Cleanse Day 4

My husband woke up with a start at about 2:30 a.m. saying something (probably a spider) had bitten his heel. He tends to sleep with his feet sticking out of the covers, but still! After that kafuffle sleep eluded me and I finally got out of bed at 5:30 and trundled to the basement for my morning routine. After some pranayama (alternate nostril breathing for balance) I practiced lunar salutations, a shoulderstand and then meditated for 20 minutes. Then it was 7:00 - time to wake up the family and get everyone moving.

Breakfast was kamut puffs with blackberries and soy milk. The kamut puffs were a bit soggy so I "freshened" them by roasting them in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes until they were crispy.

On Thursday mornings, I teach yoga to my daughter's school class. Today's focus was anatomical joints, which I demonstrated with a couple pieces of zoob (building toy) representing a ball-and-socket joint, a hinged reading light representing a hinge joint and a cylindrical spice jar inserted into the hole in a bagel representing a pivot joint (my daughter then asked for the bagel for lunch!). The big hit of the class was playing "yoga benders": alone, and then in groups of 3, the kids had to make a body sculpture with my instructions of "2 feet, 3 hands and 1 head" meaning those were the only body parts that could connect with the floor. Great fun!

I also taught a flow class for grown-ups back at the studio, then had a studio meeting at Bridgehead (where I had a decaf esspresso and munched on almonds to keep myself going), raced home to get changed into business attire to attend a meeting and event with a consulting client. I had brought lunch with me and after the meeting (it was now 3:00) I ate the last of the Red Lentil Soup, the ubiquitous rice crackers and some home-made hommus.

In between the meeting and after-work event, which was at the Chateau Laurier, I managed to squeeze in some Christmas shopping at the Rideau Centre - I think I covered every kid on my list - whew! The work function was a bit of a challenge because, of course, I couldn't eat any of the tasty hors d'oeuvres offered or have the wine. I nibbled on raw veggies plus some almonds I had brought for myself and drank perrier.

Once home, I whipped up a quick dinner of Skillet Black-Eyed Peas and Spinach with Brown Rice. It was a bit bland but I was very hungry and ate it up! As it wasn't a great success, I'll offer a recipe for hummous tonight.

I'm feeling pretty tired this evening although I was relatively energetic most of the day. I'm not sure if it's because of the cleanse per se, or more my lack of sleep last night - or maybe my poor sleep last night is cleanse-related. Hmmm... My bowels are still occasionally topsy turvy but apart from that, I'm not experiencing side-effects from the cleanse. What a difference from my first two cleanses where by this point in the cleanse, I was indeed "cranky" with headache, exhaustion, riling intestines and serious acne. I guess the regular cleanses are working and I'm not as toxic as I used to be.

Oh: when I stepped on the scale this morning, it read "126.8" which is a full FOUR pounds less than the day before I started this cleanse. Woo Hoo!

Hommus

Ingredients:

1 can cooked chickpeas
2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic (chopped)
1/2 c fresh lemon juice
1/4 c tahini
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt

Method:

Place all ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
Enjoy with rice crackers or fresh veggies.

Cleanse Day 3

Today I started feeling the effects of the cleanse - both positive and negative. On the negative side, the laxative herbs are starting to work and my insides felt somewhat churned up at certain times today. On the positive side, I feel better and lighter already. The scale showed I'm a pound lighter than 3 days ago. When I walked in to the yoga studio today to teach a class, my studio manager comment on how svelte and radiant I looked. I'm glad my appearance mirrored my sense of wellbeing!

When I first did this cleanse 2 years ago, I followed the instructions to a "t" and took 2 of each of the 3 herbal caplets plus the drops twice a day. A week and a half into the cleanse, my bowels were still convulsing so I dropped the dosage to 1 laxative caplet twice a day and my body calmed down. In subsequent cleanses, I've kept with 2 a day. For this cleanse, I'm experimenting with 3 a day (1 in the morning and 2 at night). We'll see how long this lasts!

For breakfast today, I ate puffed millet cereal with almonds, apple chunks and soymilk. It's amazing how sweet apples can taste when you're deprived of sugar for a few days!

Lunch was kitcheree and carrot sticks dipped in lemon tahini dressing. Lemon Tahini Dressing is THE most delicious food in the Wild Rose cookbook. You can put this versitile dressing on just about anything: veggies, meat, rice... it is wonderful!

So wonderful, I ate it again for dinner, which was: Brown rice, TVP (textured vegetable protein), snow peas and lemon tahini dressing. If you are an omnivore, you could use chicken instead of TVP. See below for the Lemon Tahini Dressing recipe.

In a few minutes I'm off to teach my 7:15 Flow & Yin yoga class. More tomorrow!


Lemon Tahini Dressing

Ingredients:

2/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
5 tbsp lemon juice
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Method:

Place all ingredients in a blender (or hand blend) and puree for 1 minute at high speed.

Cleanse Day 2

I had a delicious night sleep last night and felt ready for a good yoga and meditation practice this morning. I was a bit stiff from my yoga class of Monday night, but some hip opening namaskars soon loosened me up. My daughter was home again today from school so I worked from home except for the 2 yoga classes I taught.

I took the time to make millet porridge for my breakfast. Until my first Wild Rose cleanse two years ago, I had never experienced millet before. Millet is one of the most recommended foods in the Wild Rose diet. It, brown rice and buckwheat should form the majority of the diet.

It's a shame that millet is not a better known grain. It has a great flavour and consistency. I would love to find more recipes for it. It's only downside is that it takes 25-30 minutes to cook. I usually cook enough to last a couple of meals but this morning, I just cooked a single portion. I topped the millet porridge with cashews, cardomom and soy milk.

Lunch was a revisit of yesterday's red lentil soup onto which I sprinkled cilantro and a few more cashews. I ate it with rice crackers again. I'll have to open a new box of rice crackers tomorrow!

For an afternoon snack, to fortify myself for the hot flow class I would teach at 5:45, I had popcorn and lemon ginger tea. My daughter had recovered enough to enjoy some too.

Dinner was late because I taught until 7:15. My daughter had the kitcheree I made yesterday (great convalescent food) while I made a quick dish of Lentils and Quinoa for myself (see recipe below).

One challenge I have on this diet is the recommendation to eat only two to three servings of legumes a week, as legumes are difficult to digest. Since I'm vegetarian and don't eat eggs, that would pretty much mean I'd have to live on nuts or not have a complete protein 4 days out of 7. However, since much of the world exists primarily on legumes, I can't see that it's a bad thing to eat them every day. Mung dahl (the key ingredient in kitcheree) is the easiest to digest of all legumes and therefore a common staple in ayurvedic cooking. I'll be eating a lot of it over the next week and a half. I just googled "easy to digest legumes" and found a claim from http://www.living-foods.com/ that adzuki beans are nearly as digestible as mung. So there's my first "lapse": I will be eating more than the recommended amount of legumes during this cleanse.


Lentils and Quinoa with Snow Peas

Serves: 3-4 people
Prep time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa
5 cups water
1 tsp salt

2 tbsp cooking oil or ghee
2 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp turmeric
2 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp coriander

1 can lentils (with its liquid)
1/2 can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup snow peas
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste


Method:

1. Place the quinoa, water and salt into a pot, bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 20 minutes.


2. While the quinoa cooks, heat the oil or ghee in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and stir until the mustard seeds start to pop. Then add the coriander, ginger and turmeric and cook for another 1-2 minutes.


3. Add the tomatoes and lentils (including its liquid) to the spices. Lower the heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes.


4. Add the snow peas to the lentils mixture and simmer for another 4-5 minutes. Add the salt and pepper.


5. When the quinoa is cooked, spoon it onto a plate and add the lentil mixture on top. Enjoy!

Note: this dish can be prepared with onions & garlic instead of the Indian spices - I just prefer the Indian spices.

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.