Day twenty: almost there

Tomorrow is my last day of the cleanse, and for some reason it has seemed harder during the past few days.  I have been hungrier, and more tempted by food.  We had our last detox yoga session tonight, and others shared that feeling as well.  But I still feel great, and I know it is because of the amount of food and the type of food that I am putting in my body, so I am staying the course.  Feeling clear and energetic is now my "normal."  The memory of lacking energy in the evening and having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning seems distant. 

I remember last year when I went off the cleanse I ate a peanut M&M.  Now, in a normal situation, peanut M&Ms are one of my favorite candy.  But in this rare case, it tasted absolutely terrible.  The first thing I tasted was the peanut - old and stale.  Then the fake-chocolate taste kicked in and it wasn't even pleasurable to eat.  I thought maybe I just had a bad one, so tried another.  Same thing.  Of course, during the course of the following year, I somehow convinced myself that they tasted good again.  I guess it wasn't really that they tasted better, but that I was much less able to taste the nuances of the old stale peanut because my taste buds had been partially numbed again by toxins.  Nice thought.

When your palate has not tasted processed food in such a long time, it becomes really sensitive.  That's why it is important to introduce foods slowly when you finish Clean, because during this very rare window of your life, you acutely notice what agrees with your body, and what does not.  During our busy lives when we are eating without thinking, our body becomes so used to digesting all sorts of difficult foods, adding a peanut M&M on top of the pile is no big deal.  Taking advantage of these clean taste buds when you finish makes you steer toward higher quality, pure foods. 

If you are still on the cleanse, keep it up!  Here is an excerpt from Clean about week three:
"You feel the natural high that comes with detoxification; your skin glows, your eyes are whiter, your clothes are a little looser, and friends ask you if you've just been on vacation (or had a face lift)."

Okay, no one has asked me if I have had a face lift this week - what gives? - but I have noticed all of the other details that he listed.  And strangely, someone did comment on how white the whites of my eyes are.  I know, sort of an amazing thing for someone to notice, therefore I took it as quite a fantastic compliment.

Namaste.