Well then, Master Cleanse it is!

So I've been battling a headache all day. I've been using white willow bark and it's taking the edge off, but it's not quite doing the job. Every year my body let's me know when spring is on it's way by my headaches making their way back. When I did MC for the first time it was because of the headaches and the headaches have been the reason for my decision to MC each year. As you know did the remedy instead, this is a clear sign that it didn't do the job quite like good ol' MC. I'm also REALLY tired and can't seem to get enough rest. UGH!

Summer solstice is on my birthday and I usually try no to cleanse on my birthday. I might just end up cleansing early, because I can't have too many more days like this. I've had a lot going on right now and a cleanse will probably do me a lot of good on both a spiritual and physical level.

Recovery Day-Ummm...yea..about that...

Okay so, today is the recovery day. I set my alarm to get up late because I'm still feeling all exhausted. My daughter comes and knocks on the door because she's been throwing up. Bless her heart. Because was a CNA for quite a bit of her life she knows how to analyze bodily functions. By the time we started talking she'd analyzed the consistancy of yesterday's defacation, that there wasn't enough defacation, and that her vomit didn't look like it should. You might be grossed out but I was beaming with pride as I re-cooled her washclothe. She is already learning to take her health into her own hands which is more than I can say for most adults these days. My son woke up to see what was wrong with his sister, so we basically had "a meetin' in tha ladiesroom". lol He hung out for a while and we all decided to go ahead and stay up since it was already 6am. Everybody said their Ori prayers, got dressed (I'm pre-shower dressed), and I went to fix peppermint tea for my daughter (with an extra shot of peppermint), and made made this for my son:

Egg, almond milk, soy bacon, spinach, garlic, onion, and nutritional yeast

Not that pretty, but he liked it. lol

So of course at this point I haven't juice anything for fear that she will star throwing up again as soon as I get up to go do anything which is kind of stupid I guess because she is very mature. I guess it's just me being a mother. Anyway, I'll probably be doing prune juice again since I have no clients today. lol Mari, will be on liquids all day today to flush her system.

Something interesting just happened. My son was tell my daughter about the omlet I made for him. She was saying that it sounded good, but grossed her out because her stomach still hurts. We began to discuss why it is that when you are nauseous, the smell/thought of meat/dairy makes you sick, but veggies don't. Hmmmmm....

Remedy-Day 4

I know I was slack because I usually write earlier in the day. I've been busy with errands and such. So, I've had lots of energy today, but I think it's more because this cleanse is almost over. I'm mostly finishing because I like to finish things I start. Here are conclusions I've come to while doing this cleanse:

This is not for someone who has cleansed regularly or already eats a relatively healthy diet. We were already vegetarian. We already drank chlorophyll daily. We'd already stopped eating out a lot. Blah, blah, blah...That being said, I didn't see any profound change. This would be an excellent starter cleanse. I will however incorporate all of the things I've learned and build on what we already have established healthwise. At a later time I will, however, do weeks 2-5 of the cleanse. I don't have the funds right now to do everything as it should be done, so as stated above I won't do it until I can do it completely.

Bowel health is very important to me. That being said, I was more comfortable with MC in that I saw "results" daily. With this cleanse I only had results when I chose to drink prune juice as my juice. I am a little nervous that I am going to have to do some extra work to get my bowels back on track. We'll see. I know that he mentions enemas and such in the book for those that have problems with constipation, but I didn't and I don't plan on starting now.

I'm going back to my old chlorophyll. I realize that his chlorophyll might be better, but what good is something that I hate drinking? Maybe as I continue this path I will revisit it, but until then...I'm over it. I also like liquid chlorophyll more than powder...especially grainy powder.

A cleanse shouldn't make you tired imho. Okay, so when I did MC I had the energy of 10 women. I was waking up without my alarm clock, taking walks, and exercising. Well with this I've been too tired to even read my books, which pissed me off a bit.

This is an excellent cleanse for a beginner. The cleanse is short, sweet, and to the point. You also are able to have a break the monotony with the juices and you are also able to choose which juices you want which I love!!!

I realize that my commentary doesn't line up with most that sing the praises of this cleanse and maybe the next time when I am able to do the entire thing I will see a difference. I'm not giving up on it just yet. I'm definitely going to revisit the concepts with my own tweaking. I would suggest that you try this cleanse for yourself and if nothing else buy the book, because it has SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE in it.

Btw, today is the last day of the cleanse, but tomorrow is a recovery day. Don't ever do a liquid cleanse and think that you don't need a recovery day.

Remedy-Day 2...evening

So my husband didn't want anymore prune juice for totally valid reasons. He preferred peach, which of course is not quite in season here, but what hubby wants hubby gets. I decided since I was spending unnecessary money I would get some pears to juice alongside the peaches. Pears are my fav next to strawberries. Honey, lemme tell ya!!! My juice was DELISH!!!! OMG!!! Why didn't I drink it this morning too? UGH!!! Anyway, hubby said he was gross and as usually wished he had gotten what I chose. ;)

Tomorrow is melon day. I bought cantaloupe and honeydew. I wanted some freakishly out of season watermelon, but all they had were those little science experiment dwarf seedless kind. :( For our fourth day I bought some mangoes that were on sale...wonder why? lol

I don't know if I'm going to do the 5 weeks (4 weeks for us as we are already vegetarian) because this stuff is really beginning to dig into my pockets. I'll probably do it next time with all the juicing and such at the end. It is a really good plan, but I just need to be a little more prepared for it.

Btw, we are getting rid of the microwave. My dawta can in shouting, "Iya, I figured out how to warm food up in the toaster!!!" I was really happy for her, but realized how screwed our children are if anything ever happens. We really gotta do better. My husband was actually the hardest to sell on the idea, but has now thought of 50 reasons not to have one. lol Gotta love him.

The Remedy...Day 2

This has been an interesting ride already. Here are the updates so far.

Night sweats-I was sweating ALL night. I do sweat at times, but I had to get up and put on  a cotton gown to absorb the sweat. When I woke up, it was soaked through. My husband also said that he was sweating all last night. Neither of us thought the house was hot so it has to be the detoxing. I'm going to give him a dry brushing and massage tonight to help him detox a little faster. Last night prior to going to bed I did a dry brushing to my body and then my shower.

Mucus-I woke up this morning coughing up mucus. No matter how much I got rid of it kept coming. I thought it was just me, but my husband complained of the same thing. I'm glad to see it because it's better to get it out than keep it inside your body. It's amazing to me that being on such a gentle cleanse is having results so quickly!

Prune Juice (the juice of the day)-Ah yes, prune juice ala Mega Greens. Delish. I do need to go to the store this morning so I better hurry up. We don't want any surprises this morning now do we? No, we don't.

30 FB fast-I forgot to mention that I began a 30 FB fast at the same time I began the cleanse. I thought I would miss it because I use it a lot. I don't miss it at all. I did a 7 day FB fast before and I had a little withdrawal the first day or two, but this time...nothing. I'm enjoying not feeling compelled to keep up with 1 group of people multiple ways. I've noticed that people that have you email will both FB and email you and sometimes even text. That is entirely too much access and attachment.

Seeds planted-Yesterday, my dawta and I went to purchase seeds for this year's garden. This year I will be planting everything inside cinder block raised beds and using the holds in the cinder blocks to plant herbs and such. I'm really excited. Hopefully this way I won't have the same battle I had last year with weeds. UGH!!! Now, if I can find a way to get rid of all those beetles I had last year naturally. Neem oil? We'll see...

Headache already...(The Remedy Day-1)

Okay, so I have a headache. This is what I think is going on. 1. My cycle is starting today and when I haven't been eating well I have headaches as one my PMS symptoms 2. This cleanse is working faster than I thought. It's not a migraine, to I'm happy about that, but not being able to take anything is a bit difficult. :(  This a totally normal part of detoxing. Just know you need to just ride this out and it will be better the next day.

This is just an update to allow others to compare notes now or in the future.

The Remedy Cleanse-Day 1

First of all I started off wrong. lol I was supposed to have my juice in before 9am. Um, yea, I came out of the room at 10:46am. Now that we've had "true confessions" we can cover what has happened so far. I juiced an entire bag of oranges. 24oz for my husband and myself and about 16oz for my dawta. I added 1tbsp my husband's and mine and 1/2 tsp to my dawtas. The reason that I reduced the amount for my dawta is that she doesn't eat as much as we do so I knew she wouldn't drink as much juice. I didn't know what they Supa Mega Green tasted like at that point so I didn't want to overwhelm her. After that I put 2 tbsp each in our gallon jugs of distilled water. Mari drinks 48oz of water per day so I gave her another 1/2 tbsp in her water.
How does it taste in the juice?
Well with the orange juice it didn't alter that taste. I chose orange juice because it was cheaper. The book does give other juices that you can drink on day 1.

How does it taste in the water?
Green. It doesn't taste like grass or anything. It does have a little ginger added for flavor. I would describe it as clean and green tasting.

What if I can't drink that much water?
Even if you normally wouldn't drink a gallon, you will be able to do it on this cleanse. Remember you aren't eating anything solid for 4 days. A gallon per day of water, green or not, should be your goal anyway. Your body is made up of mostly water when in top condition so you have to replenish that. Also drinking water will help you to lose weight if that is one of your goals.

Why should I do instead of MC in your opinion?
I am only on day one, but I will offer an opinion on this anyway. This cleanse is much more "doable" with a more balanced approach. If you are in an emergency situation, like I was when I did MC, I'd have to admit that it looks to be a much faster flushing option. You may even consider following your 10 days on MC with 5 days of The Remedy. The Remedy offers more variation because of the choice of juices. I also grew tired of the sweet taste of the "lemonade" all day.

That's all I have for right now. Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them.

Finding a Middle Ground with Grits

Okay, so when you are trying to change you diet you often feel as though you are being told "don't eat this...don't eat that...this is poisonous...that causes cancer..." You are also often told that you have to give up your favorite foods. Well one of my guilty pleasures is grits. I don't know what's wrong with grits and to be honest I don't want to know because I'm not going to give it up yet. Queen Afua mentioned replacing grits with somethings that made me prefer giving them up completely so that's a no go. I actually don't eat them that much. For the most part I only eat them when my husband request them, which is maybe about every couple of months.

 Anyhoo, since beginning to read "The Remedy" I feel as though I need to add greens wherever and whenever possible. So yesterday as I sat staring at the pot of grits, thinking about how much starch I was about to feed to myself and my family, I had an idea. I would add spinach to it. I added fresh chopped spinach to the bottom of the bowls, allowed the heat and moisture from the grits to wilt the spinach, and a new middle ground was born. I am a southerner by birth and still live here. We tend to eat really heavy meals and so this is just one more step in the right direction. Next I need to work on portion control and gluttony. Until I get that under control I'll just try to find a healthier way so that I don't balloon back up to my former 185+lbs.

The Remedy...the basics week 1

First and foremost, because I believe that we should support African American in business. I will not be giving all of the information that can be found in "The Remedy". He has it packed full of encouragement, hints, nutritional info, recipes (all kinds), exercise, etc so you DO NEED TO BUY THE BOOK!

Table of contents and abbreviated run down:
Part I-The Remedy
This covers the chlorophyllian cleanse. I am REALLY excited about this and I hope I can do it for 2 weeks to replace the week 2 step. We'll see. Basically in week 1 you juice in the morning and evening and you drink 1 gallon of water that contains a chlorophyll mixture. I did choose to purchase Brotha Slom's mixture, but he does give you a recipe on how to make your own. I rather just buy what I need. Thanks anyway.

Since I hinted at week 2 I will clarify for you. During week 2 he does allow for a flexitarian diet. This is intended to prevent heavy meat eaters from slitting their wrist from withdrawal symptoms. I don't really need that week, so I'm thinking that I might double up on 1 of the weeks instead (probably week 1).

Messaged Brotha Slom on FB and he said that my Supa  Mega Greens should be here by the end of the week so I'm excited that I should be ready to start on Sunday aka Spring Equinox!!!

Here we go again!

Okay, so I'm going vegan...again. I realize that at this point you think I'm a failure, but I don't even care. This is about my health. Let me start with a cleansing list of my weaknesses:

1. I am addicted to sugar, but not in the form of desserts. I love love love starch! According to Supa Nova Slom I'm a starchetarian.
2. I eat emotionally. I like right now I'm mad as hell and I want a pastry. I'm more pissed off because my husband was supposed to get it hours ago, didn't, and then came out asking about it like I said it 5 minutes ago.
3. I have a major issue with over eating or gluttony. I think it's directly connected to #2.

I will probably add somethings to this list later, but this is all I can think of. So, as you know, I always cleanse with the coming of spring. Well I was going to do the cleanse "The Remedy" by Supa Nova Slom, but the Supa Mega Greens are very slow coming IMHO and he hasn't answered my email enquiring about when it should be here. *just messaged him on FB. Ironically, he'd just made a post about ordering the Mega Greens* Anyway, if they aren't here then I will default to the MC. I really hate doing it and won't even attempt the salt water if I am forced to do it, but I like to cleanse WITH the equinox not before or after. I have to get rid of this stomach. I also have to buy some pepper spray so I can begin walking 3 miles again. Soul Twin doesn't feel too good about me walking alone, but that's why I like it because I'm ALONE! I'm also planning on taking 3 yoga classes a week. We'll see how it goes...Well, this was more of an update than a full post, but of course you will be hearing more from me soon.