Spring Is the Best Time of Year for a Cleanse
Spring is a great time of year to cleanse. I’ve talked about cleansing in the past year or more, and the why behind it here and here. I wanted to talk more with you today about my experiences cleansing.
Hang on for this one, it’s a little longer and denser than usual.
First, I want to remind you that in Ayurveda, cleansing is not about punishing yourself, or deprivation, or a way to lose weight.
Cleansing in Ayurveda is about resetting your digestive fire down to the cellular level. It’s a practice designed to give the body a break from digesting our typical lives so that we can digest what’s been backlogged: toxins stored in our tissues, undigested emotions, and to help clear out unhealthy cravings.
At its core, Ayurveda is about pruning away what is not ours to remember our true nature as spirit. We have to constantly be reminded, and clear out anything getting in the way of that.
I had never done a cleanse until I came to Ayurveda. I also have not engaged in restrictive diets in the past.
I did intentionally lose weight a few years ago after ten years of weight creep, and it was because I was overweight for my body type, and uncomfortable; and when I did so, I changed my entire way of eating (this was when I was discovering Ayurveda), including HOW I ate, which in Ayurveda is considered as important or more than WHAT we eat.
Please acknowledge that this is unusual. So many women I know have struggled with some form of disordered eating.
I feel grateful for my fairly healthy view of food, and I want to thank my parents in part for this: they are both healthy eaters that did not reflect to me that I needed to restrict or control food or my size. Though my mom came from Venezuelan culture, where skinny (with big boobs) was "better," she did not impose this on me and wasn’t super hard on herself.
My body image issues have come from society and media (especially movies and magazines), and though I have had (and continue to have) my own internal struggles, as all women do, with my body image, I have not done a whole lot to CONTROL my body with my mind.
I did my first cleanse in 2021. It was three days long. Since then, I’ve done a cleanse every spring and fall. I’ve done five days, seven days, and the last one was ten days. Every single one was different.
Here are a few things I’ve experienced (not all in the same cleanse):
During the cleanse:
Old memories coming up to be processed
Intense dreams
Cravings for heavy meals like pizza or burgers
Intense cravings for sugar
No cravings at all!
Mild weight loss (typically gained back to my usual setpoint)
Crankiness/moodiness
Fatigue, headache ("sugar detox")
A lovely lightness
After the cleanse:
Decreased seasonal allergies
Enhanced sense of smell
Decreased sugar cravings
Less digestive issues (gas, bloating)
Improved clarity of thought
Peace and ease in the mind (decreased anxiety)
Ability to stop snacking between meals
Naturally wanting to choose foods that felt more nourishing to me
Shifting away from challenging food combinations
These are my experiences. There is a whole range of things that are possible. Honestly, I think I'm just scratching the surface.
Once you balance your system, you WANT to follow eating that is nourishing to your body.
When in balance, your cells crave what keeps you in balance. It’s not willpower. I don’t feel like I exert willpower most of the time in my eating habits.
A cleanse can especially be powerful for a woman in perimenopause. This is because the symptoms are often an accumulation of how we've been living until now. Cleansing can help to move some of this out of the tissues, and again, improve the digestive fire, which is really what it's all about.
I've created a guide to a simple 7 day kitchari cleanse. Feel free to grab it here, and pass on to anyone who might benefit.