In Western society, cleansing is kind of treated as a hush-hush topic, or thought of as a kind of wacky, hippie, new-age thing to do. However, many other cultures and religions have periods of fasting or cleansing built into their traditions or rituals. The belief is that these periods of fasting or cleansing allow the digestive system a chance to rest and for the body to purge chemicals and toxins that have built up in the cells. This results in less bloating, clearer skin, weight loss in many individuals, improved clarity and purpsefulness of mind, and a feeling of more energy and vitality. It is suggested to cleanse the body four times a year, once every quarter at the change of the seasons.
So, with the help of this naturopath physician, I found the Supreme Cleanse by Gaia. It is a very simple cleanse, gentle and effective. It consists of one powder, called Rejuve, which is a mixture of herbs including Psyllium Seed Husks, Licorice Root Powder Extract and Ginger Root Powder, among others. There are also three liquids, Sweetish Bitters Elixir, Scudder’s Alterative and Red Clover Supreme. Each of these has a variety of ingredients, too numerous for me to list. Basically you mix some of the Rejuve powder with warm water in the morning and drink that before breakfast, you take 30 drops each of the Scudders Alterative and Red Clover Supreme in water mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and take 60 drops of the Sweetish Bitters Elixir before lunch and dinner. Pretty simple!
The other part of the cleansing process is, of course, really clean eating. The folks at Gaia recommend avoiding (all the stuff we should normally avoid) alcohol, sugar, fatty foods, wheat, cheese, soda, etc. Recommended foods include steamed green veggies, salad greens, fresh vegetables, fresh vegetable juices, fresh fruits, fish, herbal tea, miso, tofu, and lentils, whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, oats, lemon/lime, garlic, onions, and fresh sea vegetables.
Now, this may seem like there is not a lot of “options” on the recommended food list, but here in my blog for the next two weeks (not every day) I will be posting some of the variety of foods that I am able to consume. It should be an interesting process. You will see that I will eat a lot of fish, for two reasons. One, I really like fish, and two because I have a husband that I need to make dinner for and he really prefers to have what he considers an “actual” dinner. Ya know, meat, veg, and carb.
To start off the cleansing process I went to the grocery store and spent about $70 bucks on all manner of fresh fruits and veggies, including two big bunches of kale, a bag of apples, a bag of oranges, a bag of carrots, some broccoli, brussel sprouts, several different bags of salad mixin’s, snap peas, baby carrots, mushrooms, several lemons, cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, bananas, a pineapple, celery, asparagus, and strawberries.
Yesterday my breakfast consisted of this gorgeous juice.
5 leaves of kale, 1 lemon, 1 apple, 1 cucumber and 2 carrots. And for the non-green juice drinkers, it was actually very tasty!
And I will be having lots of salads like this one:
For breakfast this morning I had TEFF grain:
Never heard of it before, but thought I’d try it. It is almost like little seeds and not much flavor on its own. It will probably be good with some fruit or raisins or something. The recommended directions called for 1/2 cup dry to 2 cups of water which ended up making enough for two portions. I saved some and will see how it reheats tomorrow.
Over the next two weeks I will be using this space to catalog my journey, share my food and the overall experience of the cleanse. Feel free to follow along with me and share any thoughts, comments or questions you might have.
To good health!
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