Before you Start a Cleanse

"It is SO time!"

You know without a doubt when its time to do a cleanse.  The symptoms are unmistakable.  Irritable, bloaty, broken-out, unable to focus, MESS!  I'm pretty sure this is why new years resolutions were invented.  

Well this year my family has been pretty darn fortunate.  I've been spiking the soup broth with Astragalus Root all season, taking my Autumn Cordial whenever I'm stressed and trying to drink my Women's Vitamin Tea at least once a day.  It must be working because we haven't been sick since Thanksgiving. *knock on wood* But even so, I find myself eating way more carbs now then I ever did before the holidays and I'm feeling sluggish and moody. My lower back has been achy too which signals to me it's time to bless my kidneys with  more water and more herbal tea.  

I've done cleanses in the past and I can tell you they all have very different results.  Some not so great and others leave you feeling well...fabulous!  From my experience the ones that leave you feeling fabulous include good habits we should have anyway.  Honestly if we all got more sleep, drank more water, ate more veggies and practiced meditation we'd be feeling pretty fantastic.  And for a lot of people that's all that needs to be done.  The body has the wonderful ability to cleanse itself of toxins (granted we don't overload it with crap). We don't need any crazy white turnip or spicy lemonade diets.  Our bodies are perfectly capable of doing the work without these extremes.

But there comes a time when it feels good to give your body a little extra help.  Such as when you feel like the mess I described above.  It's also a great idea if you find you are prone to yeast infections or your hormones are out of whack.  Your gut, liver and kidneys are in charge of a lot of things and if you don't treat them well, you are going to feel like crap.

So how do you get started?

The first thing you should do before any cleanse is try to clean up your eating habits.  Eliminate the big offenders such as heavily processed foods, sugar and try to cut down if not completely git rid of your coffee habit.  Remember that everything should be done in moderation and if you find cleanses hard to follow it's probably because you are trying to do too many things at once.  So pick one thing (like kicking a coffee habit) and go from there.  When you think you are doing pretty well, then you can start adding things like herbs and foods that will help clean your system.  I like to go by these rules when doing a cleanse:

1. Reduce my bad eating, sleeping, drinking water habits.
2. Clean the pipes - add more fibrous veg and maybe add a fiber supplement. Don't forget to drink LOTS of water!
3. Kill the yeasties - You can't believe how much yeast can have an impact on your body.  I like to start by taking some anti-yeast herbs like pau d arco that also boosts the immune system and eliminating leavened bread and sugar.  I also like to eat yogurt and/or take probiotics to restore good gut flora.
4. Bless your liver - Take some *gentle* liver herbs like burdock, dandelion root, milk thistle, turmeric and eat greens and beets.
5. Round it all out - By getting plenty of sunlight, doing stress reducing techniques (like meditation or yoga), clay baths, nourishing herbal teas, doing thing that make you happy.

I have to admit I'm pretty excited about doing a cleanse because I know from experience how great I'll feel afterwards.  Don't worry I'll post my progress on here ;-)  I don't recommend cleanses for pregnant women or those that are nursing.  But if you are feeling icky it's never a bad idea to eat more fruits and veggies.

Here's list of other cleanses I've enjoyed and seen good results from:

Shoshanna's Diet and Exercise Challenge (great herb info here too)

The Raw Food Detox Diet (a little more challenging but my skin has never been so glowy!)

Radiant Goddess E-Course (comes with recipes, videos and all kinds of goodies to help you feel better)