sarah recovers from back surgery and starts the 21 day cleanse!

Written by Sarah on February 22nd…

On January 27, I had surgery on my lower back (a minimally invasive discectomy to remove part of a herniated disc that was pressing on my sciatic nerve).  It’s been almost a month now and I’m feeling better than I’ve felt in over 2 years.  I am not in constant pain!  I am currently in physical therapy and I am not yet allowed to do any exercise except for walking.  I am hoping to be back doing yoga & pilates in April.  My next follow up with the surgeon is in early April so we’ll see what he says.  I can’t believe I endured such terrible back and leg pain for so long.  Doing yoga and stretching really did help with pain management but I am looking forward to enjoying doing yoga without having to ice my back afterwards.  I am also excited that I will have a greater range of motion going forward so I may be able to get deeper in to poses and stretches.  

Living with back pain is awful.  It just hurt to do much of anything and I felt sad constantly.    If you combine that with the pandemic, my eating habits were awful.  I didn’t just fall off the wagon, the wagon backed up and ran me over twice.  It was bad.  I knew I needed to change my habits. I knew I needed to lose weight, but I was lacking the motivation to take action.  

So, I joined in the 21 day cleanse in February and it’s been awesome.  I am a week behind everyone else (to allow an extra week of healing from surgery) so I still have 6 days to go as of today.  If you didn’t sign up for this in February, you should definitely join in March.  In the first week, I lost just under 5 lbs.  I haven’t been eating sugar, haven’t been drinking soda, haven’t been eating cheese, butter or any of the junk I have been eating for so long.  I don’t drink coffee in the morning, so I was drinking Crystal Light with caffeine every day (which is probably horrible for me).  I have replaced that with a cup of green tea every morning. 

Everyone in the group is very supportive and shares recipes.  There is something about being in a group of people that makes it more fun and more encouraging. Don’t let the word “cleanse” scare you!  It is amazing.  You get to eat plenty of food and you will have so much energy.   When the 21 days ends, I may just turn around and do it again!  

Stay well!   Sarah