Spring Cleaning with the Wild Rose Cleanse

I recently went my friends' wedding in Montreal, and while it was a terribly romantic service, I couldn't help but be distracted by how fantastic the bride looked. She's always been very attractive, but since the last time I saw her, her skin was more glowing, she had lost weight, and her eyes were sparkling and bright. So, when she told me it was due to the Wild Rose Cleanse, I made a mental note to start my own as soon as I got back to Toronto. How quickly I go from admiration to gimme, gimme (I better open the heart chakra and do more fish pose).

Now when I had acne, detoxing was a sort of past time of mine - the more extreme, the bigger the sense of accomplishment I would feel. I have done liver cleanses that required me to drink Epsom salt water followed by a concoction of olive oil spiked with grapefruit juice; I have done a series of colonics paired with daily drops of milk thistle, dandelion and burdock (too much info?); and I have done the classic Master Cleanse, a fast in which your main source of sustenance is water, laced with lemon juice, amber maple syrup and cayenne pepper. So this twelve day program of a cleansing diet and a few supplements didn't scare me. It even came in a kit!

First thing I did was recruit a partner to keep me motivated, compare notes with and share the burden of food preparation. Luckily for me, I had committed Kat my neighbour, who not only was located conveniently, but more prepared than I, having bought supplies, researched online discussion boards and made notes on Wild Rose blogs by the time I had skimmed the basic do's and don'ts.

And the these do's and dont's were very straight-forward: no dairy, no sugar (including tropical fruit), no flour of any kind (not even kamut or spelt), no fermented foods (or drinks), no inorganic meat (with lenience toward poultry and fish), and no processed foods. This sounds difficult, but it left us tons to eat (plenty of rice and other grains, most fruits and veggies and all the fish we wanted). The kit provided, contained three bottles of pills: a laxative, a general cleansing complex, a bile stimulant and a dropper of some sort of cleansing tincture. This was going to be great -- I was even giving myself a break midway as I wouldn't be able to uphold the diet on Saturday as we were accepting an ACCE award (Annual Chinese Canadian Entrepreneur) that night, and banquet food is always bad for you.

So pushing my cart through the aisles at Whole Foods, I had a plan, a cartful of outrageously expensive produce, and the feeling that I was on the road to optimum health!

But the first day I took the prescribed dosage of all four different types of herbs, I immediately felt nauseous. Kat blackberry messengered me that she was dizzy at work. We concluded that this meant it must be working. And you know what they say: cleanliness is Godliness, and I felt a little more holy with every mouthful of millet.

But in the following two days, my motivation started to wane as each time I took the herbs I felt as if I was going to throw up. And despite, Kat's delicious latke-like chickpea squash patties drizzled with lemon tahini sauce, and my tasty grilled sole topped with roast almonds, I began to dread meal times as they included a nasty illness which lasted a good hour or two.

This puzzled me as no one else I knew had had my reaction. They cited cravings, dizziness, fatigue and stomach cramps, but no nausea. Kat suggested that I use a process of elimination to find out if one component was aggravating me. I found that the bile stimulant was what made me feel particularly sick. But while I started to feel less sick, I was definitely no a blushing bride.

"Maybe this generalist cleanse is not good for you. You need to do things which are tailored to your body and needs, " my mother said while eating a Turkey pot pie in front of me. "...or maybe you're just really toxic."

During my weekly visit to Dr Sharma, he said nothing when I mentioned my cleanse -which usually meant disapproval (How Asian) - but did remind me that I had heat in my digestive tract.

I couldn't decide if it was because it didn't suit me or if it was the rough I needed to endure to achieve the prize of radiance. And I wanted that radiance, so I carried on feeling like I wanted to ralph up my quinoa salad everyday - twice a day - and dreamed about Saturday.

The night before the awards ceremony I skipped taking my herbs to be on the safe side. And in the morning I skipped them again. To my relief, I felt fantastic! Perhaps the effects came after the cleanse was over? Perhaps this small pause in the cleanse will spur the breakthrough I need, I thought over my breakfast of rice and mung beans. I was hopeful.

My body felt light and refreshed. And while a small part of me felt like a kid who snuck sweets in before dinner, I revelled gleefully in my mind's clarity.

Needless to say, that night, I felt victorious for more reasons than our award.

Look forward to next post where we conclude the success/failure of this cleanse and why.