Cleanse: Day 2
So, I’m on day two of my second Arise & Shine cleanse. It’s harder this time because Andreas isn’t doing it with me (he can’t afford all the supplies), and it’s tough to sit and eat your raw vegetables and fruit while watching your dinner companion nosh down on yakisoba, wine, and tortilla chips (the boy is a fusion eater: asian, french, and mexican all in one meal).

I was hungry all day yesterday, had a mild headache (not unusual), and felt cranky, but today I’m doing much better. I’m getting ready to have lunch, actually: mango, orange, strawberry, and apple salad, with an avocado on the side. Can I just tell you how great avos are? Nature’s butter, I tell ya.

Why in heavens name would I be doing this? Here’s why. The inside of my, your, everyone’s intenstines are lined with this rubbery stuff called “mucoid plaque.” It’s basically the layer of nastyness that builds up when your body gets something it can’t digest well, which, realistically, is most of the American diet. During the cleanse, you get out feet after feet after feet of stuff that’s been sitting in your body for years. You think you don’t have it? Andreas, who’s been vegan for 7 years, had tons. Me, a life long vegetarian with only a few years of relapse, had even more. It was exciting!

The first cleanse takes a month (3 weeks of gentle cleansing, then 1 week of more intense cleansing and fasting), but after that first time it’s only two weeks. So here, in the two weeks between travels to Tennessee and Los Angeles, I’m cleansing.