On a whim inspired by an article in the January 2011 issue of Outside Magazine, Paula and I began the year with a cleansing diet. I hadn’t done a cleanse like this since…1989 (wow), and my initial motivation was purely to preserve domestic harmony and support my partner.
While I have friends who have a wide range of dietary fetishes that seem to work for them, I’d never thought I felt adverse effects from my diet, which is mostly vegetarian with a touch of fish. Even before I knew about Michael Pollan, my diet followed his recommendations: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” In recent history I haven’t felt compelled to revisit my diet and try a cleanse.
I went into the cleanse skeptical that I would notice any physical improvements or experience any beneficial changes, but was willing to give it a go in the full spirit of the program.
We followed the lead of several Outside staffers who did a ~21-day cleanse developed by cardiologist Alejandro Junger and described in his book Clean.
We bought the book and both started to read it, but the first third (or more) is dedicated to describing the myriad ways that most people harm themselves through a bad diet, a lack of exercise, and too much stress. This was irrelevant to Paula and me so we flipped ahead and focused on the details of the diet itself.
There are several objectives for this particular cleanse:
1. Reducing the load on the digestive system for a while (meaning more liquids…)
2. Removing toxins
3. Delivering detoxifying nutrients
In addition to the diet itself, Junger recommends lifestyle changes like a fitness program (cycling anyone?), yoga, and meditation. No changes needed for me here; in addition to my fitness addiction, I have an established meditation practice.
Related: NY Times article about how meditation may change the structure of the brain.
We started with a ~5 day transition during which we used up the foods in our cupboard that were on the “don’t eat” list like:
-Alcoholic beverages (I don’t drink, but in case you want to try this cleanse–microbrews are out for the duration)
-Caffeine/coffee (Ouch!)
-Dairy
-Eggs
-Nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes)
-Refined sugars
-Wheat products
-White rice
About a year ago I made a meager attempt at eliminating nightshades in order to reduce some joint inflammation, but I didn’t notice any positive change after a couple weeks, so I resumed my normal diet. (I didn’t eliminate wheat at that time, which is also considered to be a joint-swelling culprit.) Although I love coffee, I do periodically take a break from it. So, I had limited experience with avoiding certain foods.
After the transitional weaning period, the daily diet (from an approved list) consists of liquid meals (smoothies, raw soup, or fresh raw juice) at breakfast and dinner, and solid food for mid-day snacks and lunch. I drank and ate as much as I wanted from the approved list throughout the day. If I had to sum up the cleanse, I’d say the focus is on raw foods. As Jack LaLanne said: “If man made it, don’t eat it.”
Making the switch to liquid breakfasts and dinners did take a bit of getting used to and at first I was paranoid that I wouldn’t be able to eat enough to maintain a high level of energy. Breakfast is my big meal of the day, and for me it’s as much about the morning ritual as about the food itself. As the cleanse progressed I experimented with different smoothie and juice formulations and grew to look forward to a liquid morning breakfast. And, as the diet progressed I was surprised to discover that I generally felt MORE energetic with each passing day.
There was one hiccup to the increasing energy trend, although I’m not sure I can blame it on the cleanse. Mid-way through I was out on a 55-mile group ride that I would have normally dismissed as easy. I bonked HARD at about 40 miles. By mile 50 I was looking for a coke and a burrito and was ready to dial 911 for a helicopter evacuation. It turned out that almost everyone in the group bonked that day…so maybe it had to do more with being under-fueled during a long-ish early season ride.
The most physically challenging part of the cleanse was the elimination of coffee and the concomitant withdrawal effect. But, I’d experienced that before and although the sensations were unpleasant for a day or so they weren’t unfamiliar.
Other important aspects of the diet include drinking plenty of water, and allowing at least 12 hours between the final evening meal and breakfast. I ended each day with a couple tablespoons of high-lignan flax oil and some water with a little lemon or apple cider vinegar–which I found helped stimulate a spirited elimination first thing the next morning. The cleansing action was literally visceral and observable!
The cleanse is over and I’ve been transitioning to a “normal” diet for about 10 days. But, I’m finding that a new normal is going to work better for me than my previous diet. From now on, I plan to minimize white rice, wheat, and nightshades, and to take more fruit smoothies and fresh home-made juice. Making this transition has the interesting ancillary impetus of giving me a reason to explore delicious new recipes and foods.
My biggest hope was that the cleanse would result in reduced joint pain and inflammation. The jury is out on this one–some days the joints seem to feel quite a bit better, while on others it feels like there was no improvement.
I lost about 8 lbs, which I’ve been able to keep off so far. I didn’t have much fat to lose, and now I’m super lean. I can’t wait to see whether my hill-climbing improves as a result. (Known as the power to weight ratio, a lighter cyclist will climb faster than a heavier cyclist who can generate the same power.)
Although I’d previously dismissed the possibility that I had problems with wheat, the cleanse enabled me to discover that I get an almost instantaneous negative reaction after eating it. A few days ago for example, I was at a gathering with appetizers that included wheat crackers. I ate a couple, and I quickly felt a large buildup of mucous in my throat. I get the same reaction with white rice.
Starting the day with a lighter or liquid meal feels better in the belly than the big breakfast ritual that had been my habit for years. Also, instead of a big mug of coffee, I’ve found that an 8 oz cup made with an AeroPress is perfect for my tastebuds and body.
Another thing we discovered as we transitioned out of this cleanse is that the Blood Type Diet dovetails nicely with the dietary changes we plan to continue. My blood type is A, and type As are classic vegetarians according to this dietary approach. It was nice to get confirmation about what seemed to make sense based on my dietary history and the cleanse experiment. As we continue to transition out of the cleanse we are incorporating the Blood Type Diet into our eating habits.
Another facet of this sort of experiment is that it requires a fair bit of self-discipline, which is a mental quality that can help in all aspects of life, whether our not you are an athlete.
Although it’s probably not the best time of year for most cyclists to start something like this, I do think it’s worth consideration during your next off-season. Most health and athletically-oriented folks probably won’t notice a huge difference, but I do think a cleanse like this will improve your awareness of which foods are best for your body, which in turn can help you optimize and fine-tune how your body performs.
