| lillian Jacobs

Pre & Post Reset Guide

Do you have an OWL Reset on your horizon? Diet, lifestyle and environmental factors leading up to the reset will all impact how you feel, so don’t fret if each time you cleanse it feels a little different than it did the time before. From my personal experience, I’ve noticed that when I adequately prepare for a cleanse I feel better all around from day one. I’ve also noticed that properly exiting cleanses allows for the feel-good-cleanse-glow to last a lot longer. Ready to begin? Here’s my top pre and post Reset tips:


Magic Matcha Mylkshake


Pre-Reset:

WEEN THE CAFFEINE

Don’t panic, it’s just temporary. I also love my cup of coffee in the morning but it’s important for your adrenals to give coffee a rest a few times a year. The OWL Reset is a caffeine-lovers breeze because we incorporate matcha into your morning mylkshake. You’ll still get a light dose of caffeine that will support you throughout your day but is gentle enough to allow your adrenals to rest. If coffee is a part of your daily routine, start weaning off of it a week or two before you’re ready to start the reset. Trust me, this way is much more pleasant than the cold turkey approach (and yes, I’ve tried both):

1. Leading up to the reset start to cut down on your coffee consumption by half a cup every few days. For example, if you drink 3 cups of coffee on the reg, try for 2.5 cups for the next few days, then 2 cups… you get the jist? If you feel yourself crashing in the afternoon, reach for a cup of green tea, you’ll get a gentle boost of caffeine plus all the extra antioxidants.

2. Once you’re down to half a cup of coffee/day, give yourself a pat on the back - that’s not an easy thing to do! Then move on to green tea or matcha. I recommend making sure you’re comfortable on this lightly caffeinated beverage for a day or two before starting the reset.

SAY SAYONARA TO SUGAR

When you eat sugar your brain releases dopamine, a neurotoxin connected to feelings of pleasure and happiness. This is why sugar can be so addictive, when we feel those happy feelings our body starts asking for more, more, more! I’ve found that I don’t realize how much sugar I actually consume daily (and how addicted to it I am!) until I have to cut it out. If you attempt to cut out sugar cold turkey during the reset you may be knocked down with symptoms of sugar-withdrawal. Take my word for it, it’s not a pleasant feeling. Here’s how to go about easing the symptoms of withdrawal in order to make your reset experience more enjoyable overall:

1. A week or so before you start your cleanse you’ll want to become aware of how much sugar you’re actually consuming. The key to this is to read every label. You’d be surprised by all of the foods sugar sneaks into, even in so-called “health foods”.

2. Spend a few days swapping processed sugar with more nutrient dense sugar substitutes such as maple syrup, honey or coconut palm sugar.

3. Once you’ve managed to get the refined sugar completely out of your diet start to cut back on the sugar substitutions as well. Do this incrementally, similar to wean-ing coffee above. You deserve another pat on the back here too! If you find your-self crashing and craving that sugar boost - try reaching for a piece of fruit instead. Once you’ve gotten sugar out of your system fresh fruit will start to taste much so much sweeter!

SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY

It’s nice to give the gut a break as you ease into a liquid based cleanse. Focus on easy to digest meals for about 3 days before your cleanse. One of the easiest ways to do this is to cut out condiments. The sauces and spreads that make our food so very tasty often have multitudes of ingredients, sweeteners, thickeners and preservatives. None of that is easy on the gut. Swap it out for fresh herbs and spices, which have healing properties as well. It’s a double win! Here’s a few of my favorite pre-cleanse food ideas:

Simple soups: take your fave veggie or two (I personally love carrots and/or broccoli for this), boil them in a saucepan with the OWL Vegan Mineral Broth (or whatever your favorite flavor is!) and let simmer until the veggies are soft. Add a splash of full fat coconut milk (the canned kind) and blend all together until the soup is a creamy consistency.

I also love our Savory Summer Gazpacho- it’s one of our favorite ways to incorporate our Broth Elixirs in the warmer summer months. You get all the healing properties of our Broth Elixirs plus cucumber to keep you hydrated, cilantro to help detox the body, and avocado to keep you feeling full!


Summer Gazpacho


Post Reset

You’ve made it through the OWL reset, hooray! Now what? You’ve been asking your body to do lots of deep healing work throughout the reset and it’s important to remember that your body doesn’t know it’s over on day 4. As you ease out of the cleanse be gentle on the digestive system as it will continue to detox and restore for a few days after the reset. If you celebrate making it through the cleanse with a burger, fries and a beer on day 5 it could be such a shock to the system you may find yourself feeling awful. Take a few days to gently introduce new foods into the system and let your digestive system continue to do it’s deep healing work. Here’s a few tips to follow:

AVOID COMMON ALLERGENS
Just for a few days - try to keep gluten, dairy, eggs, tree nuts and peanuts out of the diet. Focus instead on fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains, meats and fish. Use the same principles that you did on the pre-cleanse: simple, easy to digest, whole foods.

STOKE DIGESTIVE FIRE
Since you spent the past few days on a liquid based cleanse you may find that your digestion is actually a little slower than normal. Don’t worry — this’ll bounce back quickly. For your first few post-reset meals drink a cup of ginger tea or use our digestive bitters 30 minutes before your meals. This will get the digestive enzymes flowing so that you’re better prepared to digest your foods.

DRINK LOTS OF WATER
This may seem like a no brainer but it’s an important one. Since your body is still detoxing for a few days after the cleanse it’s important to keep flushing the toxins out. Sip on warm water, detox tea or our bone broth for a few days post cleanse to keep the detox going.

I hope these tips are helpful for you! Above anything, remember to be gentle with yourself. If you fall off the wagon - get back on, your body still appreciates the work you’re doing. 

OWL Health Coach Lillian Jacobs

Lillian Jacobs

Lillian is a holistic health coach through The Institute of Integrative Nutrition and an Ayurvedic Health Coach through The Joyful Belly School of Ayurveda. Lillian’s passion for holistic health and wellness started at a very young age. She was diagnosed with a mysteriously long list of food allergies as a young kid. As a result of the restrictive diet she grew up in a household where we made our own food coloring with beets, ate 'kraut and introduced many other healing practices into her life. She was able to heal from her gut issues completely and the food allergies went away! The seed was planted for a career in health and wellness.

Fast forward a few years (2011 to be exact) and Lillian was introduced to Ayurveda during a yoga teacher training. She started incorporating Ayurvedic principles into her diet and then completed first 10 day kitchari cleanse. Suffice to say, she was hooked.

As she continued into her adult life, Lillian continued to learn over and over again that food is truly medicine. She continues to look to holistic healing practices to not only heal but to thrive in day to day life! Lillian is a firm believer that the body wants to thrive and be healthy. Every body is unique and has different health needs. As a health coach she aims to help individuals connect with their own bodies and find their unique healing path.


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