So this summer I wanted to start getting clean, not necessarily to be a slave society's ideal victoria-secret-body type but more for the sake of having more energy and keeping my body healthy. Just because of the type of person I am I decided to go all in, cut out all the sugars and processed foods. To ease my way into this healthy lifestyle I started my journey off with a juice cleanse. Three days, 6 juices every day. Yes, the body naturally detoxifies itself but I knew that this little cleanse would stop my cravings and normalize my appetite (because I snack way too often). Also, this was a good opportunity to exercise my willpower.
The first two days were brutal, I was hungry most of the time (especially the second half of the day), dizzy, could not focus, craved food more than I ever did. The third day, however, surprisingly went smooth. I did not feel that hungry and I felt pretty light during my day, no tiredness.
The day after the cleanse I went out to brunch with a friend and ordered two eggs benedict with a sausage. It was a pretty large portion and I could only eat half of it, and the sausage (which was low-quality meat) actually made me feel sick. I realized how sensitive I was to the food I was having, it was nauseating even thinking about all my favorite fast food restaurants and the foods I would treat myself regularly too. I had this urge to nourish my body rather satisfy my cravings and to have that quick satisfaction once I bit into a juicy burger or sipped on something sweet. It was a very different feeling.
From there on I decided to switch to the paleo diet. For those who don't know what that is you basically include ingredients in your diet that a caveman would: fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, nuts, olive, avocado oil (and other healthy oils). The whole philosophy behind this diet is that we have evolved enough from that time to be able to digest grains, dairy, and sugar but it's not perfect for our bodies. And yes it does sound extreme, but after that juice cleanse it was really easy to make that switch. Also, all my cravings and overeating were out of the window because on the paleo diet you cannot have any sugar. Glucose is what blocks the hormone leptin from producing and indicating to your brain that you have had enough food, so the more sugary things you eat the more you want to do so.
Basically, going paleo made me feel less heavy after my meals as well as more energized. I would want to eat less in between meals and most importantly I stopped seeing food as something comforting as it was now solely a source of energy for me, which it should be. Of course staying strictly paleo is really hard because so many of our social interaction revolves around food and you don't go out with your buddies to snack on some veggies but having that as a baseline for what you eat has been really revitalizing for my body. Of course, everyone is different and one size does not fit all. But hey, it's summer if you wanna try a new diet, paleo is strongly recommended.
