I’ve used my baby (now ten months old) as an excuse for a sugar hit for ages now. Oh look I’m breastfeeding so I can have lactation cookies and I’m tired because she never sleeps so I can have a block of chocolate. Now the little legend sleeps twelve hours at night (touch wood) and I don’t breastfeed anymore soooooo those excuses don’t stack up.

My good diet (aside from the afternoon sugar binge) really wasn’t cutting it. A big dip in energy just isn’t normal and I wanted to do a proper, rigid, cleanse to sort it out. I’m not one for diets so I knew I needed real rules to follow otherwise I would be on a slippery slope to Pana Chocolate land in no time.

I booked in an appointment to see a naturopath but she didn’t have any appointments available for two weeks and I felt the need to start immediately. So I bought the Lee Holmes ‘Heal Your Gut’ book to start on in the meantime. I read the book cover to cover in one day (big feat with aforementioned baby running the show) then off to the supermarket to buy the necessary equipment.

Long story short. Lee’s book is great, I absolutely love the intro section that gives you the background on her cleansing and how it changed her life. She helps you to really understanding the way the gut can get in to a state of disrepair and how to fix it. She also includes a bunch of meal planners and recipes. Too easy.

I did the Lee cleanse for two weeks hardcore. It was excellent and kicked all cravings in the butt. I departed from the plan after two weeks because I had to. We are all different and I listened to the advice from my Naturopath to introduce grains and other kinds of protein to the program ‘Heal Your Gut’ outlines. The lessons I learnt from Lee are still integrated in to my diet and I did feel a bit of a failure I couldn’t do the four week cleanse she recommends.

Before all this I already knew I needed to eat gluten free, dairy free, FODMAP free. Not being able to eat raw food as part of the cleanse made life difficult, it’s just the pure effort of having to cook so often instead of whipping up a salad. Grains like quinoa are also really great at padding out my meals, keeping me fuller for longer. When I was cleansing I felt like I was either making food or eating food. I had to eat (or cook) all day not to feel hungry and I lost weight, my starting weight was 45Kg so didn’t really have the luxury of weight to loose.

I guess my point is, listen to the experts and then formulate what works for you. I’ve been doing my modified version of the ‘Heal Your Gut’ program for a few months now and feel great. I also got a big box of herbal supplements from my naturopath to help along the cleansing process. So I think it’s a nice combo. For me. Follow your gut instinct when cleansing.