A couple months ago I embarked on a cleanse I've never tried before. I've been a big fan of the Blessed Herbs Colon Cleanse for a couple of years so I decided to try their ultra cleansing program, the Internal Cleansing Kit. It's a 3 week program that addresses all the major organs, utilizing a combination of herbal capsules and tinctures. It includes lung, kidney, blood, lymph, skin, colon and liver supporting herbs as well as 3 different parasite formulas. While on the cleanse, it's helpful to eat a light raw diet (juicing is ideal) but you may eat your normal diet if you want though results may be less noticeable. I ate raw, but, only half as much as I usually do in a day: basically a small smoothie and a light, low fat, salad. My cleanse was 5 weeks as I did a one week all raw pre-cleanse, the 3 week cleanse followed by an additional one week colon cleanse.
Everyone who knew I was on a cleanse asked, "Aren't you clean enough? You've been raw for three years." Well yes, and no. I did get clean changing from an Atkins diet to an organic, raw, vegan diet but after a while you accumulate other toxins. From the air, water, beauty products (I have a few vices...such as my hair products) and from life in general, especially urban living . Originally, I discovered the raw diet while looking for a natural solution to my acne. It ended up clearing up my skin as well as changing the complete course of my life, but I won't get into that now. Thing is, the past several weeks I started breaking out again and for someone who spends a lot of time in front of the camera, this was completely unacceptable. My body was telling me (just as it did 3 1/2 years ago) that it was out of balance. From studying David Wolfe, Donna Gates and Truth Caulkins, I learned the main issues were poor gut flora/digestion, excess estrogen and an overburdened liver. So in addition to taking all the Internal Cleanse herbs I also took New Chapter Probiotic Immunity 4 times a day (upon rising, before lunch, dinner and before bed) and New Chapter WholeMega fish oil 2 times a day (which helps remove excess estrogen). I also cut out foods that could cause hormonal imbalance:
Soy - contains phytoestrogens
Flax - contains phytoestrogens
Cacao - mimics sex hormones (it's arguable if it actually causes breakouts but I eliminated it just in case)
Caffeine (I like tea) - affects stress hormones which shuts down DHEA production, the mother hormone of all sex hormones
As soon as I started the Internal Cleanse my skin got very oily and started breaking out with cystic type acne on my chin, forehead, back and chest. It could have been a coincidence since it was around the time of my period but I also got a cold sore which is rare for me (usually only when I'm stressed or in very cold environments). I felt moody and sick for the first 4 days and then started feeling amazing. By the end of the cleanse I had lost 5 pounds (that's a lot as I'm 5'7" and went from 115 to 110) and I've been getting lots of compliments on my glowing skin. It's not perfect, still some little pimples here and there, but I've been using the Isun blemish products with great results.
I had to order an additional parasite kit from Blessed Herbs after I was done. It's recommended to do a parasite cleanse 3 times with 3 weeks in between to truly eradicate any critters. I'm continuing to take liver herbs (from New Chapter) until the end of the year and probiotics and Wholemega indefinitely. I'm also going to do an additional 10 day cleanse in a few days to see if I can truly eliminate my skin problems and help reduce cellulite that had shown up out of nowhere 2 years ago. I just bought a far infrared sauna to help my detox program and am so excited to see how much better my results will be. I plan on blogging my results so check back to see how I did.
For those interested in trying the Blessed Herbs kits, I highly recommend them (FYI, I don't work for them). I wait until they have sales to stock up which happen about 2-3 times a year. Sign up for their emails and you'll be the first to know when they're on sale. Good luck!
