As much as I will miss Sunday rituals of all day PJ’s, insane interceptions, and some pretty awesome touch down passes (Congratulations to the Saints, they played a great game), I am slightly relieved to have no more excuses for weekend indulging!! Spring is in just over one month folks! And it can’t possibly be more of a blessing. I am in desperate need of an internal sweeping out the closet. And luckily the spring is the best time for your body to do just that. It naturally goes into detox mode as the weather warms up and we no longer need the rich warming hearty foods we’ve been craving all winter. Bitter, leafy vegetables come into season, and for good reason. These greens (think: dandelion greens, watercress, varieties of dark lettuces) are extremely detoxifying foods. They whip the body into shape, helping facilitate the elimination of toxins, cooling down inflammation, and supplying the best nutrition our cells desire. So if any of you out there have been wanting to try a cleanse, the next 3 months are your best time of year to try. Remember, though: cleansing is NOT starving. And I mean starving in the sense that you are denying your body nutrition. Hunger is natural during a cleanse, but fasting and cleansing are not one in the same. Juice cleanses I think are some of the most effective. It’s like being strapped to a nutritional powerhouse I.V. all day. Pure, essential vitamins and nutrients that you drink all day in the form of mostly raw, freshly juiced vegetables and a few fruits keep your cells humming. Different metabolic types may have different experiences. For example people who crave heavy sources of protein (mostly animal) year round, and who are most likely O blood types, may have a more difficult time with feeling hungry. For those types of people, raw nut milks and blended avocados are good additions to a cleanse (which only has to last a couple days to feel better).
For those not able to jump into the severity of not chewing for a couple days straight, and who don’t live in areas where it’s easy to find people to make juices for you….eating extremely “clean” for a week, might help. Elimination of grains, dairy, and most meats, and focusing on eating a lot of fresh vegetables, fruits like pears and apples, and small amounts of organic protein can work wonders. Those types of foods help de-clog the system of the overly mucous-y “stickiness” that foods like glutenous grains and dairy tend to promote.
So proceed with caution and do some research, but if you’re feeling heavy, lethargic and unmotivated from the past few months of overdoing it, a cleanse might be just what you need.
If you want some inspiration about creating juices (if you’re lucky enough to have a juicer), I’ve heard a lot recently about people doing the Blueprint Cleanse (www.blueprintcleanse.com) and it seems to be a pretty good cleanse. My one concern would be the time between the actual juicing of the foods and consumption, as fresh juices need to be consumed almost immediately to get the real benefits of it. Once juiced, enzymes start breaking it down immediately, and most of the nutrition is lost within a very short time. This is also why you should not go on a “juice cleanse” by hitting your local grocery store. Not the same kind of juice! Pasteurized, processed juices are not what we’re talking about here, and do not provide the same level of cleansing needed in well, ……. a cleanse.
But if you want to invest in a good quality juicer for long term vitality, or if you already have one, you can steal a few recipes from the Blueprint system to get some ideas. They really do give you great ideas for juice that are full of immune boosting, anti-inflammatory, and pH balancing foods. (Of course you could invest in the system but it IS a little pricey.)
Your body is designed to detox on it’s own. Keep this in mind. That is why we have a liver, kidneys and skin, which is believe it or not our largest detoxifying organ. Also know the liver stores toxins that it can’t figure out how to eliminate and 70% of its mass can become damaged before any sign of liver disease is even detected. So, take care of that very important eco-system living inside you. And when the liver gets over-worked the skin pushes out the rest, which is why when skin conditions present, you should always take a look at what’s going on in the inside first. So if you support your system by not supplying it with the stuff that makes it have to work extra hard, like sugar and processed foods filled with nutrient void ingredients and a huge dose of food additives and chemicals, your body can’t do what it’s designed to do naturally. Eat clean, and your insides will start to clean themselves.
If anyone has any personal history with cleanses and would like to recommend them, feel free to comment! More and more people are getting interested in taking care of themselves at deeper levels these days. It’s nice to see, but scary to see the misinformation being spread, so like I said, do the research and proceed with caution. But your body WILL thank you!
