Ouch said my body everywhere – despite my love of travel a full week abroad with nothing but restaurant food was the last straw for my tummy. One day into my cleanse my caffeine-less head and salt-free cranberry water drinking body felt even worse but after three days I evened out and began to feel better and then good.
For some years I've bi-annually or quarterly cleansed with these medical food shakes – the week before this cleanse I tried to drink one and about gagged then felt nauseous – so I decided a different type of cleanse was in order. Also I needed one with the side effect of weight loss, specific instructions and routine for a limited period of time. So then my mother tells me about this 14 day liver cleanse – and I found the early 2000s diet craze The Fat Flush Plan.
There is actually quite a bit of real food in the fat flush cleanse, no three day hot lemon water regimin or anything crazy like that. Just psyllium, and cranberry water, lots of cranberry water. And no salt, sugar, caffeine, carbohydrates, dairy, nuts, chocolate, beans, or alcohol. But it's only 14 days of my life right. The gnocchi and bacon can wait.
I began the cleanse realizing that it is really hard to make decent scrambled eggs without a little oil in the pan – and with no salt things like tomato are really important for flavor. I had a minor breakdown over tea when I realized most celestial seasonings teas have soy lecithin in them. So I started brewing my own ginger, lemon, cinnamon, bay leaf tea.
Cleanse Tea
2 Tbsp grated ginger
3 bay leaves
1/2 lemon (juice squeezed )
2 Tsp ground cinnamon
I learned that it takes a long time to drink 36 ounces of cran water, hot lemon water etc before you leave the house in the morning. But if you haven't drank any wine the evening before it is way easier to get up earlier and jump on my "urban bouncer" aka trampoline and drink a bunch of water.
