If Alberta just voted in an NDP Premier, I’m pretty sure I can finish this smoothie cleanse. Like Alberta, I’ve been neglecting some pretty important concerns over the past year (thankfully, though, not 44 years). This week, one thing was clear: we both needed a change. And now that Rachel Notley is in full swing, I better follow through with my end of the bargain and finish this fourteen day cleanse.
Six days ago I ventured out to try my first (healthy) cleanse. I had attempted the Master Cleanse in the past, and ended up feeling as though I was holding my breath for ten days, only to finally make it to the finish line, exhale, and take in with my first post-cleanse breath about ten days worth of food at once. By the time I completed my cleanse, I felt undernourished, weak, and fragile. I felt like I needed to cleanse my cleanse.
This time, I had a bit more wisdom, a tad more insight, and the clarity to set some intentions from the start. I endeavoured to move into the cleanse with time on my hands, so I could really soak in the retreat-like state I was aiming for, and have been promised time and time again by every health-nut foodie I know and love.
Everything had wrapped up with school and work, I had moved into a new house, and I had six weeks ahead of me before my next contract begun. It was perfect timing to begin. A few years ago, on a trip through Cambodia, I ended up serendipitously at a yoga retreat, which involved a one-day fast, and day of silence, each Saturday. After extending my time at the retreat several times (whoops), I became well acquainted with these Saturdays, eventually looking forward to the lightness and clarity I felt without food. I knew this couldn’t be extended into anything long term, and wanted to avoid compromising my health and metabolism. A smoothie cleanse was the perfect fit: sustainable, as it still offers an abundance of micronutrients, is not deprivation-based, and yet is still deeply cleansing in nature.
The idea is to drink as much fruit and veggie smoothies as you’d like, with the vegetables greatly outweighing the fruits after the first few days. Water, as always, is key. And the idea is to give your body a break, while providing it with sufficient nutrients to run, flush out what’s leftover from past food choices (yikes), and to replenish what the modern food industry causes to be an extremely overworked and undernourished system.
Day one was rough. I had unpacking to do. And to make matters worse, I realized my first mistake almost immediately: I hadn’t weaned myself off of coffee. This, of course, was a most excruciating introduction to the cleanse. My temples throbbed, my mind raced with reasons to rescind my commitment, and my belly spoke to me in its native gargly tongue. Day two was met with more unpacking demands, but a complete and utter willingness to accept the reality that I was going to spend the majority of the day watching detox/cleansing/clean eating documentaries, which of course, helped tremendously, and of course, is indicative the amount of time necessary to do this cleanse as painlessly as possible.
Day three was a little brighter. As the documentary Hungry for Change (highly recommended if you’re thinking of tackling a cleanse, though it’s a tad cheesey at times, it’s hard to find a food doc that isn’t –what’s with that?) explains, there is a turning point for what your brain does with hunger signals. Plan A consists of depriving the body of energy in order to communicate to the conscious mind that food must be found. When Plan A yields no results, Plan B is put into action, whereby hunger signals wear off, and the body is given more energy, in hopes of inspiring the conscious mind to use the energy to find sustenance. A smoothie cleanse is different than a fast, of course, in that the body still receives fibre, and likely more nutrients than it is used to. My experience since day three has only confirmed that everything we’ve learned about food on an institutional level is a sham. While I had a few low moments energy-wise, I mostly felt clear-headed, light, energetic, and calm. I could feel that my body was appreciating the break for my digestive system, and the space to catch up and process anything old.
Day four and five were marvellous. I never anticipated saying this, but I felt as though I could stay on this cleanse forever. What was especially interesting about these days was the lack of headache I never even knew I could look forward to. It started on the morning of day four, when I woke up to a feeling of absence –not a usual occurrence first thing in the morning. There was a sensation, a dull pain, missing from sides of my head, all the way into my jaw and upper neck. I was acutely aware of there being a neutral sensation there, likely because I had been so used to a minor headache over this past year, where my diet suffered tremendously due to my living environment and my finishing up my degree.
It’s day six today, and despite the gorgeous weather outside, none of my shorts fit well enough to wear. I want to make clear that this was not, by any stretch (pun intended), the intention of my cleanse. If you’ve followed my blog a bit of a ways back, you’ll know that I have worked hard to strengthen my relationship, my attunement, and my appreciation and love for my body, and that while it is naturally changing shape as a result of my paying more attention to it, cleanses are obviously not a sustainable (or intelligent) approach to giving your body anything but space to breathe and heal.
What is most peculiar about this experience so far, nearly halfway through, is that I haven’t been craving food –not even at all. And I wonder how much of that is due to the more spiritual nature of my intentions on this cleanse. After a year of living in a residence that left me feeling depleted and disconnected, from my food and my usual sense of well being, as well as being in my final year of my Masters, which involved being thrown head first into counselling work, I needed a reboot. I needed a designated period of time to reconnect with myself, to see myself honestly and empty, unfilled by the external world, so often connected to the body by food, convenience and boredom. I needed a recharge of my connection batteries, and in order to do that, I had to first let them drain to zero.
So tomorrow is day seven out of fourteen. In my head, and in the heads’ of those that care about my wellbeing, circulates the mantras of food we learn as children, and re-learn as adults with differing motives: deprivation is bad, cleanses are hokey and cause more damage than good, a balanced diet is attainable with processed foods…
And yet and yet… six days on a smoothie cleanse has taught me that giving the body a break is essential; Seeing yourself without the quick fixes of food throughout the day is an opening for great emotional healing and reprogramming; and that emptiness and simplicity is scarier and sometimes more rewarding than fullness and limitless options, which explains a lot about the way our culture defines success.
While I absolutely would not do this indefinitely, it’s making me think a lot about the impact of food on our overall well-being, and how skewed our food education is until we have the courage, incentive, or are faced with an emergency, to take matters into our own hands. Over the years my interest in food politics and justice has led me to truly believe that we are kept apathetic, numb, and over-consuming largely by the food industry –and sometimes it takes veering from that world, taking a leap outside of the fishbowl and preying you can breathe out there, to understand just how liberating it is, physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually, to renew your trust in the fact that your body heals itself, from the inside out, when left to do just that.
So there you have it: my smoothie-induced beliefs and experiences laid bare for you, my friends. And if you’re feeling curious, inspired, or simply thirsty…
A Smoothie for Peace of Mind and Belly:
2 ribs celery
½ cucumber
1 banana
3 leaves of kale
Handful of spinach
½ cup frozen strawberries and/or blueberries
2 cups coconut water
6-8 ice cubes
& blend!
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