At this writing
I'm sitting at the kitchen table, giving time for Catalyst and Fiber
Drink to collectively start their thing before I have breakfast.
All things
considered, I'm feeling pretty good. No dramatic miraculous
transformations internally or externally to speak of yet, but the
temple at Jerusalem wasn't rebuilt in a day.
So here's what
I've got so far:
SPARK
– One of the approaches recommended by friends to SPARK, especially
in the morning, was to have it hot. Especially when one has a
dependency on coffee in the morning, starting the day with a hot
drink at all is helpful. On that note, I'd like to clarify something
I said in the previous post: coffee
is not permitted on the cleanse. Caffeine at all is apparently fine –
SPARK has 120mg of caffeine per serving; that's 40mg more than the
average cuppajoe. So with this in mind, I believe green tea is fine,
should I desire it – most green teas have about 30mg of caffeine,
and they're a lot better for you, anyway. The issue with coffee is
the acidity that it can have, depending on the blend/how it's made.
It also inhibits absorption of nutrients, particularly iron and
calcium. For further reference, I think black tea usually has about
60mg, and white tea has 10mgs. Decaffeinated green tea might have
about 10mgs.
On that note, I can't recall if it's coffee or caffeine itself that
inhibits the absorption of those minerals, so best play it safe and
give a couple hours between. Or do further research. Whichever's
easiest.
So the buzz with SPARK definitely comes from the caffeine. I would
imagine the sustained-energy-without-the-crash comes from the amino
acids present. For the non-bio majors and folks who simply haven't
found time to research this yet, amino acids are the building blocks
of protein. There are twenty different kinds (if I remember my notes
correctly), and a "complete protein" is a protein that has
all of these amino acids present. As I recall, meat and other animal
products (dairy, eggs, etc.), quinoa, and soy are complete proteins.
This is why vegans have to be careful about how they "combine"
their plant-based proteins.
In any case, SPARK probably isn't the sort of thing you want to take
right before bed.
Fiber
Drink
– This is taken before breakfast on certain days of the cleanse. I
definitely appreciate the citrus flavor – I've tried unflavored
fiber drinks before and they taste sorta nasty. I haven't tried this
hot, but I wouldn't recommend it, for ease of consumption. The first
ingredient is psyllium fiber – the stuff in Metamucil. And if
you've made my same mistake and tried to do Metamucil in warm/hot
water, you know that stuff swells up like nobody's business. If
you're not a fan of gritty-ish textures in drinks, you may have to
just get over it, but if you're not picky about textures, it's
actually rather pleasant to take. Just remember to follow directions
and drink plenty of water with it, because this stuff can still swell
a little even if you're using cool water, and we don't want anyone to
choke. Also, drinking plenty of water in addition to fiber helps
clean out your system.
That said, this stuff does what it's supposed to do.
I've
of course taken Catalyst and OmegaPlex as I am supposed to. I haven't
noticed any substantial differences yet regarding the effects of
those products, but my friend Jess started out on Catalyst alone, and
in less than a week she'd already lost 2 1/2 inches. Granted, she has
a lot more inches to lose than I do, and she'll tell you that
herself, so a more rapid transformation would be expected for her
anyway.
Well, time for me to make my breakfast.
~Sarah
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