Nutritional Cleanse

Last week I completed my third nutritional cleanse. If you are looking for my stats on body fat dropped, muscle mass gained you’ll be disappointed. I didn’t measure before or after as I didn’t embark upon the cleanse for those reasons, having been through a stressful couple of months I was feeling tired, bloated and nauseous. Struggling with digestive issues, insomnia and generally feeling rundown. When you feel this way it’s almost impossible to keep your diet clean as sugar and coffee are the only things that get you through the day.

One thing I have observed about working in the fitness industry is that sometimes you are so concerned with other people’s health and wellbeing you almost forget your own. Long hours and investing 100% in encouraging and motivating others can be exhausting at times.

I like to use the cleanse to reset myself, it is a massive reboot for all my bodily functions. For years I have struggled with digestive problems and when these flare up I know I’m in trouble, as I’ve mentioned before 80% of your immune system is based in your gut – whatever your health goal if the gut is not on board it won’t happen. I tend to suffer from nausea attacks and when these become frequent I know I’m getting run down and need to act.

Even worse, my sleep was becoming disrupted. Sleep is by far the most underrated aspect of health and wellbeing, you can lean up in a couple of days just by getting in a couple of 9 hour stints (remember 1 hour before midnight is worth two after). In Traditional Chinese Medicine waking throughout the night has been strongly linked to different organs and the time you wake can provide an indication of issues such as blood sugar management (before 1am), liver toxicity (1-3am), oxidative stress such as pollution (3-5am) and digestive disorders (5-7am). If you wake consistently over several night you should check the clock:

And finally I also wanted a break from training for a week, I had been training hard and pushing my body, lifting heavier each week, everyone that knows me knows I’m guilty of a bit of overtraining every now and then ;-) my joints usually flag up a warning sign that I’m overdoing things but I find weeks off training mentally very tough. For me a cleanse is ideal to encourage a recovery week. You can still follow strength training protocol but I decided to practice yoga every other day, walk lots and make time for epsom salts baths, acupuncture and saunas all week.

The shakes I used were an alkalising liver detox and anti-inflammatory in different flavours, I also used L-Glutamine, multi vitamins, zinc, fibre drinks, topical magnesium, green drinks and a tincture of adaptogenic herbs. I had three shakes a day, 2-3 green drinks and a fibre drink.

I actually felt nauseous when I woke up on the first day of my cleanse, what a great start! (Big cleanse tip, eat clean the day before you start so day 1 will be much easier!) My first day was spent at college, 8 hours of lectures (on digestion coincidentally!) and then attending an evening lecture on Dirty Medicine. It was by far the hardest day of the cleanse, the shakes actually made me feel even more nauseous as the detoxification process took hold but on the plus side the lectures kept me focused and took my mind off food.

Hunger came and went in waves but nothing I couldn’t cope with and I massively rate the cleanse for regulating appetite, you realise how much you completely ignore your natural appetite day to day and eat just because; you can, you’re bored, your miserable, everyone else is, or simply because its “mealtime”.

Another plus point is not having to worry about buying, preparing food or even the cleaning up after dinner which gives you a chance to catch on some much needed relaxing evenings and early bedtimes. Even in the day you have a lot of time on your hands to crack on with things you've been putting off and become uber productive, I ploughed through assignments, revision and reports each day and it felt good to keep busy. My second day was much easier, I already felt lighter, the sluggishness and nausea had gone. I went to Bikram yoga and enjoyed it more than I have ever before, I think once you are in detox mode you become focused and start to enjoy everything that helps the process along.

I also had electro – acupuncture on day two as my joints were feeling a stiff and sore, this is common on a detox when the toxins are released into the blood stream inflammation can become exaggerated. I added a proteolytic enzyme into my supplements (an enzyme that can be used as an anti-inflammatory agent - also present in pineapple and papayas if you prefer food to supplements). My acupuncturist also treated me with moxa, a herb that is heated and placed on acupuncture points to stimulate energy (qi), improve blood circulation, speed healing and improve immunity - its feels amazing!

I'll spare you the day by day account of the rest of the week except to say that there were peaks and troughs in my energy levels (ideally you would do it during a holiday and take an afternoon nap). Eventually my energy levels balanced nicely, towards the end of the week I was sleeping like a baby, waking early and refreshed, no nausea, no bloating and my skin was clear.

The hardest part was Friday and Saturday evening as everyone else is heading off to the pub you feel a bit sorry for yourself, you realise almost EVERYTHING we do socially involves food and drink. Luckily by then you are so near the end and reaping the benefits you become stoic until the end. I woke up on Saturday feeling light as a feather, clear headed and energised. People commented that I had lost weight and leaned up which is obviously a great bonus.

On Saturday afternoon I even managed to sit in Sophie’s Steakhouse with my fellow cleanse pals Matt and Rich who completely KO’d by the weekend (they endured a very different experience on the cleanse and will be giving their personal account too) as they ordered in steak, sticky ribs, mash potato and woffted a hot chocolate brownie under my nose. I read the papers with a glass of water:





A cleanse transforms your appreciation for food and enjoyment of mealtimes, rather than just eating for sake of it. My first meal was grilled cod and steamed vegetables, it never tasted so amazing, going forward I’m going to use my renewed enthusiasm to change my diet and keep it clean and varied, there’s no way I’m losing my new found energy levels.



My Cleanse Tips

Skin brush every day to stimulate the lymphatic system, especially where you have cellulite.

Herbal teas are a godsend throughout the day, you’ll be surprised how comforting a warm drink is when you’re are not eating. I love Dr Stuarts Detox tea (spearmint, liquorice, dandelion root, sage, milk thistle) or Teapigs spearmint tea.

To rebuild your digestive system add in a good non-dairy probiotic powder to your supplements, several servings of L-Glutamine through the day and a good fibre drink.

Creative playlists are essential! I listened to my favourite music all week long, either to relax, boost energy levels and keep my head from getting foggy.

Be prepared to be depressed, emotional, anxious and sad probably all at once, I reckon everyone cries once on a cleanse, matt cried twice ;-)

Stock up on limes, freshly squeezed lime juice in your water alkalines the body and throughout the cleanse your breath isn’t the best so limes and lemons in your water help to freshen the taste in your mouth.

Do the cleanse with someone, it is so much easier to share the experience and stay motivated with others, you won’t cheat for fear of letting others down and when it gets to the weekends you can chill with some dvd’s together or go out dancing on nothing but a glass of water.

I'm going to embark on another cleanse in September and hoping to make it a team efforts if you are interested in taking part email me keris@fitterlondon.co.uk for more details.