Now that you have the perfect recipe for cleansing, whether it’s for a week or ongoing, I’m going to give you a little background on how I came to realize that this was the perfect way to cleanse and detox the body, infuse nutrients, and literally change your cells, one by one, from the inside out… leaving you with tremendous energy and truly radiant beauty. But a little warning before we begin: this is a personal story.
It was about 3 years ago, a year or so after the birth of our second child, that I started to chronically feel tired and rundown all the time. I was about 6 months postpartum, and after running 4 times a week, breastfeeding, semi-dieting every day, and doing yoga on my days off from running, I had finally gotten myself back down to my pre-pregnancy weight and size. But I was tired (even though my baby had been sleeping through the night for a while now), I wasn’t eating the best (even though it was low-fat) and generally just didn’t feel so great, so I knew something wasn’t right.
Several months later, with no real improvements, one day, during random internet searches I stumbled across a YouTube video by Dr. Mark Hyman (an MD) explaining the power that food has to transform health, who after getting severely sick with mercury poisoning, and over the next 3 years getting no real answers from mainstream medicine, discovered the science of functional medicine which focuses on the ecology of the body, in other words, treating the whole system and not just the symptom, and completely healed himself naturally.
Now, many of you know that I’m married to a doctor, someone who is trained (top 10 med school) in traditional disease-center focused medicine. After going in to see my usual internist, telling him my symptoms, getting the normal checkup (including blood tests) and coming back home with all completely normal results and no answers, I’d ask my husband if he had any ideas on what I could do to make myself feel better. Trying to really help me out, he would say 1. You need to eat more protein, you’re probably not getting enough, 2. Maybe you’re not sleeping well, you might need more solid sleep at night, 3. You should continue to work out every day, it helps to keep your energy regulated. 4. We have 2 kids now, it’s just par for the course… I’m sure many of you have heard the above suggestions before.
Well, giving him the benefit of the doubt, I tried all of the above… Focusing on eating more protein I upped my intake of dairy and soy (since I was vegetarian), and added some yummy chocolate coated low-cal protein bars… it only lead me to pack on weight and did nothing to improve my energy. I continued to work out regularly, maybe turning it down just a notch since I didn’t have the baby weight to lose anymore… didn’t help. I tried getting to bed earlier consistently, didn’t help either… Now, it was really getting frustrating. I had turned the corner on 30 a couple years prior, but I refused to believe all this fatigue and malaise was just from getting older and having a young family.
Trying to figure out what I could possibly do to feel better I started reading non-stop. I started listening to the science behind functional medicine… but that was just the starting point of my journey. I made small changes in my diet, dropped the dairy and soy protein and upped my salad intake, and started to feel a little better. Over the course of the next several years, I made several incremental changes to my diet as a result of literally reading anything and everything I could get my hand on in regards to the topic of whole body nutrition. I could see my body changing, my energy increasing, my mood lightening, my stress of being a mother completely retreating. My weight dropped even further and then stabilized, my skin started to glow, and my energy skyrocketed. I knew I was onto something… something that would completely change my life, and make me feel better than I ever had before.
I still continue to learn and evolve as I consume more information, but I have entirely figured out what to eat and what to do (yoga, being in nature, meditation… more on this later) to feel completely alive inside my body. My husband has entirely supported me along the way and now also believes in whole food nutrition (going from moderate workouts to being able to do a 100 mile bike ride on a whim). And while I admit there are times I still don’t eat the best, they are rare, and getting rarer by the day, because I notice that when I eat crap I immediately feel crappy. The feeling is not worth the momentary pleasure on my lips (it’s not even that pleasurable anymore!) because I know how it feels to truly have an abundance of energy, a glowing body, a peaceful nature, and a radiant personality (yes, I think people like you more when you yourself are happy.)
I really, truly, want all of you to feel the same way, and so I’d like to start you off on your own journey. I’ll list for you many of the books I read at the beginning of my path. But please remember this is your journey. As you make changes to what you eat, notice how each impacts your body, and changes the way you feel. I know that ultimately the feeling of complete “awesomeness” is multidimensional (mind, body, food) but trust that you have the power to reach that place through your own self discovery. Nutrition is not an exact science, so start with what you put in your mouth and trust that your body will guide you through the rest of your journey.
Good luck and as always keep me informed!
With all my love and gratitude,
xo, Milen
Here is a list of some of the most inspirational books I read early on in my journey… All of these books are incredible and will inspire you to start your own journey towards health and wellness. No doubt you will create your own path, but here is a starting point to help motivate you in the right direction.
Dr. Joel Fuhrman – Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body’s Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free
Dr. Mark Hyman – Ultraprevention
and Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss
Dr. Andrew Weil – True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure
Dr. T. Colin Campbell – Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition
Kimberly Snyder, C. N. – The Beauty Detox Foods: Discover the Top 50 Beauty Foods That Will Transform Your Body and Reveal a More Beautiful You
Kris Carr – Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It!
Victoria Boutenko – Green for Life: The Updated Classic on Green Smoothie Nutrition
