After months of eating and drinking junk, Molly decided to do something drastic to get back on a nutritious track. She opted for a 9-day fast, and even though she wasn't eating, she never felt more fulfilled.
Molly's Story
"My body just felt disgusting."
I had been traveling a lot, I had a lot of birthday parties and weddings and events like the holidays and the Super Bowl to attend, and I had been eating whatever I wanted, like I just didn't care. I was still working out and doing yoga, and I'm usually pretty healthy, but it got to the point where my body felt disgusting. About four or five years ago, I had done a cleanse and it made me feel great, so I decided that I was going to do the cleanse again. I needed to take control and get back on the right track.
"I knew doing a cleanse and fasting wasn't going to be easy, but I knew it would completely change the way I felt."
I'd done a cleanse before so I knew what it involved. I'm sure I was hungry, but what I really remember from that first experience was feeling amazing. I felt so healthy, and I didn't want to eat bad food after I was done. I had so much energy, which was kind of weird because I wasn't eating a lot.
"Our dependency on food is in our heads sometimes."
The cleanse I did is nine days long. The first two days you can't really eat at all. You drink a special shake and water all day for two days, then you can have two shakes and up to 600 calories for five days, and then it's back to not eating for two days. I think our dependency on food is all in our heads sometimes. I'll never forget the first day I wasn't eating. I sat at my desk like, "I'm going to faint, I think I'm going to faint." I told my boss I was doing the cleanse and she was like, "Are you okay to drive home?" It was ridiculous -- I wasn't really feeling that way, but I thought that because I wasn't eating that I was supposed to feel that way. I thought I wasn't going to be able make it through the day without eating, but as it turns out, you can make it. Some people in Ethiopia don't eat for weeks!
"I told everybody that I was doing the cleanse so I wouldn't feel like I was keeping a secret - and so they understood why I was resisting temptation."
Everyone was really supportive for the most part. Some people would tease me and say, "Come on, we're going to get pizza and beer," but most people were understanding and curious about it. At work they had this Indian food I'd been dying to try catered in for lunch one day, and I couldn't eat it. I was sitting there drinking a liquid substance and water while everyone else was eating. I talked about what I was doing with other people so they didn't think I was crazy for not eating and so that when food came up it wasn't awkward. By communicating with people, I found a lot of people were curious about doing a cleanse. Some actually said, "I wish I would have known you were doing that. I would have done it with you, I would have tried it."
"I was worried I might not have enough energy to work out the way I was used to, but I actually had more energy than ever before."
I'm a pretty active person. I normally work out or do yoga every single day, and I wanted to keep that up during the cleanse. I had no problem doing exercise, no dizzy spells or anything. In fact, my energy level during my workouts was great, and my energy level afterwards was fantastic. I had more energy throughout the day and was able to do whatever I wanted. All the toxins were out of my body, I felt great, and it was like I never went to bed. You feel like you're on a natural high.
"I set out to do the cleanse to clean the toxins out of my system, but I ended up discovering that I have the discipline to do anything I set out to do."
The cleanse taught me that you can put your mind to anything and do it. I love to eat, I love being social, I love going out, I would have a dinner party every night if I could afford to do that for my friends. But now I know that I can go out and not eat and not drink and still have a great time. It gave me willpower.
