This time of year most of us find ourselves over indulging when we “planned” to be good and stay on our health plan. You might blame it on the winter cold weather, getting older or whatever excuse. Those achy joints, allergies, gas, bloating, headaches, or fatigue will eventually develop into more serious issues like autoimmune diseases, migraines, asthma, acne, reflux, arthritis or worse. You may get scared by the word “cleanse”, but it’s really just getting back to the way our grandparents or great-grandparents used to eat. I cleanse with whole food. Yes experienced people may benefit from a bit of fasting, but most of us are so damaged that our bodies don’t even have enough nutrients or enzymes to cleanse so they would go into fight or flight survival mode thinking you are starving yourself. Yes you will probably drop a few pounds which is great, but there are many other health reasons to cleanse or try a clean eating program for a couple weeks.
1. You will feel better. When you cleanse you relieve your body of all the work it has to do to process all the toxins and other foods you are intolerant to. It takes a few days, but you eventually wake up feeling vibrant and alive, joyful and full of energy. Your symptoms of fatigue, brain fog, achiness, digestive issues, and headaches start to go away.
2. You lose weight. The old thought of less calories in, more exercise doesn’t really work. Maybe for a little while, but that happens with any change in food or lifestyle. Not all calories are the same. Ones from sugar and flour freak out your body. They don’t bring nutrients to your cells and cause stress to the body, so you crave more since the body isn’t satisfied. Your body tries to protect you and stores it in your fat cells.
3. Reduce or eliminate cravings. Sugar is more addictive than cocaine. And anything that turns to sugar that you eat acts like it if you don’t use it for energy. The food industry makes junk food addicting so you eat more and they sell more. If you can cleanse for 10-12 days of no sugar, you have a fighting chance. Don’t let them win. And if you still have cravings there may be other nutrients your body is missing.
4. Discover and relieve food sensitivities. This is not the major allergy people have to peanuts and things. Over time you can develop food sensitivities. The most common are to dairy, gluten or corn. It could be from eating too much of them or your body is inflamed from something else at the same time you are eating the foods and the body identifies it as an intruder. Or stress creates leaky gut and undigested food gets through your gut lining. Anyway, when you remove the stresses your body can focus on healing instead of fighting off intruders.
5. You reboot your body. It’s a time for your body to rest and rejuvenate. When you get sick it’s usually your body saying I can’t handle this anymore! I need a break! Like when the kids drive you crazy. You need a time out. If we don’t give our bodies a break from too much stress, too little sleep, too much or too little exercise, too much bad food and no self-care time, it does a mini shut down.
Heed the warning or more issues will develop later. I have multiple group food-based cleanse programs I lead during the year. And if you want to do one at a different time, we can work together one on one to get you going on the program when it fits YOUR schedule best. http://healthyhorizonscoaching.liveeditaurora.com/contact
