 Healthy
Cleansing - Detoxing Plans for a Busy Schedule
By Monica Hirai
Why cleanse? We hear a lot of talk about it,
but do we really need it? The answer to this question is easy. Look out
across Calgary. Do you see that brown and yellow haze out there? We all
breathe that. And that is just the air we breathe, not the chemicals in our
food, water, etc.
Cleansing is an important part of maintaining health, slowing the aging
process and preventing diseases, by allowing the body to rid itself of a
build up of toxins. There are many ways of doing this. Ideally, a person
should be free of commitments during a cleanse, as much as is possible,
because a relaxed person can detoxify more efficiently. Another note of
caution, do not ever make yourself “fit” into a cleanse. The cleanse should
“fit” you. Take time to experiment to see what regime will best suit your
schedule, but also remember that you will need to make room for it no matter
how busy you are.
A cleanse can be a fast, but it doesn’t have to be. You can eat while
cleansing, provided that you use cleansing foods. If you want a specific
food list for cleansing, check into any cleansing book and they will list
the foods specifically. Generally, it is avoiding heavy foods like red meat,
wheat, dairy, fried foods, Soya products, dried fruit, etc. You would eat
fresh fruits, fresh veggies, whole grains with the exception of wheat, some
chicken or fish, etc. (Some veggies contraindicated when cleansing are
tomatoes, potatoes, and the squash family. Dried fruit is usually a no-no
too.) Any condiments you use would be very simple like flax oil, olive oil,
apple cider vinegar, vegetized sea salt, etc.
The idea is to eat easily digestible foods so as to “free-up” the
eliminative organs such as the liver, kidney, skin, lungs, colon, and
lymphatic system, so that they can spend more time detoxifying and less time
digesting. (Some of these organs aren’t directly digesting food, but do help
in the processing part of digestion). A juicer is also recommended, though a
basic cleanse can be done without this.
With these things in mind, let me run through a few ways you can accomplish
a health cleanse and detox.
Plan A: Fast for half days with fresh vegetable and fruit juices.
Then eat lightly in the latter part of the day. For example, brown rice or
millet with fish or chicken and a salad. Have a variation of this for supper
or have a few glasses of fresh juice from your juicer.
Plan B: Juice with veggie and fruit juices all day (take your juice
1½ to 2 hours apart) with 4 to 6 fiber drinks ½ hour between juices. A
mixture of a high quality psyllium mixture and ground flax seed is excellent
for cleansing. It aids the removal of toxins from the intestines. Add
hydrated bentonite clay to help absorb even more toxins from your body! (1
tbsp per drink is usually enough). A word of caution here -- if you have
never done a fast before, do not attempt this without doing the ½ day fast
first. Also, for fasting, going on to the fast and coming off the fast must
be equal to the number of days you are planning to fast. For example, if you
plan to fast for three days, you would start eating fruits and veggies with
easy to digest protein, like seeds, fish, etc., for three days before
fasting. When you come off the fast, you must start with blended fruits and
salads, and gradually work your way to easy-to-digest proteins for three
more days, at least. Coming off of a cleanse is almost more important than
the fast itself. It can “make” or “break” a fast. (Don’t do this on your own
if you are on medication of any kind).
Plan C: Use cleansing foods all day without any fasting. Pick from a
cleansing food list to make up your menus a head of time. A sample menu
would look like this:
Breakfast: Ground almonds soaked over night in purified water. Have them
with maple syrup.
Lunch: Brown rice, chicken, salad with a flax oil or olive oil dressing.
Dinner: Chicken breast, brown rice and veggies.
Plan D: Juice fast on the weekends, while eating cleansing foods
during the week.
Additional aids to cleansing would be:
1) Use herbs to help clean out the toxins from fatty tissues, the liver,
colon, lymph, lungs, kidneys and skin. Herbs are quite necessary to really
get the “junk” out of the body.
2) Grow wheat grass and juice it. Add it to your veggie and fruit juices. It
is excellent for cleansing.
3) Eat cleansing foods that are in accordance to your blood type. Read “Eat
Right for Your Blood Type,” by Dr. Peter J. d’Adamo.
4) Eat cleansing foods that are in season if at all possible, and eat as
much organic as possible.
5) Use enemas or colonics, or a combination of both, to enhance the
detoxifying process. Water is the best solvent known to man. It will take
toxins out of your body when nothing else can.
6) Use affirmations to help you stick to a cleanse. For example, “Hour by
hour my body is purifying itself,” or “Every minute that I am fasting or
cleansing, I am flushing dangerous poisons out of my wonderful body.”
7) Dry skin brushing morning and night using a vegetable bristle brush.
Brush towards your heart. Do it lightly, this will help your lymph move
along.
References: The Miracles of Fasting by Paul Bragg and Patricia Bragg.
-Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management by Dr. Bernard Jensen.
-Colon Health by Norman W. Walker. The Colon Health Handbook by Robert Gray.
Monica Hirai, C.H., B.A.T., brings balance into your life through
herbs, homeopathics & aromatherapy. She specializes in personalized wellness
programs, colonic irrigations & cranial body work. Contact Monica at
403.276.5756. |
