Well, it wouldn’t be a story without some setbacks, would it? You would quickly get bored if all I did was sing the triumphs of my experiment here. This bag of peppermint tea was my absolutely best friend yesterday.

I did survive the cleanse on Tuesday quite happily. I will admit, however, that as I was packing some kid lunches that night the odd bit of solid food (notably my nemesis, popcorn) did pop into my mouth. I had a bit of a cramp going to bed.

I was OK in the morning, was happy to have my shake and go off to kettlebell, where I had my best session ever (and I am soooo stiff today, but that’s OK. Hurts so good). So much energy and strength. I met a friend for coffee after, and when I got home I was quite ravenous. So I decided to have some sardines and a peach as a snack.

Oh. Em. Gee. I don’t know what the trigger was, but my innards were not happy. My leader Candace had sent me a list of possible side effects of cleanse day, so I wasn’t completely unprepared. An autoimmune condition does not give up that easily. Fortunately, peppermint tea helped calm down the inner gremlins.

I will spare you the details (aren’t you grateful?), but let’s just say that it is probably wise to re-introduce food cautiously after a cleanse day, at least if you have a sensitive gut. Chances are, if you are interested in a product like this, you probably do. It’s amazing how many modern day ailments can be traced back to a leaky gut and everything that goes with it – allergies, thyroid issues, other auto-immune diseases, even ones that don’t appear to affect the gut. They don’t call it our second brain for nothing.

The good news is that I am now perfectly fine. Not only have the distressing symptoms subsided, but other discomforts associated with my autoimmune disorder seem to be receding as well.

It’s early days, of course. I don’t expect to cure my ulcerative colitis with Isagenix (although wouldn’t THAT be amazing??), but it makes sense to me that improved nutrition (and in particular, improved absorption – I was already eating well, but I don’t seem to have been absorbing well) would assist my body in getting itself in order. After all, Hippocrates said it already: “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”

The next cleanse day is scheduled for Tuesday, it will be interesting to see whether I have the same issues afterwards.

Oh, and I am down almost a kilogram, that’s about two pounds. Whoopee. It’s not really about the weight on this journey, but hey, I’ll take it.

Upwards and onwards! If you are interested in learning more, visit my Isagenix page.