This past weekend marked yet another one of my 300-hr advanced yoga teacher training sessions. This particular weekend we studied a style of yoga called Iyengar Yoga with Master Teacher, Bryan Legree. Iyengar Yoga is a form of Hatha Yoga and is structured around detail, alignment, precision and breath. Bryan is a very strict, no b.s. kind of teacher. While I may not have agreed with all of his teachings and philosophies, the one thing that was undeniable was the amount of knowledge he possess. And for that, I have nothing but the upmost respect for him.
There were several things that stuck out to me during the three days we were with him. One thing that was especially significant was a lecture on how we care for ourselves. He said, “What we put into our bodies and into our minds effects everything.” He went on to explain that the food we put into our mouths effects the way our bodies heal, move and feel and what we put into our minds (e.g. what we watch on t.v., who we surround ourselves with, what we read, our countless hours plugged into social media, etc.) effects how we live, how we treat others and effects our overall sense of Self. Basically, we get back what we put in.
Now, if you ask the people around me (especially my boyfriend and my family) about my eating habits they would most likely tell you that I’m borderline psychotic about what I eat. Just like any good yogi, I try and eat all organic, fresh, non-processed foods. Smoothies and juices are consumed every day, most of the time this is my breakfast and lunch. I cut dairy and animal protein out as much as possible and if I do choose to consume these two things I need to know what my food ate, how they were treated, their living conditions and so on. Told you, borderline psychotic [to most people].
The above paragraph brings me to a CONFESSION: I don’t always eat this way.
Yes, I give myself permission to eat whatever the hell I want at times. If I want to take a walk down to Ted Drewe’s with my pups, off we go. If I feel like waking up and going to Donut Drive-In on a Sunday morning, I go. If on that same Sunday I feel like making a huge dinner starring pasta alla vodka, I make it. And we enjoy it. So, as you can see I am definitely not perfect with my food choices. And honestly, lately I’ve been less mindful than I need to be. And I can tell—big time. Let me explain... I recently got very sick which rarely ever happens any more. When I say sick, I mean I was out of commission for a week and didn’t get back into the full swings of things for well over 2 weeks. Lately my body has been achy and dull. At times I notice myself feeling tired in the mornings and throughout the day, especially if I have a big dinner or sweets the night before. As a yogi you tap into how amazing your body SHOULD feel and right now I am not tapping into that as much as I would like. So, as you can imagine, what Bryan said in combination with the way I have been feeling really resonated with me. It resonated so much that I decided to start a 10 day cleanse/detox!!
Before I go any further I want to make something very clear: I am not a nutritionist. I am not trained in any way shape or form to give you medical or nutritional advice. What I can do is give you the medical facts that I have uncovered as well as what works for my body. I have tried several detoxes in the past and my body reacted horribly to all of them. I completely shocked my system and the outcome was not pleasant. With this go-round I am easing myself in and am going to modify as I go if something starts to feel off. Another disclaimer: I am NOT entering into this cleanse to lose weight. Not even close. I do not practice yoga for fitness or for weight loss. While I agree that’s a great fit for some people, it is not for me and I could care less about scales, counting calories or getting a good “workout” in.
Because I am posting this during my cleanse and will modify if need be I am going to wait to share the details with everyone. My purpose behind this post, behind all of my posts and the overall purpose behind this entire blog is to help and share with all of you. I want to give back and hopefully assist my beautiful readers and students to better themselves and their lives. I promise, when this is all over I will share in detail what I’ve done and I will help you in any way if you’re interested in giving this little detox a shot. I also promise to keep you updated every few days on my progress – the good along with the bad.
Currently I am rocking on day 2. Day 2 of my detox is also day 2 of NO COFFEE. This has been the biggest struggle yet. I actually considered keeping coffee in my morning routine and just changing everything else. I soon realized that would be a short cut and a huge lack of effort on my part. I’m not saying I will never have coffee again, but as I’m clearing all of this junk out of my system I want the caffeine out as well. Bye. My sugar craving struggle is also very real. Throughout the day and especially after dinner I am always craving something sweet. To not be able to feed these cravings with a trip to PuraVegan for a cocoa cookie is freaking tough. I hear the first three days are supposed to be the toughest so my hopes are set pretty high that things get easier soon...
Before I go I want to take a moment to be real and tell you my motivation behind wanting to partake on this detox (aside from Bryan’s teachings). The last few months of 2014 were some of the hardest times I’ve ever had. Everything was tested. Everything seemed hard. There were times that I would just cry and want to give up. I was in a particular situation that consumed me. This situation made me the most unhappy that I have ever been. My practice struggled. My meditation struggled, as did my sense of mindfulness for what I put into my body and mind. I have since picked everything up like a BOSS. With the help of my amazing boyfriend, my empowering friends and sweet family 2015 has been the best year I’ve had—ever—and it’s only February. I can tell, however, that I still have some lingering baggage that needs cleared out. I know that some of you reading are probably thinking, “What does food have to do with negative emotions and life struggles?” Let me tell you from experience, it truly does play such an enormous role. My intention for this cleanse is to clear out my remaining junk, mental and physical. To get rid of any last resistance and baggage that I’ve been carrying around. And trust me, my body and my yoga practice is telling me that it’s time to let go.
I am a firm believer that in order to let the new, fresh, amazing things in you have to clear out your old junk first. That is what I am doing. Letting go and clearing out. I will keep all of you posted on how things are progressing and at the end of this hopefully I can help some of you through my experience. As always, feel free to shoot the feedback and questions my way.
So much love to every single one of you.
Keri