Powerful 10 Day Detoxification

People often dismiss the massive power of veggies and fruits to heal. This 10 day detoxification challenge will cleanse your body of toxins and will also supply you with the nutrients you need in order to be really healthy.  It’s that simple.

In the physical world, chronic degenerative disease has risen exponentially due to two things: toxicity and nutritional deficiencies. Here’s some starling statistics:

• 70% of all people in the USA die today from complications to cancer and heart disease. 70%!
• 2/3 of all people in the USA are obese or overweight.
• 15% percent live in a chronically depressed state from day to day.

We live in the most toxic time in history, with over 100,000 chemicals in our world today.  Our personal care products, food, and even our drinking/shower water is loaded with disease causing toxins.  These toxins damage the body and lower immune function. In addition to this, common foods of many contribute to widespread inflammation in the body. Refined sugar, dairy, wheat, soy, corn, pork, eggs, alcohol, polyunsaturated vegetables oils (fried food), and conventional boxed, packaged and canned food lack the nutrients our body needs to be strong and healthy. These foods also create tons of inflammation.  Most don’t eat enough vegetable or fruits per day, which are the most life giving and nutrient dense foods on the planet. If we don’t do anything about this we can continue to have more cancer, heart disease and diabetes. If we eliminate the foods that create disease, health problems and inflammation and give our body the right foods to heal, you can feel empowered to be healthier.

When people take this on, after the end of 10 days people usually report a whole wide range of benefits including:

• More energy
• Better sleep
• More brain clarity
• Less pain and inflammation
• Less anxiety
• More calm
• Weight loss
• Skin is clearer
• Empowered

If you wish to take on this challenge, here is a suggested plan and some tips for helping you have the best experience possible. First things first – be sure to check with your physician to ensure that this would be best for you, knowing that you do so at your own risk**

If your goal is to lose a little more weight, it would be advisable to cut back on fruits and have more vegetables. If you eat more fruit, it is totally ok, but most people would like to see a little more weight loss.  If you are already relatively thin and don’t wish to lose much weight, eating a good amount of fruit (for calories) would be recommended.  Remember, the goal is to detoxify, not lose weight, although losing weight is usually a big benefit for everyone that does this challenge. Some lose more than 10 pounds in 10 days.

Sample menu for the day:
It is highly recommend to drink 4-5 vegetables juices per day and then eat any other raw fruits or steamed vegetables you want throughout the day.  If you don’t have a juicer, some great options are the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juicer, Breville or Aicook Masticating Juicer. I highly recommed the Breville. If you don’t have a juicer and would still like to have juice, you can use your blender.  Cut all the produce into small enough pieces to fit into your blender.  Blend produce and dump the contents into a cheese cloth or a nut milk bag and strain.  All produce should be organic. Grapefruit and other things like asparagus can be harder to find organic.

Sample Menu for a day:

1. Breakfast upon waking. Make 16 ounces of raw celery juice (to reboot digestive system). Drink juice immediately after making it.Don’t add anything else to it.
2. Make 12 ounces of grapefruit juice about ½ hour after drinking celery juice before you go to work in the morning. Use a citrus juicer.
3. Lunch: Make a juice of celery/cucumber/1 apple.Make 12 ounces. If you can’t make this at lunch, make it in the morning and store in a container in the fridge to keep it cool. Juices are best consumed fresh when possible because enzymes, which are very critical, die within 20 minutes of making juice.
4. Dinner: Make a juice of carrot/1 apple, enough for 12 ounces.
5. Dinner (2 hours later – 7-8pm): Make a juice of romaine lettuce/1 apple, enough for 12 ounces.
6. Great vegetables to steam during the day are broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, okra, Brussels sprouts, and green beans. Steam using a steamer basket for now more than 5 minutes, just enough to warm up.Use Himalayan salt or organic spices to add flavor.

In between you can eat unlimited amounts of raw or steamed vegetables and fruits. Good health is about balance, so we want to make sure that we include a few important pieces of information.  Raw food, especially vegetables and fruits are generally on the thermally cold side of things.  So if you feel like you swinging to the cold side of things, measures can be taken to have more balance. Some of the most warming spices are ginger, garlic, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. Other common warm foods include are onion, sweet peppers, raspberry, cherry, blackberry, dates, asparagus, peach, apricot, fennel seed, and basil.  Keep in mind that most people in the USA today have some kind of inflammation, which normally presents itself as heat in the body.  Adding ginger to celery, cucumber or other juices can balance the thermal quality.  Below is a soup recipe which is ingested warm (heated up) and can feel good in the middle of the day. Be sure to warm the soup up on a stove and not in the microwave.  Radiating food in the microwave kills the nutrients.

Hippocrates Soup (www.gerson.org)
Equipment
Use 4-quart stainless steel pot
Assemble the following vegetables
Cover with pure filtered water

Ingredients
1 medium celery knob or 3-4 stalks of celery
1 medium parsley root – if available
Garlic as desired
2 small leeks (if not available, replace with 2 medium onions)
1 ½ pounds tomatoes or more
2 medium onions
1 pound of potatoes
A little parsley leaves.
Add Himalayan salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1.    Do not peel any of these special soup vegetables
2.    Wash them off
3.    Cut them coarsely
4.    Simmer them slowly for 2 hours
6.    Vary the amount of water used for cooking according to taste and desired consistency.
7.    Keep well covered in refrigerator no longer than 2 days
8.    Warm up as much as needed each time

Other possible combinations of juices to have during the day:

1. Cucumber/1 Apple (in equal amounts)
2. Carrot/Romaine Lettuce/Apple
3. Celery/Cucumber/Apple
4. Celery/Apple
5. Cucumber/Green Pepper/Apple
6. One Beet/Beet Leaves/Apple

Raw celery juice has an amazing ability to completely reboot the digestive system and is a juice that is great for healing and detoxifying.  The mineral salts in celery help to replenish the body’s natural levels of hydrochloric acid. Most people are deficient in this resulting in constipation, low energy, diarrhea, acid reflux, gas and bloating.  Celery juice is quite miraculous for balancing out digestion very quickly.

It is suggested that you start this cleanse on a Thursday morning.  The reason for this is that days 3-6 can be tough for many people.  When the body is getting rid of toxins and you are not also getting certain foods that you normally eat, you may get a headache, have lower energy for a few days, feel nauseous or get hunger pains.  Usually these symptoms pass away after a few days for most people.  It is not the vegetables and fruits causing this, but just your body getting used to these changes.  It is much like working out for the first time in 6 months and your body being sore for a few days after the first workout.  It doesn’t mean you stop working out altogether if you feel sore, but keep going because you know the exercise is good for you.

Should I exercise during the detox?
It is not advised to do heavy exercising during this detoxification.  Brisk walking for a ½ hour 3-5 times per week is all that is needed. If you exercise harder, you may feel a little lightheaded or weak. Be sure to listen to your body. You can also drink as much pure filtered water (Berkey water filters are amazing) as you desire throughout the day.  Try to drink water either ½ hour before or after drinking a juice, so as to not dilute juice.

I won’t be getting any protein, is that a problem?
Vegetables and fruits do have protein (amino acids). There are 20 amino acids, and all 20 make a complete protein.  Vegetables and fruits have amino acids (partial protein), but not all of them. By eating a variety of vegetables and fruits, you will get enough amino acids to make complete proteins. Even if you are not getting enough protein, you will be fine for 10 days.  In the absence of enough carbohydrates, your body may begin to use fat as a source of energy (keytones), which is a good thing, because most of us carry around fat that we would like to burn off.

What should I avoid?

• Avoid all animal products including meats, dairy, and eggs.
• Consume no alcohol (it is very hard on the liver)
• Consume no coffee or caffeinated herbal tea. If you have more than 1 cup per day, titrate off the coffee slowly in the days/weeks leading up to the detox.
• Consume no grains (rice, wheat, breads, pasta, cereals, etc…)
• Consume no soda or sparkling/carbonated water
• Consume no diet drinks or flavored water
• Stay away from trying to sweeten things, even with stevia. Your taste buds will actually change during this time.
• Do not use any oils, nuts or seeds. They are heavy in fat. Fat is the very hardest thing for your body to digest and we want to give your liver a complete break from fat for 10 days.
• No salad dressings or vinegar either.
• Do not eat avocado or coconut even though they are plant food, they are very high in fat. We want to give the liver a break for 10 days.

What if I don’t eat many vegetables or fruits to begin with?
It would be highly suggested that you start juicing at least 2-3 times per day for at least a week leading up to the detox.  You can do this in addition to eating your regular food.  If this is not done, you may feel even more of a headache or low energy at the onset and we want this to be as pleasant as possible.

Should I continue taking my medication?
Of course. Unless you are a type 1 diabetic, doing an all vegetable and fruit detox is generally very safe. After all, they are the healthiest things you can consume. If you take blood thinning medication, you have to very careful as well. You can still do the detox, but if you consume more green things, you may need to adjust your medication. Again, confer with your doctor before starting the detoxification to ensure safety. Here are a few other things to be aware of during a detox:

1. If you choose to juice in the morning (HIGHLY suggested), make other juices at the same time (celery, carrot/apple), put them in 16 ounces mason jars and keep chilled. You can then sip on juices at work throughout the day. You can then juice again when you get home in the evening.Preparation is key!
2. If is so important to be prepared during this time, especially when you go to work. Cut up organic celery, sweet peppers, carrots or other vegetables into Tupperware so that whenever you are hungry you can eat. You can graze and eat all day long, as long as you consume just vegetables or fruits.
3. It is super important to get cruciferous vegetables during this detox. They are critical and assist with phase 2 liver detoxification. Cruciferous vegetables include cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, boy choy, kale, collard greens, arugula, watercress, turnips and radish. You can include the leafy greens in a vegetable/fruit smoothie or lightly steam in a steamer basket and consume.You can get a metal steamer basket at Publix for less than $10.
4. Take many fruits with you to work during the day. Some great things are organic apples, kiwis, dried black mission figs, papaya, dates, frozen wild blueberries, raisins, grapes, banana, apricots, or anything else that is fresh or dried organic. If you are already thin, eating more fruits is suggested so that you can have enough calories throughout the course of the day. You will still detoxify just fine. Costco has a wonderful variety of organic produce. In their frozen section, you can find many organic frozen fruits. WILD blueberries are wonderful for detoxifying the liver. You can get wild blueberries at Publix (Wymans) or Costco in the frozen section.
5. Remember, you are eating to detoxify, not necessarily eating for pleasure. It is just 10 days. Challenge yourself, stay with it and you will be glad you did.
6. If you absolutely need to go out, many restaurants will be happy to lightly sauté vegetables for you, just tell them to do it with no oil. Use the time to tell others about the 10 detox you are doing rather than feeling left out or like you are missing out on something. It can be something great to talk about.
7. If you want to take this to another level, consider replacing personal care items so that additional toxins don’t get reintroduced to your body. Consider Dr. Bronner’s bath soap, Natural Mint shampoo and conditioner, Sky Organics deodorant for women and men, Periowash mouthwash, Dr. Bronners body lotion, Sky Organics or Dr. Bronners lip balm, makeup – 100% Pure products – eye cream, mascara, blush, foundation and Laundry Detergent – Greenshield Organic.
8. Get your family and friends to do it with you. No better way exists to follow through on something when you have the support of other people that are doing the same things as you are.
9. If you are at least 40 pounds overweight, you can safely do this detox for longer than 10 days, even up to 30 days. One gentleman, Joe Cross, was 100 pounds overweight and decided to juice 5 green vegetables juices per day for 60 days. He lost 82 pounds and his chronic auto-immune skin condition (urticaria) completely disappeared. Pay attention to and honor your own body in the process. You can watch his documentary called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead for inspiration.
10. When coming out of a detox, consume things that are more hearty, but don’t just jump right into a big steak (lots of fat and protein). Ease into things with oatmeal, rice, millet, lentils, black beans, a few nuts and seeds and then steadily work up to reintroducing animal meats.
11. You will most likely feel hunger pains during this detox.Use a tool such as The Sedona Method or Tapping to be with and let go of uncomfortable feelings or sensations that may come up for you during this time. Cravings are nothing more than just emotional programs that are coming up. But, feelings can be surrendered and let go of.

Upon completion of your detoxification, be sure to tell others about it.  You never know how much you can be an inspiration to other people.  Health and feeling empowered is something we all need.  Make a testimonial of your experience (can be anonymous) and give a copy to me.  Doctors need your support and encouragement as well and you all are the best kinda of encouragement.