Guest blogger: A new cleansing convert!

Hey everybody, it's Cliff, Denise's husband.
Denise has asked me to be a guest blogger for tonight, which I am more than happy to do.
I completed my 10 Day Cleanse this weekend.  YeeHaw!!
Now, I did not have quite the nigh unto spiritual experience Denise had.  Partly it was spoiled by my quarterly bout of Insomnia, partly stressful because I started it on my 40th birthday and dodging birthday cake is kind of a social downer when you're the birthday boy.
It is amazing that I could function at the high mental level demanded by my job with only 2-3 hours of sleep for a week on so little food.  Towards the end I had a two or three nights of 6 hours of sleep, and on those days I felt great.
But lets quickly break it down:
First three days: was significantly less painful than previous detox protocols I have done.  Still had terrible headaches, nausea, lethargy.  Though this is cloudy due to lack of sleep.  Insomnia started before the Cleanse, so as much as I wanted to, I could not blame the green drinks for it.  I also couldn't help but think about Soylent Green while chugging the stuff three times a day.  The label says vegan though....Maybe it means made from vegans for vegans.

Next three days: No nausea, headaches eventually receded.  Energy level was bad though, but again I wasn't sleeping.  Foggy headed, grouchy, and feeling socially isolated.  Great fun.
When you eat the exact same handful of food day in and day out, you start to notice things.  The disruption in your normal routine is good, shakes you out of autopilot for a little while.  And one of the big things I first noticed was boredom.  Not boredom with the shakes, pills and apples.  (though that got boring)  But just bored, like a kid on a summer vacation beach trip on the 3rd day of straight rain. I did not realize how much I look forward to the next meal.  It's like a little event, a tiny celebration.  And without that, the days seemed really long at first.  It shed light on some emotional attachments to food which I didn't really think I had.

Last four days: Still plagued with insomnia.  Which for me is really all about restless leg syndrome. I used to have bad bouts all the time, but since I started taking my trusty NRF2 activator it got a lot better.  And now what used to be every night only happens every few months or so.  It lasts for a week or two and then goes away.  So as aggravating as it was to wake up every hour with my body twitching and jerking like a Tourette's patient, it was doubly so doing it during a Cleanse.  Two great reasons to be grouchy and obtuse and gassy.  Well, ok only one reason for that last one.
I used to blame my RLS flareups on my diet.  "Well, I ate some chocolate"..or some such thing.   But now I had nothing to blame it on.  I wasn't eating any of the foods which I thought triggered it.  So what else could it be?  Maybe the fact that things are pretty stressful at work, I'm behind even worse that normal on all of my paperwork  and billing and a major project we have been working on for 8 months is not doing well and we might not make it, costing the practice thousands of dollars. I have two fantastic kids and an outstanding wife.  I can't seem to figure out where the balance is between keeping the work plates spinning and the family plates spinning.  Maybe that could have something to do with not sleeping so good.  You think?!?!  Ok genius, good job.  Maybe it's not the chocolate, maybe you're human.
I recently read The Worlds Strongest Librarian, a great memoir and cool website.  (Spoiler Alert) A lot of his troubles come from being tense, muscular tension and lack of breathing.  Actually lack of breathing causes multiple problems.  Specifically: shallow breathing where you ignore the bottom half of your lungs.  Most folks do that.
(For fun, everyone take a deep breath, breathing and trying to poke your stomach out with air.  I bet half of you just coughed.  Breathe with all of the lungs you were born with.  You'll feel better.  )
So being tense, having your muscles all knotted up, make it hard to take a good deep breath.  A good deep breath helps unknot your muscles and relieve tension.
Being freed from the idea that my diet was the sole reason for these RLS flareups allowed me to start examining what else could be going on.  Which is: it's a symptom of some anxiety which I just don't acknowledge, at least in part.  So I'm working through it, or starting to anyway.  Which is good.  And I'm starting to use our trusty foam roller to get the knots out of my back and shoulders, which helps.  I've even tried meditation.  Which is quite possibly one of the hardest things I have ever tried to do.  It is wicked hard.  But I slept great one out of the two nights I have tried it, so we will keep at it for now.

Going forward FAQ:  I feel good.  Really good.  I know I'm supposed to say, "I feel amazing, like I have wings."  Nope, not me.  But I do feel good, and I don't feel bad, as the old hymn goes.  Maybe if I can get some sleep I'll feel amazing, but feeling good on a little bit of sleep is enough of a victory for now.
Are we going to eat meat again?  Probably, for special occasions and such.  But most of the time, no.
Are we going to have dessert again?  Yes, Denise made some fantastic Raw Brownies today which were really good.  I could happily eat those, and they didn't trigger any sugar binging urges.
Are we going back to how we were?  No plans currently.  We're having too much fun with all of the new food to eat and explore.
How much weight did I lose?  10 pounds and 9 inches.
But as Denise said, this is not about the scale.  I'd like to see if I could feel fantastic.  As a recovering cynic, I have no frame of reference for that.  I'd like to start running again, and being lighter with less inflammation will help me run for decades.  Currently I'm slinging a Kettlebell around for physical training and exercise, but even that feels lighter right now.  I cranked out 50 pushups this morning before I even realized it.  As I said, I feel good.
Now, if someone could give me some pointers on meditation, we'll be in business.