We have arrived. The sweet smell of success!
Guess who’s made it to the end of her cleanse?!? (One guess)
Yeah okay, so I’ve got 4 more days, but work with me here. It’s so close I can taste it.
The Final Countdown: If you want to indulge me musically, click this link and turn the volume up (or down if you are at work or at the doctor’s office.)
Cleanses have been part of my life for the past two years, and I’m happy to say that it gets easier every time. Not because I’ve stopped loving those delicious goodies, but because I realize I won’t wither away if I go sans a cafe au lait for a few weeks.
Fact: If you do anything for 21 days, it becomes habit.
A cleanse is no exception. The thought of eliminating sugar and caffeine seems almost blood curling at first, right? But once you’ve hit week 2, you can look chocolate straight in the eye and say, “Not today chocolate. Not today.”
Seriously, a cleanse doesn’t mean that you can’t sneak a bag of Terra Chips (of the non-gluten potato variety) once or twice. Just pick your binges wisely. Then eat the heck out of them, with full joy.
I love that moment of clarity right at the end of a cleanse. You know the one I’m talking about. When your feet are pointed at that finish line. When it all becomes crystal clear.
Some things that became crystal clear during these past 3 weeks:
1) We eat too much. This cleanse has reminded me that I eat much more food than I actually need to consume on a daily basis. I normally wouldn’t admit that out loud but it’s quite fitting for the event.
2) Homemade food is awesome. I’m happy to report that I’ve cooked almost every single meal that has gone in my mouth in the past 3 weeks. (Go me!) You New Yorkers know how tough that can be when social calendars revolve around: drinking (alcohol), eating (Mexican) or convening over hot beverages (slow-drip coffee).
3) Crock pot stews need/should be shared. Omg. I realized that I was able to eat more crock pot stews than any normal person is capable of. Good thing they were all yummy.
4) We are capable of anything we put our minds (and bodies) to. It may feel daunting to start a challenge, it may even feel tougher in the thick of it, but it eventually gets easier as you stick it out…with your dancing backup team of course (see last week’s post to know what the heck I’m talking about).
Crock pots aside, I made it guys. I MADE IT. And it feels amazing!
With one more cleanse completed, it’s time to start my reintroduction to “Life”. I’ll slowly be reincorporating things back into my diet, carefully paying attention to how each item affects my body and life’s equilibrium.
Balance, as in everything in Feng Shui, is the name of the game. A cleanse is just a metaphor about recognizing and adjusting patterns, not crashing and burning them. In this case, it’s a chance to prove to yourself that you’re not a slave to the [insert your vice here], but you can sure as heck enjoy one!
While I’m officially done on Sunday evening Nov 2nd, I will probably be ending a day early to attend my friends’ Day of the Dead party. Breaking my cleanse early – why not? I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the end of an era (or cleanse) and to move onward to new beginnings. We’ll be eating, you guessed it, Mexican. How appropriate!
