Day One for my 21-day Gut Cleanse

Hello Everyone! I apologize for missing my regular post of Project Life yesterday.  I went to Afternoon Tea with my bookclub on Saturday at a beautiful teahouse and had a special Mother’s Day with family on Sunday. I think I was just enjoying life so much I lost track of my schedule.  Next week, I will be back on schedule with Project Life.

However, I would like to share with you something new I am doing.  First, let me say, that I have always tried to lean towards healthy choices in my life and this year, I have chosen to continue on this journey and have been researching different healthy options. Recently I have been reading up on this 21-day Gut Cleanse by Dr. Allejandro Junger. He has written several books on eating clean and he also has a Clean Cleanse Program.  But I felt drawn to the Gut Cleanse to ensure that I maximize my opportunity to detox my body and more specifically my digestive system.

The plan is that I will eat whole foods minus the 5 common toxic triggers:

• gluten
• dairy
• sugar
• alcohol
• coffee

This cleanse is based on the teachings of functional medicine and the 4 Rs of functional medicine are:

1. Remove – Remove most common toxic triggers (such as sugar, wheat, gluten, dairy)
2. Replace – Replace toxic triggers  and any processed foods for organic whole foods which will help to replenish nutrients like magnesium and fiber to name a few.
3. Reinoculate – Bring balance to the digestive track by improving the body’s good bacteria (intestinal flora).
4. Repair – Any good cleanse should aid the body in it’s repair functions. This is done by having a liquid meal, which reduces our intake of toxic triggers while eating from the cleanse diet. In other words, it allows the digestive process to not be taxed by toxins and hard to digestive foods, so that the body can efficiently and effectively run through it’s proper digestive process daily.

I am of course simplifying this for a post but I have been reading both his Clean book and Clean Gut literature from his website.

So yesterday was my first day. I thought I would keep a journal to record my thoughts and experience along the way and would like to share some of this via a regular post on the site for the 21-days. Now I will definitely journal daily through this process but will not add more pressure and promise to post daily. But I will commit to regular check-in posts to share my experiences.

The things that I will be tracking and closely observing throughout the process are: my energy level, my mood, my digestion, my sleep, my weight and try to identify which triggers are problematic for me so that moving forward, I will move away from them in my regular eating.

My goal is not only to lose a little weight but to improve my digestive system, release the toxins that are currently in my body and to move closer to more clean foods on a regular basis after completing this cleanse for a more healthy energetic life.

Yesterday I had a smoothie called Dreamy Blueberry smoothie for breakfast. It was pretty good and filling. I had a Vegetable Frittata for lunch and in order to not overburden the process since my family will be eating a separate meal, I will portion and save leftovers for future lunches so that I don’t have to cook everyday.

The formula is a fortified smoothie for breakfast and then a substantial clean lunch followed by a clean light dinner.  There are snacks and I will be exploring that soon. My first big, oh boy, was not including my morning green tea with breakfast. Since it is naturally caffenated, I will not be drinking it throughout the 21-day. This isn’t the big thing for me. I think sugar is going to be my challenge. I love me some dark chocolate like the next but all processed food and sugar is going to test my will power.

I have been telling all of my friends I am going to do this so that I will first of all stick to my start date and push through the plan.  I don’t know if I will make it for the entire 21-days but I am going for it. I chose to do this after Mother’s Day because I didn’t want to miss out on the grilling and other yummies I had for Mother’s day. I also think it would be a great time to detox all the naughties I had like (gluten, sugar and alcohol).

Yesterday I enjoyed everything which I was glad for a good start.

Today I can’t say the smoothie was my favorite. But it was filling.  So far I am feeling pretty good. I will update you soon on my progress. Until then, I wish for you good health and happiness.

Belinda