Posts Tagged ‘detoxing’

If you’re experiencing detox symptoms, I think it’s time to take a look at the different ways of dealing with detox.

Photo by Beth

During my fast I experienced some detox symptoms that included headaches, low energy, and strange bowel movements.

Luckily when it comes to detox, it’s not permanent.

After you move through detox you can see your energy soaring past the stars, have clearer skin, drop a few pounds, and just feel fantastic.

Two Approaches to Getting Through Detox

They are two ways of dealing with detox. One of them is to slow it down, while the other one is to speed up.

You have to keep in mind that when you are going through detox your body is trying to clean house. If you’re eating more fresh vegetables and fruits, your body will start to remove toxins that may have built up over time.

How to Slow Detox Down

There are a number of ways to slow down detox. You should consider slowing down your detox if you cannot handle the detoxification symptoms.

These detox symptoms may be taking place if you switched from a highly processed standard American diet to a high raw or 100% raw food diet.

If you want to slow detox down eat some cooked grains, or cooked vegetables. Essentially you’re introducing more heavy foods to give your body time to adjust to the high fiber, quick exit raw foods.

This in turn gives your body time to release toxins more slowly, and reduces the detox symptoms you might be experiencing.

How to Accelerate Detox

You can speed detoxed up by giving your body what it needs to continue cleaning itself. I like to think of detox as tunnel, the only way out is through.

Accelerating detox is a good strategy if you are feeling confident that you can deal with the symptoms and you want to get through it as quickly as possible.

• Dry skin brushing: Your skin is the biggest organ of your body, and the third most important detoxification organ. Help it help you by dry skin brushing it.
• Drink more water: To help flush toxins out of your body, drink lots and lots of water. Start your morning off with at least 500ml to 1 Liter of water. Drink enough water all day, it makes a big difference.
• Take naps: If you feel your energy dipping while you’re detoxing, then by all means take care of yourself. Taking a nap is a great way to help detox along.
• Move your body: Doing physical exercise is a great way to expel toxins. Try jumping on a trampoline, running, stretching. Getting everything moving is sure to help eliminate toxins more easily.
• Move your bowels: This might seem a little obvious, but you’d be surprised how often we overlook this. It’s so easy to be caught up in our day to day activities and not take the time to slow down and take good care of our bowels.

Detox Plateaus

Photo by Bertrand Monney

The more healthy food you eat, the more detox you may experience over time. Your current diet or lifestyle is likely not recent, so you will need to go through a few different levels of detoxification. Raw food detox doesn’t happen all at once, it’s more like peeling an onion.

You might have a “bout” of detox right after you change your diet, and then not have another detox episode until a few months down the line. These are what I like to call detox plateaus.

Hopefully you’ve learned how to make the most of your detox symptoms. And yes, this too shall pass!

Share your detox experiences here…

Currently going through detox? Let us know in the comments, and we will support each other as we continue to detoxify our bodies.

This is day 8 of my Master Cleanse. You can see why I’m doing this cleanse, what I mean by the salt water flush, and how I used dry skin brushing to accelerate the release of toxins.

Master Cleanse Results & Experiences Video

(Click here to watch the video.)

My Experiences with The Master Cleanse

I definitely feel like I’ve been practicing my self control muscles. Honestly, I didn’t think I would make it this far on the fast.

I had set goals to do a minimum of 3 days, and that if I got past that then the 7 day mark would be an acceptable stopping point. The big goal is to keep going for 10 days.

Since I’ve already passed my 7 day mark, I’m just biding my time and listening to my body. The last two nights were a little tougher because I’ve been imagining food.

Remember kids, picturing food with your imagination is probably not recommended while fasting.

Luckily I’ve been feeling great physically. I experienced some skin break outs, but overall my skin is much smoother. My energy is usually high throughout the day, and my bowel movements have been pretty regular.

I’m definitely proud of how far I’ve gotten with this lemonade fast. The master cleanse was just as interesting of an experiment as I thought it would be.

Fasting is All About Releasing

One of the reasons fasting is so transformational is that it’s all about letting go. Letting go of the need to eat every few hours.

Letting go of beating yourself up for not being a perfect “eater”. Letting go of excess toxins in the body. Releasing excess weight, if that’s the case.

Letting go of habits that no longer serve you. Letting go of the need to “push yourself” with work, and taking time to rest if you need it.

With all of these metaphorical and literal types of release, it’s no wonder you feel light while fasting. Of course, it helps that you’re not eating anything heavy.

To celebrate my first fast, I’ve decided to let go of something else. My super long hair! I’ve been growing my hair out for awhile now, and I love having long hair.

But I’ve decided to let it go. I’m not shaving my head or anything, but getting a significant trim will really feel great.

I go swimming fairly often and I want to be able to swim without worrying about the time it takes for my hair to dry, or spending tons of time combing it out.

So if you see me in my next video with a shorter “hair doo”, you’ll know it’s another way for me to release something that might be holding me back.

Until next time…

I’ll be writing about my strategies and experiences with going off the fast in the next few days. I’m aware that stopping the fast is actually one of the tougher parts!

What if you could help your body cleanse itself simply brushing the “yuckiness” off your skin? That’s exactly what dry skin brushing does.

Think of it as removing the top layer of dead skin debris, allowing your body to expel more toxins as it deems fit.

Dry Brushing Skin Benefits

Dry skin brushing helps to remove dead skin, and any toxins that your body expels through your skin. The skin is the body’s largest organ.

Along with the colon and urinary tract, the skin is one of the most important waste management organs of the body.

When you brush your skin with a dry brush you are also stimulating the lymph nodes. This in turn helps with further circulation and elimination of toxins, and also boosts the immune system.

Dry Skin Brushing and Cellulite

Ladies you’ll be pleased to know skin brushing helps eliminate cellulite too!

Simply brush your thighs and any area where you experience cellulite, and see what happens. In effect you are giving the toxins that are stored in your thighs a way out.

No one wants to store that junk in their trunk, so let it out by brushing it off!

How to Dry Skin Brush

The brush itself looks a bit like a softer version of a horse’s brush, with natural bristles. Begin by brushing the soles of your feet (try not to giggle too much!) and move up your legs, always brushing toward your heart.

Continue brushing gently toward your heart, or against the direction of the hair on your arms. After brushing, your skin will begin to feel softer. It will also make it easier for you to sweat toxins out.

Ladies avoid the breast area, since it is a more sensitive part of the body.

When to skin brush?

Ideally you would do a round of dry skin brushing before taking a shower, or before a work out. This ensures that your pores are clear of any debris, so that your body can expel toxins (if any, I know you’re pretty clean already!).

You can do it daily for good measure. If you do a fast or a cleanse, it’s even more important to help your body eliminate toxins by dry brushing your skin.

Where to find a skin brush?

You can find skin brushes at your local bath or body shop. I’ve also found them in most natural health food stores. You can also get a Purest Palm Body Brush at Amazon.

Enjoy brushing yourself to smoother skin, and ultimately a cleaner body all around!

Personal Update

This is day 7 of my master cleanse. You can find out why I’m doing this fast, what the master cleanse is, why I experienced a white tongue, and how to perform a salt water flush.

Yesterday was really tough. I have a feeling it’s because I wasn’t keeping myself busy enough, but I was definitely thinking about food more than the other days.

The lemon/lime sour taste is starting to get old. I decided to make myself a cup of herbal tea, since that’s considered an acceptable way to “cheat” during the fast. It was great because it really cut the lemon taste.

Though I did have a pretty severe stomach ache in the middle of the night. Probably brought on by drinking too much liquid before going to bed.

I woke feeling good, and performed the salt water flush again. I’m feeling good again, and looking forward to day 10!

Welcome to day 5 of my Master Cleanse, also known as the lemonade fast. You can read about why I’m doing this fast, what the master cleanse is all about, why I have a white tongue, and my experience grocery shopping while fasting.

Before I go into the benefits of cleansing your colon and trying out a salt water flush, let me update you on my fast.

Photo by Hannah Webster

Last night was a little tougher food-wise. I made my boyfriend’s salad, but he ended up staying at work later to chat with some coworkers. Unfortunately that left me alone in the apartment with a delicious looking salad.

I kept myself busy by watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch episodes off youtube. There, I said it. Now you know where part of my witchy inspiration comes from.

Okay, let’s get right into the content…

Benefits of Cleansing Your Colon

If there was ever a point in time where you were not eliminating properly and regularly then there is a high probability that you’ve got junk in your colon’s trunk.

If you aren’t moving your bowels daily, preferably two or three times daily, depending on how many meals you eat, then you aren’t regular.

Of course you can solve this by eating more green leafy veggies, and starting with green smoothies will make that happen.

But you need to remember that all those days where you weren’t eliminating add up. Where does all that waste matter go? Well it can become dry caked-on fecal matter that just hangs out in your colon and causes you to gain weight and get sick. Lovely, huh?

That’s where colon cleansing comes in. There are a couple of colon cleansing options.

You can do home enemas. You can hire a hydrocolon therapist and have a colonic. Or, today’s suggestion is to try a salt water flush.

The Salt Water Flush Recipe

Photo by Fermin R.F.

Here’s the key, you need to do this first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. This is perfect while you’re fasting.

Mix 1 Liter (32 oz.) of warm water with 2 level teaspoons of unrefined sea salt. I used pink himalayan crystal salt. As long as it’s not iodized table salt, it should work.

Shake or stir well, then drink the entire container of salt water. It might be hard to down, but I found that the second time was much easier.

This technique is an ancient Yogic cleansing method. I’ve also seen Chinese people do this in the morning, during my trip to China.

Do not perform this cleanse for more than 7 days in a row. Then give yourself weeks or months between the next flush you perform. You do not want to cause an imbalance in your body, and you don’t want to become dependent on the flush to evacuate your bowels.

What To Expect After

The salt water’s saliency is the same as the body’s saliency. So none of the water gets absorbed into the body, and it just passes right through you and out through your colon.

It is recommended to wait about 30 minutes after you’ve drank the salt water before going to the bathroom.

You’ll start to feel your bowel moving as the salt water moves through you. You might even hear some gurgling sounds.

When you do go to the bathroom, the feeling might be reminiscent of diarrhea. Though those of you who have experienced a colonic will know it just feels like evacuating water through the colon.

You might need to go to the bathroom more than once, so only do this flush if you’ll have access to a bathroom nearby.

My Experience with the Salt Water Flush

Yesterday I tried the salt water flush for the first time, and today I did it again. I prepared my salt water and drank it first thing in the morning.

Then I made my first batch of lemonade, and got ready for my day. By the time I was done showering, it was time to evacuate the salt water.

It definitely felt good, kind of like I felt after I had a colonic. I went to the bathroom three times, and each time the matter got more solid and less watery. I gave myself gentle tummy massages that seemed to help, so give that a try too.

Hopefully this whole post hasn’t been too graphic with all of this “potty talk”.

Thanks for reading! I hope I’ve opened your mind to the concept of colon cleansing. Remember that there are many different ways of cleansing your colon.

You can ensure you don’t need to cleanse as often by starting with a healthy high raw diet diet full of fiber.

Today is Day 4 of my Master Cleanse. Find out why I’m doing this cleanse, what is the master cleanse, and why I’ve got a white tongue.

Now onto the good stuff…

My Fast is Flying by Faster Than I Expected

Photo by KTB

Ha. Witchy pun intended. I’m actually quite surprised how little food I’ve been “tempted” to eat.

I know day 2 or 3 tend to be the toughest, according to my research and I’m just happy that they went by without much ado.

Yes there was definitely a moment when I almost ate a raisin off the floor. That 10 second rule must really be hardwired!

I continued to make some great lunches and salads for my boyfriend, and I wasn’t really tempted by any of the food. It was as if the food was like a toy. It was there for me to make colorful arrangements with, but not really for me to eat.

I noticed that my sense of smell also got sharper. Maybe that’s why Indian ladies who cook meals while they fast are so good at figuring out what spices to use.

Grocery Shopping while Fasting

I was running out of maple syrup, and the rest of the refrigerator was looking a little bare so I decided to go grocery shopping.

I was armed with my grocery shopping list, and I had a mission. But first, I had to stop by the ATM for some cash. That’s when I walked into a little corner store that stocks all kinds of junk food.

Seeing the junk food made me take a deep breath, and I actually started walking faster toward the ATM. After I got my money I was out of there faster than a black cat on Friday the 13th at 11:59pm.

My trip to the local farmer’s market was quite easy. I did stand in front of the leafy green vegetable section for a tad too long, but I hear looking at the color green is relaxing.

The next time you’re stressed out look at some leafy trees, and if that’s not possible then take out some lettuce or greens from your fridge. Instant relaxation. Ahhh.

See you tomorrow…

I plan on writing about some salt water flush concepts and experiences tomorrow. Hopefully you’re enjoying reading about my experience fasting for the first time. I’m not doing this for nuthin’ ya know. ;)

Welcome to Day 3 of my first Master Cleanse. You can find out what is the Master Cleanse here, and why I’m doing it here.

Before I go into today’s topic, I just wanted to let you know how I’m doing. (Hi, Mom!) To my great surprise, I’m really not hungry or craving food.

My boyfriend came home with two bags full of lemons and limes, and it was the cutest thing.

For those of you who might be wondering, I’ve still been having regular bowel movements. Crazy, huh? I know that this is likely old toxic matter that needs to be eliminated.

Now onto the white tongue issue…

Traditional Chinese Medicine and White Tongues

Photo by SeenyaRita

If you’ve read about my story with birth control pills and losing my period, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Actually, it was a TCM doctor who really helped me balance out my hormones.

One of the things that TCM doctors look at is your tongue. If it’s “abnormal” then they can figure out which parts of your body are out of balance. Now all of this may not seem scientific. But I know it works.

If your tongue is pale or white, then it means that you might have a Qi or blood deficiency. That might mean you’re feeling tired, or have low energy. You can read more about TCM tongue interpretation here.

At the time I was visiting my TCM doc, I had a pale white tongue and that was definitely true for me. For past few years my tongue had returned to normal.

Except now that I’m doing the master cleanse, my tongue has turned pale and become coated with white stuff again.

Coincidence? I think not. Keep reading to see what’s causing this.

What a Healthy Tongue Should Look Like

A healthy tongue is usually pink, and smooth.

If your tongue is always white or has weird fuzz, then medically speaking it could mean a few things.

White Tongue and Dehydration

The easiest to check is dehydration. If you aren’t drinking enough water, then that could definitely be causing your tongue to be too white.

Another thing to keep in mind with dehydration is that not all liquids are hydrating. For example coffee and tea are very dehydrating, and you would need to drink twice the water to compensate.

I always recommend you drink 1/2 a Liter (16 oz.) of water right upon waking up. Trust me, your body needs water first thing in the morning.

White Tongue and Candida

Another possibility is an overgrowth of yeast, also known as candida or thrush. This was a big ah-ha for me, because I know that I have to balance my beneficial bacteria and yeast since I’ve taken the birth control pill in the past.

I am under the impression that this whole white tongue thing is related to processing the yeasties and candida in my body.

According to an article on the Master Cleanse web site, it is common for the first few days to produce a white coated tongue. After the first few days it goes away, while your body goes to work healing and detoxing further.

This naturopathic article on white tongue may give you more insights if you want further information.

Tongue Tied Together?

Taking the TCM approach and the naturopathic or scientific explanations together really work for me. They might not be enough to explain your white tongue experiences, so I encourage you to do more research if this didn’t answer your questions.

I just know that I feel better knowing that I am actually bringing on this white tongue effect through my detoxification efforts. It’s definitely one of the detox symptoms and side effects.

Thanks for reading about my experiences with the Master Cleanse. Yay for getting through this cleanse, and getting rid of these yeasties!

This is day two of my Master Cleanse. So far, so good. I drank 3 liters of the lemonade yesterday, as recommended. You can read about why I chose to do this fast here.

Surprisingly I wasn’t really hungry. I did find myself scratching my head a few times, at lunch and dinner because I usually take a break from work then.

I also noticed that I like to take breaks to eat and relax throughout the day. And yeah, eating frequent small meals works for me. But fasting made me realize that I can take breaks without eating.

Food and breaks are not tied together. If I’m feeling overwhelmed or stressed, it is perfectly okay to take a walk, get away from the computer, or read a chapter of a book.

Imagine that!

So What is This Master Cleanse Thing, Anyways?

I wanted to give you a few more details about what the master cleanse consists of. It’s a liquid only cleanse, so there is no solid food consumed.

Here is the basic lemonade recipe for 1 Liter:

• 3 oz. Freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
• 3 oz. Grade B Maple Syrup (the darker the better)
• Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
• Filtered or spring water

So far I’ve been drinking 3 of these 1 Liter mixtures per day, as recommended. You can drink more, but should not drink less.

Take a sip every 15 minutes, or more often as desired throughout the day. This ensures your blood sugar stays stable and you don’t experience hunger pangs.

Until tomorrow…

I’ve heard that days 2 and 3 tend to be the toughest, because that’s when the majority of toxins tend to be released in the blood stream. So far, so good. I’ll definitely write about any detox symptoms in my next installment.

Talk to you soon!

Okay, I have a confession to make. I’ve been teaching people about raw food, detox, and alternative healing for months, but I’ve never fasted before.

Photo by Bu

Honestly, I feel like I should post a note that says “I’m not an expert” somewhere on this blog. If only for this reason.

Luckily, my friend Elizabeth P.W. reminded me that it’s okay not to have all the answers. She voiced what I’ve been noticing around the web: people trust those who are honest with them, even if that means admitting faults or problems.

For me that means letting you know that I’ve never done a real fast before. Well, unless you count that time where I decided to eat nothing but apples for one day. (Didn’t do much!)

But that’s all going to change…

I’m about to embark on my very first real fast! I’m going to do the lemonade fast, also known as the Master Cleanse.

I’ll be posting about my experiences here on the blog. I will be as honest and transparent as I can be, without sharing too many of the gory details, if you know what I mean.

It’s funny because before I went raw I always thought fasts had to be for an ulterior motive. Like a 24 hour fast for charity. Or for spiritual reasons.

My rationale for doing this 10 day cleanse is a lot less righteous. Here are a few of my thoughts and reasons:

1. Winter is coming and I want a strong immune system, so giving my body time to heal would be good.
2. I’ve been working hard on my Cure Cravings Forever program, and I could use a boost of energy.
3. I realized that there’s never a perfect time for a cleanse. I was going to do a juice feast in the summer, but somehow the timing didn’t work out. Now or never, I say.
4. It would be great to know what it’s like to experience “crippling cravings” again so I can really delve deep and share my insights in my Cure Cravings Forever program.
5. I’m very curious about the reported benefits and I want to know whether to recommend it to people or not.
6. This master cleanse will be an interesting way to build up my self confidence, and willpower. When you commit to something like this, it’s transformational. (Or so I hear.)
7. I want to see how much yeast vs. beneficial bacteria I seem to have gathered over years of being on birth control pills and taking antibiotics.

Oh, food cravings…

I’ve gathered a lot of craving busting tricks up my sleeve over the past few years.

I go into all the details in my new program called Cure Cravings Forever. I wanted to let you know that the program registration closes on Wednesday November 4th at Midnight, Eastern time.

So if you want to hear my advice on cravings, without the “high and mighty” voice (I’ll be just as bent on cravings as you during my fast!) then this is your time.

I look forward to working with you on kicking some craving butt!

One of the things you’re bound to encounter along your raw food faerytale is detox. In this article I’ll explore the concept of detox, the common symptoms, and even the magick that happens during a detox.

Raw Food Detox Video

(Click here if you can’t see the video.)

Is Detox a Myth?

Take a look at this fictional scenario: You increase your intake of raw food or cut out certain things like processed sugar, processed starch, and/or meat and dairy.

Suddenly, you can feel yourself getting edgy. It’s as if someone took away a drug addict’s stash. All you can think about is food, and you crave a spoonful of that sugary cereal, pretty please.

That’s detox. That’s withdrawal.

Okay, Nathalie, so where does the myth come from? The truth is that sometimes people use detox as an excuse to ignore their body’s signals.

For example, maybe your skin breaks out because you’re eating nothing but dates and raw sweets. (They’re good, but you still need to balance sweets out with other stuff, like greens.) The danger creeps up when someone brushes off these signals as a sign of detox.

Common Detox Symptoms

Here is a short list of possible detox symptoms to help you recognize detox when it happens.

• Skin breakouts
• Bloating, stomach pains
• Headaches
• Food cravings
• Trouble sleeping, nightmares
• Diarrhea and constipation
• Fatigue, drowsiness, low energy levels
• Irritability
• Congestion or Mucus that feels like a cold

Detox Madness

Photo by Kathleen

The short version of detox: when you eliminate or cut back on certain foods, your body eliminates toxins. Your body will try to expel toxins in any way it can: from your liver, via bowel movements, and through your skin’s pores.

While you are detoxing, your body focuses on releasing toxins, so you might feel under the weather because you have all of this garbage traveling throughout your body.

Think of it as deciding to clean a very dusty house for the first time in years. When you start sweeping the dust, it’s going to get into the air and make it hard to breathe. You’ll feel better when you’ve gotten all the dust out, of course.

The same goes for trying to brush away toxins in your body, you will feel the ill effects of drudging toxins up and out. Once they’re out you’ll feel better, but the process is not so peachy.

Why do we need to Detox?

You might be wondering what it is you need to expel exactly?

If you’ve been eating a fairly processed diet for many years, you might be surprised to find that a lot food might have gotten stuck, turning toxic.

In addition to left over food matter in the body, we are all constantly bombarded with modern day chemicals and toxins in the air, water, and products we use.

I believe every one of us could use a little detoxing.

Caution: I do want to caution against getting “detox fever” and constantly wanting to fast, cleanse, and detox. At some point you need to give your body a chance to rest from eliminating toxins.

Detox Magick

Photo by Kenna Takahashi

Now that I’ve thoroughly scared you, I’ll put on my Good Witch’s hat and discuss the magickal aspects of detox.

If detoxing is so uncomfortable, why should you do it? The simple answer is because you’ll feel so much better afterward.

Going through bouts of detox really makes you grateful for those times when you’re just humming along. Plus, every time you detox, you reach a new level of cleanliness. Imagine a car running on the cleanest fuel without any impurities slowing it down.

Assuming you don’t revert your detoxing efforts, you’re going to continue to operate at such a higher level of energy and cleanliness, you’ll be grateful for detox.

Benefits of a Cleansing Detox

• Clearer sinuses
• Weight loss
• Clearer skin
• More energy
• Regular bowel movements
• Mental Clarity
• Emotional stability / eliminated depression

Every time you detox, you peel away one layer of the onion. If you’re not ready to experience a full on detox, simply add a bit of the foods you’re cutting out.

For example, if the headaches of your detox are killing you, just add back a bit of cooked grains or dairy, if that’s what you cut out. It will slow down the detox, and make it easier for your body to adjust to the changes you’re making.

You can control how fast you want to detox. I recommend you detox slowly, unless you give your body the support it needs to eliminate toxins: with hydrocolon therapy, dry skin brushing, or a supportive system for detoxing.

What Detox Symptoms have you Experienced?

I’d love to know if you’ve ever had a bout of detox, and how severe it might have been. Let me know in the comments!