Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Weekly Challenge - Week 15 (4/9/13)

Do some (body) spring cleaning.



Spring is a very special time of the year - my favorite.  New growth, new birth, new beginnings.  After the cold, dreary days of winter, I love to get outside on sunny, warm days.  I also love to open all the windows and do a bit of spring cleaning around the house.  In the spring, I scrub down our screen porch and we begin to enjoy many hours outdoors.

Spring is a good time of the year to do some body spring cleaning too, better known as cleansing or detoxing.  BE CAREFUL.  Though cleansing, or detoxing, is a good thing for everyone to do each year (except pregnant or nursing women and infants), most detoxing programs are too aggressive and can be very dangerous.

Here are a few tips and suggestions for gentle cleansing.  If you have been following the weekly challenges, you already have several good cleansing habits in place.  Decide what level is best for you depending upon where you are with your diet.   If you are just transitioning this year to eating a diet of real foods, you will probably have lots of toxins stored in your body.  If you release these too quickly, faster than your body can flush them out and process through your liver and kidneys, you can damage your organs. 
 
There are many 'detox' programs available, and I do not generally recommend any of them.  There are a few exceptions, which I will not discuss here because they apply only to persons with special medical conditions who first transition to a strict diet of high quality real foods, 100% God's foods.

Instead, using real food and the correct eating style, safely begin to cleanse and heal your body this spring.  A few gentle, safe cleansing possibilities include:

1.  Practice the 'break fast' routine including no food after dinner, if you are not already doing this.  This is a great place to begin.

2.  Add a 1 tsp of raw apple cider vinegar or squeeze some fresh lemon into your morning glass of water for 1 to 3 weeks.  Do not do this on a continual basis throughout the year, however, or you will destroy the enamel on your teeth.  Instead, if you wish to receive the health benefits of raw apple cider vinegar, use it mixed in a salad dressing which contains a good quality organic extra virgin olive oil. 

3.  Drink lots of fresh filtered water throughout the day (between meals, not with your meal). 
 
4.  Eat only fruit until noon (one day or multiple days).

5.  Eat no meat this week (but you can have homemade broth).  I do not recommend a vegetarian diet for long periods of time, but it is fine to eliminate meat from your diet for a week or two in the spring for detoxing.  A diet filled with fresh fruit and vegetables is very cleansing.  

6.  Focus on alkaline fruits and vegetables.  Alkaline fruits that are in season include pears, mangoes, apples, bananas, and berries.  Alkaline vegetables include celery, avocados, asparagus,  sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and alfalfa sprouts.  Disease flourishes in an acidic environment, thus detoxing involves not only flushing out toxins but improving your acid/alkaline balance.

7.  Include beets in your diet which are excellent for your liver.  I like to make a version of a Russian soup, called borscht, while detoxing.  (I will post my recipe tomorrow.)
 
8.  Eat lots of fresh cilantro and parsley.  These are the top two herbs for detoxing.  Avocados are also excellent for your liver when detoxing, so add some to your salad or enjoy some homemade guacamole.  If using fresh herbs in a cooked meal, always add them at the end of the cook time as discussed in the healing chicken soup post.
 
9.  Turmeric (which I hope you have been using to make yellow rice) is an amazing detox spice, which helps cleanse the liver and flush out carcinogens.
 
10.  Don't forget to eat lots of fresh garlic and onion in your foods this week.  Garlic is God's magic bullet in our diet, fighting off infections and also very effective cleansing and strengthen the liver.
 
11.  Continue to enjoy the spring produce - cabbage, greens (such as kale and chard), and grapefruit.  All of these have great liver cleansing properties.
 
12.  Don't forget to eat your raw nuts each day, especially walnuts which also help detoxify the liver.
 
13.  Get out and take a gentle walk in the sunshine if possible.  Also, while detoxing try to reduce your stress level and get plenty of rest so your body will have extra energy to cleanse and heal.
 
14.  This is an odd but effective practice, especially while detoxing.  Take a spoon and stand before a mirror and scrape any scum from your tongue.  Looking at your tongue is also a great way to evaluate your health.  A healthy tongue (which indicates a healthy body) is pink, moist, and smooth with a thin transparent coating with little or no white.   
 
13.  Lastly, the best way to cleanse your body and allow it to heal is to eat a diet of '100% God's foods', eliminating all processed foods and factory farm meats and dairy products.  Lighten the toxins going in so your body can release toxins that have been stored over the years.  This is essential to lose weight, reduce chronic pains, and to heal and repair your digestive tract.
 
Pick one or several of the natural, gentle cleansing suggestions above to implement.  Don't use the cleansing and detoxing programs that are available (drink a tea and take a pill); these can be very dangerous and are not the right approach.  However, do something.  A natural gentle cleanse in the spring is very important for everyone unless you are pregnant, nursing, or under the age of three.  For this group, it is not a time to detox but to grow.  They need to eat a diet of 100% God's foods with good quality proteins and meats included, the healthy building-blocks in our diet.

A man named Weston Price did extensive research on the healthiest people groups around the world in the 1930's and compiled his information in a book entitled "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration".  Price, a dentist noticing physical degeneration of not only teeth but body structures in his dental practices, was one of the first persons to realize the severe effects processed foods has on people's health.  His observations and conclusions were astounding but unfortunately not adopted by the food industry or medical society.

Based on Weston Price's studies, one needs to eat a diet which contains good quality meats and dairy (along with lots of fresh produce).  However, it is a good practice to eliminate meats for a week or two in the spring to allow the body to switch gears and perform some spring cleaning. 

A gentle cleanse and detox is extremely beneficial for persons battling chronic health issues, though be aware this is very counter to conventional medicinal practices which involve taking medication to eliminate or bury symptoms while introducing more toxins into your body.  These medications always produce side-effects and further weaken your body. 
 
It is also dangerous to detox or cleanse on 'fasting' diets of just water or juices.  These methods do not provide enough foods to carry the toxins out of your body.  Once you release toxins, you want to flush them out.  During your spring clean, be sure to drink lots of filtered water between meals and eat regular vegetarian lunches and dinners based on vegetables, brown rice, beans, or whole grains.
 
Remember that your journey to renewed health and vitality is just that 'a journey'.  Spring is here and today is a new day to begin again if you have fallen off track with your diet.  Enjoy the bounty of excellent foods while spring cleaning your body!
 
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."  Romans 8:26 

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