Erin (on left) and I in NYC...moments before we decided to consume greasy diner food at 2a.m.
Back in 2008, my Maid of Honor, Erin, went through a gut twistingly awful break up that left her couch bound and despondent. When she was finally able to change out of her pajamas and hold a conversation without crying, I suggested that she do a detox (Natalia Rose's Raw Food Detox Diet) to exorcise all the negative emotions that had taken up residence in her body. Just like undigested food, undigested emotion can hunker down in your body and wreak havoc on your physical and emotional well being. For that reason, negative emotions need to be properly processed and then expelled. Doing a detox is a great way to get that ball rolling. A few months after Erin's first cleanse, I bought Natalia Rose's Detox for Women. Since she had such great success the first time around, I begged asked Erin to do it with me. I also begged asked Erin to keep track of her progress since, at the time, I was contemplating starting a health blog and wanted her take on things for future use. When Erin found out I was revisiting Natalia's cleanse this month, she dug out her old notes to share with you. Thanks, Erin!!
-♥ J :)
Erin's Log Day 1: Time to starve the yeast!
I'll tell you what: if Natalia is right, and it is in fact YEAST that's been causing all of the weird little ailments I've been battling for most of my life, then hell YEAH I'm ready to starve that little bastard! However, I will definitely be making modifications because Jen told me that I'm allowed to and what Jen says, I do. Plus, I’ve already been doing stage III of Natalia’s regular ol’ detox for about two months and I feel like I’ve finally hit a good point of equilibrium. My goal for the next 30 days is to slightly amp up what I’ve been doing, while maintaining a program that I can still manage with my schedule and social life.
Now, I actually started this whole detoxification process in an effort to get over a bad break-up. I figured (and well...Jen told me) that I had so much garbage in my system from all of the vodka, beer, and buffalo wings that I regularly consumed when I was with my Ex, along with the many emotional toxins that came with the trauma of the break-up, that it only made sense that I clean out my system in order to move on. I recommend this to anyone and everyone trying to get over a break-up! Not only has the detox actually given me something proactive with which to occupy my time, but I’ve turned something negative into something very positive. I’ve discovered some very valuable things about myself and about the relationship that I’ve literally been trying to flush out of my system. As a result, I’m completely over his poisonous, dark cloud, overeating, bacon-lover ass, and I feel fantastic!
But, it has definitely been a roller coaster. Over the past two months , I’ve experienced a litany of detox symptoms -- both good and bad. I’ve had days when I felt incredible and sparkly all over, as well as days that I’ve fallen off the wagon HARD. Examples:
- Good: feeling lighter and at peace, have had revelatory dreams that provided insight into some difficult feelings and encouraged me to release the past, felt motivated to detox my apartment (which may be even more necessary that detoxifying my body)
- Bad: throbbing headaches, exhaustion, overwhelming sadness and fear
- Sparkly: skin looks luminescent, beginning to see definition in my abs again, decrease of cellulite on backs of legs, overall happiness and hopefulness
- Girl Overboard!: started my Good Friday dinner with a dirty martini, followed by wine and beer, and then proceeded to exist on a diet of primarily pizza and chocolate covered graham crackers for the next four days…Ummm, yeah.
Point is, I think I’ve survived the worst of it and now I’m ready for the next level. I shall unleash the infamous “Erin Beat-Down” upon the yeast! As for modifications – my day will most certainly begin with coffee and I will stick with my berry grapefruit shake in the morning for breakfast. I will cut back other fruits and 86 the nuts (insert giggle). I’m thinking that I can still have a gluten-free grain at one meal per day because that hasn’t seemed to bother me. I will stick with that and see how I feel. I go out to dinner often, so I’ve set a rule of chicken or fish with vegetables and a two-wine limit. And that should do it!
