Cleanse - Day Two

I have been fielding lots of Cleanse questions and I thought I'd try to post something daily about The Cleanse over the next two weeks.

One of the best questions I get frequently is "Do I need The Cleanse?" The reason I invented The Cleanse was that I saw all the current nutrition plans out there and the main flaws I found in them were the fact that they were open ended - people would start a plan trying to make some changes and they didn't see an end. It's easy to say you need to change your lifestyle for good - much easier said than done. When a plan isn't drastic enough to make you realize your weaknesses and is open ended, it's not too long before you are right back to your old habits. Seeing that this is a two week plan makes it feel like something that you can definitely do and succeed with. If you are following it accurately, by the end of week two, you will realize the weaknesses you craved or had in your old eating patterns and be anxious to make or keep these new changes, thus making this plan successful in the long run. Habits are something we establish throughout our life time and they are things that we enjoy and become very comfortable with, regardless of whether they are good or bad for you. The Cleanse makes you address what you truly crave in your diet and where your flaws are, even if we try to convince ourselves that "this habit isn't a problem. I work my ass off in training to justify this." I thought that what I'd personally crave was sugar. It turns out that there were really only two things that I significantly missed in my nutrition regimen. Everything else iffy was pretty easy to eliminate. But the pizza I enjoy once per week was a challenge, especially my home made pizza. The hardest thing though was that I enjoy a glass of red wine with dinner. Lisa and I will sit down with a glass of red wine and relax and enjoy dinner. Now, I actually think one glass of red wine with dinner is a healthy thing, and I'm not trying to justify here - I could go into great detail of why it is healthy and really bore the hell out of you. But at the same time, I don't want to be dependant on anything. Trust me, there are sugar dependant people out there and millions of them at that. You wouldn't believe the amount of people that tell me how much they miss chocolate! Finally, The Cleanse was never a weight loss plan. That is just a very nice side benefit if you have weight to lose. It does cleanse your system though and gives your metabolism a much needed break.

A few other quick answers to some questions:

• No, you are not starving! Unless you have gone for more than two days without any calories, you are not starving. It's OK to feel hungry and you are not going to pass out - yes you may have low body fat and you may be a hard core endurance athlete, but don't flatter yourself. You aren't going to pass out. The pockets where you feel light headed and starving are purely psychological. We are a society that doesn't know what it feels like to be a tiny bit hungry.
• No, a modified Cleanse Plan does not work! Most of the really weak minded (here's where I tease since sarcasm isn't displayed well in writing) people will say to me "I'm doing it but modifying it slightly."
• if you are exercising for less than 90 minutes, you only need water. If you are exercising for up to 2.5 hrs, you can add in an electrolyte drink, and if you are going longer than 3 hrs, you can add in some calories during your training session.
• Bananas aren't allowed as a breakfast fruit.

Lisa and I just finished off day two. Dinner was a large chopped salad (the big salad) with romaine lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, chick peas (yes, allowed), black olives (yes, allowed), chicken done on a grill pan with seasoning, and oil, vinegar and black pepper.

Cheers,

EH