6 Week Detox Program finishing with a 2/3 day juice fast – This is a gentle Naturopathic programme that will change your lifestyle and make you glow from the inside out.
Well done, I know I need a pat on the back for completing the last 6 weeks. Eliminating some of those foods groups was tough, now complete the programme with the 2/3 day juice fast.
As I have said before Spring is the perfect time to cleanse for overall health and well-being! According to traditional Chinese medicine, Spring is when your liver is particularly activated. Like any irrigation system, things build up, and the system can tire under strain. Ours is no different. When this organ functions smoothly, physical and emotional activity throughout the body also runs smoothly. By eliminating alcohol, caffeine, meat, dairy, wheat/gluten & sugar you have done a lot of the hard work. The reason for doing the elimination over a long period of 6 weeks is so that you have gently cleansed your body and hopefully you won’t have a major healing crisis/reaction to the fasting. You can expect some on the normal fasting side effects, headaches, feeling cold, tired etc… Try not to do too much over the 2/3 days. You may have some side effects because the toxins in your body are being dumped into your blood stream and they will take 24 – 72 hours to clear through your system (Kidneys mainly). You can do gentle exercise, yoga and walking is OK but make sure you keep warm.
You can refresh with my earlier blog for the benefits of detoxing and fasting.
Juice fast
Juicing is the key to radiant skin and health. Also referred to as “cellular cleansing,” juicing is preparing and drinking fruit and vegetable juices. A juice fast is great way to nurture your body, rebuild your immune system and restore yourself to a healthy way of living. Raw fruit and vegetable juice contains many cleansing elements such as minerals, vitamins, enzymes and antioxidants to heal and detoxify the body safely.
Little energy is used by your digestive system during the cleanse, allowing the body to focus on rebuilding, renewing, and healing. You might be surprised by how much energy you have. The many health benefits of juicing far exceed those of eating solid fruits and vegetables.
At the most basic level, juicing gives us the opportunity to add far more vegetables to our daily diet. Juicing allows us to up the amount of raw food we consume which gives the body energy and boosts the immune system and the body’s cleansing process. Green juices contain lots of chlorophyll which is significantly effective in detoxifying our bodies. Chlorophyll can help make our bodies strong by detoxifying the liver. This detoxification will purify and help to rebuild our blood cells, remove mold, parasites and toxins from the body.
When fasting
It is necessary to strain the juices to ensure that solid pieces are not consumed. Solid food will encourage the digestive process to begin again and will make you hungry. This is not desirable. If you feel like you need more juice, more calories, or are a little low in blood sugar, you can repeat any of the juices during the same time period of any given day, I would recommend 3-5 juices per day. Most juices contain about 100-200 calories and are packed with vitamins and minerals. Also allow yourself to drink non-caffeinated Herbal teas.
Juicer
Earlier in the week I recommended this great value juicer, you can get almost anything through it as long as harder fruits and vegetables are chopped into smaller pieces. If you do not have a juicer you can use a blender and strain out the pulp.
Fruits are the cleansers and being very alkaline are good to do first thing in the morning and vegetables are the builders and good to do in the evenings. Avocados and Bananas do not juice well. Remember you can use herbs; mint and parsley are great in juices, also ginger.
Have 3 – 5 8oz glasses (large glasses) of juice per day plus 1.5 – 2 litres of clean filtered water
Please feel free to make up your own juices, more veg than fruit and try not to mix fruit and veg together as they impair digestion, exceptions to this are carrots (which break down simple sugars very quickly) and apples, which can comfortably be mixed with vegetables because of the higher starch content.
If you are hungry, eat raw veg such as peppers
NO Salad dressing, Salt & Pepper
NO Supplements
If you blood sugar is low have a piece of fruit
Both fruit and veg are high in Potassium and Magnesium so even though you may find this hard you are doing your body the world of good.
Juice’s
1. 1 Carrot grated, ½ Cucumber, 2 medium Beetroot, handful of Spinach or Kale & 2 Celery sticks and add Ginger and the juice of a lime to taste.
2. ½ Cucumber, 1 Apple, 2 Celery sticks, 1 Carrot grated – this mixes really well together
3. 1 Apple, Grapes and a Lemon – great in the morning
4. 1 Pear, Grapes, ½ Lemon & ½ Watermelon
5. Handful of Spinach & Kale, handful of chopped Broccoli, 2 Celery sticks and ½ Cucumber – surprisingly sweet because of the Kale
6. ½ Pineapple, ½ Cucumber & Lemon or Lime
Please feel free to make up your own and remember to dilute all juices with equal parts of clean filtered water.
When you have competed the 2 days, please ease yourself gently back into the world. Lots of soups and stews, nothing processed and see how much you can keep eliminated from your diet. If your ever feeling like you have slipped back into your old routine you can just do a 2 day juice fast but watch out for the side effects!!
Hope you feel well and full of vitality!
Helena
Helena Barker ~ Acupuncture & Naturopathy 