Long time no see…..life happens

I want to be real on this platform and I don’t mean taking a picture of myself in that moment (IYKYK). I have taken some time off of blogging, (you are probably thinking, you’ve just gotten started). Yes, you are right, but like the title says, life happens. So much has happened in my life the past 6 months that I have focussed on those things and put blogging on the back burner. This is a place where I want to be as real and honest as I possibly can because just like you I am human and I have chosen to write about my journey on this platform for all to read. When I decided that I wanted to start blogging and share about my health/wellness journey along with sharing informational posts on nutrition/fitness topics, I thought that I had to be on top of my game and set a perfect example for my viewers to help motivate you all to either encourage you to start a healthy habit such as exercise, taking out an unhealthy habit and including a healthy habit, ect. Which I am here now writing to tell you that I am back and I want to keep posting about my journey and be encouraging on here for anyone reading that Balance is key and it’s normal to fall of the wagon, but find a reason to get back on track, to get your spark back. My reason is my viewers, you all are my accountability. I have a goal to create a community on here and in order to accomplish that goal I need to be steady on here.

So, with that being said, I will be posting monthly on my health/wellness journey, sharing different fitness/wellness challenges that i’ll try such as the 3:6:9 cleanse I did this past summer and just navigating through my ups and downs on the 1st of every month. I will also be posting about different topics, studies on nutrition/wellness topics and giving my viewpoint on them every Wednesday, stay tuned. :)

I completed the 3:6:9 cleanse: my experience and how i feel after

About the Cleanse

If you read my post on my plans and goals for my journey, I mentioned I was going to be doing a 9 day cleanse to rejuvenate my body and get it feeling better. I purchased the Medical Medium book Cleanse to Heal by Anthony William, a medical medium that had helped so many people heal from chronic illnesses and sufferers of anxiety, depression, acne, eczema,lyme,gut problems, brain frog, wright loss issues, brain frog, migraines, bloating, vertigo, psoriasis, cysts, fatigue, pros, fibroids, ute, endometriosis, and autoimmune to name them all! I will admit I found this book a little overwhelming with how many cleanses there are to do and the extent of these cleanses (like the one i’m doing which is 9 days). There are also 3 different levels of the 3:6:9 cleanse that you can do, the modified, the original, and the advanced.

The reason this cleanse is called the 3:6:9 cleanse is because it has 3 parts, the 3 and the 6 prepare your body for the actual cleanse on days 6-9. The first three days let you eat whatever meals you like with slight restrictions, the next 3 days in the 6, the internal cleansing begins. This phase is when your body gets to unpack some of their old storage bins such as toxins, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, heavy metals and fats that the body has been holding on to for years.

Why I chose this Cleanse

I chose to do the original cleanse because I thought that would be the best fit for me. If you plan on doing this cleanse I would recommend to chose a time in the year where you have a slow week, you don’t have a lot going on. Symptoms that I have been dealing with that I want to from are.

• Headache

• anxiety

• brain frog

• bloating

  to name a few

How to prepare for the cleanse

First thing first, I would highly recommend purchasing or grabbing the Medical Medium: cleanse to heal book at the library. The book really goes into great detail on everything and has a chapter on to prepare for this cleanse. What I would recommend and what I learned from this cleanse is to make sure if you have a busy day to prepare the meal ahead of time or give yourself enough time to prepare because this cleanse is time consuming!

My Original 3:6:9 Cleanse Experience

The first 3 days of the cleanse were not a whole lot different than what I normally eat with some substitutions and cut-outs such as oils and fats. I felt really good on all 3 days and maybe even more hydrated then I usually do with the extra water, lemon water, and celery juice. The middle of the cleanse was definitely more of a challenge since I had to eliminate all animal products, oils, nuts, caffeine and processed foods. Out of the whole cleanse, day 4 was the hardest for me. I was having a caffeine headache, I wasn’t feeling like eating all of the greens listed so I didn’t fill myself up during the meals. I also felt slightly fatigued and was craving all the foods I wasn’t suppose to have. Days 5 and 6 were not as bad as my body was getting used to a new way of eating. On days 6-9 I had to be more restricted as my body was going through the cleansing phase. I felt pretty good on those days as I was able to fill myself up more with satisfying smoothies and fruit. The last day, day 9, I had to drink all liquids and fruit purees. I am not going to lie the last day was hard not being able to eat anything. Overall, I think that this cleanse was challenging and there was times where I wanted to quit but I was able to finish the whole thing thoroughly, and it was a rewarding feeling once I finished.

Post-Cleanse

It has been four days since the last day of my cleanse so I will be sharing how I have felt that past four days. The book gave a few tips after the cleanse so that the liver does not go into shock right away. It suggested to start your day the same way with the morning cleanse. I drank my lemon water and switched the celery juice out to lemon ginger water. I felt pretty normal during the morning so I decided to incorporate meat and made myself a sweat potato taco bowl. After this meal, I started to feel nauseous and that’s when I realized I took it a little fast. I felt sick for a few hours but did feel better once I ate a few veggies and drank a lot of water. I have been slowly incorporating new foods into my day such as seasoned meat, eggs, and grains. My stomach still feels sensitive on day four after the cleanse, but overall I feel like my skin has cleared up and feel less bloated and have more energy then I did before the cleanse.

My thoughts after this cleanse: I think that I would do this cleanse again but not for a year. My reason for doing this cleanse once a year is because I don’t have any chronic illness or skin conditions that would make me want to repeat this cleanse more often, so I would just want to repeat this cleanse once a year to give my liver and body a good reset and refresh.

If you have any questions about this cleanse or are interested in doing this cleanse I would recommend purchasing the Cleanse to Heal book by Anthony Williams or feel free to message through my email: thekeyisbalance24@gmail.com.

My journey: Plan and goals

I’m so excited you are going to be here with me on a part of my journey! When I think of the word journey I think of an adventure, a long period of time that passes. When I think of my journey I think of an endless roller coaster of ups and downs and twists and turns, but the rollercoaster never stops and won’t until you know….the end. So in order to accomplish a healthier lifestyle I need to have a plan and goals to get there. So to some up my plans, I am going to set a day (Sunday) to plan out my week. I like to use my phone when I am planning because I always take a look at my to do list and reminders to help me stay on track. I will plan out my meals, work schedule, workouts and anything else I have going on that week so that I know exactly what’s going on and won’t have the urge to go off of my plan such as going out to eat or not doing something I want to get done.

Let’s talk about some of my current goals that I have made for this year. My biggest goal is to feel better all around, I want to decrease a few of my lifestyle habits such as drinking and eating out to a couple times a month rather than every week/weekend, and workout 5 days a week.

I think the best way for me to get a little “restart” to this journey is a detox cleanse. I have done research on the Medical Medium and have purchased the book Medical Medium: Cleanse to Heal, which goes over a few detox cleanses to help take toxins and chemicals out of the liver. In this cleanse there is a list of whole foods, all natural, no preservatives that can be eaten on this cleanse. What better way to start feeling better then to give my liver a good detox! I will be doing the original 3:6:9 cleanse in the book and I will take you along with me each day and log what I eat and how I feel each day! From there I will post once a week and give updates on my journey!

The beginning

Looking back at middle school, there was no doubt I was one of the bigger kids in my class, I was the tallest girl in my class at the time. My foot size was not proportionate to my height as I was 5’4 with size 11 feet. Along with having the biggest feet and being the tallest, I thought of myself as fat. My mom would say that I had excess baby fat that would go away as I got older.

Ninth grade came along, and I could barely look at myself in the mirror because I still had my “belly-fat” and I just wanted to be “skinny.” My friends were doing it, so I thought “so could.” I started looking up ways to lose weight and this was the first time I ever went on a “diet.” I started bringing my own lunches because the school lunch was “unhealthy” and I wouldn’t lose weight if I ate it (that’s what I thought anyway). I started watching youtube videos of fitness influencers and health bloggers and that’s where I got a lot of my information and habits from.

I maintained a pretty healthy diet, eating whole foods and plenty of fruits and vegetables but I still saw myself making small changes in my body but I could never get myself to where I wanted, I felt like I was riding a rollercoaster because my weight fluctuated so much.

High School passes, I enter college and I am still struggling with my confidence and I hate looking at myself in the mirror but I have gained interest in nutrition and my health. I am on the golf team at my college so I stayed active with weekly lifts and practices. I still would go through numerous “diets” to try to lose some fat but hit yet another roller coaster because of inconsistency.

I transfer to a new college where I am meeting new people. I become close friends with one of my roommates because we both wanted to be healthier and lose a few pounds so we wanted to keep each other accountable. We did everything together, we worked out, meal prepped, and made sure we were both drinking enough water.

By the end of the year I felt like I got into a great routine. I was working out, eating pretty healthy and still going out and having fun occasionally with friends

I continued to feel good about my progress and how far I come, so I started to go out every weekend for almost a year. I would eat whatever I wanted to on the weekends that would include endless amounts of bar food, while trying to maintain a balanced diet during the week.

This brings me to today. I have noticed some weight gain since I have been more relaxed in my habits. So I am ready to gain some muscle, confidence and a better mindset. Now that I feel like I have been through trial and error I am ready to feel good and balanced and I want to take you along with me!

DISCLAIMER: Although I have attained my Nutrition Coaching certificate I am not a Registered Dietitian or Nutritionist and what I do for my journey is what works for me and everyone is different.