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One week down and three to go! As I sit here this morning writing and yes, still craving my morning cup of coffee, I wonder if I'll be able to stick with this cleanse for another three weeks. I'm hoping that writing this blog, putting it out there and making my intentions public will keep me honest. I hope you enjoy following me on this little adventure and beyond!

The journey began a few months ago when I was introduced to the Medical Medium on Facebook, where he posts lots of great info about fruits and veggies and herbs. Next I started listening to his radio show on Hay House Radio and light bulbs kept going off in my head. This guy was talking about a lot of things that many others - both in the alternative health world and in conventional medicine - were not talking about. One prime example pertains to fruit. Conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't eat too much fruit because of the sugar content. Forget all the vitamins and minerals and fiber and other nutrients in fruit: fruit=sugar and too much sugar is bad. Well being a practical, virgo type this just lacked common sense for me because fruit is so much more than sugar, but I had nothing to back up that hunch. Then along comes Anthony Williams who explains everything I always suspected about fruit and it's health giving benefits. So in November I started having fruit smoothie's for breakfast (no greens, just fruit) and snacking on fruit in the afternoon. Other than that I made no dietary changes whatsoever. None. In 2 months, literally without trying, I lost 7 pounds. And that was over the holiday season.

Let me back up a little. I have been challenged with weight issues all my life, ever since I was a sweet, chubby little girl. I joined weight watchers with my dad for the first time when I was in 5th grade. In case you're wondering, I was 10 years old. 10. There began a 40 year yo-yo ride of diets, weight loss, deprivation, over-indulgence, weight gain, self judgement, joy, sadness, pride, shame, confusion, clarity - basically life, with a lot of weight fluctuations in between. So here I am at age 50, more overweight than I've ever been, and feeling really stuck. Everything I've tried to help me lose weight in the past 2 years has failed. I've given up gluten. I've tried paleo. I've increased my exercise. I've used all the herbs I know about that help people lose weight. I've had hypnotherapy and greatly reduced the number of calories I eat. Not one of these things has led to so much as a single pound of weight loss in two years. Until now. The difference is, quite simply, fruit. 

And so last week, I began Anthony's 28 day cleanse and week by week, I'd like to share how it's going. The program is as follows: raw fruit and veg. And some herbal teas and supplements if you want or need them. 

I start each day with 16 oz of celery juice which is considered the number one way to rejuvenate your liver and help it to start producing hydrochloric acid again so you can digest your food. (For most of us at this age, our livers no longer produce enough acid). I have been bloated for the last 2 years, like, pregnancy belly bloated. Nothing has helped. This morning, I finally noticed a little difference. Testimonials suggest it can take two or more weeks to feel the effects of the celery juice and it looks like it's beginning. If you are bloated, have lower digestive issues or acid reflux, you may want to consider trying this step. 

Next I have my smoothie. Some combination of 1-2 bananas, wild blueberries, papaya, strawberries, raspberries, avocado, spirulina powder, a chunk of aloe vera and water or coconut water. This is a large smoothie that lasts me through the morning. If it's not enough, I eat more fruit. Lunch is either a salad with avocado cilantro dressing or a raw spinach soup.  Dinner is whichever of the two I didn't have for lunch. Snacks in the afternoon and evening are fruit or veggie slices and dates, which I particularly enjoy. I am almost never hungry, and if I am, I eat more fruit or veg.

And of course, I drink all sorts of herbal teas and infusions throughout the day. Licorice and fennel seed is my current favorite - so yummy - and excellent for digestion and adrenals.  Plenty of nourishing herbs for even more nutrition - nettles and oatstraw, red clover and red raspberry. Then there's peppermint, dandelion,  lemonbalm (anti-viral), ginger, hibiscus, rose hips - ironically, I'm drinking much more herbal tea now than before I started this cleanse. Lucky me, I own an herb shop!

The first few nights, I got up to pee 5-6 times a night, every 1-2 hours. That subsided on the 4th night and became 3 times a night. Last night it was twice and I had five glorious hours of straight, deep sleep between 1:30am and 6:30am. My bowel movements were loose for the first 4-5 days but not today (sorry!). I was headachy for the first 3 days, but that too has passed.

One significant change I've noticed in just one week is this. Last month I started having a very dry mouth, so dry it was hard to sleep. I would drink herbs during the day that would help, but as I wasn't sipping them at night the benefit ended there. Supposedly, this is a fairly common symptom of menopause. You know, blame it on the hormones. Well, after one week, the dry mouth is 85% gone. Voila! Hormones be damned!

And, I lost another 7 pounds. So that's 14 pounds total after 2 years of zero progress.

Not much else to report right now. I'm a little bored, to be honest. I miss my dinners out with my hubby and his amazing cooking. I miss my wine in the evening, and my coffee in the morning. I went to a party last weekend and drank water and ate a few cherry tomatoes and grapes and had nice conversation with old friends and tried to ignore the intoxicating smells of my friend's delectable cooking. But I survived it. Actually, I enjoyed myself - who would have guessed? I'm a little tired sometimes but not nearly as tired as I thought I might be. Do I want to live this way for the rest of my life? Probably not. At least not completely. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it and let you know what I decide!