess it’s kind of like a food intervention. Which I needed desperately. Just something to interrupt the crazy overeating behavior.

I’m thinking about watching some TV but my first thought is, what’s the point if I can’t snack while I do it? I mean I’m going to need to eat something if I have to watch those bitch housewives from New York City. Maybe read a book. I just got Hungry Woman In Paris out of the library. OK, so I won’t start that this week. Maybe just go to bed and I’ll have one day less without eating. I’ll be keeping you posted on my progress for the next few days so check back.