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Last year, in August, I attempted to complete the 21-day Quantum Wellness Cleanse. I only lasted 12 days (11th and 12th days not recorded); nevertheless, I still came away with a few lessons. If you are at all interested in doing the Quantum Wellness Cleanse, hopefully my experience or inexperience can help you.
1. I don’t have an intolerance for gluten.
I suspected that my body does fine with gluten, and this was a good way to test out that theory. I went without gluten for twelve days, until I finally caved on the thirteenth day and had pizza — hello gluten! As suspected, my gut had no reaction whatsoever. In contrast, two of my sister-in-laws went without gluten for several days, and upon eating gluten, had horrendous tummy trouble. Me + gluten = fine. Good to know.
2. Giving up gluten, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and all animal products can alleviate ALL PMS symptoms.
As noted on Day 4 of the QW Cleanse, all of my PMS symptoms disappeared…or rather, they never appeared in the first place. My sister says that she read something about caffeine affecting (increasing chances of) cramps, but I have no way of knowing for sure. I just know that this was the first and only time I have never had any PMS symptoms at all.
3. You will be tired for the first few days.
You will be tired. Period. For the first few days, your body will be dragging because it will no longer have the caffeine and/or the sugar to get it going. It’s fine, you’ll get over it.
4. It’s a lot of prep work.
Okay, it’s true — you will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen. You won’t be eating any processed foods, so everything will be from scratch. Be prepared for this time investment. Of all things, this may be the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. After 12 days of being in the kitchen constantly, I was d-o-n-e. Consider yourself warned.
5. Do your homework.
Before you begin the cleanse, do your homework. Find recipes, blogs, and products that will work for you. You will want a variety of things to choose from. You will also want a few quick and easy, go-to recipes.
6. Warning: “Vegan” and “gluten-free” don’t always go hand-in-hand.
It’s actually quite difficult to find products that are both vegan and GF. I think this is because there is a lot of protein in gluten, and therefore a lot of vegan products contain gluten in order to provide protein.
7. Find a vegan restaurant nearby, so you can treat yourself.
Just because you are forgoing gluten, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and all animal products, this doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself. You just need to find a nearby restaurant that can provide you with some good eats. Depending on where you live, this may or may not be easy. Good luck.
8. Do it with a friend!
If I were to do it again, I would do it with a friend. I would want some support — someone to commiserate with, as well as someone to help me research recipes and products. Online support would be helpful, but real life support would be even better. You could take turns making recipes (doubling them if necessary) and therefore spend less time in the kitchen! That would be ideal.
For more information on what I ate and how I felt during my time on the Quantum Wellness Cleanse, go here. Good luck to you, and I would truly love to hear from anybody who tries it! Who knows? I may be inspired to go for it again…and maybe last the full 21 days next time!
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{ 3 comments }
i was hoping you were going to talk (blog) about this. Sometimes i get a wild hair and think about doing something similar but then i have to ask myself - why. Eliminating things from my diet makes me become somewhat obsessed then about eating. you know what i mean?
i too don’t think gluten affects me much. i kinda got interested in gf baking until i found out how $$$ all the baking products are. wow.
@ Denise~ I wish I had been able to last the full 21 days so that I could really report any changes. However, I recently read that your cells fully regenerate every 90 days — I don’t know if I phrased that right, but basically if *you* were able to eat organic, raw, sugar-free, “whatever”, for 90 days…well, then I really wonder what changes you’d feel!! You know what I mean?
I just couldn’t last 90! days without sugar — oy.
I was wondering if you would talk about what you learned. I was thought you were crazy when you asked me to do the Gluten Free and Vegan Challenge, but, it actually didn’t turn out that bad and I really learned alot. Then, I thought you were really, really crazy when you wanted to do the cleanse
I am super impressed you lasted that LONG - that is awesome. I do think having a pal along the way really does help when you take on challenges
Interesting about the PMS….I don’t do caffeine or alcohol, but, I think the rest applies to me
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