Re-boot

Ok well believe it or not I didn’t intend to spend this long away from blogosphere!

I have been busy re-booting my system.

You may wonder what this has to do with the calendar? To me its all an integral part of keeping healthy and on form in order to progress with my project and live the best life possible.

Every seasonal change I shed a layer of skin through detoxification of mind, body and home!

Like a car, our bodies need tuning, maintainance and occasional re-upholstering 😉

You know, with the old Betamax video players (yes I am THAT old!) or cassette players you used to have three dials with numbers that spun around as the tape played and you could literally press a re-set button to bring the dials back to zero? Well that’s how I like to think of detoxing.

Why do I do this? Well first of all because I’m recovering from longterm illness, various surgeries and chemicals that were pumped into my body at high volume, and I want to aid my body with its elimination.

(Did you know that anaesthetic takes 9 months to leave your system! Yeah for rizzle! Geek freak out!)

I also want to become the best version of myself I can be, and this can only be achieved by getting rid of the old and making way for the new.

What I have learnt along the way is, it’s a constant process. The natural flow of life I have come to realise is one of contraction and expansion. At times we must retreat in order to re-connect and re-boot before we can re-convene!

Since being diagnosed I moved from a mostly vegan Ayurvedic diet to a mostly raw one, this has been a whole nutritional re-education  for me and is a post in its own right-more on that another time!

In the beginning I belly-flopped into raw like a fat kid in a swimming pool, and after being hardcore for about 4 months seriously fell off the wagon having been entirely unprepared for the emotional whiplash.

You see food and emotions are inextricably linked, and for this reason when we eat lightly and stop stuffing down the food to prevent unwanted feelings, its amazing and sometimes alarming at what pops up to greet us emotionally.

Now that I manage to keep moderately healthy (although it’s an ongoing process), I also allow myself ‘cheat eats’, which gives me good cause to re-set!

Wherever you are on your own personal health journey, detoxing is always beneficial and can create an amazing shift in your health, well-being and life!

There are so many ways to cleanse and it’s always important to go at the level you are at, which sometimes needs to be a gear down from where you were. It’s important to listen to your body and your own innate wisdom about what it needs. (Although my body often ‘needs’ cake! ;))

Recently I have begun to start each cleanse by taking a week to become totally 100% raw, eating salads, raw nuts, sprouts and fruit. I then shift to raw liquids – juices and smoothies for three days before beginning my ‘Blessed Herbs’ cleanse which is a pre-mixed formula consisting of benotite clay, Scyllium and herbs that encourage the intestines to release toxins and old debris.

For 5 days you live on the formula mixed with apple juice and then you slowly get back to solids by starting with one day of ‘gentle’ foods, such as steamed vegetables and brown rice. Before resuming, a hopefully moderate diet!

I like this cleanse because it really cleans you out! Yes your toiliet-ing becomes more frequent but not in an uncontrollable escaped hamster kind of way, its much more subtle and the great thing is, it releases mucus plaque!

I’m not sure how much I should go into this mucus plaque business, only to say that m.p – as I like to call it – is really old gunk that has been stuck in your intestines for yonks and is guilty of blocking up your intestinal nooks and crannies and cramping your flow – literally. It’s the gunky layer that sticks to the lining of the intestine and messes with its ability to absorb nutrition from your food. This can lead to all kinds of problems including overindulgence as you desperately try to quench your bodies nutritional hunger by eating more.

Any way the amount of plaque released is proportional to your past and present diet. You know it when you see it as it looks like rubber – I personally find it fascinating – I mean my own – you wouldn’t want to get involved with other people’s, or maybe you would? – well that really is another post and another blog!

It feels so good getting all the gunk out. Sorry but it does. As my sisters childhood 1980’s rhyme tape used to sing, ‘Try it, you just might like it!’

You get the picture.

Whats really interesting when detoxing is paying attention to what comes up emotionally and what food cravings you get. I personally find that what I crave the most – this time it was, sugar, potatoes and wheat, tend to be what I’m most allergic to. But they are also key to discovering what your body might be lacking. For me this time it was essentially sugar and carbs craving = energy. So I then thought of healthier ways to top up my energy, such as better alternatives to these foods, like – maple syrup, honey and sweet potatoes. I also noted that rest is a good way to restore my energy levels as well as exercise.

I believe I was onto something here, because my last cleanse I felt so energised, whereas with this cleanse, I felt more beat than beetroot! Wow, I couldn’t do anything, I needed to sleep and sleep and rest and conserve energy. I was also so hungry! So I made myself a clear vegetable broth the last couple of days (which is fine) and this aided me through.

The other thing that’s great and I tend to do at the end of detoxing, is on my last day – the day that I could eat again – (beware and prepare btw as you may just want to eat everything in sight!) Is that I took myself off to the spa for a day of sauna, steam, exfoliation, plunge pool and rest. Wowwee coupled with a small baked potato, salad and some raw chocolate, had me spinning like a ferris wheel! Absolute bliss!

The biggest lesson I learnt this time around, was that I have journeyed from being very hard on myself, to loving and nurturing myself. I have learnt to forgive my short comings and am not attached to ‘getting it right’. Instead I am happy to accept what is and where I am at now.

In yoga practice it’s always interesting to note how flexible the body is one day and then the very next day it can simply refuse to contort into the shape it naturally consertinered into the day before. As yoga teachers we learn to honour this natural flow of stepping forward and then back and being present in the moment. Since illness and injury have prevented me from much physical yoga practice, my practice has continued through the essence of yoga, pranayama (breath), meditation and this conscious state of presence and acceptance. The unity of body, mind, spirit and universe which re-setting myself always brings. 

Here are some great ways to aid your detox which ever method or level you choose;

1. Dry skin brushing or exfoliation with lufar, mitt or sea salt scrub – this aids elimination of toxins and increases blood flow in the body, super good for you at any time

2. Gentle exercise – take it easy – walking, yoga, swimming, rebounding – also aids elimination of toxins and pumps the lymph system (particularly rebounding) – the lymph system doesn’t have its own pump and can only be pumped by exercise

3. Drink plenty of filtered/pure water – again helps the whole body to flush out toxins and rehydrate cells

4. Rest and sleep – this is your body, mind and souls healing time, healing actually speeds up whilst you sleep, allow your body to focus on healing/detoxing

5. Body work/treatments – reflexology, massage, reiki etc – all body work can aid relaxation and detoxification – I’m a great believer in the healing of kind human touch which all these therapies bring

6. Positive affirmations – look in the mirror and tell yourself how great you are and how much you love yourself – fall in love with yourself – I know it sounds silly but its magical – try it when no ones looking 😉

7. Journaling or keeping a dream diary – This allows you to process thoughts and feelings that may be coming up

8. De-clutter – simplifying, organising and getting rid of stuff that no longer serves you can be very cathartic and healing. As you physically create more space you make way for new energy as well as physical things to enter your life, you also        create more time for yourself in the future by being organised, and more thinking space by not having to worry about unfinished tasks or unused clutter

9. Write down positive intentions that you wish to manifest or create a visual dream board full of the new things that you want to manifest into your life – Youre getting rid of the old and deciding what new stuff you actually want to come in

10. Meditate – However you choose to do this, even if its time spent in prayer/contemplation or simply taking time to sit and listen to your breath or imagine all the great things that are on their way to you now – feel them, see them, touch them

11. Give thanks by keeping a gratitude journal make a pledge to write down three things that you’re grateful for at the end of each day – the more you focus on the abundance you have now, the more abundance you will attract

12. Be kind to yourself in all ways – find different indulgences away from food e.g – good books, films, a hot bubble bath, good conversation, walking in nature, lying in the sun, dancing in the rain – you get the drift – find your pleasure again!