Archive from Jan 2009...
Follow me as I'm embarking on a month long extreme detox called the Ejuva Cleanse
My Ejuva Intestinal Cleansing Program
This is not a cheap programme, it's around £200. When I first heard about it I thought it was too expensive for me, but I decided to set the goal. If I could make an extra £200 for myself - then I would do it. Wouldn't you know it - when I got started I made much more than the money I needed to do it. A lot of excuses kept coming up - and I found that I spent a lot of the extra money anyway to sabotage myself. I eventually had to force myself to order it, and now it's here!
Goal for the Programme
My goal for this cleanse is to kickstart my weight loss, kickstart my first ever vegetarian year, and my second year in experimenting with raw food. I want to detox from almost 30 years of emotional heaviness and bad food. I'm not hugely overweight - about 10kgs, but it's been hanging around for a long time and I've never been able to take my health to the next level.
I'm keeping a diary of this cleanse to document my physical and emotional detox symptoms and to take before and after photos and measurements. Symptoms of detox might be headaches, food cravings, nausea, irritability, etc. Wow - Mark will be so thrilled! I'm irritable generally, so it's going to be an interesting and bumpy ride, I'm sure!
It's recommended to skin brush daily, as well as regular baths and saunas. Interestingly it says that your lungs are an important exit point. This worries me a little, as I had severe pneumonia in 2005, and I can still feel a tightness and stress in my lungs. Can only be good news though, huh?
Also, it's suggested not to watch TV, and to avoid as much stress as possible and support the emotional detox by surrounding yourself with positive information.
Starting Weight
I weigh 66.5kgs right now, which is 146.6lbs. I'm aiming for two kgs weight loss over the month.
The place I keep most of my weight is in my tummy, my butt and my thighs, like most women I guess. My boobs seem to stay the same no matter what I weigh, a B-Cup.
I've been roughly around this weight most of my adult life, my heaviest being 70.5kgs or 155.4 lbs. I can't really remember being smaller than 64kgs for a long time.
The ideal weight for my height (162cm, or 5'4") is between 55kgs - 60kgs.
I almost can't imagine being that slim because I haven't been for years.
Week 1: 3 normal meals a day and 1 set of pills and shakesDay 1: I started the cleanse today! The first week you have three meals a day (preferably simple meals, I'm aiming for raw vegan) and take one whole set of the pills and shakes. The pills are all quite brown and powdery, and I've just taken 2 of Renew (rid the body of yeast infections and parasites), 4 of Balance (helps with harmony and vitality) and 4 of Power (breaks up waste material in the colon, cleans the blood). It all has a funny aftertaste - a little metallic, a little dusty and earthy. The shake tastes like a combination of coconut and bark, but not at all unpleasant.
You get a sample daily schedule that tells you what time you should do everything. This is really helpful because there's a lot of different tubs and things!
I've also used the Vibram oil, which has a soothing frangrance of roses and rubbed it on my temple, wrists and feet. It smells like Turkish Delight. Vibram is also designed to nurture the heart chakra and to help eliminate toxins and heavy metals.
The day was fine, although I felt a little emotional and a bit depressed. I doubt it's due to the herbs already though. I was also incredibly gassy all day and night. JOY!
Although I'm not hugely overweight, it really does make me reflect on the years of toxic foods I've been putting into my body. I don't drink a lot of alcohol, have never smoked or taken drugs. However, I was in many different toxic environments as a kid. Life was sometimes calm, sometimes chaotic. We moved around a lot. There was always some sort of drama going on - domestic violence, marriage, divorce, lots of money, to no money. Through it all, I comforted myself through food. I always had a massive appetite, and could eat any adult under the table. I ate a lot of fruit and vegetables, but also a lot of crisps, crackers, fatty dips, McDonalds, potato chips, pizza, chinese food.
I also had mild but regular depression, especially in my final year of High School and the first two years of University. I had irregular periods and was diagnosed with a hormonal imbalance when I was 21. I was put on hormone replacement therapy for a while, but then was just eventually put on the contraception Pill.
Last year I discovered raw food, and this has helped the depression a lot. I also took a hormone blood test recently and my levels were normal. I'm off the Pill, and now have a copper Coil.
I'm doing the Ejuva cleanse as a detox to start me off in 2009, to kickstart my health to a new level and to get rid of the legacy of that unhappy child who had to eat junk to feel good about herself.
Day 2: It must be psychosomatic because after I took the tablets this morning, I felt a sadness again. Weird. Nothing to report bathroom wise, except maybe I'm getting slightly softer BMs. I had an attack of the munchies today, I think because I had such a late lunch. Suddenly after my big salad, I just craved more food. So I ate a handful of corn snacks, then another, then another. Then an old minced pie that's left over from Christmas (how many chemicals exactly preserve that?), then some dim sum, then a muffin. HMMMM? Not good detox food is it!
One great thing is that I did 30 minutes of yoga when I got home. I did the beach yoga download from Yogamazing, and I was just in this intense state of bliss. For the first time, the breathing just flowed and I got this sense that I could just do or be anything I wanted. I had this thought - If I felt like this all the time, imagine what I could manifest in my life? Indeed! Such a good reminder to do yoga more often. In fact, Ejuva recommends that you do gentle yoga to assist in the detox. I also did some tapping, Emotional Freedom Technique on some limiting beliefs - even though I feel like I'll always be overweight and I'm not good enough, I deeply and completing accept myself.
Because Week 1 is such a gentle start, I really don't feel like I'm on detox yet. Except for the gas!
Day 3: This morning when I took the pills (10 in all), I suddenly felt this feeling of excitement and energy, and that's spilled throughout my whole day so far. I read a chapter or two of The Four Hour Workweek
A big green salad for lunch today - kale, lettuce, tomato, fennel, celery. AND then - a big slice of chocolate cake. I've got really bad cravings. Really bad. I'm also not drinking a lot of water today, so that could be a reason too. I've just had two oranges to try and fix the cravings, but still bad.
I'm going out to dinner tonight with my cousin, so might need to take some salad along just so I don't binge on anything bad.
Day 4: Nothing much to report today. It's much of the same really. This week is designed to ease you gently into the cleanse. Hopefully I'll have some gruesome tales for you in the next 3 weeks! I ate a pretty random diet today. I forgot to eat breakfast which wasn't great, and then went to Indian for lunch which wasn't very raw, although it was vegetarian at least. I redeemed myself at dinner by having a kale, cucumber, tomato, sprouts, pepper, avocado and celery salad for dinner. YUM.
Day 6: I'm having lots of cravings, and finding it hard to be raw. Considering that I'm still having three meals a day, I'm worried about how it will go when I'm fasting completely. How am I going to cope?? Last night I went to a poker night, and I ate pizza and heaps of crisps, really cheesy pizza too. That will be great in my cleansing efforts!!! Well - I'm paying for it today, I feel like I have a massive hangover. At least I won £25 at Poker!
Day 7: Weigh in. I weigh exactly the same as when I started. 66.5kgs (146.6lbs). That's probably good because of all the crappy food I ate last week, but also a tad disappointing. I'm just a little mad at myself, because I saved for this programme, and sold so many amazon books, all those trips to the post office, and I don't want to waste the affects, but eating rubbish food.
I seem to have a limiting belief that when I really want something, it's all going to go wrong for me. I also have a belief that when I try to diet, immediately I gain 5kgs. Not very helpful is it?
Week 2 - two meals and two sets of pills and shakes
Day 1: Straight away waves of sadness start week two. Why am I feeling so miserable? I haven't had any dramatic detox symptoms yet except for the emotional ones. I've also got some PMS, so I guess that doesn't help.
I took the two sets of pills today - in the morning, and then again this afternoon. I'm really liking the taste of the shakes, and I'm letting it set to make it like a pudding. I've done this before with chia seeds - it's almost like a rice pudding. YUM!
Day 3: Well - I've woken up with a food hangover. I should know by now that Thai food does not make me feel good. I had pad thai last night, and also some yummy salad. Wow, I'm paying for it now. I also did some tapping on "when I feel good about something, it will go bad" again. It's a persistent limiting self belief.
Lunch today was out at an Indian buffet. I'm find it difficult to control myself at these all-you-can-eat places. Vegetarian curries and rice, naan and poppadams, back again to fill up my plate, even though I was full. YUCK.
I haven't done yoga for ages, have just been taking such a long time to get out of bed in the morning. I know I need to get back into it.
Day 4: Ooh the curry affected me just a little bathroom wise, if you get my drift... I had a salad for breakfast but then late afternoon I got really hungry and ate some gross corn snacks and a biscuit - it wasn't even good. I just have to make sure I always have some fruit handy to avoid the wolf woman syndrome.
Also went out for dinner tonight and had risotto. I'm happy I didn't have alcohol though, I feel so much better that I don't drink. I have no desire for it, and it helps not to binge on bad food, or feel depressed afterwards.
Day 5: Did yoga today and although I hurt my neck, it felt good. We have a lovely lady at work who is a yoga instructor and she very kindly takes a lunch time class for us. It's amazing because usually I do Bikram which is virtually the same every time, or yogamazing podcasts. But having such small classes, she can really give us individual attention and challenges us to do head and shoulder stands.
Unfortunately I undid a lot of good work by eating CRAP at the office party, including heaps of cheese!
Day 7: The weekend was full of nice healthy food, juice and salads. Mark and I did 20 minutes of yoga, and we visited a cute shop to stock up on nuts, seeds, dried fruit and some ecover products.
This week has been the absolute worst for food - so much takeaway. I'm disappointed in myself!Week
Week 3 - one meal a day and three sets of shakes and pills
Day 1: I weighed in today and have lost 0.4kgs since last week, so current weight is 61.5kgs (145.7lbs). Very happy about that considering it was a pretty unhealthy week. My appetite has changed somewhat though - I used to be able to eat much more, and I would stuff food in until I felt sick. I haven't had too many of those days in the last year since I went raw, so it's all incremental change.
I went for lunch with a colleague and she ordered for me while I was getting cash. She ordered me the chips with the sandwich, which I wouldn't have ordered myself, but then I sat there and ate them. I totally didn't have to, but did anyway.
I'm going for a juice at Fresh and Wild tonight to see my homegirl Claire. She'll talk some sense into me! update - had the biggest smoothie they had just so I wouldn't be hungry - had nuts, seeds, dates, everything.
I'm a bit annoyed with myself - I forgot to take my pills today to work, so I only had two sets today, instead of 3!
Day 2: I'm struggling with the one meal a day thing, so just decided that as long as it's raw food - like salads or fruit, then I'll have it. Also got a big bag of almonds, which has helped. Otherwise I'll get hungry, like I did this afternoon and had a packet of salt and vinegar crisps! Also had a lentil and aubergine soup last night, but skipped the bread.
Day 3: Today I'm feeling positive and happy, but so energetic that it's threatening to become hysteria. I had a big juice for breakfast and then some fruit. Lunch was a big salad. I'm going out for dinner tonight to Ping Pong, a dim sum place, so will be two meals again today.
Day 5: I've also got my period at the moment, so that's quite challenging, although it's quite light. I also wanted to experiment with my new Moon Cup, but I think that's a bit too much for one week.
Tonight we went out for dinner to the local italian and I had a margarita pizza and some mozzerella for starts, so lots of cheese. I did stick to one meal though, as the rest of the day I had only had some fruit and my shakes.
Day 6: The one meal today turned into quite a big one - dumplings, raw bar, nuts, seeds and dried fruit! I'm doing lots of poops, kinda weird ones, giant spongy things. Smell like swamp water. Sorry!!
Day 7: Weigh in. I actually put on 0.1kgs, which I wasn't bothered about.
Week 4: No food, and four sets of shakes and pills
This is the week I've been dreading. No food. Although you can drink raw juices, so it's essentially like doing a juice feast. Also, I really like the chia/flax shake so that's almost like a treat!
Day 1: I ate heaps of bananas today, so not strictly no food, but I'm ok with that. Felt really energetic and a bit hyper. Did lots of work at the computer, Nina Simone on the CD player. It snowed out so couldn't meet my girlfriends for juice.
Day 2: I "had" to go out for lunch for a work colleagues birthday. I was feeling all calm and zen all morning, but as soon as we got to the restaurant, I just ordered some bread and a massive bowl of pasta. That kinda sucks, because if I was going to break the fast, couldn't I have just done it with a big salad, not something that will totally clog me up??
I went home and just had juice for dinner.
Day 3: Same pattern again today. Did my fasting today, but met up with friends for dinner, and was like a wolf woman - bread, hommous, vegetarian soup, curry. All in all, it's not terrible, but it would be good to know that sometime in the future, I could sit there happily with my cup of chia and flaxseeds!!
Day 4: Today was a pretty good day actually. Stuck to everything, and did a great yoga session too. Did a really weird BM that looked like it had sundried tomatoes in it - kinda like the photos you see on the Ejuva sites, but didn't want to take a picture of it!
Day 5, 6 & 7: Ok, this is weird. I woke up today with vertigo, and I feel really strange. Not dizzy from lack of food, but completely like the world is on a vertical axis and changing. A really disconcerting feeling. So, I've kinda missed my tablets off the last couple of days. So I'm going to continue week 4 until I run out of pills. I also spilled a container of Combi in my bag, so I've wasted some of that!
Final verdict - Jan 2009
I just don't think I was really ready to do this cleanse. I obviously couldn't follow it to the letter, which is a shame, because I know a lot of people swear by it.
I did lose weight on it, and I get a real sense of where my food addictions are, which is very helpful.
I think I'll try it again in the future sometime, when I'm ready to follow the programme more.
Read about my first 100 day raw food challenge here. It was the first one I ever did, and I lost 8 lbs.
** UPDATE ** March 2010
I find it weird to come back and read this diary, because I've come so far since then. It's a shame that I didn't follow the Ejuva programme, but I know that I wasn't ready for it. I was too new to raw food and not sure how to deal with the cravings and other problems I faced.
I'm much more confident about eating well now, and I like to eat very simply. I'm not sure about trying Ejuva again, possibly I'll be able to do it better this time because eating raw has just become a way of life for me now.
Let me know what your experiences are....
Get your free copy of my ebook- The Raw Detox Diet, and learn how I lost almost 10kgs (so far) with raw food, cleansing and detoxing.
Congratulations! Way to go! It takes a lot of discipline and determination to achieve what you have achieved. You serve as an inspiration to all those who are also struggling to loose weight.
Posted by: Natural Colon Cleanse At Home for Health and Weight Loss | 01/15/2009 at 02:27 PM
This sounds like an interesting cleansing program. Please let us know if you've finished it and your final thoughts!
Posted by: Carey @ My Juice Cleanse | 01/28/2009 at 02:40 PM
Nice to hear that you are trying out this way of trying to loose weight. How are you doing so far? If I may share with you, I lost 57 pounds now and I just strictly used the natural colon cleansing diet plus the Acai Berry supplement and it worked for me.
Posted by: Kathy's Weight Loss Diary | 02/01/2009 at 10:19 PM
Dear Denise,
My name is Dr Partito. I am the owner of EJUVA. We are currently updating our site. I did a Google search and came across your Ejuva blog.
Very interesting!!! But, it is VERY important that one actually follows the instructions that comes with the cleanse. Which clearly you did not.
With all the "so called" cleanses out there it must be SO difficult if you know nothing of what makes a great cleanse. There are so many self proclaimed cleansing experts out there choosing absolute horrible cleanses as their favorite. These experts are anything but! In fact, 99.9% of cleanses out there are little more than herbal laxatives. And, as far as Oxy cleanses (i use them all the time at my clinics) they are incapable of cleansing (long lecture). They will however allow one to eliminate without the harsh effects of a laxative. Many people think if they're eliminating they're cleansing and nothing could be further from the truth.
What makes a great cleanse is the amount of herbs used, the more herbs the more areas of the body that will be cleansed. #2 the quality of herbs are they alive (uncooked) organic or even better Wild Crafted or are they conventionally grown? #3 the length of the cleanse, 3, 7 , 9 or even 10 days is no where near enough time to cleanse ones body. It takes actual years to cleanse out the liver so how much cleansing can be done in approx a week? The answer is not much if any.
Ejuva is recommended by TRUE health Icons like David Wolfe, Gabriel Cousins, Fred Becshi, Paul Nisan and so many others because it works!
Next time you're interested in cleansing please contact me, I'll set you up with a kit and we'll do a cleanse together, we'll do it properly this time and then we'll what your blog says.
Kind Regards,
Dr. Charles Partito N. D. / Nutritionist
Posted by: charles | 08/10/2009 at 01:38 PM
Dear Denise,
Its Charles again. Just for fun I clicked on the "Natural Colon Cleanse" link on your site and its a prime example of what I'm talking about.
With all do respect that so called cleanse has approx 12 dead (cooked) ingredients in it(EJUVA has 96 live herbs). It is NOT organic or wild crafted (as is EJUVA). 2 of the ingredients are actually harmful to the human body!
1. Bentinite Clay~EJUVA does not use Bentinite Clay as its Carrier as so many do. Clay (or dirt), with its 22% Aluminum content is acidic and dead. Clay dehydrates the human intestines and like everything acidic and dead costs the body in valuable Vitamins, Minerals, Enzymes, Co Enzymes and Energy to expel from the human body. The human body is NOT designed to consume dirt. Instead EJUVA uses Aruvadic fruits that are alive and organic for its carrier. These fruits not only do a better job at carrying out the toxins then does Clay. But the fruits actually have a nourishing effect on the body.
2. Senna~ a very harsh herb that one can become addicted to. If one consumes senna in any form for to long your body can become dependent on it and require said herb forever just so one may eliminate. NEVER consume Senna for any reason.
This cleanse is a herbal laxitive not a cleanse at all!
Enzynamically yours,
Charles Partito/ Master Herbal Formulator
Posted by: charles | 08/10/2009 at 02:08 PM
it's a shame that you spent so much money and committed to a cleanse but then went on to eat junk, fried foods.
Posted by: carley | 01/05/2010 at 06:45 PM
I agree with you Carley - it was a shame that I couldn't stick to it, but it made me realise that I had other health issues that I had to deal with and although I like to try extreme things, maybe I had to be gentle with myself
Posted by: Denise @ The Green Queen | 01/06/2010 at 07:51 AM
"Week 4: No food, and four sets of shakes and pills
This is the week I've been dreading. No food. Although you can drink raw juices, so it's essentially like doing a juice feast. Also, I really like the chia/flax shake so that's almost like a treat!
Day 1: I ate heaps of bananas today, so not strictly no food, but I'm ok with that"
Why would you be okay with not following the instructions of an excellent programme?
Maybe you are not ready at the moment. There is no shame in that but try to be true to yourself and do it again when you are ready to dedicate yourself to doing it properly.
Posted by: KDB | 03/25/2010 at 04:19 AM
You're totally right, as you can see - I've admitted it before that I found it very difficult to follow at the time (this was almost two years ago now). I was new to raw food and was still very addicted to cooked food and junk.
I'm sure Ejuva is excellent. I'd love to do it again at some point. I'm just saying that's it's not necessarily an easy programme for some people.
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