I did it!
7 Days on Banana Island!
...Where is Banana Island?
Nicecream - frozen bananas blended into the yummiest, smoothest 'ice cream' consistency. Add Cacao and Peppermint Essential Oil for a Choc-Mint flavour!
Well, it is actually a place - but there's also an option of mono-eating for holistic healing, breaking food addictions, combating dysfunctional relationships with food, detoxification and transformation - at home.
Therefore, 'Banana Island' was in my kitchen. A kitchen filled with two 15 kilo boxes of bananas! Enough bananas to provide me with at least 20-30 bananas a day.
Whoa, you say.
Just bananas?
Why?
For SO many reason!
Above - I did Banana Island with my beautiful friend Kellie this time around. This is when we'd completed the challenge! Day 7!
One of the big reasons I choose to do Banana Island is to 'remove the stimulation that accompanies variety (related to food and eating) and to develop positive eating patterns through satiation - not overindulgence.' - Dr. Doug Graham.
By minimising taste sensations, through eating just bananas, you heighten your taste buds sensitivity.
You perceive food and your body completely differently. You begin to appreciate and treat your body as the beautiful, highly intelligent, functioning friend that is always trying to work for you, heal and repair you.
As I've said to most people that have asked - if you know you're eating just bananas (with a few greens and dates thrown in here and there), then you don't eat, just to eat. Or when you're bored. Or emotional. Or trying to fill a void.
You strengthen your relationship with food, by respecting it as the amazing nourishing fuel that it is.
My Secret Weapons
Energetic planning
I 'energetically plan' most things in my life - and it works. This is the second time I've been to Banana Island but this time was 100 times easier than last! It just flowed. Why?
I energetically planned when to do it. January the 5th was the beginning of my Phase 1 Feminine Archetype - the perfect time for detoxing, shedding and de-cluttering. Whether in your life, home or body!
I also decided that Banana Island would serve as a transition back into a Raw Til 4 lifestyle. So on the 12th January (after 1 week on Banana Island) the Full Moon fell in my 6th house. The 6th House energy is relevant to health, diet, starting healthy eating plans and routines etc. Therefore, transitioning to Raw Til 4 that day tied in perfectly energetically!
And I felt energetically supported in both.
Essential Oils
Every glass of water I drank, throughout the day, I added 1 drop of Lemon Essential Oil. This aided the detoxification process, kept my PH levels balanced and supported my digestive system whilst it worked hard!
Lemon Essential Oil is also the oil of focus. It helps us to be mentally present and enhances clarity. When you're walking around in a cloud of detox, you need some extra focus around why it is you're doing what you're doing - and you need to be mentally clear with a strong mind.
I also added a drop of Peppermint into some of my morning banana smoothies. Not only because it tasted delicious and gently soothed my Digestive System (whilst it was doing some tough work!) but Peppermint Essential Oil is the oil that lifts us out of any lower vibration emotions. These tend to surface when we're detoxing our body. It's often a challenging time of releasing old belief systems, breaking old habits and the perfect conditions to slip into a victim mentality where we start feeling sorry for ourselves. This never happened - Peppermint Oil, aka The Buoyant Heart Oil, kept me high vibrational throughout the entire week.
More reasons visiting Banana Island is an amazing healing tool - physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually...
- You allow yourself to get out of the way of your body's innate healing system. By stopping the ingestion of an amalgamation of different foods, combined with preservatives, and unnecessary chemicals - our bodies can focus it's energy on detoxifying and healing us of the previous damage we've done, without the added strain of removing even more unnecessary waste piled on top!
- It improves digestion and assimilation. The less complicated the meal, the easier it is on the digestive system. When there's just one food in the stomach, the digestive mediums produced by our bodies quickly break down food without the byproducts of gas, acid reflux etc. (Did you know humans are the only creatures on the earth that mix hard-to-digest conglomerations of unhealthy food into meals, containing dozens of ingredients?)
The results
I feel that every time I go to Banana Island, the following occur in the last 2 days..
- A clear mind
- Less inflammation - with my digestion, in my joints, my back etc
- The whites of my eyes become bright and the colour vibrant!
- I feel more in flow - less anxious or stressed
- Congestion related to my Hayfever is almost non existent
- My dreams are vivid
- My vibration is far higher and uplifted
- My skin becomes clear and has a glow
- I feel lighter, physically
- I become more structured and disciplined about what goes into my body as fuel
- My Psychic abilities and Crown Chakra are completely open and unblocked!
- I feel I have more energy
So how do you do it?
See this Instagram photo by @anita.katherine * 40 likes
The main rules are that you should be consuming enough calories to get your system functioning at it's peak (20-30 bananas a day), drink at least 2-3 litres of water a day, move your body and get a hit of Vitamin D daily also.
The logistics, meal plans and finer details I will leave up to you.
I think it's far more empowering when we research for ourselves. When we question things ourselves. When we take the initiative to take on something ourselves.
So, to find out more research the following:
- Banana Island and Freelee the Banana Girl
- Banana Island and Dr Doug Graham
- The 80 10 10 Diet
As with any 'detox' - this isn't a fall back every couple of months if you choose to eat unhealthily and live a sedentary life the majority of the time. It's not a miracle cure if you predominantly choose unhealthy choices. But it is the perfect healer or kickstart if you're in the mindset of changing poor habits that you've picked up - and are wanting to start the journey of nurturing your beautiful, amazing body.
As you also know, I am not a Health Coach or Dietician - I just wanted to share my experiences around Banana Island and how it has positively impacted me!