A few thoughts

Well, here we are, approaching the very end of this 21 day adventure cleanse. Okay, so we still have a day to go but it's my blog and I get to reflect when I want to!

First I have to say that I am very proud of Brian and I for having committed to this cleanse and working hard to see it through. Although there were times that were not fun (cleaning the juicer again; having a big salad again; smelling that espresso and not drinking it again), it was so helpful to have the support of my fabulous husband throughout all this, knowing that we are doing this for the improvement of our health and well-being. We are so ready for it to be done tomorrow but we both feel pretty darn good physically and we are grateful for that.

Personally, there were lessons learned during this cleanse that I will keep with me from now on. 1) I am very aware of how good I feel right now and although I am certainly not eliminating caffeine, alcohol, sugar, and gluten forever, I will be more aware of how much I am consuming and how my body feels when I do have them... 2) Juicing will continue to be a part of my life, although not on a daily basis. I feel so good consuming the nutritious yumminess from fruits and veggies and want to keep that going for a lifetime! 3) I've learned some new ways to get creative with food (i.e.--how many different combinations of "grain-bean-veggie" can you come up with in a week?) 4) I've learned to satisfy a sweet tooth with stevia sweetened tea (does not affect blood sugar!) and fresh fruit such as pineapple and kiwi... 5) I've reinforced the fact that I can make a commitment to something, work hard on it, follow through, and complete it with success!

One thing I don't want to do is fall right back into the crappy foods I might have consumed before. Brian and I have said the following quite a bit recently: "I can't wait til we're done with this cleanse so we can eat _________ (Indian food, pizza, wine, etc.). I will definitely be including these things in my diet in the future, but I don't want to dive right in and go crazy just because we haven't had these things in 3 weeks. I want to include healthy versions of these foods and not run to them in either times of celebration or in times of stress, which I have done in the past.

This has been such a journey and I am so happy to have found Kris Carr and her Crazy Sexy Diet. She addresses her readers as "Wellness Warriors" and I love that description! To me a wellness warrior seeks to live a healthy, happy life-- not a perfect one, because perfect is boring, but a vibrant and active one!