It’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~
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It 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~ |