Six Weeks To Perma Cleanse!

Clean the inside too!

I did my first fast when I decided to have my first baby. DaddyH and I had been slowly making the shift to healthier, holistic (do people still use that word?) living. We stopped eating sugar and wheat, started filtering all of our water – not just drinking – and tossed every chemical we had been using for anything. We stopped buying cleansers and deodorants. I stopped wearing make-up (yikes!) and started mixing my own moisturizers for face and body. We also signed up for an organic food delivery box, so every week we received a bountiful box of fresh organic produce, delivered with warmth and vigour by an authentic earthmuffin of the highest vibration. We were hip.

So, with a solid foundation for non-toxic living in place, we decided to start reproducing. But if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right – meaning, I needed to clean up my own environment. And I’m not talking dirty here.

I decided to get my toes wet with a weekend fast – three days only. This particular fast was not like the fasts I’ve done since. This one was more like a mini-cleanse. One day to get on the fast, one day of fasting, one day to get off. Days One and Three consisted of raw fruits and veggies and some teas and juices. Day Two was just water and tea. And a snooze or two. And that was it.

Yes, go on, mock me, laugh. . .It may not sound like much – certainly not enough to detoxify my whole being – but I was taking baby steps, and what kind of sicko mocks a baby who is learning to walk?

My next cleanse was six weeks with a fast in the middle. This was inspired by a friend’s program from years ago, which included six herbal tinctures to accelerate the cleansing process – two for every two-week period. I’ve modified it over the years, for various reasons, and I no longer use the tinctures, but the basics are as follows:

Week One

One day at a time, begin to eliminate the following foods: alcohol, caffeine, refined sugar, wheat products, dairy and iodized salt.
Every morning, upon rising, drink a glass of lemon water – 1/2 lemon squeezed into a glass of lukewarm water.
Start every meal with a piece of fruit – apple, peach, pear, plum, bunch of grapes, whatever.
Drink lots of purified water between meals, but limit meal-time beverages to 4 oz.

Week Two

Maintain a Week One diet, plus:
Eat green vegetables at least once a day.
Omnivores: Reduce animal protein to one meal a day.
Eat every three hours.
Eat until you are 80% full, leaving room for digestion.
Allow 3 hours digestion time before going to sleep; do not eat before bedtime.

Week Three

Maintain your current diet, plus:
Eliminate all flour products, including pasta, breads, chips, crackers and baked goods.
Eliminate all sugars, including maple syrup, honey, brown rice syrup, etc.
Drink a glass of fresh organic vegetable juice every day.
Drink only freshly squeezed fruit juices.

Week Four

Maintain a Week Three diet, plus:
Omnivores: Reduce animal protein to 3x per week.
Use non-glutinous grains only, such as amaranth, quinoa, millet and brown rice.
Eat green vegetables two to three times a day.

Week Five

Omnivores: Eliminate animal protein.
Move into a one to three day fast of vegetable juices only; juices should be half diluted with purified water.
Take as many days as you fasted to return to a normal diet: begin with raw whole fruits and vegetables, add lightly steamed veggies, then whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.
Keep 80% of your food raw.
On non-fasting days, eat vegetable broth soups and drink herbal teas.
Eat only when hungry.
Rest as much as possible.

Week Six

Slowly return to Weeks Three and Four eating plan.
Try to maintain (evermore!) a 50/50 diet of raw/cooked foods.

The first time I did this cleanse I lost 13 lbs. Apparently this is the magic number – the average expected weight loss for this program. I was not hoping to lose weight, but it happened, and it happened safely and slowly. This program was first performed under a doctor’s supervision – the friend who designed the program. Since then, I have made additions and omissions to adapt this to our current lifestyle. (Actually, our current goal – to go 80% raw – makes this cleanse look like a picnic.)

What I like most about this program is that, once you have established the Week Four Diet as your regular diet, this program is no longer a program; it’s a lifestyle choice. And for anyone truly trying to lose weight, cleansing is the only way to go. The dietary changes are gradual and within our grasp. There are no obscure products to buy. It doesn’t cost any more money. But the most important thing is that we have to get the junk out of our bodies before we can feel the effects of the good.

And then we go raw! ’Cuz it’s all about the Path To Invincibility, yes?