I recently had a wonderful, love-all-around visit with relatives near and far who came to vacation at our home for a week. Mid-way through our gathering, I was asked this very question that I posed to you in the title of this week's post. One of the awesome grand-women in my family recently decided enough was enough with sub-optimal health. She was ready and eager to do her very first detox!
Now, detox-ing on vacation might not be the best way to capitalize on your free time since you'll be spending your hours eliminating, cleansing, and healing. And, I'm not just talking about your body, either. No, when you cleanse and detox, your wellness objective can very well include total rejuvenation of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self. After sharing these thoughts with my relative, she made the smart decision to start her detox when she returned home from her vacation in order to give her body, mind, and spiritual self the full attention it deserves. Once she determined when she'd start, her next question was how long will this take?
The detox that I have encouraged and supervised my own dear mother on averages 3 days, though you can certainly spend even more time than this if you feel up to it. As a matter of fact, my mom extended her 3 day cleanse to a full 5 days of juice fasting! And, she had formerly been a faithful adherent to the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) for over sixty years. Once my visiting relative heard this, her next logical question was, "Well, what does this all entail?"
So, allow me to explain:
The keys to any good cleanse are preparation, managing expectations, and humility. First, you need to have your detox program stocked and ready along with sufficient time set aside to fully immerse yourself in the process. My preferred program is the 3-day juice fast outlined in Transfiguration Diet
. Second, you must be willing to enter into a cleansing program with all your expectations sufficiently established. Meaning: do some research; talk to experienced detox-ers so that you'll know what to expect and how to set your mind towards a firm acceptance of how a cleanse feels.Third, humbly re-discover how to listen to your body. That's probably one of the best, most surprising gifts of a successful cleanse: uncovering your body's voice.Once the program was selected and the mind ready to get started, the next step was diving right in! As I write this, tomorrow - Wednesday is the day planned for starting the detox. I aim to blog each day of my relative's experience as I coach and support her cleansing journey. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, how about I share my mom's detox experience? Mom also completed a 3-day juice fast, though as I mentioned above she extended hers to 5 days. This cleansing program is unique because it involves supplies that can be easily purchased at the store at a reasonable cost:
-cayenne pepper (organic, irradiated preferred)
-honey (raw preferred)
-apple cider vinegar (organic preferred, I use Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar Unfiltered - 16 oz - Liquid
)-lemons
-olive oil
-prune juice (or other natural, wholefoods colon-cleanser such as Dr. Christopher Lower Bowel Formula 100 vegetarian caps
)-3 gallons pressed apple juice (or apple cider)
-3 lbs. apples
-3 gallons distilled water
Divide your day into 3 blocks: morning, afternoon, evening. You'll prepare supplements to take in each block of the day. Supplements are:
-1 tsp. cayenne pepper mixed into 1/2 cup of warm water
-1 T honey combined with 1 T apple cider vinegar
-2 T lemon juice combined with 1 T olive oil
-16 oz. prune juice (or natural colon-cleaner taken as directed to ensure daily, frequently moving bowels)
The juice fast itself follows this general outline:
-Take your supplements as described above
-Drink 8 oz. juice
-Wait 30 minutes
-Drink 8 oz. distilled water
-Wait 30 minutes
-continue throughout the day alternating juice then water every 30 minutes.
-*in the evening block, you may eat apples if you feel hungry
Repeat again taking your supplements, juice, and water at the afternoon and evening blocks. It's pretty straightforward, right? Almost sounds too easy?
I explained to my mom before she started that she might experience some detox symptoms or healing crises. What's a detox symptom? I like to describe it as headaches, chills, feverishness, aches, cramps, or flu-like symptoms that you may encounter as your body cleanses. Why does this happen? These healing crises happen because the body is in self-clean mode. The toxins and filth have to go somewhere, and if the bowels are not moving throughout the entire day, the waste will re-enter the bloodstream and may result in these symptoms.
When mom began Day 1, she was thrilled! She took her supplements, and we talked as I walked her through the process. She drank her juice; waited 30 minutes; then drank her water. She kept this up much of the day and spent her time drinking when she wasn't otherwise occupied in the bathroom. Near the middle of the day she called me wondering, "How come I don't feel bad?" I guess I may have over-prepared her since she was waiting for some detox symptoms to strike. But they didn't. In the evening we spoke again. She asked, "How come I'm not hungry?" "Really, you're not hungry?" I asked. She affirmed that she wasn't. "Well, if you do get hungry, you can eat some of your apples." However, she never did get hungry. She kept up drinking through much of the evening and slowed down as she neared her bedtime. Not bad for her first day!
On Day 2 Mom was still enthusiastic. She began again as she had on Day 1. Though, this time by the afternoon she told me she was feeling tired, like she needed a nap. I told her if her body is tired, she should rest. Our bodies use sleep as a time for healing. She slept a good long while that day although she was concerned that by sleeping in the afternoon she would be missing out on a good block of juicing. I reassured her that this program is flexible enough to accommodate her individual needs. Although she did not drink as much this second day, she did continue to have a lot of elimination going on. Excellent!
Day 3 was a super-charged day for Mom. She woke up feeling terrific! All that rest did her well. She began the day just like she had the previous two: supplements, juice, then water. She wasn't sleepy this day, though. Mom spent much of it drinking her juice or water at the appointed times and continuing the supplements on schedule also. She marveled at her lack of hunger! (Now, my mom is a woman who enjoys good, rich, flavorful food so for her to not have any desire to eat is tremendously remarkable.) As the end of Day 3 approached, she was somewhat despondent and anxious that her cleanse would have to end. "Do I have to eat tomorrow?" she asked. "Not if you don't feel up to it," I answered. And so, she kept on cleansing on Day 4. Day 5 came and she still didn't feel like she needed to eat. "All right, then, keep going," I encouraged. Now, as Day 6 began, though, I advised her to eat a little something because maintaining your body in a state of high-cleansing in excess of five days is not going to continue to reward the same benefits. The body cleanses, maintains itself, and rejuvenates in cycles. So, as she came down off her cleanse, she prepared a first meal of light soup with dark leafy greens, brown rice, and a small piece of fish. However, with a small appetite now, she discovered that she was eating less. We talked and talked about her experience, and what struck me most about her responses was her energy and enthusiasm. It was electric! She had a new confidence about her as she better understood her body's needs. She knew when she was hungry and what her body was hungry for. She knew when to say when at mealtime. She knew that this cleanse had dramatically brought her all the more closer to her ideal health goals: reduced blood pressure and lower blood sugar.
Is now a good time for you to detox? If not now, when? Make a plan, set a date, and put your plan into action!
Blessings and health+
No comments:
Post a Comment