Wed, 15 May 2024 06:16:51 -0500WeeblyTue, 20 Jul 2021 07:19:36 GMThttp://synergyliving.net/blog/the-journey-back-to-health-beyond-the-cleanseThere is no measuring what improving your health would do to your life. There is no dollar sign, no percentage, no color coding… when you have been struggling with your health for a while, call it weeks, months, years, decades, and you have tried everything under the sun to feel better but not much works, finding something that gives you a little bit of improvement, changes your every day. You see the colors brighter, and your mood improves, which in turn helps your body feel better. By no means am I implying that you create this in your mind, oh no! But I do know by experience, that every ounce of extra energy and every bit less of pain you feel, has an effect on your outlook and therefore on your recovery. In this journey I have decided to stay on this lifestyle a while longer, and I plan on telling you what has happened since I finished the cleanse (officially), and my reasons to go this route.
 
It has been a few weeks since I have been done with the cleanse, and I decided to continue on without processed food, sugar, processed vegetable proteins (I was vegetarian before anyway), caffeine, etc., etc., etc. I continue to eat vegan. I have added other veggies and I have added cooked meals in the evenings mostly. I continue the morning routine with lemon water, celery juice and the detox smoothie. I have added some foods like quinoa and potatoes back into my diet. I did so gradually and had absolutely no problem at all, and I haven’t even had heartburn at all. It was a constant issue for me previously. I added vegetables with tons of protein like mushrooms and eggplant, and more avocado than the once-ish a week suggested in the detox. I keep seeing the inflammation go away, and I keep losing weight steadily and slowly (no more than 2 pounds per week). It is great that the weight loss is slow and steady, which will make it more sustainable and less shocking to the body in the long run. And seriously, it is unlikely that I can eat any healthier than I already am!
 
I like the fact that even though I am still not sleeping nearly enough (yes, partly blame the toddler), and I don’t get to exercise as much as I would like to, the effects of the lifestyle change I can definitely see and feel. It has been a few years since I felt like myself, even a little bit. I cannot remember the last time I could run or jump with my son and not feel like I needed a bath followed by a massage and a pain killer that night to survive the next day. Let alone being able to actually keep up with him. That right there, makes my eyes tear up a little!
 
Then there is the brain fog… not going to lie, there has been days when I still forget where my phone or headset is, but the way my brain processes information is way clearer. Some days I even feel like I am myself again, I look at my face on the mirror and I can recognize my smile once more. I can plan for things and retain information much better again. Am I out of the woods? Unfortunately, no. I am a long way to healing completely, but I will take every bit I can, and every little thing that provides me with better quality of life, even if I have to ditch my beloved chocolate ice cream, bread, and cheese. And if it is in the cards for me, I can heal, and enjoy those once again. Or will I? hmm… time will tell, but what I do know is that being constant, disciplined, and committed to myself, is slowly paying off so far.
 
I have not decided when I am going to stop this vegan diet. I am listening to my body right now, and it feels good. I follow the lead and pay attention to what it asks me for. Sure, the chocolate IS tempting, but I will go for a piece of fruit, or some baby carrots instead. And yes, I will have a homemade popsicle if I crave it after playing outside with my son without feeling bad about it. It is really ok to have some balance. I want to add some other foods like beans and garbanzos little by little and see how I feel. That is probably the easiest way to decide if the time is right to go back to them or I should wait.
 
I really hope this information proves helpful. I hope someone finds this and gets motivated to do something similar. You can make small changes today: drink 2 coffees instead of five (or none at all); drink to fresh celery juice in the morning, or simply cut all processed sugar! Every little thing you do to improve your health, will be compensated in the end. We have this one body and this one life… might as well do good by it.
 
Thank you for accompanying me on this journey once again. You can find more on my IG and YouTube channels. Please reach out, comment, ask, tell me your story, your challenges. I love hearing from you!
 
​Have a wonderful day!
Love, Light, and Music,
 
Yeshiva Lex~]]>Thu, 24 Jun 2021 06:42:04 GMThttp://synergyliving.net/blog/the-journey-back-to-health-week-4And so, we are here… the final week! Four short and long weeks of doing the cleanse suggested in the Medical Medium book. I almost can’t believe it, and just like that it feels like it flew by! Such a rollercoaster in so many ways, I wasn’t sure if I could keep it up at times, but it makes me super proud of myself to say that I held up my promise and finished it rain or shine. The question is, what are the comments now that the final results are in?
 
Well… I do feel better, A LOT better, about 40% better as far as inflammation, headaches, and joint pain goes. I would say the brain fog is down about a 30% overall, which is amazing when you don’t sleep enough, spend your days running after a toddler and trying to keep track of everything. I am still tired, but less than before, and could probably use more sleep, but that is a work in progress. Still, I have had more energy than what I have had in the last couple of years. The cravings have subsided, it’s more a “hmmm that smells good and I’d like to taste it” kind of thing now. Much more manageable as I finally leaned in completely and accepted the new diet in my life. I have to say my moods have been a lot better this past week (for which I’m sure everyone around me is thankful lol), and overall, I have felt less anxiety this past week. The rashes… oh the rashes! Still there, it’s the last thing clinging onto my skin like its life depended on it (and it probably does), however, they are somewhat better. Something that was interesting to see this week was the fact that I saw some inflammation come back, and my left knee was up and down, however, I am still able to bend it all the way with just a slight discomfort. I would say it is a win from not being able to bend it completely, not even for child’s pose. Also this week, I found it hard to eat some salads with lemon juice, it started to upset my stomach as it used to do a while back… this would be the reason why I also stayed away from raw garlic and kept ginger to the minimum.
 
The morning routine has become more normal, and now I can manage to have the celery juice made and ready in about 20 mins assuming baby doesn’t pull me much. So, overall, we are getting more used to it. This week was particularly challenging with snacks as I was out of the house most of the afternoons, but we resorted to apples, pears, bananas, nectarines and tangerines, and did pretty good. For the lunch and dinner recipes, I kept making salads and did cooked meals at least 3 nights, mostly for convenience of time. I have to admit some days it is exhausting to be cooking so much, cooking the two or three different menus per meal, and I feel like adding more pasta to the boiling water. But being a tired mama did not persuade me enough to break the commitment to myself. At the end of the day, I would be cheating myself and no one else. I have to say I am super proud of sticking with it. I didn’t think I would make it four weeks on [mostly] raw food, but I did! And the little modifications I made so it became easier for me, I do not regret one bit. I have actually started to enjoy this kind of eating more and crave more fruit. The only downside is the lack of true healthy food restaurants where I live in the Southern US… it’s nice to get a break from the kitchen and it is close to impossible to get a nice big salad or vegan dish in my town.
 
This week I did exercise! I managed to work out twice, plus the usual running after and lifting the toddler. Add a couple of long walks to that, and I would definitely say my week had more movement. I managed to do one short meditation, and that is a start. Having spent a little more time on physical exercise and mental well-being, definitely helped keep my anxiety levels lower. I do see my thinking patterns much better, and my brain has been able to focus a lot easier. It’s almost like I can have defined thinking processes with a beginning and end to the idea, also something I haven’t been able to do in a while. And speaking of things that haven’t happened for some time, I am proud to say I lost another 4.5 lbs. this past week, bringing the grand total to 18 pounds! Woohoo!! That feels like a huge accomplishment!!
 
The biggest takeaway I got from the last seven days, was realizing the emotional process my soul went through. I have been comparing this experience to the experience at Kripalu Center for Yoga when I trained to become a yoga instructor. It was also a four weeklong intensive program, but in that case, I stayed on a hill in the middle of nowhere for the whole month, had limited internet and communications, and immersed myself in a very amazing experience at a very hard time of my life. All that sent me into a process I will never forget. This process felt a lot like the four weeks at Kripalu. The emotional patterns were pretty much the same: resistance the first week, rebellion on the second week, anger on the third week, and acceptance on the fourth week… that would be my super condensed sum up of the emotions. Allowing and witnessing the process was half the battle and coming to peace and acceptance with myself allowed for me to let go of emotions that have been trapped inside me for far too long. In a way, I feel liberated and lighter, with a new canvas to paint new stories.
 
In the coming weeks, I have decided to stick with the diet. I will add more cooked food and will consider adding some processed foods within reason, but still sticking to the morning detox routine, and salads. I want to see what happens if I add more exercise and meditation to the same menus. Besides I feel so good, I don’t really want to go back to the same ol’ foods that were not helping before… continuing to eat like this can only keep helping, right?
 
Thank you for walking with me this far, I really hope you got something positive out of this exercise. Please leave me a comment and tell me what keeps you going every day, ask any question, or just say anything you would like. I love hearing from you! As always, feel free to visit my IG for more videos and recipes. I will be back next week with more reports on my journey and a whole new entry about how to get back to health.
 
Have a wonderful time and see you soon!
 Love, Light, and Music…
 
Yeshiva Lex~]]>Tue, 15 Jun 2021 10:19:10 GMThttp://synergyliving.net/blog/the-journey-back-to-health-week-3The road to the top of the mountain usually feels steeper right before you are about to get there. No matter how much training you have, how much knowledge you have, how much determination you have… the last few steps always feel like they require all your effort, but then you get to the top, and you can breathe again! This week has been a little bit of both emotions, so let me tell you all about it. Silver lining? Week three is done, and only one more to go!
 
At times I have started to crave certain carbs, and definitely my usual vegetable proteins. I do feel satisfied after my meals and snacks, but I think it has been anxiety that has been the culprit of my wanting to eat more and not drinking enough water. Being Mom to a wonderful hyperactive toddler going through terrible two’s, nonetheless, is no easy task. Some days I am dealing with tantrums and meltdowns most of the day, and the soft and tender moments with my child are some rare few minutes during the day, or the last cuddle to sleep at night. There is no easy child, and I love mine to pieces, but sometimes he triggers my anxiety and drains all I got at the end of the day. I guess I say all this, because adding a cleanse that requires a lot of food prep and time in the kitchen, has definitely required a lot of discipline, effort and patience on my end… and sometimes also breathing through anxiety when I am trying to get the celery juice made and my toddler is yelling for the fourth time that morning.
 
So yes, I have been pretty exhausted and anxious, not drinking enough water still and sleeping way less than I any human should. All this being said, I am proud of myself for having such a strong will power and not breaking the cleanse at all. I still don’t have a solution for the different menus, but I have consolidated the non-cleanse menus for the most part, so I’m only prepping two different meals instead of three. The spinach soup continues to surprise me as I am enjoying it more, the salads I have been rotating as I crave one fruit or the other, and the juicing, smoothies and juices keep holding me well in between meals. I am kind of getting used to it though, and I already decided I do not want to go back to breads, flours, and sugars… and definitely no more occasional dairy, it’s just not worth it. I have however had a couple of occasions when I could not stomach a juice or a meal, and then realize they both had raw garlic, lemon and ginger together. I usually cannot stomach that in a regular basis, and I do suffer from gastritis, but the heartburn has been gone for the last few weeks until I had those. Taking them out of the recipes fixed the issue and I could eat the meal just fine. The celery juice is getting way easier to drink this week, and I am even finding it creamier! Oh yeah, and my son keeps drinking it as well.
 
As far as symptoms go, the brain fog is better this week, even with all the exhaustion. Inflammation has gone down quite a bit, to the point that my clothes are starting to be loose. I’ve had a bad knee for months now, I cannot bend it all the way and it’s bothersome to get dressed, do yoga or exercise, and it just plain out hurts. Well, by the end of week three, the pain is gone, and the inflammation is down a good 85%, which is amazing. My headaches are down to almost gone, only sometimes I’ll get the tension headaches, but they are not constant, in fact, I forget they are there at all. Rashes are a little better, I would say a 15% better overall, but it is hard to get those dark circles any better when you don’t sleep enough.
 
Again, I didn’t do any exercise this week, but I did do some gardening and outdoor play with my son, which is pretty demanding physically for me, so I will make it count as exercise. No meditation either, and to my defense, this week was very challenging emotionally, so I used the time to collect myself and gather the different emotions that I went through because of external factors. Aside from the anxiety, still making such an effort to stay on track with this, get the produce several times a week, plus family life, has come with ups and downs. At times I’ve been feeling like I can’t handle more stuff, but there have been days when I have felt a little bit more like the old me, and had more energy, and that has been incentive enough not to give up. At times, I have felt completely at peace with the new diet and even though I get bored sometimes, I know it is temporary and my mind is not resisting it anymore. That shift changed everything. I also had a situation this week that had me praying to God and all the angels this week for help, and I feel like something snapped inside of me… I just let go of my attachment to everything. I don’t know if Mercury in retrograde is affecting me, or Mercury or the upcoming moon eclipse, or the humidity, or the heavy metals leaving my body, but by the next day I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders and began a new focus. I don’t think I could have done this with the amounts of brain fog I have been experiencing prior to the cleanse, so thank you Medical Medium!
 
So overall the food prep has been intense, but I am finding good systems for that, I am working better with the food, and my symptoms are getting less loud. All wonderful blessings when you live with autoimmune diseases, and your life requires you to perform at a 150%. For the next and final week, I want to resume an exercise routine, add some yoga, and hopefully meditation. I want to feel more flexible within the program, and more relaxed with it. I am curious as to what will happen with the symptoms, since I really hope the curve continues to go towards positive.
 
Alrighty then, I hope this was informative and useful to you. Whether you are thinking about doing a cleanse, in the middle of one, or almost done, whether you are cleansing your body, your mind, or your spirit, trying to be better with a habit like too much social media or ice cream, or trying to let go of a situation or person that is not positive for you, please know you are not alone. It is not easy to manifest change within the self, because it requires awareness, action, discipline and willpower. We will always gravitate towards the known, but we know that is not always what is best, so why not give life a chance to surprise you and make you smile? Yeah… I say let it!
 
Thank you so much for coming back this week, hopefully you can take away something from my report, and I hope you come back again. As always, you can follow my IG and YouTube for more fun postings, and feel free to send me messages or comments wherever you want.
 
Have a wonderful day!
 Love, Light, and Music…

Yeshiva Lex ~]]>Tue, 08 Jun 2021 07:27:28 GMThttp://synergyliving.net/blog/the-journey-back-to-health-week-2When you set your mind to something, everything follows. It’s such a powerful determination that involves you applying all your willpower and your beliefs into that one or two or three things until you reach them. And speaking of will power, this second week has been even more challenging in many ways, but I’m glad to have gotten through it, and be done with it… so here’s the report!

This is not my first rodeo. I have done many detox diets in the past, to the point where I found a favorite one that I do every 6 months or sooner if I feel it’s time. Never have I done a cleanse this long though, two weeks has been my max, so I know after 14 days I’ll transition back to my favorite healthy foods and try to stay away from the not as healthy foods but have some normalcy again. I think my mind has been having some resistance to the cleanse this week. Finding some challenges with my reaction to some recipes, and knowing I got two more weeks to go, sometimes makes me feel frustrated. Still, I keep changing things around to make it work a bit better or easier. I’m finding the process just as emotional as it is physical. This is quite interesting because there is a mention in the book of how as you cleanse the liver, some of the adrenaline trapped in there for a long period of time is released. These pockets of adrenaline were produced by some kind of emotion, and then stored in the liver, so when they get released, the emotion does as well… hence the emotional healing. For me, it has come in the form of memories, old memories from childhood and teenage years long forgotten; as simple as my nana’s Bolognese pasta (smell, taste, place I was eating and all), or some more troubling memories from my young adult life. It has been a wide range of emotions, and that might be the culprit to the moodiness of the week. Boy was I moody!! And I did try to keep it controlled and cope with it for the sake of those living around me, but there were some days I was in a terrible mood.
 
Sleep is still all over the place, I have no problem falling asleep, but still too much to do after baby falls asleep that I need to get to (like a shower!), and my son continues to wake up some random nights and not go back to sleep without help. That has me quite tired still, but I do see the improvement. The brain fog has been at an all-time high this week, and almost need to write things down as I do them or I completely forget what it was! I’m even forgetting to pick up items on my grocery list, as I hold it in my hand. Breathing through it though and being patient with myself as I do see the improvement in inflammation and some of the muscle pain. The rashes are still pretty bad, and this week I had a migraine so bad on Saturday, my head was going to explode! It even woke me up in the middle of the night. I refused to take any meds, as it would defeat the purpose, but it was better by the next day. I think I need to drink more water during the day too, it could be dehydration. I spend so much of the day cooking, cleaning, and making sure my toddler stays alive that I keep forgetting to drink more water… you know, before 11pm.
 
Right now, everything processed smells and looks delicious. Every piece of bread, pizza, pasta, cookies, etc, seem like the only thing my body wants, and it doesn’t help my partner eats it in front of me. He has stopped eating some things while I’m around, but the ones that he does, definitely takes a lot of strength not to take a bite. I just keep thinking that all the effort I am doing will count for something, and I don’t want to lose what I already have done. But oh, how good they all smell! However, I keep introducing new fruits and smoothies to my baby and he’s liking them! Even the spinach soup was a hit the other night, yes! He still only takes a sip of celery juice here and there, but I keep trying. Can’t blame him, I am still having a hard time with it, and still get nauseous with it some days, but it’s starting to be more tolerable. The lemon water seems easier to drink first thing, and I keep waking up so thirsty you would’ve thought I went out drinking the night before…
 
Prepping is something I am still not getting to do much of, but I will say it is getting faster in the mornings. Some days I really struggle, and it all depends on how much energy my baby has that morning. Little by little we seem to get into a routine, and we are getting more used to bringing and sharing fruit for snacks, or a juice or something I much rather put in our bodies. Before the cleanse I was relying heavily on the nut bars for afternoon snacks, and this week I have missed them a lot. Nuts are not really allowed, the rule of thumb is “in small quantities”, but I did find myself cheating a bit and grabbing raisins and nuts as a quick source of energy while doing landscaping or on the run with baby. That could be the reason why I only lost 2 pounds this week, but again, I am not doing this for the weight, and I gladly part with those 2 pounds all the same. In any case, I see my body changing shape, my clothes are fitting better, and I am starting to recognize my face in the mirror again. That-is-priceless.
 
This week I did not get to do any yoga or meditation. It is frustrating, but it was a pretty busy week with doctors’ appointments and a pretty heavy landscaping project around my house (I have a big garden!), so I’m counting that as exercise; not to mention running after a two year old all day every day.
 
For next week, the plan is the same. I think now I have a better idea of how to modify and structure the menus based on the samples given by the book, how to plan the snacks and grocery shopping, and I will continue to try and prep at night, but I’m not sweating it. Hopefully I will get some more exercise and some meditation, and I can’t wait to see what will happen with my symptoms. If the headaches go away and the body pain goes down, I will be really happy. Not one thing in the world will compare to actually having the energy to be a Mom to a supercharged toddler, and I can’t wait to report that I have at least 50% more energy to do just that!
 
Once again thank you for coming to read this blog today. I really hope my experience is helpful for someone considering going on this journey. I hope it gives some hope to other people struggling with life and not having the strength to just do everyday life, and I hope you do reach out if you have anything to say or ask. I am here to talk to you, and I am here to remind you that you can do anything you set your mind to do. No change is too small if it takes you in the direction of a happier healthier life.
 
Last but not least, don’t forget to visit my IG for recipes and other day to day stuff…
 
Have a wonderful time!
Love, Light, and Music…
 
Yeshiva Lex~
 
 ]]>Mon, 31 May 2021 06:53:10 GMThttp://synergyliving.net/blog/the-journey-back-to-health-week-1It’s amazing what can happen in a week, even though it flies by like it’s nobody’s business! Just a week ago, I was telling you that I’d be starting a new protocol to regain my health, and now a whole seven days went by! Yes, I am here to report how the process is going and I hope this information helps you in some kind of way in your own journey.
 
Well, it’s going… (insert smiley with sweat drop on forehead right here). I want to break it down so I can be more accurate about my reporting the experience. Let me walk you through a normal morning in my life before I started the cleanse: wake up, go to kitchen to warm up some non-dairy milk for baby, go to baby’s room for a few minutes, come back to kitchen to start the breakfast, lay out the three different menus, set water for coffee and tea, start setting the table, toddler drags me to room, back to kitchen, then change dirty diaper, back to kitchen to get started on smoothie, toddler pulls mama to the living room, back to kitchen, go change a second dirty diaper, go finish the smoothie, run after the toddler… I think you get the point! No matter how structured I am or how well I prepare the night before, it takes me forever to get some simple things together because my kid is usually bouncing off the wall, and I choose to let him be (trust me, I’ve tried many approaches here).
 
Back to a regular morning now. Add a 16oz glass of lemon water on an empty stomach, followed by a 16oz glass of freshly juiced celery 15 to 30 minutes later, followed by a smoothie also 15-30 minutes later, every morning. It has been challenging to say the least; however, I’m not letting that stop me. No matter whether I prep the night before or not, it still takes me forever to get to breakfast, so I keep trying different things to at least have the toddler fed while I go through the new ritual, so far, no luck. The rest of the day goes pretty similar in terms of cooking and schedules, only thing is dinner taking a little longer, as I am cooking a meal for myself and a different one for the rest of the family. One thing I am loving though, is that my toddler is having more fruit than before, as he always drinks from my juices and smoothies after he helps make them and ends up asking for his own glass in many cases… Mom win!
 
I have now been eating raw fruit and veggies for seven days. No sugar, no processed foods, no breads, no alcohol (which I didn’t drink before anyway), no caffeine… however, I have cheated a little bit on the olive oil and salt, sometimes it gets a little hard to eat salads without dressing or always a sweet dressing. I am also adding the avocado 2-3 times this pass week. I found it made it easier on my body. A lot of the juices and shakes I am loving, but being very careful as some of the combinations are still upsetting my stomach, especially stuff with raw garlic, ginger and lemon, but just like in the salads, I am finding new ways to redo the recipes given, or change the dressing, or replace the fruit for one my body is craving, which is encouraged to do anyway. One thing though: I am sugared out! Oh-my-God, so much sugar! In fruit of course, but tons of sugar. Honestly, I’ve had to do lemon instead on orange juice sometimes, and I have been craving a lot of salty foods this first week. Speaking of cravings, I am craving protein a lot, and also processed foods like there’s no tomorrow. Have you ever been on a cleanse while your husband eats the sandwiches, pasta, pizza, ice cream, and all the stuff you love right there with you while you are craving all that stuff? Yeah, it sucks right? Try cooking it for him on top of that… it double sucks! But tell you what, if nothing else, I am proving myself that I have the willpower of a superhero, hands down! Lol. At least some of the snacks are very yummy, and baby is sharing those sometimes too, although it does get challenging when we have to be out and about in the middle of the day, but I’ve been just grabbing fruit and stepping out and it works. I think that pretty much sums up the food portion.
 
As far as the symptoms go, I am still waking up every morning like a train hit me hard. I have been sleeping terrible since my baby has been having some kind of sleep regression and he keeps waking up in the middle of the night and taking a bit to go back to sleep. So, every morning I feel like I could use another three or four or ten hours of sleep, and everything hurts like I ran a marathon the night before. The body pain improves slightly as the day progresses either because of adrenaline or joins and muscles warming up, but I notice it less during the day. I have been feeling like it is a bit better, like maybe 10% better. I’ve had bursts of energy a few times in the afternoon and it feels like a glimpse of hope. The headaches are there, very low grade headaches that won’t go away and I don’t want to take any medication to compromise the cleanse or upset my liver more than it should be… oh yeah and the brain fog has been very bad this week, like pretty horrible. I feel like the skin rashes are better though.
 
Exercise is next… so who needs to exercise when you have a hyper motor toddler? Exactly my thoughts! Either way, we have been doing some yard work now that it’s nice outside, and I was even able to do yoga twice this week! I had a little monkey hanging off my neck in child’s pose and downward dog, but it was fun for both of us and we made it work into the playtime. I have been taking it easy in terms of stronger activities, since I am still so exhausted, and it is after all the first week. I hope to pick up the pace as my body feels better in the coming weeks.
 
Alright, so I believe that wraps up the first week. It has been challenging, especially with the morning prep, but I do see a slight improvement in the energy levels and the pain and inflammation. I will continue to report as I try to find better ways to make the new lifestyle changes work well with my family schedule and routines. I will also make an effort to sleep more and exercise a little more, always being mindful of life’s requirements and my health limitations.
 
I hope this was useful for you! Please keep coming back and keeping me company on my journey back to regain my health. I will be sharing some recipes and day to day stuff on my IG channel, as well as my YouTube, so feel free to follow there.
 
Have a wonderful week and stay tuned for more reports!
 Love, light, and music.
 
Yeshiva Lex~]]>Fri, 21 May 2021 05:53:19 GMThttp://synergyliving.net/blog/the-journey-back-to-health-my-backstoryIt never seems like the right time to make a big change in routine when you have your schedule figured out, and even more so when you are a Mom. Taking the step to dive into a cleanse I have encountered some resistance on my part, but feeling sick is even worse than the alternative, so I finally made up my mind to begin on this new journey and give it my best while I’m at it. But first let me tell you how I got here.
 
My name is Yeshiva Lex Velez, I am the mother of a wonderful toddler who keeps me on my toes all day and night. I am also a life coach, yoga instructor, healthy lifestyle lover, nutrition enthusiast, dancer, and music maker… but most of these came to a halt a little over three years ago. After being a very healthy person who had enjoyed being fit while doing what I love, my life flipped upside down and inside out after a series of events. To make the story as short as possible, my husband and I moved from Florida to Alabama chasing the music career dream, all while I was doing an MBA, co-producing an upcoming show in Alabama that would result in our releasing the next album, and did I mention I was 5 months pregnant when the move took place? Yeah… just a bit much. The show and album release got permanently postponed right after we got here and we had some family circumstances that required our attention, the pregnancy got complicated (literally got put on bed rest), life at home was very tense, and although I did finish the MBA, life was very challenging. 
 
The traumatic birth of my son was just the cherry on top, leaving me with hernias, intoxication, c-section complications, and a high needs baby I was not ready to care for, especially when I needed help to recover from major surgery in the first eight weeks, and we had just moved away from all our family… only my Mom was here for a couple of months to help. An untreated postpartum depression set in not too late after that, and once my mother left, I had very little help with a baby that didn’t sleep much and cried all day. My recovery became a nightmare, I was full on fight-or-flight mode 24/7 (slept about 2-4 hours of those) and my body seemed to be stuck in a very weak state that doctors could not explain.

Right after my baby’s first birthday I was finally on my way to turn my luck around: I had found a program that worked for me (I had tried most of the stuff that worked pre-baby but nothing!), I found a lovely girl who was wonderful with my little one, and was getting more active with the music career… everything seemed to be aligning itself. Four months after, Covid-19 hit us. So much for that! I thought I had been through my worst, but shortly after we were quarantined, following a very stressful event with my toddler I ended up losing a 7 week pregnancy, and 2 weeks later got bit by a tick that gave me Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and an array of health problems. After many doctors, specialists, and tests, the confused professionals gave me the “Fibromyalgia” label for lack of an explanation to what was happening to me.
 
The bottom line was, and is, that I have had a hard time getting up in the morning to take care of my home and family, keep up with the 2 year old, and let alone have the mental clarity and energy to exercise and follow a specific diet, do any social activity or even go back to work. My muscles do not respond, period. But none of that has mattered since last year, I have had to get out of bed (or crawl sometimes) to feed my child even if I sobbed in pain and frustration the entire time. He depended on me, but I had no support system to help while I took time to heal or practice some self-care or any of the things I already knew that help me get to a better place. Add that to postpartum depression and mourning the loss of my health, my second pregnancy, and later on that year, my soulcat companion of 13 years, and that resulted in the perfect storm for me to fall into a very dark hole where I didn’t want to bother anyone with “my stuff”. I definitely could not help anyone in that state either.
 
After following the holistic lifestyle for so long and knowing what to eat and not to eat, how to self-care, while having a strong and fit body all my life, I was at a place where I could not do more than one thing a day, sometimes “days”, be thankful because I could still get up from the floor with difficulty but unassisted, and watch as my body became weaker and accumulated injuries. For many months I have worked on getting to a better place emotionally and physically. Relentlessly looking for the next diet or supplement or tincture that could help me make a step towards good health, someone mentioned the Medical Medium books by Anthony William, and I started reading. It resonated with me and a lot of the content made sense, so I started incorporating some of the recommendations to my already super healthy and restricted diet. I did feel better, that’s when I decided to try the 28-day cleanse, and here we are.
 
Now that we are up to speed! The plan ahead is to do the cleanse for 28 days and follow the progress day by day. I will keep a journal to track the development of my symptoms, will be sharing my favorite recipes, and keep score of how my health progresses. The diet is simple, basically lots of raw fruits and veggies, but the ones considered most beneficial for detoxifying heavy metals from the body and restoring the immune system. There is no caffeine, no gluten, dairy, eggs, processed sugars, alcohol, grains, legumes, canned, dried, nuts, oils or cooked veggies if possible, with high emphasis on drinking 16-32oz of lemon water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, followed by 16-32oz of fresh celery juice. Breakfasts are mostly smoothies or fruit salads; lunches and dinners are mainly salads… oh yeah and you can have salad for a snack! Ha! Not kidding though, the hardest thing for me is going to be uncooked meals and laying off avocados and olive oil. This for 28 days and then a slow ease back into additional healthy foods. I plan on taking some supplements recommended such as turmeric curcumin, Vitamin C, Spirulina, Vitamin B-12, D3, and a few others I was already taking.
 
I will do my best to pre-prep as much as I can, for my son makes it very hard to get much accomplished when he is awake, still have no help with baby and a husband who works very long hours. Hopefully I will get to sleep more (still a Mom!), do at least 30-45 mins of yoga twice a week, and go for walks with weather, energy, and willing toddler permitted. I will be keeping track of the following symptoms: brain fog, joint pain, inflammation, rashes, dark circles, exhaustion, headaches, moodiness (could that be sleep deprivation for almost three years?), exhaustion, and food cravings… I’m sure I’m forgetting something though.
 
My reason to share all this? Well, I hope it can help someone! Many nights I’ve spent holding my baby while reading blogs and articles looking for a glimpse of hope, and it is my hope that sharing this journey helps someone as those blogs helped me. I do have to add that I am not a doctor, healthcare provider, nor am I affiliated with Medical Medium. I just resonated with something and decided to try my luck with it… after all, I got little to lose, and much to gain if this helps my present health state. I will be sharing the progress here, my IG and YouTube, so feel free to follow if you’d like.
 
Thank you for coming here today, thank you for allowing my words to come to you, and I really hope this experience can be a little ray of sunshine for you and your own journey. I’m looking forward to staying connected!
 
Love, light, and music…

Yeshiva Lex~]]>