It's official- our family has begun a 21 day detox.
It all started in January when I cashed in my Barnes and Nobel gift card and bought a copy of Natalia Rose's Raw Food Life Force Energy. This book couldn't have come at a better time. I was having so many internal conflicts over the balance of raw foods vs. cooked foods in my life, and this book has helped me to achieve mental rest.
Natalia's approach to food contains ideas such as starting each day with a green lemonade which is a juice made of greens, celery, apples, lemon, and ginger, using proper food combinations so that you can digest your food as easily as possible, and using breath, movement, skin brushing and colon cleansing as a way to clear space in your body for the life force energy that is available to all. She definitely suggests that foods with the highest vibrational energy are fruits and vegetables because they contain a lot of water and sunlight. But in this book and The Raw Food Detox Diet, she definitely makes you feel that you can take things slow, working your way into an all raw food diet. In fact, going slow can allow your body to release toxins at a rate that it can handle. If you change your diet too quickly and your body can't keep up with the release of toxins through the colon, the toxins will be reabsorbed back into your body and/or will be released in other unpleasant ways like headaches, acne, bloating and gas, low energy, etc. A lot of times if you have these symptoms, performing and enema or receiving a colonic can take care of the symptoms right away.
I think last summer when I was eating a mostly raw diet, it would have served me well to have gotten a colonic done. They are kind of expensive though and I have to travel and hour and a half to get a gravitational colonic done which is the type recommended by Natalia. Although enemas aren't the number one choice for colon cleansing, if they are done properly, they can still help you along in the cleansing path. I have no problem with doing an enema, so I am bringing those back into my life as a way to help eliminate some toxins that are being stirred up due to my cleansing. Hopefully this summer, if I up the raw food intake, I will be able to make colonics a priority in the old budget.
Natalia's book helped a little light bulb go off in my head of why I feel like I am vibrating so high on raw foods, but still feel pretty darn good on a diet that is raw during the day and cooked in the evening. It's because when I eat things like cooked vegetables, they are vibrating at a medium vibration, so even though its not high, it's still not the lowest (which by the way would include non-organic meat, pasturized non-orgainc dairy and processed foods). Oh, all of these ideas are based on the assumption that we are light beings and the foods that we eat can feed or deplete that energy. I don't need to be convinced of this idea, but I know for some people, it can be a hard idea to connect with or maybe an idea that won't even be considered. I am not trying to convince the world of it, I am just doing what feels best for this light being :).
So, Steve, Silas, and I have been going at it for almost 21 days. I have actually been doing the green lemonade for a little over two months now because I wanted to make changes right away and ease slowly into the cleanse. It's been great having Steve and Silas being involved with me and that is another thing that I love about this approach. They weren't so keen on eating raw with me, but they were totally willing to try this eating plan with me. Silas has been cute. We printed out a chart from the computer that had the transit times for different foods you eat, so for a few days, you would find him consulting the cart to find out how long it would take for something to digest. He is pretty into the idea that as soon as his time is up, he is going to retoxify. He can't wait to go down to his grandparent's house in a couple of weeks and load up on ice cream and pizza and popcorn, etc. I am kind of hoping he will take notice of how much better he feels now to when he loads his system up like that. He already has a strong awareness of how his body is not friends with dairy and when he eats ice cream, he gets totally congested, so he chooses not to eat dairy very often. I think that is great. I am just proud of him for sticking it out. Oh, and he wasn't into the juice, so I make him smoothies in the morning- a lot of times I add spinach to the mix and he is fine with that.
Steve on the other hand is loving the juice and feeling a lot of difference being on this diet. I think he is hooked on at least continuing with the juice. He calls me from work and asks me food combining questions to make sure he is getting it right. It has been a positive experience for him and I think he will continue on with a new way of thinking about food.
As for me, I don't really feel like I am doing a detox. I feel like I am changing my way of life. I gave up eating wheat about two months ago. This was something I yo-yo ed with for the past couple of years. But the wheat consumption went up during the holidays (and I was eating really well up to this point,so it was even more of a shock on my system I think). I got sick twice and felt pretty crappy on all sorts of levels and that is when I was just able to give it up easily. I haven't looked back. I think I just finally knew I was done with it. I also stopped dairy because of similar symptoms it creates in me, but that one is a bit easier for me to let go of- I didn't each much of it anyway. We have had a few family functions in the past couple of weeks where I have been bringing my own eats or modifying the eats available. Both my parents have asked me when I will be through with my cleanse, but I have told them both, I am not ending it. That is another thing I love about following the raw detox plan. I feel like I am eating so much yummy stuff. I don't feel deprived at all. The best thing though is that I am definitely eating two out of three meals raw each day and 2-3 days a week, we have a raw dinner too. All of my snacks have been raw as well. The cooked foods I am eating are on the most part properly combined and most of the time are really simple- like vegetables stir fried in veggie broth with brown rice or cooked sweet potatoes with salad. I have been making a lot less complicated veggie or bean soups, but even if I do want to, I now know that food combining is such a key. I have done cleanses in the past where I have had to do food combining, but it never stuck with me the way it does now. So, I'm definitely seeing me just moving toward a more raw diet at least during this time in my life.
So, I am hoping to get the camera batteries charged and to take some photos sometime soon and possibly do some more posts (at least weekly I am hoping!)
Thanks for stopping by! Sara
