In my last post, we briefly discussed dietary habits and changes going into the new year – and I started a cleanse! Here’s an update on that and some products I’m using to support my goals going forward.
First off, I’m on Day 8 of the cleanse! I’d be lying if I said I have been able to follow it perfectly, but we had some family come in town this weekend and I decided to let it slip a little. It’s not the end of the world though! I’m back on track and still doing well. The first 3 days are honestly the hardest, especially if you are a well-caffeinated individual and LOVE meat. Cutting caffeine was definitely hard for me, but with some persistence and what felt like a metric-ton of water…I’m alive! We don’t realize how much we rely on simple little stimulants throughout our day to keep us going, and how chronic dependence over time wears away our body’s natural production of energy and alertness via Cortisol. Cortisol comes from our Adrenals (those tiny little organs sitting on your kidneys) and they are also responsible for producing the important steroids in our body that regulate blood pressure, metabolism, and your immune support (to name a few). So, what am I doing to replace my coffee dependence? Nothing. After the ~3 days of withdrawals, I woke up on the 4th day and felt surprisingly great! I’m not trying to blow rainbows and sunshine out of where the sun doesn’t shine and make an unrealistic claim, but truthfully, I’m doing just fine. I notice a substantial difference in my energy levels once I wake up, but it still takes me a few minutes to become coherent enough to get out of bed in the morning…which I don’t think will ever change. Some other modifications I made was the reintroduction of meat into my diet a few days early. When making meals in the house for more than just myself, I also need to consider everyone else’s needs, which is realistic! REMINDER: The cleanse is for ME, the individual, and each individual person doing it for whatever reasons. It can be personal, mental, emotional, health-related, or whatever they want. The point being is that if you are making food for others in your household, they may have different needs. With some guidance from my mentor, partner, and senior doctor in the office (Dr. Amonette) I found that some people DO need some tweaking to the cleanse and decided to modify my meals to allow meat during dinner. I’m still keeping with the other parts of the cleanse, especially eating WHOLE foods without added preservatives, salt, GMO’s, and wheats. This is definitely different, but you can do it! I promise!
If any of you #AwesomeFollowers took a peek at my last post about the cleanse, I added the VERY detailed link from Standard Process that fully explains the process. They want to make sure you are getting your daily nutrients while you rid yourself of toxins, so they have the option of their SP Complete shake OR I have been using Xymogen’s OptiCleanseGHI shake.
https://www.xymogen.com/assets/imageDisplay.ashx?productID=940&attachmentTypeID=1
Let me tell you, this is BY FAR the best meal replacement shake I have EVER had, hands down. When I was in high school and even through college I would try different brands (Costco has a vegan one, Walmart, BSN, Optimum Nutrition, GNC, NutraBio…etc.) and none of them made me feel the way I do when I take OptiCleanse GHI. Once you get past the name, you can see on the label of the link I posted before this paragraph that ALL the nutrients you need are in this shake. No fillers. No BS. I drink it, and it’s absolutely delicious, and I feel FULL and don’t get bloated, gassy, or hungry like I did with all the others. There is a remarkable difference in the nutrition packed in these tubs compared to what is out there. On the other shakes I would drink it, then suffer in hunger after an hour or two and now I don’t even think about it with the OptiCleanse GHI shakes. I’ve even lost some weight in these 8 days on the cleanse – EVEN THOUGH I WASN’T PERFECT. I cannot wait until I transition into the Awesome Diet. Stay tuned…
Another piece of nutrition that I have had in my life for some time now is Ashwagandha. If you have never heard of it, that is normal, I had no idea what it was when I first learned of it and it’s potential benefits. Ashwagandha is an adaptogen, meaning it is a plant-based herbal remedy that supports your body’s reaction to stress by filling in where it is needed. Sounds too good to be true, right? There are plenty of animal studies on Ashwagandha out there, and there needs to be more work done with human trials, but the results are promising. I know heart problems run in my family, so I am doing everything I can NOW to prevent things from getting out of hand. This herbal remedy is the best choice for me. I even did a trial on myself that spanned over 6 months of me consistently taking and not taking it for periods of time. The only measurements I could monitor were my overall mood (which is weak because that is subjective), and my heart rate (better, but there is still chance for variable cross contamination). But still, I monitored. I found that my mood was directly coordinated to whether I had or had not taken it that day. If I hadn’t, I noticed I was more stressed and tense. If I did, I felt great and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I am by no means suggesting this be used for behavioral therapy, but I did personally FEEL a difference, even though that is weak scientifically, it’s still something to me. Take it as you will. BUT, the most objective marker was my heart rate. I measured using my Apple Watch 3 and looked at my peak high and low heart rate, as well as my average resting/sleeping BPM. On average, I found I was ~10BPM lower when I took Ashwagandha versus when I didn’t. THAT was enough research for me to implement for the rest of my life.
And if you haven’t done a quick google search on it, here are the top 2 links from healthline and webMD.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-proven-ashwagandha-benefits#1 https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-953/ashwagandha
In conclusion, you don’t have to be perfect to start a journey for your health – you are human! And there are some awesome choices for nutrient rich shakes provided by Xymogen that I really LOVE. Whatever you set your goals for, make sure to keep YOU in mind, and #BeAwesome doing it.
Dr. Jonathan Marshall, DC 