21 Day Detox - Conclusion

Last Friday marked the end of my official detox so I just wanted to share my final results. All in all it was a great experience and I feel amazing. 14 days of juice is challenging but such a great reboot for the body. I'm lighter, more energized and my skin has improved considerably. In the end, I had a net weight loss of 5 pounds and my blemishes have improved 50%. My skin has been much less oily and congested and I'm nothing short of thrilled.

I'm glad I did the work necessary but won't be doing anything that radical for at least another 6 months, which will be the perfect time of year to do some 'spring cleaning.' I've officially switched over to the Body Ecology diet and so far I'm loving it. It's a bummer not having my fruit smoothies but I'm enjoying it and feel very grounded.

The premise of the B.E.D. diet is to cut out all forms of sugar and yeast and consume a highly alkaline diet of mostly vegetables, some seed grains (like quinoa and buckwheat) as well as eating cultured vegetables with each meal so you replenish the beneficial gut flora. I happen to love sauerkraut and kimchee so I'm eating it like it's going out of style. I'm also making my own coconut kefir to drink in the mornings and evenings. In addition, I'm also taking oregano oil capsules. Just an FYI the Oreganol brand capsules I recommended in my past post are NOT vegan. I've switched to Gaia Herbs brand instead which is in a vegetarian capsule but not quite as potent. Right now I'm taking 2 capsules 3 times a day. My typical meals so far have been:

chia pudding
green juice
kale salad
seaweed soup
green energy soup
cooked quinoa
some lightly cooked veggies
flax crackers
sunflower seed pate

I'm keeping it pretty simple and working on some sugar free desserts using stevia and xylitol instead of agave. A lot of the recipes from my book work well on this diet or can be adapted to be B.E.D. friendly. For fermented foods I have a whole chapter on making your own.

For those considering trying this diet I would like to mention that you do not need to do a 14 day juice fast as I did to start. The B.E.D. is a very cleansing diet on its own. I'll post more about it in a few weeks with my results and some photos of what I've been eating.

Detox Days 6-9

I was at the Longevity Now Conference this past weekend so I didn't have time to post any updates. It was challenging having to lug juices to the event but I stayed focused and hung in there. Being surrounded by so many health leaders, experts, coaches, etc. was really exciting and kept my mind occupied. My energy was up most of the time but when it dipped I went over to SunWarrior and took some nips at their booth. Healthforce Nutritionals also had some tasty drinks on hand and some chlorella tablets to gnaw on.

I really enjoyed the speakers and topics this time around. My favorite speakers were Kevin Troudeau and Dr. Bonlie. Kevin told his incredible story how a judge has banned him from TV for life and ordered to pay a $37 million dollar fine for quoting his own book on television. He has such a passion for health and truth, I was very inspired by his talk and his courage. Dr. Bonlie is a magnetism expert. I actually had lunch with him at the Health Freedom Expo a few months ago where he told me about the catastrophic solar storms we'll be having next year. He skipped the doom and gloom and spoke about his magnetic therapy which was totally fascinating. He designed a magnetic bed pad that I hope to buy someday soon. They chelate heavy metals while you sleep! Does that mean I don't have to juice fast anymore, Dr. Bonlie??? Say it's so!

Anyway, it was a super fun weekend but one of the highlights was getting to sit down with Kevin Gianni and discuss my acne issues. He's been pretty open about his own struggle with acne on his website and how he was able to resolve it with a combination of Body Ecology Diet, cultured vegetables and eliminating foods he was allergic to (FYI he did the Every Body Cleansing test I ordered). Surprisingly, he had a lot of success with oregano oil capsules. Oregano oil is very potent as a liquid and pretty hot and spicy if you've ever tried drinking it with water so you definitely want to use the capsules. He recommends taking it for 3-4 months until the skin clears up. I ordered mine here. It'll knock out all the beneficial bacteria in your gut as well as the bad so make sure you eat some cultured veggies each meal or take probiotics.

 BTW, my complexion is actually improving. It's gone from moderate acne to light. Fingers crossed that it continues on that path!

Detox Day 3

Juice of one lemon, water, MSM, stevia, cayenne
Vitamineral Green & water
1/2 quart carrot juice & almond milk
1 1/2 quarts mixed vegetable juice (celery, cukes, broccoli, kale, parsley, lemon juice, ginger)
1 cup almond milk with 1 scoop vanilla Sunwarrior protein powder, Shapeshifter, 3 Jewels
1/2 quart coconut water with spinach blended
apple juice with bentonite clay/psyllium husk powder
miso soup
probiotics
zeolites
fulvic acid
parasite herbs (Clarkia)
Intestinal Movement


Today the hunger pangs have subsided quite a bit and my energy has been consistent all day.  The hubs made a veggie burger on a toasted sprouted bun and it didn't even phase me. I can't believe how great I feel physically and mentally. I almost felt high at one point. I hope the feeling continues. I could easily do another 11 days if it goes this well.

Btw, I slept 12 hours last night. That might be a record for me. It's typical to feel run down the first 2-3 days of a juice fast as well as feeling really cold. It's a good idea to start a fast over a weekend when you have no where to be. Stay home, stay warm and let your body adjust.

21 Day Detox - A New Health Journey

The past few months have been very frustrating for me. After all my efforts of eating and living a clean, raw life for the past few years my #1 nemesis has returned with a vengeance. Acne. It's something I've dealt with since my teens but lately its gotten out of control. It started a year ago when I got off birth control pills. I had been on them for years for hormonal balance. I was missing periods for months at a time and then I would bleed for weeks. I was scared to get off of them when I went raw because my doctor told me the irregularity would just come back. I figured if I was giving my body the best diet in the world, it would work itself out. So after 3 years, I tossed my pills and let nature take its course. Happy to say everything is perfect, i.e. on time, like clockwork. Phew! The only bad thing is, every month since stopping the pill, my skin gets more and more oily. So oily, I have breakouts on my face, neck, chest and back. I've been taking probiotics religiously and eating fermented foods in order to get the good bacteria flourishing. I've been cutting out sugar to keep my blood sugar balanced and prevent candida overgrowth. I've tried liver cleanses, sauna, MSM, zinc, neem, bentonite clay, honey masks, not washing my face, not wearing makeup, colonics, green juice, DIM, myomin, parasite herbs, fulvic acid, zeolites, chlorella and a plethora of other supplements. One thing I've never done is a long juice fast. I've done a lot of 3-5-7 day juices but this one will be 14 days of juices and 7 days of easing out of it with soups and smoothies. I would go longer but I actually need to get cracking on recipe development so this is my only window of opportunity.

I would love to hear feedback from anyone else who is struggling with the same thing and if you've been successful. FYI I had severe acne while on the pill, as well, that was corrected by going raw. This is a whole new thing I'm dealing with which seems to be an overproduction of testosterone (or drop in estrogen?). I'll keep you posted how things are going. Here's a recap of yesterday.

Day 1
Juice of 1 lemon with water, stevia, MSM and cayenne
1 scoop vitamineral greens in 8 oz. water
1 1/2 quarts green veggie juice
1 cup miso soup
1 cup almond milk with scoop of Shaman Shack Shapeshifter
1 teaspoon coconut oil
Evening: bentonite clay/psyllium husk with 1 cup apple juice (from Blessed Herbs colon cleanse pack)

I wasn't very hungry and had trouble taking down all the green juice for some reason. I was sluggish and fell asleep for 3 hours in the afternoon.  

Day 2

Juice of 1 lemon with water, stevia, MSM and cayenne 

1 quart watermelon/fennel/cuke 

2 cups orange juice/almond milk/pumpkin pie spice 

3 cups coconut broth

1 teaspoon coconut oil 

Felt energized when I woke up. Started the day off with 1000 mg niacin, 10 minutes of rebounding and 40 minutes of sauna. I have more energy today but some brain fog. It's only 3pm so I'll have more green vegetable juice before the day ends.  

To make Coconut Broth: 

Place 1 cup shredded coconut and 2 cups hot water in a food processor and blend. Strain out pulp using a nut milk bag. 

Bring coconut water to a simmer with additional 1 cup water, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1 clove minced garlic, chopped cilantro, basil and lemongrass. Let simmer then strain. Stir in 1 tablespoon of miso once it has cooled a bit.

Blessed Herbs Internal Cleanse

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!

Summer Detox

Since I spent the first half of the year writing my book, I didn't have the time to do my usual maintenance juice fasts or cleanses. Now that I have some downtime I figured it's time to do some late spring cleaning. Thing is, I still had to work on new recipes so I needed something less painful than a juice fast. I had bought the book "Clean" by Dr. Junger and thought that might be a doable program to follow while I continue working in the kitchen. The basic plan is as follows:

Breakfast: smoothie
Lunch: raw or cooked meal
Dinner: smoothie
Portions should be small (2 cups for smoothies) avoiding nightshades and allowing at least 12 hours between dinner and the following breakfast.

This was not that much different than what I already ate so I decided to follow the plan completely raw and see how it goes. After 6 days I didn't feel or see results. I guess I believe there has to be a certain degree of torture for it to be a successful detox. I've been raw for 3 years so this wasn't much of a challenge except for the portions were smaller and I couldn't have tomatoes. This would be an excellent plan for someone coming from the Standard American Diet though. The book has great information about why to detox and the plan is simple to follow. It allows one cooked meal a day if you choose and that includes some animal products.

I wanted to continue my cleanse so I modified it by skipping the lunch meal and instead having:
-1 quart fruit based green smoothie with superfoods and 1-2 tablespoons of coconut oil or tahini paste for the first half of the day
-1 quart vegetable green smoothie with 1/2 avocado for the second half of the day.

I can't believe I hadn't tried this before. I feel amazing and yet I can tell I'm detoxing. My sense of smell always becomes more acute when I detox. I also start to breakout and this time around I had the unpleasantness of hives on my upper chest, thighs and around my temples. Thankfully it was only temporary. I've had loads of energy which is what I needed, not a detox that makes me crabby and fatigued. I've been able to workout as well but I do get crazy cravings. Often for food I haven't eaten in ages like In n Out burgers. I have 5 days to go but I think I can go much longer. With the summer heat and the abundance of local produce this is a plan I could follow for a while.

Has anyone else tried a smoothie cleanse? How were your results? I've done Frederick Patneaude's smoothie cleanse but it excluded fats and salt all together. THAT was hard. That little bit of fat is the difference between me being hungry in 3 to 4 hours or starving in 1 hour. I've only been using a pinch of salt in my one smoothie. I've lost a lot of water weight and my arms look toned again just by cutting down the sodium.

If anyone feels like trying this plan let me know your results. I'd love to hear your experience with it. If you're looking for a good book on detox plans I also highly recommend checking out "Raw Food Cleanse" by Penni Shelton. Do you have a favorite detox book? Let me know!

Flush It If You Love It

A couple weeks ago I embarked on a five day liver flush that, because I had less than stellar results, I was hesitant to share with all of you. After giving it some thought, I feel like I should let you know how it went because it could help some of you out there. Or maybe some of you could help me figure out what went wrong. First off, let's address what it means to flush the liver and why in God's name would we do such a thing. Believe me, last week when I was on the bathroom floor giving myself a coffee enema, I was thinking "Why am I doing this?" We'll get back to that in a moment.

Our liver performs over 1000 different functions and considered by many holistic practitioners to be the fountain of youth. When we abuse our liver with alcohol,drugs, poor diet and a toxic environment we age faster. Ever seen Keith Richards? Enough said. As we age we accumulate small fat stones in our bile ducts that make it more difficult for a our livers to function optimally. If we leave these stones to grow they eventually move into our gallbladder where they become gallstones. A liver flush is basically a way to detoxify the liver by cleaning out the congested bile ducts that make up the organ.

People who have done a series of flushes reported clearing up of acne, allergies, back pain, improved digestion, and an increase in energy. I've done five of them in the past five years and have followed Dr. Hulda Clark's protocol. I had a live blood cell analysis a couple months ago and was told to do a series of 6 flushes after signs that my liver was not cleaning my blood the way it should. I purchased a liver flush kit from www.loveyourliver.org. It was much more elaborate than Dr. Clark's and I was assured that it was going to have even better results. The kit contained the following:



Castor oil, cotton flannel, olive oil, hot water bottle, enema bucket, digestive enzymes, Ortho-Phos, Oxy-Mag (oxygenated magnesium), and liver support herbs. For three days prior to the flush I put a castor oil pack/hot water bottle on my liver twice a day for one hour. This was actually my favorite part of the cleanse. The hot water bottle felt really good and I fell so in love with it I started sleeping with it and threatened my husband that if he didn't shape up I could easily replace him (I kid, I kid). Castor oil contains ricinoleic acid which is a potent immune booster. It reduces inflammation, opens the bowels, liver/gallbladder ducts and increases elimination. It detoxifies the body and inhibits fungal, yeast, molds and tumorous growths. Beware if you fall asleep with your hot water bottle that the top is tightly closed. I, unfortunately, woke up in a puddle of water one night. Major bummer.

Three times a day I drank the Oxy-Mag combined with water and lemon juice. This wasn't too bad but it will make you pretty gassy. The Oxy-Mag oxygenates the gastrointestinal tract and breaks down, detoxifies and eliminates waste material. It opens up the digestive tract and gets things moving. After the Oxy-Mag, I would take the Ortho-Phos with apple cider vinegar. This was extremely astringent for me to drink. I felt like the enamel on my teeth and my entire esophagus was getting stripped. I drank water in between gulps of this concoction but it was still very difficult for me to finish. Yet, I pressed on because this was what was softening the stones in my liver and getting me ready for the big day. I also ate a little less than I usually did. Mostly blended foods and I cut down on my fats.

On the day of the flush, I ate no fat whatsover (just some fruit), did my castor oil pack, drank the Oxy-Mag, Ortho-Phos and at 1pm drank one cup of olive oil with one cup of lemon juice. It was rough but I did it. Nauseous, I quickly laid down for over an hour on my side with my castor pack. Then, following their directions, administered my very first coffee enema. I've had colonics before but this was way more awkward. I laid on my yoga mat and bashfully put a bucket full of Costa Rica's best coffee where the sun doesn't shine. I hadn't had that much coffee in me since I went raw almost three years ago. Within two minutes I had a caffeine jolt that made my heart race faster than my ecstasy filled raver days. Holy moly! I went back to bed but I was so alert and antsy I couldn't just lay there and fall asleep. I read, worked on my laptop and then to my dismay got overwhelmingly nauseous again. I felt really off but all I could do was lay on the couch and wait patiently for the flush to happen. Well, sadly nothing ever happened. I had a cup of peppermint tea and another dose of Oxy-Mag that night and then the following morning. To my dismay, no stones ever appeared. I drank 2000 calories of pure fat, gave myself an enema and passed up a free ticket to see one of my favorite bands, Spoon, play so that I could give my liver the love it deserved. I was really bummed.

Every time I followed Dr. Hulda Clark's regimen I had great results so this was very disappointing. I'm sure the folks at loveyourliver.org have gotten great results with their clients or else they would not sell this kit so I'm not sure why it didn't work for me. What I'd like to do next time is follow their three day pre-flush but follow Hulda Clark's flush which uses Epsom salts and 1/2 cup of olive oil/grapefruit juice right before going to bed. I'm going to try the flush during one of the next new moons (yes, the new moon is a great time to flush) and hopefully will have more 'fruitful' results. Check out Hulda Clark's site for her liver cleanse kit. Flushing the liver has helped thousands of people and may possibly take your health to the next level. Flush it if you love it!