The group cleanse
IREALLY enjoy doing cleanses and detoxes. Let me rephrase that. I don’t necessarily enjoy the elaborate dietary restrictions and the emotional chaos sugar withdrawal causes but I certainly like the feeling after.
It’s the sense of accomplishment from soldiering through a nutritional commitment of no white sugar, no red meat or no dairy (I love my cheese so this is particularly difficult).
It’s the elimination of guilt you’ve gained after eating so much high cholesterol Raya food over the holidays that could make a cardiologist cry.
And most of all, it’s the amazing feeling you get when you manage to see the physical results, like weight loss or clearer skin.
This is my second year of doing a post-Raya cleanse. Last year was brutal. The sugar withdrawal made me cranky, so much so that I even felt like yelling at my potted plants for no reason.
I distinctively remember being in a crowd of colleagues during a Raya potluck (because hey, we celebrate it for a month, right?) and while everyone was indulging in all sorts of delicacies, I had to stick to my plate of raw vegetables and hummus dip. It was easily one of the longest weeks of 2017.
So this year, I was better prepared. I scheduled my detox in the window where there was absolutely no Raya party invitations. To keep me motivated, I decided to invite colleagues Shahul and Wardah to join me in the challenge. Neither of them have tried it before, so I was excited to see how it would work out for them.
Before we began, I had to first lay out the rules. “No red meat, because we want to be as gentle as possible on our digestive systems,” I said.
Plus we have eaten enough red meat during Raya to last us a whole month. This seemed to settle well with the both of them.
“And no processed meat of any form.” They were okay with this too.
“No white carbohydrates.” I saw some worried looks.
“No caffeine either,” I said. They pondered on this for a while. “How about coffee from the vending machine?” Wardah asked. I thought this was a strange question given that I’ve just said that we were not to have any caffeine in any form whatsoever. “And no processed white sugar,” I concluded.
“All right, how about Llao Llao frozen yogurt? I mean, it’s yogurt, so it’s good for you, right?” Shahul asked. I almost gave up.
We all agreed to begin the ‘cleanse’ the next day. At lunch time, I saw Shahul emerging at the office with some McDonald’s treats. I asked him why he was indulging in fast food today.
“Oh, because we’re starting the detox tomorrow. So I’m making the most out of today by eating all these stuff,” he answered.
Surprisingly, the next few days went by like a breeze. Unlike last year when I was eating raw vegetables on my own at the sad little corner of the office, this time around I looked forward to my lunch breaks.
As part of the commitment, we agreed to take turns to make lunches for the group. This way, mealtimes became exciting instead of dreadful because we were excited to see what each of us could come up with given the list of do’s and don’ts.
Eating together and asking each other what we had throughout the day also kept us motivated and reduced the dreadful feeling of being the only person eating low-carb meals.
I suppose in this case, misery really did love company.
The only relapse we had was an occasion where Shahul was caught eating spoonful after spoonful of high-sugared peanut butter (“Why not? I thought you said nuts are good for us,” he said).
Earlier in the year, there were many articles that claimed cleanses and detoxes were a complete hoax.
Did I agree? Well, it depends on how you approach it. Would you contest that eating cleaner diets with less processed food and more plants and greens have no effect on our health? Of course not.
There are research out there that shows eating more vegetables and less processed meat will directly impact our overall health.
What becomes a hoax, however, is if you only eat well during your short detox programme but eat horribly the rest of the days in the year.
It’s all about check and balance. Doing a cleanse is just an opportunity to be extra kind to your body and feed it with more goodness, but for the rest of the time, you’re still responsible for looking after what you consume and having a fairly balanced diet.
And if you’re thinking of trying it out sometime, how about getting some family members or friends to join you?
It gave me an extra boost to keep going. Doing it alone can sometimes present a challenge in terms of maintaining motivation. Honestly, even whining together about wanting an ice cream is better than feeling miserable on your own.
Most of all, keep your eye on the prize. What are your objectives of doing one in the first place? If you’re not allergic to gluten, then focus less on having a gluten-free programme and pay more attention to having more greens in your diet.
If you’re on a carb-free programme, don’t starve yourself. Instead, think of ways on how you can fill yourself up with other alternatives. Doing a detox does not mean you have to be hungry.
As expected, by the end of it we felt great physically and had more energy. I highly recommend it. If you’re about to embark on one, good luck!