Hello EXFO readers! It’s been a minute. For the past few months I’ve been on a journey to push my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual boundaries. I’ve been training for the Tucson Marathon, raising money for the great organization Boys to Men:Tucson in which I’am an active mentor (please click on the link to learn more about BTMT!), deepening my yoga practice in order to complete my 200 hour yoga teacher-training certification, and most recently I completed a 5 day kitchari cleanse! At first glance all of these endeavors may appear a bit disjointed but they are interconnected in my personal journey to discover wellness. 

The obvious intention behind this blog post in particular is to highlight my experience with my version of a kitchari cleanse but the overarching intention is to show you that there are different tools out there that you can implement into your life to make you feel more balanced, more whole, more fulfilled - with that, let’s dive into this cleanse!

DISCLOSURE 

I am a Certified Ayurvedic Nutritionist but I favor using Ayurvedic principles loosely in a way that they can support general nutrition goals, lifestyle, activity level, and accessibility. This blog post details my personal experience and should not be considered as medical advice. Always follow the recommendations of your doctors or registered dietitians.

KITCHARI 

Kitchari is a very simple one-pot dish that consists of basmati rice and mung beans(dal). It originated in South Asia thousands of years ago. Kitchari is considered a tri-doshic pacifying dish meaning that it reduces each dosha - kapha, vata, and pitta - by simply eating the 2 ingredient mixture (click on the links to learn more about these words). However, the beautiful quality of kitchari is that it can be modified by adding spices and vegetables that further coincide with your dosha. If you are looking for more information regarding the dish and recipes I highly recommend the resources below. Additionally, you can book a 30 minute consult with me here.

• Online: The Ayurvedic Institute

• Cookbook & Reading: Ayurvedic Cooking for Self-Healing by Vasant Lad & Usha Lad

5 DAY CLEANSE

At this point let me reiterate that with exercise and nutrition, reputable resources you find online and in literature should be taken as mere suggestions. Ultimately you are the master of your own body and the most knowledgeable about what it needs. With that, I will describe how I implemented this cleanse while halfway through a marathon training schedule and regular yoga practice (not to mention strength training when possible).

PREPARATION: For my general health and curiosity, I was logging my food intake in an app for 2 weeks prior to the cleanse. This gave me a baseline idea of my macro nutrient and calorie consumption. I also monitored my body fat percentage and weight for 2 weeks prior to the cleanse. I also monitored these metrics in order to ensure I wasn’t losing weight while in the thick of marathon training.

DURATION: 5 days, 1 bowl (apx 1-1.5 cups) of kitchari per day

KITCHARI TYPE: Green mung beans (sometimes soaked for a few hours, sometimes soaked overnight), basmati rice and on 1 occasion plain white rice. 

• Veggies Used: 1 day added potatoes, 1 day added brocoli, 1 day added carrots, 2 days no added veggies

• Spices Used: Turmeric, asafoetida, freshly cracked black pepper, cumin, fennel seeds & cumin seeds. Seeds and spices were cooked in 2 tsp of ghee then added to cooked beans and rice mixture. 

LOGGING: I kept a food “feelings” diary every day of the cleanse which included how agni/digestion feels, energy level, and general notes. These are the highlights:

• Day 1: Felt HUNGRIER as soon as I finished the kitchari which I had around lunch time in addition to a protein shake. I mean hunger I’ve never experienced before!

• Day 2: Definitely feels like a brick is moving through my system. Very much gasy. Frequent bathroom use, not like having the runs but I can tell my body is moving something through. 

• Day 3: The frequent bathroom use is annoying especially because, besides the main event in the morning, subsequent trips are low in volume and very reminiscent to a non-urgent diarrhea. 

• Day 4: It seems like the experiences of the past 3 days are expedited. Eat kitchari, feel hungry, get gasy, and must use the bathroom frequently. Woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Not really getting the feeling of completely expelling everything.

• Day 5: It no longer is an all day feeling of digestive ickiness. Woke up feeling perfectly fine! Dread eating this last portion because I know what will happen and just like clock work I experienced the same feelings and bathroom use from the previous days. 

• Day 6: Feel normal. Bathroom use normal. No kitchari consumed. 

TAKEAWAYS

Connection

This experience reminded me of the old saying “you are what you eat.” Feeling the immediate physical effects of the kitchari definitely reminded me that what I put in my body has a direct consequence to my agni, mood, and sense of hunger. Extrapolating this thought to when I eat processed foods, copious amounts of sugar, alcohol, you name it and how these food products are likely silently impacting my life. 

A more obvious connection for me personally is the preparation and consciously choosing of ingredients. My partner does almost all of the cooking. I hate to cook and he is an accomplished chef! I am very fortunate. This at times disconnects me from food. So this kitchari cleanse provided me with an opportunity to get reacquainted with natural ingredients and the process of preparing a nourishing meal for myself. 

Reset

To be honest, I was concerned that this “cleanse” was doing more harm than good. My main concern was the digestive issues I experienced (gas, frequent bathroom use). I normally have veggies several times a day, every day. So I did not expect 1 dish with mung beans, rice, and a serving of a vegetable would have such an impact on my agni, but it did! My concern was that after day 5, I would be struggling with after effects for a week but this was not the case. As soon as I stopped eating it, the symptoms were gone. My agni felt back to how it was prior to the cleanse. I can definitely see how this experience would be a good reset for me in the future perhaps after overindulgent holidays. 

Feels

I don’t think the kitchari had any effect on my energy levels. My energy levels coincide more with my level of activity. For example, the day after my long runs (14+ miles), I tend to feel more fatigued. I did subjectively feel as if my belly was SNATCHED. I can see how this could have the opposite effect though and cause bloating but that was not my experience. I weighed myself and determined my body fat percentage the day after the cleanse and noted that my body fat percentage went down slightly and body weight stayed about the same. However, this is so unscientific and cannot be attributed to the kitchari since there are many different variables at play here. 

LAST THOUGHTS

I would do this again! Perhaps I would scale this down to 3 days instead of 5. The major thing is that I now feel confident in quickly making this simple dish. There are a few things I would do differently such as planning out the veggies to mix into the kitchari a bit better next time since they added more texture and flavor. Also, I read that soaking the beans longer would improve digestibility but did not notice a difference between a few hours soaking and overnight soaking. 

ALIGNMENT 

During this cleanse, I went to a “Medicinal Plant Workshop” led by a lovely acupuncturist, herbs specialist and oriental medicine practitioner where he explained the effects of spices such as cinnamon, black pepper, turmeric, and many others. This lecture was suggested by a friend - very coincidental. 

It was great to hear about the physical effects of these potent, natural plants from a different wellness practitioner. In fact, his lecture on these spices and herbs directly coincided with Ayurveda! Sitting in a community garden, listening to this lecture, in the bright desert sun, while in the middle of a kitchari cleanse really felt like this was in alignment with my goals and thirst for knowledge. 

I bring this up because I encourage you to find what feels good for you in your life. I want to remind you that EXHALO FORTIS is intended to offer different wellness modalities that you could implement into your life or at the very least show you what’s out there. Ask yourself if any of what I post resonates with you? I encourage you to follow that path without forcing it and without self-judgment. Practice compassionate self-forgiveness as you begin something new. Try it, do it, live it, be it.

If there’s something I can help you with either with online-personal training, Ayurveda nutrition, yoga, TRX suspension training, a running plan - whatever it may be I am here to help! Comment below, shoot me an email EXHALOFORTIS@gmail.com or book an Ayurveda nutrition consult here. This world has a lot to offer - let’s live in it wholly.