Kat's Interview: Lori & Jo Benefit from Dr. Rodier's Cleanse - Migraine Relief, Weight Loss & Immune Health

 

OHC: What made you decide to go ahead with the infamous Dr. Rodier Cleanse?

Lori: Two of the biggest motivators ever: love and pain relief.

My very best friend, Jo, had been suffering excruciating three-day migraines and stomach upsets for a couple of years. Muscle relaxers weren’t helping, and Jo didn’t want to go on daily prescription meds. Doctors suggested the migraines could be related to her monthly cycle or her iron deficiency and inability to absorb nutrients. She tracked possible triggers for several months, but was at a loss as nothing obvious was happening before each migraine hit.

As friends of Tess, we’ve been Co-op fans for some time, so I asked her for ideas. Tess suggested magnesium, but Jo’s migraines persisted. Tess finally mentioned Dr. Rodier’s Cleanse. She also shared some compelling research on how migraines could be related to poor gut health. At about the same time, Jo’s alternative medicine practitioner suggested a similar cleanse to treat another gut problem: candida. We learned candida is an overgrowth of yucky fungus in the gut that was causing tummy aches every time Jo had a meal.

Desperate for relief from the pain, and willing to try almost anything, Jo said she’d do the Cleanse to get her gut healthy.

I pledged my support and agreed to do it along with her. Having struggled with a little pudge for as long as I can remember, my secret ambition was to lose a few pounds while providing moral support during the 8-week protocol.

I’m pretty sure Jo had no idea what she was getting into (or what she was getting me signed up for!). While our pre-Cleanse diets were far from unhealthy, it was clear that just about everything in our diets were about to change.

Enviably, Jo has a metabolism that’s kept her slender no matter what or how much she eats. Uh huh, I hate that about her, too. She’s never had to be on any kind of diet at all. So it was especially hard for her to give up so many things all at once. It was especially frustrating for her to eliminate foods that are usually considered “healthy” -- like fruit, yogurt, and beans -- in addition to all the “fun” foods like brownies and potato chips.

OHC: Rumor has it those first two weeks on the Cleanse were a bit of a struggle. What was hard?

Lori: How about the day when a co-worker brought in donuts and set them right next to my desk for me to smell all day long? What wasn’t hard?!

The first two weeks we were not happy campers. Dealing with cookie cravings and noodle fantasies was hard emotionally. Additionally, I got pretty sick to my stomach for a few days, which Dr. Rodier says is pretty common and is likely due to the sudden increase in fiber. I’ll admit it right here: I come from Kansas City, Missouri, and my idea of a high fiber meal used to be bacon and eggs with a few slices of tomato on the side.

We ate a LOT of vegetables and nuts the first two weeks. I’ve been dieting off and on and trying to make healthy choices for years, and so I was accustomed to giving up sweets and high-fat foods for set periods of time. Umm, for at least a day or two!

And then there’s Jo. Her fast metabolism and unrestricted diet hadn’t caused her the discomfort of being overweight and she hadn’t suffered any health problems until recently. So the Cleanse seemed crazy strict for her. Jo was not thrilled about giving up sugar, dairy, and grains all at the same time.

OHC: How did your taste buds fare with all the dietary restrictions?

Lori: Drinking tea with no sugar in the morning was one of the hardest parts, until Tess casually mentioned Stevia, which pretty much saved my life. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. Seriously though, I realized that I don’t actually like the taste of tea. Instead, I like the taste of sweet warm water with a slight hint of Earl Grey flavor. Sugar still tastes better but your Stevia is in my cabinet for keeps now.

Another unexpected treat was the Constant Health shake. The Cleanse instructions included one or two Constant Health shakes a day. At first we would drink our shakes dutifully, longing for the day when we could add fruit back into our diets and make smoothies instead of using nothing but unsweetened almond milk. But within a week or so, we were surprised to find ourselves looking forward to our shakes and considering them a treat.

The three hardest things were: (1) cookie cravings (have I mentioned I love cookies?!), (2) meal planning, and (3) adjustments to when going out. We couldn’t go wine tasting. The Super Bowl Party sounded fun…except for the idea of having to fight temptations like plates of brownies and nachos. When eating out, we ended up talking more to the server about our special dietary needs than we did to dinner companions.

OHC: After the first two weeks, you got to add fruits back into your diet. How was that?

Lori: We actually circled the 15th day of the Cleanse on our calendar and eagerly looked forward to “Fruit Day,” when we could finally enjoy some sweetness again. I’ll confess, I had lackluster enthusiasm for fruit before the Cleanse, but by Day 14--a day I’ve dubbed “Fruit Day Eve”--I was ready to join the “Fruit Lovers of the World Unite” campaign! It’s a real event (check out www.fruitgod.com), undoubtedly created by some poor Cleanse participant on Day 15. Needless to say, our first “Fruit Day” was indescribably wonderful.

OHC: I also hear you got quite creative concocting some of your favorite foods sans-sugar. Care to share any recipes?

Lori: After Fruit Day, we could have tomatoes, which opened up a world of possibilities. I’d been craving pasta and tomato sauce (and every other kind of sauce in the world), so I made tomato sauce and served it with spaghetti squash. It was surprisingly simple and fulfilling to put tomatoes, tomato puree, chopped herbs, and chunks of sautéed veggies in a pot on the stove, and abracadabra, an hour later it’s delicious pasta sauce. And hey, if I can do it, anyone can be a magician in the kitchen.

We added some fun to our Cleanse by buying vegetables starting with certain letters each week. In week 1, we bought asparagus, broccoli, butternut squash, and baby bok choy. In week 2, we bought carrots, cauliflower, and cucumbers. And so on.

I realized during the Cleanse that I don’t particularly love the flavor of chicken. What I love are the yummy sauces that come with most chicken dishes. The recipes for my favorite—barbecue sauce—always call for molasses and brown sugar. I made something that tasted (mostly anyway) like barbecue sauce, using Stevia instead of sugar and molasses. I wouldn’t call it a tremendous success, but it sure made our turkey burgers (in lettuce wraps) a lot tastier.

A little barbecue sauce, some roasted sweet potatoes on the side, and it seemed like we were living rather large. Sweet potatoes are miraculously considered a vegetable and are therefore allowed during the entire span of the Cleanse. I don’t understand how something so delicious can be okay on the Cleanse, but I certainly wasn’t going to question their inclusion.

OHC: What health benefits did you notice?

Lori: Most importantly, Jo was migraine-free while we were doing the Cleanse (she had one minor headache, but she considered that a major victory). She’s still investigating which foods may be involved in triggering her migraines and currently looking into gluten intolerance. Jo’s fingers and toes are crossed that it’s not sugar that triggers her migraines. Jo’s candida also cleared up while on the Cleanse; it flared up again once she went back to her normal diet, so she had to go back to restricting her diet.

On my side, I made it all the way through cold and flu season without so much as a sniffle. My body felt strong and healthy (once it got past the shock of a sudden influx of fiber!), and I did lose a few pounds.

Mostly I’m expecting the benefits to be more long-term. For example, I’ve stopped seeing vegetables as strictly medicinal. I found some veggies that I actually enjoy. Before the Cleanse, I never understood why anyone would order the steamed vegetables if they could have the Chinese chicken with that sticky sweet orange sauce. Now I’m one of those crazy vegetable-ordering people. We both still make fruit smoothies with Constant Health several times a week, and we still take your Pancreatic Enzymes, Fish Oil, and Probiotics 16 supplements.

OHC: What did you learn over the eight weeks about your health and food intake?

Lori: So much! We became expert label readers, which illuminated a couple of truths about packaged foods: there’s wheat in some surprising foods (it’s the main ingredient in soy sauce), and there’s some form of sugar in just about everything. We learned to look for short ingredient lists, with ingredients we could pronounce.  We learned about all the alternatives to wheat flour, including coconut flour and almond flour. We learned that there are delicious alternatives to dairy products.

We also read articles about the evils of sugar (one of Dr. Rodier’s favorite rants), including the fact that sugar causes rapid cell division, which increases susceptibility to cancer and causes a faster spread of the disease once a person has it. Breast cancer is something Jo worries about because of her family history, so this research hit home and helped motivate her new sugar avoidance behaviors.

OHC: Now that it’s over, what differences have you adopted?

Lori: We started shopping at the health food store -- the one that smells like patchouli, where all the hippies shop. It’s silly that it costs more for foods with fewer ingredients, but we decided it was worth it. I was always pleasantly surprised by how yummy the foods were that we bought there. We’re still buying the peanut butter (the entire ingredient list: peanuts and sea salt!) we found at the health food store during the Cleanse. Of course, we couldn’t have any peanut butter until “Bean Day” in the fifth week, since peanuts are actually legumes, not nuts, and should more accurately be called “peabeans!”

OHC: This last question is tradition. What do you think about the kat?

Lori: I have no idea what the connection is between cats and health supplements. Tess sent me your way. We’ve had this nice interview but it’s been rather one-way. You’ll have to let me interview you next time!  By the way, I am a “cat person” and have two cats of my own. Do we have a deal?!

 

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If you're interested in learning more about the protocol or trying the Cleanse products, you can read more about Dr. Rodier’s Cleanse or visit any of our Constant Health, Probiotics 16, Pancreatic Enzymes, or Fish Oil product pages.