Spring Cleanse: Day 3

- On rising: 1 cup Fenugreek water (see yesterday's post for explanation), followed by 1 cup lemon water and Triphala supplement.

- 7.30am: Breakfast smoothie

Ingredients:
Spinach
Apple
Parsley
Basil
Ginger
Turmeric (this stuff STAINS, so if you have a white blender, like me, wash it STAT)
Sprouted hemp seeds
Chia seeds
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Water - enough so the smoothie is your desired consistency.

*Because I had 1 glass less water this morning, I wasn't running to pee as much in today's workshop (Yup, was at Day 2 of Paul's pranayama and ashtanga workshop again today). 

- 2pm: Lunch while at this workshop and so no juicing... 
Cucumber slices
Carrot sticks
Pineapple chunks

...Followed by a wheatgrass shot from the deli round the corner. 

And then it pretty much all fell apart from here... coz I went to see Iron Man 3 after the workshop and then caught up with Paul over dinner. Funny enough he said "how many days cleanse are you on? 3 days only? Pffft... you're fine to break the juicing tonight". 

HAHAHAHA. That's why Paul Dallaghan is one of my fave yoga teachers. He's been through all the hardcore teachings and traditional ascetic practices, but now embraces a "No dogma" approach. 

I'm good with this. I wasn't going on a hardcore week-long fast this time anyway, just wanted a very gentle reset from all the sugar and coffee and craaaaaaap I'd been eating. So... We went for Vietnamese since this was pretty much "easier" for my "cleanse". 

7.30pm: Dinner. Veggie rice paper rolls. 

...and then it REALLY fell apart when I started picking at his mixed vegetables, white rice and fried noodles. And er... we ordered dessert to share (!!) HAHAHAHA. I had just a few spoonfuls of banana and coconut custard. My belly is confused now and feels heavy. But oh so satisfied... ;p 

Guys - Please. That dinner is a good example of what NOT to do when on a cleanse. And what not to do when just getting out of a cleanse. I should've just stuck with the rice paper rolls only and not gone further tonight. But... You only live once. Heh.   

- 11pm: Yogi Tea Detox Tea with Triphala supplement. 

Overall, I'm feeling good - not feeling particularly springy with energy as I have on previous detoxes, but neither am I feeling low on energy either. I think if I'd have kept this up for 5 or even 7 days, I probably would've felt the benefits more intensely. This is the shortest cleanse I've ever done, so I've got nothing else to compare it with. It's probably a good idea to keep this up every few months just to hit the reset button with the digestive system. 

I'm glad I did this... Gives me some ideas on how to formulate other DIY detoxes down the road too...! Hope it's helped you too in some way. :) 

Spring Cleanse: Day 2

- On rising: 1 large glass of water, followed by a cup of Fenugreek water. This is just Fenugreek seeds soaked overnight and you drink that water the next day. It's an Ayurvedic practice I picked up on a previous detox... it apparently lowers blood-sugar levels, but I really don't know enough about whether its got other cleansing properties. It didn't do any harm on the last detox I did, so I figured why not. 

Google says it's great for milk flow/ lactation. Great! Super handy right now. Bahahaha. But then Google also says it tastes like maple syrup. ?!? Bollocks. It's got a very herbal taste... Tastes like I walked into a Chinese medical hall. This is what it looks like soaking in water: 

And then I chugged another glass of hot water and lemon with a Triphala supplement after that. 

And voila!! "Elimination time"! Sorry, you don't need to hear about my bowel movements but I've got to reiterate how IMPORTANT it is to have a dump when you're on any kind of cleanse. Toxins leave your body 3 ways: through your skin, pee and poo. A large percentage of toxins gets dumped out in your large intestine, which is why it's CRUCIAL you have regular dumps, to get rid of those toxins before your body reabsorbs them again. Which would be a pointless detox. Apologies... It seems I can't talk about food without also talking about poo... But hey, the two go hand in hand! :p  

** Sidetrack: this is why it's important to drink loads of water too - to eliminate through your pee, and also to help keep stuff flowing in your gut. Another great thing to do is keep exercising or sit in the steam room so you get your pores open and sweating out all those toxins. And now back to regular programming **

- 8am: Breakfast green smoothie.

Ingredients: 

Spinach

Cucumber

Apple

Ginger

Sprouted hemp seeds

Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

The breakfast of Incredible-Hulk champions...

Then I went to Paul Dallaghan's Pranayama and Ashtanga workshop... and of course within the first hour, I was running to pee about 10 times, all throughout the quiet meditation introduction. Arrrggghhhhh!! And then the same thing happened in the second hour. I'm not joking... people must've thought I had the bladder of a squirrel... But... Did you see how much fluid I'd downed in the first hour on waking up?! 

On a side note, this is the gorgeous space we were practicing in today: 

So then of course I couldn't juice anything for lunch while on the workshop. But I went prepared with my little bag of tricks that contained:

Pineapple and cucumber slices (odd flavour combo, I wasn't thinking this morning!)

Raw cashews and almonds (nuts probably aren't so great on a cleanse, especially unsprouted, but I figured "screw it", I needed something convenient and there are worse things than nuts to snack on so these would do.) 

Chia seeds

Yogi Tea Detox Tea

Cayenne Pepper

Turmeric

...Turns out I only ate the pineapple and cucumber slices at lunch, along with some of the cashews. Even Paul commented "you're on a cleanse and you're eating nuts?!" Hehe. DEAL WITH IT.

- 5.30pm: Post-workshop late lunch smoothie. Also took a Vitamin B-complex supplement along with this coz... Oops, forgot to take it in the morning... 

Ingredients: 

Carrots

Celery

Parsley

Ginger

Chia seeds

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Turmeric

Cayenne Pepper (the amount on that teaspoon was waaaaaaay spicy, even though I can handle "Asian level" spiciness)   
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

- 8.30pm: Yogi Tea Detox Tea with a Triphala supplement. (should've done Triphala before bedtime. Dunno why I decided to do it now. Probably coz I read the label and it said "take before food". So I did. Hahaha.)

- 8.45pm: Dinner smoothie

Ingredients: 

Sprouted cashews (raw cashews soaked for 8-10hrs)

Virgin cold-pressed coconut oil

Cardamom

Cinnamon

Vanilla bean

Maple syrup (just a dash. It's still good without this but I couldn't help myself)
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

It's the same ingredients as last night's dinner smoothie, except I added Cardamom and ooooooweeeee, YES!!!! This one is so good I will make cashew milks with this recipe even when I'm not detoxing. It is soooooo good (can you hear me patting myself on my back now). 

- Nightcap: A glass of Fenugreek water. The same seeds from this morning can be re-used once, so that's what I used to re-soak again. 

How I feel today: Pretty normal. No mood swings. When I woke up, it felt like my tongue had a coating over it. And at the start of the workshop, it felt like I had the coating again over it... Maybe it's psychosomatic coz when I looked in the mirror, there was no white stuff or "ama" on my tongue at all. 

Otherwise, I'm feeling good! The funny thing on these cleanses is - I almost always end up feeling ultra-bloated anyway coz of all the fluid intake... Ugh. 

...Also, I might end up not juicing at all at my last meal tomorrow night as I'm going to catch up with Paul over dinner. How can I say "No" to a meal with one of my fave teachers? :) Let's see how we go though... Didn't think I'd manage to stay as raw and juiced as I have today, so never say never! 

Spring Cleanse: Day 1

- On rising: 1 large glass of water, followed by a cup of hot water and lemon. 

(this is my usual daily ritual anyway, usually I add chia seeds to my lemon-water, but not today as I'm planning on having some chia-lemon-water later in the day, if and when I start to get hungry). 

- 8am: Breakfast green smoothie. (I call this a smoothie only coz I use a blender and leave all the pulp in, adding as much water as I want so that it's not chunky/ gloopy but more like a pulpy juice. That's a smoothie to me. Bam.) 

Ingredients: 

Basil (growing by my window)

Cucumber

Celery

Sprouted hemp seeds (unhulled and soaked overnight. No idea if soaking unhulled hemp seeds actually has any real benefit, so gotta look into this a little more.) 

Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency
(All pre-chopped the night before so I'd have less to do in the AM). 

- 10.45am: Pineapple snack. Multi-vitamin and algae oil (for Omega-3, EPA+DHA) supplements. 

- Fresh mint tea (hot water with fresh mint leaves) and then more lemon-water. This combo is chugged throughout the day. 

- 1.30pm: Lunch smoothie. 

Ingredients:
Apple
Carrot
Ginger
Cayenne Pepper
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

I was sipping on this pretty much between 1.30-3.30pm and didn't finish it one go.

- 4.30pm: Hot lemon-water with 1 tablespoon of chia seeds as I was getting hungry. Chia's also good for more Omega-3 (ALA) essential fatty acids, while adding bulk to your gut! (If you're good with psyllium husk, you could do that instead. Me and psyllium just don't get along - gives me the massive bloat and even 1/2 a teaspoon makes my gut feel like it'll explode). 

- 5.30pm: Pineapple snack with a cup of Yogi Tea Detox Tea. Containing burdock, dandelion, juniper berry. 

- 8pm: Dinner smoothie. 

Ingredients: 
Sprouted cashews (raw cashews soaked when I left for work this morning)
Virgin cold-pressed coconut oil
Cinnamon
Vanilla bean
Maple syrup (just a small dash for flavour)
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

I'm a sucker for sweets and dessert, can you tell? Saved the best for last... Figured I'd have a slightly heavier smoothie to last me through the night. 

- 10pm: Night cap of Yogi Tea Detox Tea, with Triphala supplement (Ayurvedic supplement that aids digestive health, also acts as a very mild laxative to help keep things moving). I mean... c'mon. It's a detox. The majority of toxins are gonna get dumped in my colon from tomorrow onwards. And er... I usually have to "go" twice a day or I'd feel gross, so this is super important!! ;p

Of course all of the above was interspersed with lots of water, lemon-water, or fresh mint tea (or fresh mint-water, really) throughout the day... 

How do I feel today? ...Perfectly fine, normal, nothing out of the ordinary... until around 6.30pm at work when I started getting grouchy and irritable. Maybe it was the crappy conference call I was on that dragged on so I couldn't get to a yoga class, but I definitely got snappier at the people around me. Glad to be home and away from non-stop chatting of people. And now I'm properly tired. 

Forgot to mention that it's been non-stop partying from a week ago when we had a big office party, then Queens Day on Tuesday this week with an all-night dance-a-thon the night before, then I flew to Madrid on the same day to watch the UEFA semi-finals, and we continued dancing till 5am and flirting with hot Spanish boys, only to fly back the next day on 2 hours sleep. That was 2 days ago now, but I'm definitely still recovering from that and this cleanse is definitely part of the grounding I need! 

Oh well, tomorrow will be a new day. And a pranayama/ ashtanga workshop with Paul! ...haven't decided yet how I'll continue this cleanse while on the workshop, but there'll probably be less smoothies involved. 

Stay tuned! :) 

3-Day Spring Cleanse

Hola Guapas!

It has been a super looooooong time, innit. Loads of things have happened since my last post 1.5 years ago... Suffice it to say: I'm still in Amsterdam, I'm still loving life and my current job... On the love front, boys have come and gone, but I think my heart is still somewhat intact... I've taken breaks from asana, gone on more retreats involving Pranayama and detoxes and more Ashtanga yoga... And look, I'm still living to tell this tale (maybe not to you and not on this blog. Haha.) 

Life is actually pretty sweet right now. :)

In October last year, I also added one more thing on my list of "to do's" in life: I'm currently studying Naturopathic Nutrition part-time and hopefully in 3 years, I'll qualify as a Nutritional Therapist. And if I can hack it out for a 4th year, I'll be qualify as a Naturopath. Oh, this course is also in London, so I've also been spending more time in one of my favourite big cities. If you've followed this blog from ages ago, you're probably familiar with my interest in food and how I keep mixing things up and experimenting with what goes in (and er... what comes out. Heh.)

"Why are you doing this course?" is what my oh-so-very-Asian parents keep asking me, as I'm not even sure if I want to practice as a Nutritional Therapist eventually. Hahaha. I don't know. All I know is: I'm starting with an interest. I want to know more and in even greater detail than what I'm already reading up on my fave blogs and books about food, its healing properties, and how much one is a measure of "you are what you eat". So I figured if I'm gonna delve into this and spend the time reading up and studying more about this, I might as well do it through a good program where I'll get certified too. Yes, how over-achieving Asian of me. And yes, I believe that down the road, my path will eventually lead me more into the world of health and wellness, so this course is simply an extension of my interest and exploration into this world. Dipping my toes into it, so to speak. 

I started this post as I've been feeling like I need to do a Spring cleanse. Should've started one at the new moon 2 weeks ago, or maybe during the official start of Spring when everyone else was doing some kind of cleanse about a month ago... But... I guess life got in the way and with all the travel I've been doing, the only real down time I've got will be in the next 3 days. And since I'll be doing a Pranayama workshop all of this weekend with one of my all-time favourite Ashtanga and Pranayama teachers who'll be in town, Paul Dallaghan, I figured "Feck it. Now's as good a time as any other." 

So I'm making this mini-detox up as I'm going along... Basing it off some of the other cleanses I've done in the past... I figure my system just needs to hit the reset button, albeit in a gentle fashion. I'm going to do a mix of green smoothies, fruit and raw veggies. My shopping has landed me with a basket full of spinach, kale, celery, lemons, apples, pineapple, ginger and I'll add some sprouted hemp seeds and chia seeds into the various combos I'll make up. Think I need to run out and get some kale and chard too. Maybe at night I'll finish off with some sprouted cashew smoothies. I'll attempt to document each "meal" I'll have as I go along. 

And this is all probably because I couldn't find any iPhone app that would help me document some kind of detox journal... Then I remembered that once upon a time, I had a blog that helped me do that. So here I am. Hahaha. 

Warning: this might turn out to be a total failure as on days 2 and 3, I'll be at a yoga/ pranayama workshop. No idea how I'm going to juice anything, so I might just end up chugging a load of chia seeds and lemon water. And maybe just eating fruit and veggie sticks. Gulp. 

I've been more active on Facebook and Instagram, so follow my picture updates there, and I'll give the day's round up in pictures in summary on the blog here. How's that for total social media engagement. 

Wish me luck! 

Post-Urban Remedy Detox Cleanse

Ahhhhhhhh... Back to food. :) :) :)

The guys at Urban Remedy recommend eating only fruit the day after the cleanse, to help ease your digestive system back onto food, then the 2nd day after, raw salads and dairy, then 3 days after fish/ seafood, then 4 days after you can get back onto meat.

So on Saturday morning, first day after the detox, I headed to the kitchen highly anticipating breakfast which I had specially hand-picked from the supermarket the day before. ...A MANGO. HAHAHA. I never thought I'd ever be so excited to eat a mango.

Funny thing is, when I picked it up and held it in my hand, it was the size of my fist. I remember reading somewhere that any regular meal you eat should be about the size of your fist (No, SERIOUSLY). So then I paused and thought "uh-oh, I haven't had anything in my belly for 3 days. I think anything the size of a regular meal (ie. fist-size... ie. that mango) would probably be too much to handle!


So I put down the mango and picked up a handful of cherries instead. Hey, I'm practising mindful eating, y'all! Oddly enough, I was AFRAID to eat the cherries... y'know, to tarnish all the good that I'd been doing so far. I had a split-second thought of "maybe I should've done the 5-day cleanse to continue getting rid of all these toxins!" I wasn't quite ready to give up the detox yet (I was also secretly afraid I would lose my Supta Kurmasana bind. Hehe.)


But of course, soon enough I was surfing the interwebs, catching up on blogs, the usual Saturday morning lazing around... then one handful of cherries turned into the entire bowl full of cherries. Gulp. Well... berries are supposed to be easy to digest! (Never mind that cherries aren't berries... they're almost similar. So there.)

I tried munching on some Kellogg's Special K about an hour later (I munch them dry, like eating potato crisps), but within 2 minutes, my belly was in slight spasms, like it didn't know what to do with this alien stuff inside it, so I promptly put it away. I just wanted something to crunch on!!

For the next half of the day, I attended a couple of jewellery-making workshops (will save this for a different post - I think I've found a new hobby!), so I bought a smoothie along the way (Orange, pineapple, spirulina & mint. Pretty healthy and yummy too!)... and didn't have lunch.

I finally had that mango in the late afternoon and all was well... So when we went out for dinner with a couple of friends later that evening, I thought I'd throw caution to the wind and graduate onto a tofu salad and edamame beans. All was still well, no complaints from the digestive department. Yay!

Today, I'm back onto eating what I usually eat now - had some veggie dumplings at lunch and no digestive problems.

Oh... and... if you must know, the moment I started having solid food again, my #2 friend is back in proper action. What goes in must come out, I suppose. Haha.

I'm feeling well, no terrible side-effects from clearing out the toxins - just a mild headache when I stopped coffee. Oh, incidentally, I still haven't had coffee. YET. Come to think of it, in the last 2 days since I've been off the cleanse, I haven't even thought of reaching for the coffee mug. I suspect this will all change once the work week begins. Heh.

So my friends... that pretty much wraps up my super-long review of the Urban Remedy detox drink & delivery service. I would highly, highly recommend it. If you're unsure of a Level 1, 2, 3 or 1, 3 or 5-day cleanse, definitely get in touch with Emma at the company who will be able to recommend the right cleanse for you. If you're not on Twitter, you can also use the contact form on their website for more details.

I've been most impressed with the speed with which they get back to you with answers to silly questions (and you know how chronic I get, with LOTS of silly questions... they humoured every single one of them). It's a system that's been really well-thought out and well-planned. I give it 2 thumbs up!

If there's one thing I would suggest to Urban Remedy, it's to consider starting the 5-day cleanse on Wednesday and deliver drinks for the last 2 days on Friday evening, so people can spend the last 2 days of the cleanse at home. One of the reasons I chickened out from doing the full 5 days was coz they only start it on a Monday... and I wasn't sure if I could handle a full 5-day work week on a complete juice cleanse. (You wanna be kind to yourself and take it a bit easier, y'know? ...it's all psychological too!)

If there's just one thing I would suggest to you if you're doing the cleanse, it's to use flaxseed oil from Day 1 of your cleanse, or even psyllium husk, as mentioned in yesterday's post.

Oh, and the other thing is - recycle your cooler bags! You're not gonna need ALL of them, so be nice and give them back! I wonder if they'll take back their custom-made plastic bottles for recycling too? I'm looking at the mountain of bottles sitting in my recycling bin and thinking "that's A LOT of plastic!"

Anyways, if you decide to get on this cleanse, I would LOVE to hear all about it, we can trade "war stories", so let me know. And Happy Detoxing! (I'm off to eat another mango now. Nomnomnom).

Urban Remedy Detox Review: Day 3

LAST DAY OF MY URBAN REMEDY DETOX!!

I woke up this morning and had an absolutely disgusting fuzzy, white tongue. GROSS! ...but at the same time, that's a good thing too coz that means all those toxins are really coming out. The tongue was slightly white & fuzzy yesterday morning too, but I didn't think much of it, only when it happened again today, in full force AND throughout the day, that I realized "Oh, them toxins are all coming out!"

If you're planning to do this cleanse while you're at work, I'd suggest bringing a toothbrush around with you from Day 2 onwards (to brush the tongue with). I didn't really feel it on Day 2, but today... Oh boy! I was scrubbing that tongue throughout the day coz I had that icky fuzzy feeling. (Dunno if you're supposed to be scrubbing the stuff off but I couldn't help it. Plus, I didn't want to have... BAD BREATH!!) Eww.

I decided to treat myself, today, the last day of the cleanse - I took the day off work to have a ME day! I thought I'd run some errands, do some Christmas shopping, and just generally laze around and be nice to myself.

Can I just say - I actually found it harder doing this while staying at home.

In an office environment, you're at your desk, you're busy with work and the office fridge is but a few metres away for when you're ready for the next drink. Having something to do and keep your focus on (ie., work) keeps your mind off food. Or maybe it's just me... I associate staying at home and watching the telly with... erm... SNACKING.

OK, so scratch that.

I had a few errands to run in town, then realized I had to plan them within the 2-hour window when I didn't need to be downing the drinks. It was either that, or lug the cooler bag around town with me. That's fine if it's at the end of the day when there are hardly any drinks left, but at the start of the day, you're talking about approximately 3 litres (ie., 3 kilos) extra weight!!

Mid-way through the day, Emma from Urban Remedy emailed and asked if I would be up for trying out a new "Special" #5 drink concoction they were experimenting with... carrot, celery, radish, grapefruit, orange and green tea. Good for weight loss and boosting metabolism. This would replace the original #5 drink.

So I said "Sure! Bring it on!"


To be completely honest, I didn't really like the flavour of this drink. This is the very first drink of theirs whose flavour I was so-so about. It's quite bitter (from the grapefruit), and almost has a herbal-y flavour to it. It reminds me of when my grandma used to take me to the Chinese medical halls and the old men would pull funky herbs out of shelves behind them and mix up stuff for her to boil... and the resulting smell of all of that stuff boiling in the pot kinda reminded me of the flavour of the Special #5 drink. Very unexpected, considering how yummy all the ingredients sound. Anyways, I glugged it down really quickly thinking "this is good for me this is good for me this is good for me".

The one thing that really started to concern me at the end of yesterday's Day 2 that I hadn't mentioned earlier coz I was probably (a) too embarrased to, (b) too tired to mention it when I was writing that last post... was that er... I STILL hadn't done a #2 at the end of day 2 (and I'm not talking about the #2 Detox Drink y'all. Get with the program).

Knowing what I know of detoxes, I know a large number of toxins are dumped in the large intestine. So I was starting to FREAK OUT that I still hadn't gone... coz then... y'know... they'd all be reabsorbed back into my body, then what's the point?! Also, I'm pretty "regular" (EWWWW!) and I'm vegan, so I get A LOT of veggies and fibre in my regular diet. It's not like there'd be a reason for anything to not come out.

The email from Urban Remedy I received on Day 1 mentioned this might happen since I'm not getting much roughage on the cleanse, and if so, just add some flaxseed oil to one of the detox drinks to help move things along.

OKAAAAAAY. So at the end of Day 2, I had a flaxseed oil gel cap with my detox drink #6. On hindsight, I should've snipped it and poured just the oil into the drink like they suggested. Coz I had the hardest time falling asleep coz I could feel the gel cap, like a stone in my stomach. Duh. My stomach's not been digesting!

Anyways, the next morning, I emailed Emma from Urban Remedy to ask if I could drink some psyllium husk with water, and she said to try more flaxseed oil first. Lo and behold, right after that email, I had to run to the loo! Problem solved.

***DO NOT READ THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU CAN'T STOMACH ICKY-POO STORIES***



It's not that bad, I'm not gonna go into detail, but some people are sensitive, y'know. On a detox, it's not like your #2's are your regular ones, you might go a few times a day coz there's less "elimination". This is what happened with me.



***OK TO CONTINUE READING NOW*** (I decided to self-censor quite a bit of that. HAHA!)

It still concerns me even though I've gone now... I still feel like I haven't eliminated enough though (which means a lot of toxins could still be there). Just from the previous 7-day fasting cleanse I'd done before and realizing how much can still come out from your gut after 7 days of not eating, this time, in comparison is er... hmm... not as great. (Perhaps it could be coz I was also eating meat and a bunch of other crap back then, not as mindful as I've been before this cleanse?)

I would suggest if you're doing this cleanse, to start with the flaxseed oil much earlier, from Day 1. In fact, I'll suggest to the guys at Urban Remedy to encourage the use of psyllium husk mixed with water as well (or even mixed with the detox drink), since psyllium is non-digestible, and wouldn't get in the way of the cleanse. All it does is provide bulk & fibre. Also, the great thing about psyllium is it acts as a gentle scouring pad, sloughing off yucky bits from the sides of your intestines. Exactly what you need on a cleanse.

If I had the guts to do a DIY home enema or colonics, I'd have ordered a home kit too. It's just the thought of DIY that's just a bit too... icky for me!

What I did instead, was chug down more water and went and sat in the steam room. I figured "OK, if these toxins aren't coming out through my colon, I'm gonna make sure they come out through my skin!" (I'm pretty chronic like that) While in the steam room, I sat in half-lotus and did some meditation with the mantra "Inhale: Purity. Exhale: Toxins." And then I also gave myself a mini massage - upward moving strokes to stimulate the lymph (since I hadn't been dry-brushing. Oops). Thank goodness it was only me in the steam room! HAHAHA! Back home, I gave myself a nice exfoliating scrub-down from head-to-toe... it's just a nice treat when you've got the time to do something simple like that. :)

On the yoga practice front, again I had a nice and strong practice. Can I just say: I think FOOD is getting in the way of my yoga progress in twists and binds! HAHAHAHA!

Only because again today, I was binding higher than my wrists in Mari D (on both sides now), and the Supta Kurmasana bind came extremely easily as well. Oh, and for the first time ever, I was able lengthen so far forward in Baddha Konasana, that my belly was resting on my feet and my forehead touched the floor... ON MY OWN!! It's making me think... Do I really eat THAT much? That it makes such a world of difference with less food in my gut?! I mean, I'm not exactly ultra-skinny, but I'm not chubby either. HAHAHA - obviously, this proves food gives me a BIG GUT.

Oh my... what a long post! At the end of Day 3, I'm now thinking... "That's IT?!" It feels like the detoxing has only just begun to kick in and I'm stopping the cleanse tomorrow. I think I might try the 5-day cleanse at some point, just to get more of its detoxification effects. Especially now that I realize how extremely do-able it is in fitting into the rest of life.

I've really enjoyed this detox process, and it's made me realize that maybe I do eat too much crap (the difference between "before food" and "after food" in some of the yoga poses is quite extreme!) Don't worry, I love food too much to stop eating completely... I guess it's finding that balance and knowing when to STOP eating!

I'll have a post-detox review of the first day back on food again to let you know how it goes. I'm planning a fruit smorgasbord. (I was already salivating when I was picking through cherries at the supermarket earlier today).

Gotta ease back into it, y'know?

Urban Remedy Detox Review: Day 2

I FEEL LIKE SUPER-WOMAN TODAY!

Quite light and energetic. Wait till you hear about this morning's Mysore practice. But first, Detox Day 2.

I'd mentioned that the guys at Urban Remedy were gonna give me a variation for days 2 & 3, but turns out they've given me the regular Level 3 cleanse for 3 days, coz they'd rather I have the full experience. That means the same exact drinks from yesterday's Day 1 review for the next 2 days.


I can see why they're considering mixing things up a bit... coz er... well yeah, it could get a tad repetitive. I don't mind drinks #4 (Lemon, agave nectar & cayenne pepper) and #6 (Raw cashews, coconut milk, cinnamon, agave nectar, and a bunch of other goodies), but #1, #2, #3 and #5 are kind of more or less similar (just either with carrot or not).

Actually, if they marketed and sold Drink #6 as a smoothie on its own, I'd buy it coz it's sooooo delicious!

I'm not gonna do the hour by hour countdown like yesterday, since you pretty much know the drill for the next coupla days. The only thing different I did today was have a few sips of drink #6 after practice. I usually have a banana after practice, so the few sips of #6 really helped make me feel like I was getting some sustenance. I'd sneak a sip or two of #6 as well every time I started the next drink. It's a cheat that's allowed! :)

Doing pretty well on the fasting front... I'm not really hungry, I just can't look at food or be around people who are eating! ;p The worse time for me is around 11am - 1pm, I really start to feel like I need to nibble on something. It's the chewing action I'm missing!

Energetically, I've been feeling great today. It was a busy day at the office but my brain was pretty sharp. I just flew through the day that I crashed on the couch at 8.30pm. I'm going to bed right after this.

On the yoga front, I was extremely hesitant to practice today. Y'know... the whole idea of "No food = No energy". Wasn't sure how my body would handle it, and had already conjured up all kinds of cheats and ways of taking it easy (eg. No vinyasas between sides, or stop at Navasana).

Boy oh boy, did I blast that misconception right out the window. Today, I had the most amazingly STRONG practice I have ever had (I daresay). I was light and floaty, and had SO MUCH ENERGY!

I had a lot of mini breakthroughs today:

1. With jumpbacks, I was no longer shuffling back... I got quite a bit of a lift (like Uthpluthi but from cross-legged position), got the knees together, and that tilt forward seemed to happen a lot easier. My foot's still tapping the mat before I shoot the legs back, but it felt more like a bandha/ core lift rather than brute-arm strength that carried me through.

2. Marichyasana D: I was able to GRAB MY WRIST! But on the left side only (I'm usually binding with fingers & hands) Weird, coz that's usually my tighter side but it felt more open today. (That twist happens on the right side of the body... so maybe my liver is nice and small from the detox, maybe?) ;p

3. Supta Kurmasana: I bound my hands together on my own! Teacher first lifted left leg a bit over the shoulder, and then the right, and from there, my fingers found each other and managed to get a full 5-finger bind! YAY! (See... that's proof that my gut full of food is usually getting in the way.)

4. Dropbacks: Not a breakthrough here, but yesterday's session with the Osteo did bring a bit more awareness to opening my shoulders before dropping back. Pleased to report no issues with that elbow today, but I still have that twanging in the L1 (it's in the right side). So will have to keep thinking of lengthening lengthening lengthening with control, even when I'm dropping into the abyss (coz I tend to free-fall at that point of no return, and then that crunches into the L1) Sigh. Too many things to remember here!

5. Sirsasana: I usually hold til 20 of my counts, today I held till 25.

6. Uthpluthi: I usually hold til 20 of my counts, today I held till 30. And then I saw an orange spot when I looked up. It was weird, dunno if it was a colour aura or maybe there's a scientific explanation, but there was a hazy orange spot in my vision. WEEEEEIRD.

So... there you go, that's proof that even with a strong practice like the Full Primary series, you can still do it on a fasting cleanse and be stronger than ever! (who knows, maybe I'll crash out in tomorrow's practice. Haha).

OK, I'm fading. Off to bed.

Urban Remedy Detox Review: Day 1

This is how I started yesterday's Day 1 of my Urban Remedy cleanse. It's the 3-day, Level 3 cleanse (yes, no food at all, y'all).


8.30am: Hot Water with juice from half a lemon

9.10am: Detox drink #1. Label says: Apple, Lemon, Cos Lettuce, Celery, Silverbeet, Parsley, Cucumber.


It's an unappetizing pond-scum green after shaking it up, but it has a pleasant flavour. I HATE PARSLEY, but even though you can definitely taste the parsley in it, it's not too bad at all. I think the apple and lemon probably help give the flavour a bit of a boost.

I'm such a sucker that I actually re-filled the Juice #1 bottle with water after finishing the juice and drank it too... y'know... to get every single last drop of goodness out of it (besides, I need to drink lots of water during this cleanse too, right?)

While walking to get Juice #2 out the fridge, I notice an after-taste of celery in my mouth.

11.23am: Detox drink #2. Label says: Carrot, Mint, Cucumber, Cos Lettuce, Silverbeet, Celery, Parsley.


This one looks like brown pond-scum after shaking it up (coz of the carrot juice), and tastes more like carrot juice than anything else. Don't think this one was sealed properly coz the cap-seal didn't break when I opened it. And coz this one was filled to the top - I got splotches of it on my work desk!

I'm getting weird looks from the work colleagues now. But people are interested and curious in my drink that looks like a sewer but smells like vegetable soup. :)

I'm drinking the juice but also feeling hungry at the same time. It's probably psychological hunger. I feel like I need to chew something (I'm chewing on nuts usually by this time of day)...

11.59am: I'm feeling a little antsy that I haven't had anything to chew on. Briefly considered chewing gum, but that's just dumb since it'll stimulate the digestive juices which isn't what I want to be doing! Still have an inch left of my #2 detox drink. I'm chewing it as I'm drinking.

1.25pm: Detox drink #3. Label says: Apple, Lemon, Cos Lettuce, Celery, Silverbeet, Spinach, Cucumber, Celery, Parsley.


Hey! This is suspiciously sounding like Drink #1! OK, so it's got additional spinach, and because the ingredients are shuffled around from Drink #1, I'm thinking maybe they've played around with with the ingredient composition. Whatever. I'm hungry.

1.30pm: THE ENTIRE OFFICE SMELLS OF LUNCHTIME!! ie. FOOOOOOOD!

So I had to leave and go sit out in the sun and drink my Incredible Hulk drink. It was either that, or watch people eating toasted ham & cheese and pasta in the office. I don't even eat ham & cheese (go vegan, y'all!) so why did I have food envy? As a little treat, I snuck in a few sips of Drink #6 since the guys at Urban Remedy say it's OK to do this (it's the drink with the most good fat & protein, good for sustenance). Mmm... nice and coconut-y, cinnamon-y... I can't wait to get to it at "dinner time".

It's a psychological game this... coz the more I think about it, the "hungrier" I get. When I've been busy with work and absorbed in it, I forget that I'm actually hungry. So... am I really hungry?

Now I'm glad I stuck to the 3-day cleanse. At one point I was considering going the full 5 days! Yeah right! HA!

2.15pm: At this point, I'm a little forgetful. If I don't write down what I've got to do, I spend 5 minutes trying to remember what I was gonna do next. I had to call a colleague back to ask her about a little detail we had just discussed 2 minutes earlier. I suspect this has got to do with my lack of coffee, rather than the lack of food though.

2.42pm: I have never peed as much as I have today. I'm like an old lady, peeing every half an hour!

3.03pm: IT guy behind me is munching on WASABI PEAS!!! Arghhhhhhh!!

*Keep focus on the end goal*

*My body is a... or will be a temple*

3.40pm: Detox Drink #4. Label says: Lemon, Water, Agave Nectar, Cayenne Pepper.


Woah. I'm late for my next drink. So busy I wasn't even hungry. On the way to the office kitchen, I was even thinking "I'm not hungry or thirsty, do I even need another drink?"

So I was glad to find that this was a nice, light, refreshing lemon juice! (Liz, Lew & Mel: MYSTERY SOLVED!) ;p And er... come to think of it, it sounds like The Master Cleanse! ...Of course this substitutes maple syrup for agave nectar instead. All low-GI, natural goodness.
(Side note to Liz: you can use agave nectar instead of stevia as your sugar substitute too! None of that funky bitter aftertaste)

Mmmmmmm. This is extremely yummy. I don't even taste the pepper... just seems like the lemon has a bit of of a bite. While taking Drink #4 out of the cooler bag, I had a few sips of Drink #6 again, coz I absolutely love the rich, thick flavour (plus, it's sweet and I think that's what this sweet tooth of mine is after). OOOOOOH. The "dinner" drink is gonna be such a nice treat!!

5.29pm: Detox Drink #5. Label reads: Carrot, Mint, Cucumber, Cos Lettuce, Silverbeet, Celery, Parsley.


OK, this is EXACTLY like Drink #2 then. Not bad, tastes like carrot & celery juice (imagine V8 drink minus the tomato?)

I can't believe how many drinks there are by now. I really don't feel hungry or thirsty and don't really want to ingest anything... so I suppose that's a good thing?

I feel a really slight headache creeping up from the back of my head too, but I wonder if this might just be referring from my shoulder knots. I'm off to see the Osteopath in half an hour, so whoopee, I get to sort it out.

Even if it's a side-effect from the cleanse, that's a good sign coz that means my body's kicking into detox mode now. Apparently it takes anywhere from 24 - 36hrs after starting a fast before your body starts cleaning itself up internally. The theory is once your body stops having to digest food and process other kinds of chemicals, it turns its attention to breaking down the toxins and chemicals that are already present within your organs. Pretty clever huh?

6.05: Osteopath appointment. He looks at my elbow (jammed from those dropbacks) and says "Of course it stems from the pelvic rotation". Apparently my left shoulder isn't as open because of the misalignment, which then affects the way I dropback and land. Just have to bring more awareness to opening the shoulders! (Yeah right, sounds so easy).

My L1 vertabra in the middle of my back has also been twanging, and it's probably also because of the dropbacks. What's cool about this Osteo is he says that with any new activity, it takes the muscles some time to learn what to do/ what not to do. "Keep dropping back for another week and see how you go." Then he proceeded to advise me which muscles and where my focus on alignment should be to prevent the L1 twang. Pretty cool when you've got an Osteo who's done yoga and understands not just the body, but how which muscles are working in which pose too!

7pm: Detox Drink #6. Label reads: Raw Cashews, cinnamon, Coconut Milk, Agave Nectar, Vanilla Bean, Water.


It's full of MM-MM YUMMY GOODNESS!!! No wonder I've been stealing sips from it all day, it's like a delicious smoothie!

7.35pm: Visit the Steam Room.

I had half of what was left of Drink #6, then decided to go visit the steam room downstairs (yes lucky us, we have one in the apartment building!)

What I remember from reading previous detox literature is that the 3 major ways the body dumps out these toxins is through the skin (sweating), the large intestines (er, your poo), and through your pee. (which is why the other detox I went on also included the colonic treatments)

I'd been peeing one heckuva lot already, but er... haven't been "eliminating" as they say (weird coz I'm pretty regular. OK... Sorry, TOO MUCH INFORMATION. But you ARE reading about a detox, what did you expect would surface?!) (or in my case, not surface. Yet. HAHA!)

So since the steam room's great for opening up the pores and getting toxins out, I sat in there for about 20 minutes (alternating the steam room with cold showers).

8.05pm: Finish the rest of Drink #6

At the end of Day 1 of this cleanse, I'm feeling absolutely FINE. NORMAL. Not hungry, not grumpy... not even a headache (the little one that was threatening to come on earlier has now disappeared). I'm just tanking up with more water coz I'll need it for practice the next day! (ie. today)

I'll give a report on how today's practice went tomorrow, since that technically belongs to Day 2 of the detox.

At the end of Day 1, I'm going to bed with thoughts of my body slowly starting its detoxification process (it's been more than 24hrs since my last meal now!) ...And I'm giving myself a pat on the back for a Day 1 well-handled. :)