Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Cleansing 101

I recently went vegan again after a 15 year vegetarian stint and a full blown meat eating adventure.
So now here I am after having started a love affair with pork, tried about every chicken option on the McDonald's menu and I am ready to get healthy again.  It was hard for my body to adapt from going to not eating meat for so long to automatically devouring a bacon cheeseburger so I decided to simply go back to my roots.
In order to make that transition easier I was advised to do a cleanse.
Cleansing for those of you who have never heard is a detox for your body. People cleanse to get rid of toxins in their body. Not to mention it is a great way to jumpstart a healthy lifestyle. Cleansing has been a controversial topic.  Many believe that “cleansing” is just another extreme diet fad but when done for the right reasons cleansing can have wonderful results.
Think of doing a cleanse like using paint primer, some don’t think it’s necessary but it is a hell of a lot easier to get to the finished result on a clean canvas.
Some of my favorite cleanses are:
The Master Cleanse
Famous for giving Beyonce the “irreplaceable” body.
The Master Cleanse is a hot craze in Hollywood and is also one of my favorite cleanses –did I mention it was hard as hell?
The Recipe: 

2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
2 tablespoons of genuine maple syrup (make sure it is not maple-flavored syrup)
1/10th teaspoon of cayenne pepper 
8 ounces of water.
The Idea:
You replace meals with the “lemonade.” You are supposed to drink a lot of it and you will not be hungry, and the world will be a better place –something like that. The book says that you can do the diet under medical supervision for up to 27 days --Yeah right. The longest I’ve only done it for is 10 days and to be completely honest I got so moody I may have lost a friend.
The Reality:
I’ve done this diet many times and by now I have this down to an art. For the most part, if you drink enough of the drink you don’t really get hungry but after day three I miss chewing.
Water/Veggies/Fruit Cleanse
Just like it reads you eat veggies and fruits, trying to keep them raw and in their purest form, and drink only water.
The Recipe:
There are some veggies that are better than others for this diet so you should do your research. . Some recommend that you limit your intake to simply spinach, turnip greens, watermelon, apples and artichoke.
The Idea:
If using this cleanse as a colon cleanser it is advised that you do this for up to 4 weeks.
The Reality:
Great cleanse for beginners. However, I am not a huge fan. A month of turnip greens and water –yum.
Watermelon cleanse
A family friend of ours, Barbara Wellbeloved, turned us on to this cleanse.
The Recipe:
Watermelon and water.
The Idea:
This is a great summer diet and is good to do for a day or two, refreshing and delicious.
Store bought cleanses
Of course there are tons of cleanses and detoxes that you can buy either from vitamin shops, like GNC, whole foods or even off of the internet. My mom has done a few and loves them. So if you feel like a diet based on lemonade or watermelon is not for you this may be a great alternative.