My 5 Day Cleanse

Why Did I Do A Cleanse?
Well aside from all the reasons stated in Keris Marsden's blog post explaining the scientific stuff, my personal reasons were as follows:

1. To Reduce Inflammation:
   Over years and years of training I have, of course, developed little niggles in places and got my aches and piais. Most recently my right shoulder has felt somewhat inflamed and a bit tender. I've been going heavy lately with 5 sets of 5 reps and think I just overdid it a bit. Anyway, after reading up on other people's experiences from doing a cleanse a lot of them mentioned that joint/tendon pain had massively reduced, if not vanished. I'm keen to resume my training regime so reducing inflammation is top of my list.
   
   
2. Reduce Body Fat:
   Now, I don't feel I need to lose any body fat (I hope you will agree), however I'm more curious to see how much bodyfat one can lose in just 7 days. Simple as that.
   
   
3. To Rebalance My Gut:
   It's no secret, I fart A LOT. I'm not ashamed of this and I will continue to do so, so get over it people ;-) I also eat a lot and I suppose it's only right I have gut problems but recently I have felt really bloated and had to make one too many trips to the toilet (Nuff said). Gut healing is one of the big perks to this clense and I would love for my stomach to feel normal again.
   
   
4. The Challenge Of It:
   Anyone who half knows me knows I love to eat, so this was always going to be a huge challenge for me. I knew I would have to apply a serious amount of discipline to get through this and wanted to see if I had it in me.
   
   
5. A Great Blog:
   I knew, due to this being so far out of my comfort zone being a big foody and all, it would make a great blog post. I kept a daily log of what I consumed, the ups and downs, the moods, the cravings and the benefits. I will also log my training each day and how it felt. I'm hoping there is light at the end of the tunnel and my reasons for doing this are fulfilled. Either way I will log my honest feelings and opinion and put it out there at the end of the 5 days.

Officially this cleanse should have lasted for 7 days but I thought - let's not get carried away. Besides I didn't want to spend my Saturday night drinking a shake. No ta.

What physical exercise will I be doing to support my cleanse?
Charles Poliqiun recommends doing 10 sets of 3 reps to avoid lactic acid build up, but I won't take this approach. I will stick to 3 reps but only do 5 sets, I would get seriously bored if I done 10. I'm also going to do plenty of mobility work and stretches and a couple of yoga sessions too. I plan to keep the weights nice and heavy for my 3 reps and im very curious to see how my strength fairs under these circumstances.

What will be hardest part?
I will simply just miss eating, there really is not much else to it. I'm a huge coffee fan and I know I will miss this dearly too. This is a guy who normally consumes 7-8 meals a day and around 4000-4500cals so just the sensation on chewing will be deeply missed.

SO HERE IT IS:

Please forgive me as some is written in past tense and some present due to the stages I wrote the post.

Day 1: Monday 25/7/11
So, it's the first day and I am some what excited to get started and give this a go, which is surprising considering I love eating and I eat a lot. I have many people who can vouch for this. I am mentally ready to do this.

Its 5.15am and I kick my day off with 3 scoops of UltrainflamX mixed with 10g of glutamine, 5 BCAA's and a green tea. As you can imagine this did not even touch the sides compared to my usual feast but at this point I felt good and was ready for the day.

It's now 8.30am, I have drank plenty of filtered water and I now have an hour before my next client and I am starving (I would normally have my second breakfast now) and all of a sudden not feeling so sure about what I had got myself in to. The worst thing was, I had forgotten about the cleanse, as I was finishing with my client I was thinking about what I was going to eat........then it hit me, I couldn't eat. I had a shake and a load of pills to look forward to, great :-(

I wanted to structure my shakes in a similar way to my meals, so I spaced them out over about 6 shakes. My day was roughly as follows each day:

5.15am: 3 scoops of ultrainflamx mixed with 10g of glutamine, 5 BCAA's and a green tea.

8.30am: 3 scoops of ultraclear plus mixed with 10g of glutamine, 5 BCAA's.

10.30am: 3 scoops of ultrainflamx mixed with 10g of glutamine, 5 BCAA's and a green tea.

1pm: 3 scoops of ultraclear plus mixed with 10g of glutamine, 5 BCAA's.

4pm: clean greens drink mixed with 10g of glutamine, 5 BCAA's

6pm: 3 scoops of ultraclear plus mixed with 10g of glutamine, 5 BCAA's.

9pm: primal fibre drink mixed with 10g of glutamine, 5 BCAA's

As you can see it was all liquid based and yes I was weeing every 20 mins but this was to be expected.

Believe it or not my energy levels remained high right up until 9pm. However this is where I crashed and burned, I couldnt even string a sentence togehter, although it had been a busy day this was not how I would normally feel.

I didn't train today as was still recovering from Saturday's beasting (Keris' 'Kettlebells for Strength, Size and a Sixpack class).

Aside from feeling hungry all day long, it really was not as bad as I was expecting. Infact one of the biggest benefits to not eating is that you now have so much time on your hands. I got so much done today because I was not eating anything. It was a great feeling as it was a very productive day.

I applied topical magnesium to the backs of my knees and neck to aid my sleep. I slept really well aside from waking up once in the night for no reason in particular. Apparently this is due the the liver detoxyfying so its a good thing.

Day 2: Tuesday 26/7/11

Please note I used the same layout of shakes as I did yesterday, I just rotated the ultraclear plus flavours slightly between vanilla and banana/pineapple. Neither of which taste amazing but they taste a darn sight better than the ultrainflamx which is simply rank.

When I woke up I felt really bloated for some reason, I felt this way for at least the first 2 hours of awakening but once it went I had that hollow feeling like my stomach was competely empty.

I got to around 2pm I had treated myself to a massage. When finished I was desperate to eat, my energy levels were high but I just wanted to eat. I read Charles poliquins blog entries from his cleanse and noticed he ate celery sticks. This was awesome news, I went straight to Tesco to buy a pack of organic celery sticks. Anyone would have thought they were dipped in chocolate the way I sank my teeth in to them. I have never in my life enjoyed a stick of celery so much.......AMAZING. Just the crunching sound alone was something else.

Once again, my energy levels remained high all day which I still found very surprising. However, I was in a cafe at around 2pm having a green tea whilst being nasaly raped by the smell of a grilled ham and cheese panini being made, I was trying to get through some emails and I was really finding it hard to concentrate on the task in hand. The temptation of not only the sight but the beautiful smell of food was really testing and incredibly frustrating. It was here I called Keris and told her I was struggling, a few words of encouragement and I was back on track :-)

Tuesday is always a long day at work for me and I was devastated at the thought of not going home to a hot dinner. I felt really tired so figured it would be a shake, an episode of 'Rescue Me' and then an early night.

I had a workout in the morning today but it was really basic stuff sticking to the nice heavy 5 sets of 3 reps with my main focus on back, then a good stretch afterwards. Felt like I was going through the motions more than anything else so not the most satisfying of workouts.

Again I applied the topical magnesium to aid sleep.

I was in bed and suddenly something had dawned on me.......for the first time that I can remember in my life, I had gone a whole day without doing a poo. Sorry for the detail here but I'm a 2-3 times a day man, I mean a lot goes in so a lot's gotta come out :-) but I didn't feel bloated or anything, I'm sure it was purely related to the reduction in the volume of food.

I had an awesome night's sleep, didn't wake up once and felt alert, awake and ready to go on Wednesday.

Day 3: Wednesday 27/7/11

Again when I woke up I had the same bloated feeling as yesterday, but today it was more uncomfortable.

Ah there we go........my first number two in 48hrs, and it felt good :-) Bloated feeling gone and feeling normal again.

My energy levels were really high in the morning up until about 2pm, although I had a pounding headache at around 11am. So 2pm came and then boom, the ultimate energy crash and all I wanted to do was sleep. I felt so lethargic and rough I was ready to jack it all in. I then had a whole organic cucumber to eat and a clean greens drink and within minutes I felt so much better.

Although my energy levels picked up in the afternoon and remained high until the evening I was really struggling to concentrate again. My emails felt like they were taking forever to write, it was like my body was ready for a big heavy workout but my mind was at snail's pace (no comments please, you people are so predictable), very weird.

All my clients were very supportive and encouraging which really helped keep me on track.

Today was easily the hardest day and I was looking forward to it being over. According to others' experiences, the 3rd day is a killer. This reassured me that better days were to come.



I deeply missed eating and again coming home after a long day and no dinner was really hard, so I treated myself to a nice relaxing soak in an Epsom salts bath. Then applied some topical mag and off to bed I went.

Thursday: 28/7/11

I had an awesome nights sleep, the best for a long time. I woke up with no bloating for the first time so far and felt energetic.

Had a busy morning but I always finish work early on a thursday. After my last client I did 30 mins of mobility work and stretching as I planned on having a heavy session on Friday.

When I got home, I lightly steamed some organic broccoli and organic asparagus, again just the sensation of eating solid food was overwhelming. Felt so much better for eating it (mood wise).

Today is my best day, my energy levels are high and finally feel like this cleanse is doing me good. Don't get me wrong an English breakfast would go down a storm but I felt pretty damn awesome all day long.

Sat down in the evening to watch a bit of TV and at 8.30pm I was struggling to keep my eyes open. So I applied my topical magnesium and hit the hay. Excited at the thought of 9hrs sleep.

Friday: 29/7/11

I had the worst night's sleep of the week, it felt like 3 hours sleep as appose to the 9 hours I was so badly looking forward to.

However, nothing was going to keep me from smiling today, as today I could introduce brown rice to my diet. How exciting. I got up early and boiled some organic brown rice and some broccoli and asparagus for my breakfast. Starting the day with a solid meal felt so good, although within moments of finishing I felt so bloated. It was like my stomach had shrunk, although my mood was much better for eating and my energy levels were through the roof, infact the best they had been all week. This was great news as I planned to have a nice heavy training session with my training partner Rich today.

Although neither of us felt as psyched as we normally would, we both managed some nice and heavy lifts and even some PBs which lifted our mood. Although, we would normally finish our sessions with a tasty post workout shake followed by a feast of a meal. As this was not the case today you could say we both just felt pretty miserable and sorry for ourselves.

I decided to have some more brown rice after my workout as my appetite was through the roof, this really helped.

I was busy with clients today which helped keep my mind off things. Although my energy levels were through the roof I was more and rady for this to be over.

Day over, and again I was overwhelmed with joy at the thought of spending the night popping pills and drinking a shake for my dinner but I was only 1 day away from completing the cleanse and there was no was I was going to break.

I HAD DONE IT.

Saturday was here and I was so excited to eat and I must say feeling incredibly proud of myself.

So, let me share the ups downs with you:

The Ups:

1. The pain I was experiencing in my right elbow had completely gone, it felt this way from the Wednesday. I was so pleased.
2. My energy sky rocketed, I felt awesome. It was consistently high all day.
   
3. I felt less bloated and my stomach felt nice and flat, it as a good feeling.
4. I had for sure lost some body fat, nothing drastic but you could see a noticeable difference in my abdominal definition and also my shoulders and arms looked leaner.
   
   



5. I found it really easy to wake up for some reason, I was naturally waking up early and had no problems getting out of bed when the alarm went off.
6. I realised that I was drinking coffee out of liking it as opposed to it being a necessity. This was good to know as I had always told people that I just loved coffee it was never something to get me through the day. I missed it but was more than happy with my herbal teas.
7. I felt victorious, I felt like I had accomplished something that I'm sure many believed I would never pull off. It made me feel incredibly disciplined, I felt mentally stronger for doing it.
8. Overall, by the end of day 5 I was feeling hungry but pretty damn awesome and can certainly say there were benefits to what I had put myself through, but........

The Downs

1. I had a constant feeling of hunger, I was thinking about food 24/7 and this is not a very nice feeling. It made it hard to concentrate.
2. At times I actually felt quite miserable. Not eating meant I had more time to work, I am a bit of a workaholic and as much as I love working I felt as though it was all just work, work, work. Food and training are my release and I missed them both.
3. I was not doing a number 2 regularly enough and I kept getting waves of pretty bad bloating, however I must admit I'm sure I was not consuming enough fibre with my drinks. But now I know for next time.

To be honest these are the only real downs that come to mind, so as you can see the good well out weighs the bad which is always a positive thing.

But the question is - Would I do it again and would I recommend it to others?

For sure I would do it again, I would alter it slightly for my own needs. I have learnt so much about my body over this 5 days and would love to give it another go putting everything I have learnt into place. I can't say I saw or felt the difference I was expecting but what can I say, I'm a very optimistic person and although I was initially very dissapointed with the outcome I soon reminded myself that
a) I didn't do the full 7 days
b) I sometimes forgot to take the suggested supplements
c) I certainly was not getting enough sleep
and
d) I really was way too optimistic.

It is very tough and you have to be mentally ready to do it but I would most definitely recommend people try it although don't try and wing it, consult a Biosignature practitioner like Keris Marsden first to learn the ins and outs and to be properly adviced. If your going to do this you may as well do it properly for maximum gain.

I can't lie, although I did it, I really struggled to stay on track but I think it's so important to test yourself, throw yourself out you comfort zone and really test your boundaries.

I feel as though I have been reset and I feel highly motivated not to throw it all away. Even 3 days after whilst following a clean paleo style diet, I am feeling great. I can't wait to have my first workout, I'm feeling energetic, strong and incredibly focused.



So what are you waiting for contact Keris at Keris@fitterlondon.co.uk now to hear all about it.

Have a great day,

Matt