As days pass post cleanse and I start to slowly incoporate more foods into my diets : Salads , cooked soups, chai, fruits, nuts, soy milk. I observe the changes. These days I get full really fast and am aware if food is full digested or not. If its not then why eat more, just because its "dinner time" does not mean the body is ready for a full meal. Perhaps a small piece of fruit will suffice. I noticed very quickly this feeling of sluggishness or tiredness slowly creeping back into me. A healer of mine who finished a cleanse last week told me that she tried to eat a meal after a couple of days and woke up the next morning feeling like she was hit by a train. At first I thought she must be exaggerating. Until just yesterday when I woke up and spent half the day feeling like " i was hit by a train" , my head was pounding and i was super tired and wanted to sleep. I thought about the meals I ate the day before and realized perhaps they were a bit too heavy right now.
Here's something to think about : Food produces chemical/hormonal responses, similar to pharmaceutical drugs. You wouldn't overdose on drugs or put the wrong drugs in your body because they could have detrimental effects, right??? So, why overeat or put the wrong food in your body ? hmmm.... chew on that.
I am enjoying being the observer these days as I slowly begin to engage in meals, conversations, activities that I restrained from during the cleanse. I notice how I respond and then make concious decisons about whether its a positive or unpositive response. Do I need this in my life or no? If not, then why do it. If it doesn't feel right or sound right then don't bother. Listen to the instinct as it is the most organic and honest guide out there. Its not easy and just like the cleanse there will be days that I fall of the path but instead of beating myself up about it, I just get back on it with Metta, loving kindness.
Observe the following :
During a meal what is the point of fullness?
Do I feel tired and sluggish? If yes, what did I eat yesterday ? Food takes about 24 hours from ingestion to completly digest and be excreted from the body.
Do I feel energized? Great... what did I eat !
Do I sleep well and wake up rejuvinated?
Heres is a great site for digestion: Love the diagram.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=16
Peace Peace Peace
Ritu
Intersting Info:
Digestion Time Of Foods *
1 1/4 Hoursparsley
1 1/2 Hours lemon Irish moss
1 3/4 Hours avocado grapes mango olive, ripe raspberry
2 Hours blueberry sweet cherry grapefruit orange raisincoconut milk artichoke beet greens garlic potato tomato brown rice
2 1/4 Hours fig, fresh pear, fresh pineapple strawberry asparagus carrot cauliflower lettuce: cos, loose leaf, iceberg
2 1/2 Hours blackberry date fig, dried gooseberry peach, fresh almond dandelion greens leek mushroom okra lima bean white rice basmati rice
Note: Foods beyond this time should not be eaten 3 hours prior to bedtime.
2 3/4 Hours apple, fresh apricot, fresh currant peach, dried plum watermelon chestnut coconut meat, fresh pecan pignolia beet summer squash wheat bran
3 Hours
lime prune, dried filbert nut walnut broccoli cabbage Swiss chardsweet corn endive (escarole) kohlrabi rhubarb spinach winter squash white bean lentil soybean wheat germ
3 1/4 Hours cranberry cantaloupe casaba melon honeydew melon olive oilpomegranate cashew nut coconut meat, dried celery cucumber onion sweet green pepper pumpkin radish rutabagasweet potatoturnip greens watercress snap bean peas, fresh peanut millet
3 1/2 Hours safflower oil sesame seed oil eggplant mustard greens peas, dried soybean oil rye
3 3/4 Hours persimmon quince red cabbage barley wheat
4 Hours Brussels sprouts horseradishturnip
* Source: Ford Heritage, Composition and Facts about Foods (Mokelumne Hill, Calif.: Health
Research).
