Sugar was taking over my life, so I decided to cleanse..

I love sugar. Especially during the fall. I would have a pumpkin spice latte every single day if my body wouldn't hate me for it.  

That said, I decided it was time to change with the seasons and take on a cleanse. It's time to get serious with our work toward clearer bodies and minds.

I had success with the Wild Rose cleanse in the spring, and figured I would give it another whirl.  It's really simple. I take 6 herb pills and 2 squeezes of a tincture with breakfast and dinner for 12 days. It's a food friendly cleanse, but there are very specific things that you're told to avoid. Any tropical fruits, sugar, flour of any grains, or basically anything that's been processed.

Today is day 3. Started relatively easy. I made a delicious breakfast of eggs with fresh basil, morroccan mint, and rosemary, with a blueberry kale smoothie on the side. I continued my day by running around doing errands for hours. Which is normally fine, but when you don't prepare your foods before your adventure, the world isn't typically a cleanse friendly place. I could feel myself getting tired and losing energy; especially next to my very high energy partner.

Of course, we (society in general) make sure we get everything done before we allow ourselves a chance to sit down and properly nourish our bodies. After snacking on 3 cucumbers, I continued to run errands. When I finally came home, I was ravenous.

I created a raw vegan salad using kelp noodles, avocado and chopped bell peppers. Soooo tasty. I felt somewhat satisfied with my meal, but there was just one thing missing: sugar. I decided to be a little bit sneaky and whip up a pumpkin pie milkshake. If I can't have the latte, I'm going to find a way to treat myself to something pumpkin flavored. It turned out wonderfully, and included agave nectar (not necessarily something I should be putting in my body). Now I'm just curious how it would be if I were to warm it up...

I've heard that during cleanses, you'll crave what your body is ridding itself of most, and if that's the case, I must be composed of sugar. I'm finding the first few days to be really tricky, but that seems to be the case with anything. Once we give ourselves permission to make a few mistakes along the way, we find a little well of strength inside that encourages us to finish whatever it is we've started, and face those first few bumps that may initially deter us. I've decided to use these little sugar cravings as a way of reminding myself of my dedication to creating higher potential for my body, and the neverending search for deeper clarity. Even if I may have given in to tasting a new beer at dinner last night.....

Without further ado, the pumpkin pie milkshake....

**vegan, gluten free, nut free

1/2 can of puree pumpkin (I used the Farmer's market brand at Planet Organic)

2 cups coconut milk

1 tbsp nutmeg

2 tbsp ground chia seeds

1 tsp fresh ground ginger

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

2 tbsp raw agave nectar

Add all ingredients to blender, whip it up & enjoy!!

With love,

Brittany