Week Two of the Standard Process Purification Program
The second week of the program has it’s ups and downs, but overall I’m getting into the groove. But sometimes the groove feels a little like a rut. Take breakfast, for example. On the SPPP, my natural appetite has increased — a good sign of how my metabolism is boosted — and so I look forward to eating in the morning. But as the temperature dropped and we had real, actual rain here in Northern California one morning this week, the thought of another cold fruit smoothie was unappealing. I had to steady myself on the kitchen counter when my husband mentioned french toast the other day so I came up with some smoothie recipes that satiated my craving for a warm breakfast (see below for a killer pumpkin pie smoothie recipe). You could also just eat an actual hot breakfast – a sweet potato with butter or coconut butter and sprinkled with cinnamon is a comforting start. Just have your usual breakfast smoothie as a snack later in the morning to make sure you’re getting enough protein.
Let’s talk more about eating cold food and why a cold breakfast can be so unappealing. In Chinese medicine cold is often the root of many problems. Cold contracts, slows, and condenses. Like an icy river, it slows the current of qi running through your body, so putting icy drinks into your stomach the first thing in the morning can be like throwing water on your digestive fires. Your body has to expend energy to warm the cold food/drink up to an appropriate temperature before it can properly deal with it. Remember middle school chemistry — chemical reactions are enhanced or made possible by adding heat? Your digestive process is also endothermic, so it’s important to listen to your desires in terms of temperatures. I had to think outside the box with smoothies this week, so I riffed on a couple of recipes to make them more warming.
My two favorites both had Meyer lemon (including the seeds and peel) and grated ginger. If you’re using a regular lemon, start with just 1/8 of a lemon at first. For ginger, I buy the Christopher Ranch grated ginger in a jar and just scoop it out and throw it in. A powerful blender like a Vitamix or NutriBullet eliminates the need to finely chop ingredients. If you don’t have a good blender, scan Craiglist.org or check out Costco or QVC for deals. Sometimes QVC will ship the blender right away, and you can pay it off in installments. I added little or no frozen fruit to these, and enjoyed them just a tad cooler than room temperature. Maybe that sounds gross if you’re used to freezing cold smoothies, but give it a chance and you may get hooked.
Physical symptoms this week:
The BAD: I had a brief bout with the ear pain I mentioned last week. It lasted for about 20 minutes and was gone. I had a lot of ear infections as a kid, so maybe I had some dormant virus that likes to set up shop in the ears. Sleep was mostly great except for one night of waking up at 2am. But I was able to roll with it, got back to sleep within an hour, and it didn’t get me down the next day.
The GOOD: my neck pain from osteoarthritis is 75% gone. I can turn my head to the right with only a slight twinge and my range of motion has increased.
I can really feel the difference in the quality of my sleep this week. When I was drinking coffee every day I had trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and I’d wake up with a jolt then the alarm went off at 6am, as though I had only just fallen asleep right before the alarm went off. You know your day’s not starting off well when your first thought when you wake up is “I can’t wait to go to bed tonight”.
This week falling asleep was easy, even if I felt a little hungry. I started dreaming again – lush, lucid dreams that I could remember vividly the next day. Most days I woke up just before my alarm went off, my eyes opening without my having to will them open, and I didn’t have to drag my heavy body out of bed. By the time I drank a cup of warm lemon water I was ready to face the day. We had Press Maycock in our studio last week and he mentioned that getting great sleep makes you feel like a little kid, which describes it perfectly. Press’ scope of knowledge is amazing and if you missed his chat, stay posted because he has promised that he will come back and do it again.
Here are those recipes I mentioned.
Have a great week,
–Victoria
Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
2 heaping scoops of SP Complete
1/2 cup organic canned pumpkin
1 apple or pear, cored and quartered
1 TBS organic hemp seeds
1/4 of a whole lemon, seeds and peel included (use a Meyer lemon)
1 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spices
1/2 coconut or hemp milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup water to thin to desired consistency
Fresh Green Smoothie
2 heaping scoops of SP Complete
1 TBS organic hemp seeds
1/2 of a whole lemon, seeds and peel included (use a Meyer when possible)
1 rounded tsp grated ginger
1/2 cucumber (if it’s waxed, peel it)
handful of frozen grapes or frozen mango
handful of parsley
3 romaine lettuce leaves
1/2 C. coconut or hemp milk
1/4 to 1/2 C water to thin to desired consistency
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