And Now For Something Different

I am on Day 2 of a four day cleanse. It's my first cleanse. The purpose of cleanses is pretty much what it sounds like - to clean your body. 

The cleanse I'm doing is designed to be a lymphatic system cleanse, which will, theoretically, remove the toxins from my body. This is be a good thing as no matter how carefully we eat and how carefully we dress, clean our homes, etc. we live in a world where toxins are unavoidable. Even if I chose to go "off the grid" and live in the wilderness, our polluted air and water circulates everywhere. That this happens is the best reason I know to be environmentally conscious: what we do affects everyone and everything.

Although this can be discouraging to think about, I strive to be pragmatic. It is what it is and given this is the world we're living in, I like to focus on what I can do to stay healthy and reduce the negative footprint I invariably leave on the world. 

But, back to the cleanse. The cleanse I'm doing is Aryuvedic - it's based on ancient Indian practices. I'm following guidelines established by Dr. John Douilliard, and Aryuvedic practitioner who is so good at what he does, he even explains the very complicated Aryuvedic principles simply and logically. 

This cleanse involves starting my day with a drink of melted ghee (clarified butter) - fortunately, not a cupful, but an increasing amount of teaspoons each day. All I'm eating is kicharee - an Indian dish made with white basmati rice, split moong beans, and a variety of herbs. I sip hot water all day long. To round out the cleanse, I'm to do Pranayama each day (controlled breath exercises), meditation, light exercise. I'm also supposed to have an Epsom salt bath each evening, followed by a self-massage. To cap off the cleanse, at the end of Day 4, I will drink a cup and a half of prune juice. Or I can drink some castor oil. I'm planning on the prune juice as I'm thinking that after four days of kicharee and ghee, the prune juice will taste like the best thing I've ever eaten. I think the castor oil would just feel like punishment. 
I'm also taking a variety of Indian herbs.  If you'd like more details on either Dr. Douilliard, Aryuveda, or the cleanse, you can find it all here: www.lifespa.com (to get to the information on the cleanse, type "home cleanse" in the search box at the site).

So far, all I can report is that I feel cranky. Very, very cranky and I hereby apologize to my family (and anyone foolish enough to call me by phone this week) for subjecting myself to them. Perhaps this will change - after all, what I didn't mention and goes without saying is that coffee is not a part of the cleanse. I generally have a 12 ounce cup each morning. I now realize that without coffee my interest in doing anything whatsoever is nil. This morning, Pranayama, which requires me to sit for eight minutes breathing in and out of my left nostril seemed like just too much work. Ditto for Yoga. Ditto for the bath, self-massage, and meditation last night. So much work! So much effort! Just the thought of doing any of those activities made me cranky, so I did the best thing possible for myself and my family - I went to sleep at 8:30. I slept great for a solid ten hours and could have slept longer if not for the pesky alarm clock.

So there you have it. I'll try reporting again tomorrow, assuming I'm not in too foul a mood, and too logy to do so!