The Pleasure Prescription. Month 1, Day 18.
“If it grows, eat it. If it doesn’t grow, don’t eat it.” – Louise Hay
Most women never finish a cleanse.
Why?
Because we’re wired to move towards pleasure and away from pain. And deprivation – a key part of most cleanses – is not pleasurable.
So we give in. We eat what we’re not “supposed” to. We binge. We “fail.”
The truth is, we’re not failing. We’re just doing what we’re wired to do.
How to cleanse without giving up
So how do you cleanse? How do you get rid of all the toxins and the waste that
- keep fat on your body
- sap your energy
- make you wake up anxious and irritable and
- really mess with intuitive eating?
How do you cleanse without “losing it?”
You upgrade.
Month 1, Day 18. Your Pleasure Goal.
To eat foods that come from the earth or feed off of the earth, free of chemicals, pesticides and other funky, “not made to make a woman beautiful,” junk.
Month 1, Day 18. Your Pleasure Practice.
For the next two weeks eat whole, natural, straight from mama earth foods.
Benefits of whole natural foods
- Tons of nutrients. Whole, natural foods give your body loads of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, and phytonutrients. Stuff that makes your skin shine, your eyes sparkle, your energy soar and your weight stabilize.
- Satisfaction. Whole, natural foods give your body a sense of satisfaction so that you feel full earlier and eat less.
- Decrease cravings. Whole, natural foods decrease cravings because, unlike highly processed, refined foods they have natural amounts of fat, sugar and salt. High amounts of sugar, salt and fat increase cravings and likelihood of sugar addictions.
- Reduce risk of disease. Whole, natural foods reduce the risk of disease like heart disease and diabetes.
- Get rid of waste (and weight). Whole, natural foods contain fiber that helps sweep waste and toxins out of the body.
- They make sense. Whole natural foods make sense to your body. When you give your body highly processed, refined foods your body has to figure out what to do with all the funky stuff it doesn’t recognize. It often sends the funky stuff to your organs to be stored as toxins. Whole, natural foods don’t have any funky, foreign ingredients.
Part of what makes a cleanse work is giving your body foods it loves without denying your taste buds their cravings. Whole, natural foods do just that.
The best way that I know to do that is with upgrading.
Upgrading is taking what you might normally eat and bumping the quality up a notch.
Substituting real ingredients for highly processed, heavily refined, made in a laboratory, foreign sounding stuff.
Opting for organic instead of commercial.
Choosing local over flown in from thousands of miles away.
Buying fast food that is fast but is still food.
You can still eat all the foods you love just make sure they’re all food.
Your handy-dandy substitution chart
- Cereal. Buy cereal with whole grains preferably Ezekial with whole, soaked grains or a hearty muesli.
- Meat. Buy meat that is free of additives, pesticides and other chemicals. Factory farmed meat is loaded with antiobiotics, pesticides and other stuff that makes your body really unhappy.
- Pasta and grains. Instead of white flour pasta or white rice choose whole wheat pasta or brown rice. Try grains like quinoa, millet and amaranth.
- Fast food. Choose your prepared food from a health food store or buy frozen prepared food in the health food section of the supermarket. Check labels to make sure you recognize all ingredients.
- Chips and other snacky stuff. Check out raw food bars like Larabar or Raw Revolution. Eat trail mix. My favorite combo is almonds, raisins, dark chocolate chips and dried coconut.
- Cookies, candy and ice cream. These days you can find tons of cookies, ice cream and even candy that is made without anything artificial. Check out your local health food store or the health food section of your supermarket.
- Coffee. Well, coffee is a tough one. I recommend green tea or just cutting out coffee for the next two weeks. To reduce coffee intake gradually begin one to two weeks before a cleanse. Start by having half caf/half decaf and slowly getting it down to all decaf. Then switch to tea.
And if you’re doing my Radiant Beauty Cleanse then you have a fabulous 21-day meal plan with recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and dessert! (BTW, the price is doubling in about two weeks. Just wanted to give you a heads up).
Upgrading is really very simple.
Here’s how:
For the next two weeks choose food.
That’s it.
Just real, whole, natural, straight from mama earth, food.
Yum.
