Metabolism Makeover - The First 8 Days

The way our body is functioning on the inside can often be very obvious based on the way we look on the outside or the signals we tend to ignore on a regular basis because they're just considered "normal" by today's standards. If you aren't convinced, think about those hectic mornings trying to get the kids out the door where everything seems to go awry. Those are the days you might realize halfway through the day exactly what your hair, etc looks like that you have been wandering around half put together completely unaware because you didn't have the capacity to notice. Yep, been there. Under stress, here come the break outs. There are other signals we have come to accept as normal problems too that can "only be fixed with medicine." Do you know people with eczema? They are often given a prescription to treat it after lots of frustration with over the counter creams. My daughter and I have both dealt with sensitive skin issues that for us are well managed with food awareness. There are so many ailments that with today's processed junk have become accepted as normal, but the basic fact that gets ignored is that eighty percent of our immune system is in our gut. Is it really a coincidence that when we eat crap, our bodies start to act up in ways other than our waistlines expanding?

As someone who has had my own journey with getting healthy after an incredibly unhealthy relationship with food and body image, I made a concerted effort two years ago to clean up my act. I went to an 80/20 rule regarding how my daughter and I would maintain our healthy gluten free lifestyle. Gluten free isn't optional, but how we stay that way is to focus the majority of the time on eating gluten free clean with a sprinkling of being able to have a life too. Last summer, after the layoff, I can say that having all that time to cook and prep food resulted in probably the cleanest nutrition I ever experienced. Life happens though and for the last few months, I have been aware that my body hasn't quite been functioning at optimum performance. The energy to work out has been absent, along with frustration, etc. Something intuitively told me, I needed to step it up a notch and reboot my metabolism. All that time I had been taking to plan and prep seems to be used elsewhere and it was becoming obvious. While I hit my optimum weight two years ago, I have stayed within 10# for the last two years, not an easy task. Dropping the weight though was about getting healthy, not about getting skinny.

Knowing that I needed to really get my body functioning properly, I decided I couldn't ignore the results I was seeing and hearing about with a cellular cleanse program from people I actually know. As somebody who has tried many of the "quick fix" options and overhauled my diet, I know that quick fix in a box with zero effort isn't realistic. I decided to fully commit to this program. It isn't a 30 day boxed program to fix you for life. It's a program to reset your body's process and encourage lifelong healthy choices. I also have realistic expectations for myself of what a healthy weight is. I am 5'6.5" and the scale at the beginning of my journey was sitting at 137. If I get below 125, I look sickly, so my goal is to tighten and tone with no more than 12# to lose.

So, how's it going after 8 days? The positive is that so far, I have lost 3.4 pounds and 10.75". I noticed on day 3 that I actually had more energy for my workouts. Let me say that I never believe any of the programs that claim to give you more energy, so this to me was surprising. I also have been hesitant to give too many details about my experience because what I have learned about my body, celiac, and how I respond to certain foods is that my body is highly sensitive to certain triggers. If I had negative issues because of my lovely gene pool, it doesn't mean that others would, so I was cautious. After all this program has worked very well for others.

DH is a crappy side effect of exposure to gluten for many people with celiac. My body however gets this lovely trigger from other grains, sugar, or just stress throwing my autoimmune system out of whack. When I noticed somewhere between days 4 and 5 that my immune system was screaming at me, I initially questioned if I knew just what I was doing. I'm not a fan of packaged food and this system includes some packaged food. I wondered if I bought into some gimmick. I wondered if I should just stop, return it, and get my refund. Then I thought through what life has been like the last few months and what I have been consuming. Life has been stressful and my food hasn't been planned out like I know it needs to be. There has been way more winging it and eating easy than there should be. This program is flushing the toxins to the surface. When you have junk inside of your body, eventually, it has to work its way out and mine is. This reality check encouraged me to keep on the program. It also meant upping the supplements I know need to help heal me: vitamin C, garlic, and probiotics. So yes, it's getting better and at a much faster rate than usual. Do I still question the ingredients or effectiveness? No, since my body is healing from the cellular level being flushed out versus continuing, I believe based on my own experience and research that I have flushed that junk out. Of course, being slightly on the risk benefit curiosity side, I also had to actually check my real results on day 8, instead of waiting until day 10 to have an actual gauge. That's where the numbers come in to show that yes, I am flushing the toxins out and it's showing in my results.

Anybody who has a dietary change is likely going to have some sort of body adjustments and the fact is that mine aren't usually the same as others. Of course, I already experienced the big sugar processed food detox two years ago, so I am not having those symptoms. My point is this, I have found an option that has worked well for many and I am finding tremendous benefit in my overall wellness. Change is never easy and many times, in today's society, there's a desire to find the drive through quick fix. We've all done it at some point. The big question is, how's it working for you? For me, it wasn't and the effort to achieve great health is worth the transition in many cases. So after day 8, I'm pleased so far, continuing, and excited to see how much I can transform my overall health.