Cleanse Day 1

After awakening way too early this morning (due, no doubt, to the wine I drank last night!) I began the day with my daily yogic cleansing routine, 20 minutes of meditation and 10 minutes of restorative savasana (yogic resting). I cracked open the package of cleansing herbs and had the first dose before breakfast.

Cleansing agents are an essential aspect of undergoing a cleanse. If you were to fast, or to follow a clean diet like that contained in the Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox program, without taking detoxification agents, you would certainly be giving your digestive system a rest, you would avoid taking in new toxins while on the diet, and you might develop better eating habits. However you would not actually be eliminating toxins already stored in your organs. That is what the cleansing herbs are for! These herbal formulas are designed to flush toxins from the digestive tract and liver so our organs can function at full capacity and we remain healthy (or regain health).

Breakfast today was oatmeal with flax seed power, blueberries and cardamom. The spice cardamom has a lovely mellow flavour that adds a lot to the comforting but bland flavour of oatmeal. I also enjoyed a decaf espresso while meeting with a colleague at a coffee shop. Up to two cups of coffee per day are permitted on this cleanse. I'm not sure if it makes a difference whether or not the coffee is caffeinated. One of the many questions I'd love some day to ask Dr Willard (who formulated this cleanse).

For lunch, I ate the red lentil soup I made yesterday (see yesterday's blog for the recipe) with brown rice crackers , hommous (also made yesterday, without vinegar) and cucumber sticks. Brown rice crackers are one of my saviours on this diet, practically the only prepared food I'll eat. They give you something to put spreads on and have a satisfying crunch you just can't get with eating bowls of rice, millet or barley.

My afternoon snack was almond butter on rice cakes and holy basil herbal tea. Then it was off to enjoy a vigorous flow yoga class - a rare moment - I don't usually manage to work in a yoga class into my life. It happened because my daughter was home sick from school (no fever, so hopefully not with the dreaded pig flu) and so I didn't take her to her tennis lesson this afternoon.

After an abundance of sun salutes, abs, glorious backbending, and a full 5 minutes in the restorative bliss of legs-up-the-walls pose, I headed home to have the dinner I had prepared in the afternoon: kitcheree - the ultimate ayurvedic healing and detox food. I tend to eat it once a week normally, but on this cleanse, I'll be eating it just about every day for one meal or another. I ate this evening's kitcheree with broccoli and a spoonful of ghee. My kitcheree recipe is below. Oh - I also had my evening portion of the cleansing herbs.

Now I'm off to bed to make up for the lack of sleep last night (I hope!)

Comforting Kitcheree
Feeds: 4-6 people
Prep & cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
2 tbsp canola oil or ghee (Indian clarified butter)
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp ginger (chopped)
1/8 to 1/2 tsp asafoetida
1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (to taste)

1 cup basmati rice, rinsed
3/4 to 1 cup mung dahl, rinsed (dried split mung beans)
5 cups water

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 tbsp ghee (optional)

Steamed vegetable of your choice (e.g. asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, etc.)

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large pot on medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds start to pop (3-4 minutes) add the coriander, asafoetida, turmeric, ginger and red pepper flakes. Stir for a couple of minutes to release the fragrance of the spices.


2. Add the water, rice and mung dahl to the pot. Stir, bring to a boil, then simmer on medium-low heat for 25 minutes.


3. Meanwhile, prepare the vegetable of your choice and steam it.


4. When the kitcheree is cooked, stir in the salt and pepper. Serve on plates and adorn with the steamed veggies. Optionally, top with the ghee. Enjoy!

Unused portions can be refrigerated for 2-3 days.

Notes:

1. Dried mung dahl is available in health food stores and Indian groceries.


2. You can learn about ghee (another ayurvedic standard) here.


3. Asafoetida is a very pungent spice when raw but mellow when cooked. Use a very small amount if you aren't sure you like it. It is a digestive aid, and therefore beneficial for a cleanse, but if you don't like it, you can leave it out!
   
   
   

Preparation Day

My day began with a beautiful solitary lunar flow yoga practice and 30 minutes of meditation. I then attended a very special three hour workshop entitled "The Four Turnings of the Mind" with Tibetan lama Anyen Rinpoche from Denver, Colorado. I've previously learned this teaching as "Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to the Dharma". It was my first encounter with Anyen Rinpoche but I hope not my last. His talk spoke very directly to me. I was fortunate to be able to attend lunch with him and his wife who is also his interpretor (although he speaks excellent English). Very inspiring!

On my way home, I stopped at Bridgehead coffee shop for my last latte and brownie for a couple of weeks.

I warned my daughter today that I was starting a cleanse tomorrow. "Oh No," she moaned, "a week of grumpy Mama." A bit of an exaggeration - I'm usually only grumpy for a few days. I'll try to be kind to my family while I go through the peak of the cleanse, which for me, has previously been about days 3-6.

In the afternoon, I shopped for a few detox essentials: veggies, 3 boxes of brown rice crackers, almond butter and tins of chickpeas and lentils, plus food for dinner tonight to which I'd invited my mother. After dinner, I got to work on lunch food for the first day of my cleanse. While snatching a few minutes here and there to watch the Grey Cup with my husband, I prepared hummous and Red Lentil Soup. Unfortunately, Saskatchewan lost to Montreal in the last seconds of the game. Oh well.

Here's the recipe for the soup which seems to have been more successful than the Roughriders. Now to enjoy my last glass of wine for 2 weeks ...

Red Lentil Soup
(from the "Moosewood Cooks at Home" cookbook)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups red lentils
6 cups water
3 bay leaves
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 slices fresh ginger root, each about the size of the quarter

2 medium carrots (1 cup grated)
1 cup canned tomatoes
1 small red or green bell pepper (1/2 cup finely chopped)

1 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
pinch cayenne
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
salt & ground pepper to taste


Method:

1. Sort and rinse the lentils. Put them in a soup pot with the water, bay leaves, garlic, and ginger. Cover and place on high heat.


2. Prepare the carrots, tomatoes and bell peppers, and add them to the pot. Bring to a boil, stir and reduce the heat, and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes until the lentils are tender.


3. While the vegetables simmer, saute the onions on medium heat in the olive oil in a heavy skillet for about 10 minutes or until browned. Add the cumin, coriander and cayenne, and saute for another minute, stirring to prevent sticking.


4. When the lentils are tender, remove the bay leaves and ginger root from the soup. Stir in the sauteed onions and the lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Getting Ready for a 12-day cleanse

On Monday (Nov 30), I'll be starting my 4th cleanse with Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox. In this blog, I'll be offering some of my food suggestions and favourite recipes, as well as tracking my personal experience of going through the cleanse.

I like this cleanse because it is not a brutal "eat nothing but spinach for two weeks" regime. It serves two purposes: first, with the herbal cleansing agents and food regime, to flush the body of toxins that your body has stored through consumption of unhealthy food and chemicals used in food production, and second, to train you to develop better eating habits. The diet is sustainable in the long-term, from a health perspective, although I'd find it too challenging for social, convenience and food-prep time reasons.

I was planning to start this cleanse in late October but I was so busy for 5 weeks, I didn't have time to even THINK about planning my menu. Because of the food restrictions, you really do need to do some advance preparation. I'm an lacto-vegetarian (plus I'll eat eggs occasionally when they are in baked foods). On this cleanse, I become vegan. Before I begin, I ensure I have my staples for the diet on hand: millet, almonds, almond butter, rice crackers and rice cakes, plus the foods I'll make: hummous, lentil spread, salsa and salad dressing, all without vinegar. This weekend, I'm using up foods I won't be eating on the diet, like cheese, tropical fruit and wheat products.

Today I started working on a menu for the next two weeks. Between running Windhorse yoga studio, teaching classes, working on a management consulting contract two days a week, and being a parent, my cooking time is limited. I need to ensure I prepare food ahead of time on evenings when I'm teaching a class or taking my daughter to her evening activities. I need to ensure I have portable lunch items prepared for the two days a week when I work downtown. I'm also determining how to manage the two social events that are on my calendar in this 12 day period.

I know the first few days of the cleanse will be challenging, but I'm looking forward to getting on with this cleanse and reaping the benefits of feeling better and regaining a healthier diet.