One of the best things you can do for your body after eating large quantities of heavier foods is to give your digestive tract a break and follow a juice fast.  Along with juice, there are other products that I highly recommend to drink aiding the body in cleansing & minimizing the storage of fats resulting from over-eating acidic foods.  This is simple to follow and will make you feel amazing!

Your body receives the nourishment your food contains through the absorption of the  nutrients as the food travels through the intestines. To properly assimilate these nutrients, the intestinal pathway must be clear.  Water cannot flow freely through clogged pipes!  When the lining of the intestine is blocked by improperly digested food, we receive only minimal benefit. 

The fasting process is best used and thought of as a vital tool, giving the body the opportunity to transform itself physically.  Fasting aids your ability to change your habits and lifestyle during the detoxification process.  Resting from foods and allowing the body to process what it has already stored, is the ideal sequence to correct the imbalance caused by  our congestive and excessive eating behaviors.  Congestion within the body is a result of eating excessive “bad” fats, animal and processed foods.  Refined, processed or chemically treated food cannot be properly digested.  This “so-called” food will stagnate in the intestine, causing a release of toxins that lingers in the digestive system and enters the bloodstream.  Any foreign substance that your body does not recognize as a nutrient is classified as a toxin.  Therefore, pasteurized foods or those processed by adding chemical preservatives, nitrates or hormones cause a multitude of problems.

I prefer cleanses that requires juice fasting and green superfood intake because this option is in my view, gentler on the body, mind, and spirit.  I believe a cleanse should be as natural and comfortable experience as possible.  The discomfort will be unique to one’s present state of health.  Basically, the more you have to cleanse, the more challenging it is for your body to cooperate. 

A three-day cleanse is ideal for the first-time, or as part of your yearly health maintenance.  It will help you to reduce weight, relax stiff joints, relieve constipation, and of course assist in the elimination of toxins.  The length of a cleanse depends on your individual health needs, and the unique requirements of your lifestyle. It can be difficult to implement a cleanse longer than three days if you have a demanding schedule.  Always check with your physician before your cleanse if you have unique health issues.

Three-Day Cleanse:

• First thing in the morning on each of  the  three consecutive days, drink 8 ounces of young Thai coconut water or lemon juice and water.

• About a half-hour later, drink about 8-12 ounces of the juice you have chosen for the fast–juices such as apple, carrot, citrus, tomato, a combination of vegetable juices (vegetable juice is truly the best for cleansing), or a combination of green super foods and juice/water.  I don’t recommend drinking all fruit juice.  Try apple juice mixed with veggie juice or alternate diluted fruit juice with vegetable juice (to avoid to much sugar).  Make sure the juice you drink is organic. Fresh Vegetables or fruit juiced in your own kitchen are ideal.

• You will definitely want to have 2-3 “green drinks” daily during your cleanse.   Amazing Grass makes some great blends of the green superfoods that I use and recommend.  Depending on your budget, you can also add plain wheat grass for extra nutrients.  If you don’t want to take all the added herbs and greens that are generally included in most green superfood combinations, you could just drink straight wheat grass as an alternative.  Another option for those who do not have unique health requirements is to take the green superfood drink in the morning and the straight wheat grass mid-day.

• Approximately 30 minutes after your juice, drink 8 ounces of alkaline water, ideally. 

• You should be drinking 12 or more ounces of your selected juice every 2-3 hours.  You can alternate juice one time and a green superfood drink the next time or add some greens to every juice session.  The green super foods will create more satisfaction and satiation, delay hunger, provide energy, increase the rate of cleansing, and create more alkalinity in the blood (which is key to cleansing).  Continue alternating juice and water every half-hour to an hour until you have consumed two quarts of juice.  You can have more juice if you need it.

• Kombucha Tea is a wonderful cleansing and alkalizing aid that suppresses the appetite.  The tea, drank separately from your superfoods and wheat grass, but within the sequence of your cleanse will help your energy, nutrition levels, cleansing process and will assist in alkalizing your body.  One 12 oz. bottle is best consumed in 4-6 oz. intervals throughout the day.  This product can be found in most natural health food stores.

• Optional: take 1 tablespoon of fresh-pressed flaxseed oil two to three times a day to aid in lubricating the bile and liver duct.

• On the fourth day, begin taking solids again.  For the first couple of days try to eat only raw foods, then slowly add unprocessed cooked foods if desired. 

• Also try drinking a simple miso broth the first week after your cleanse… miso paste diluted in hot water with Braggs Liquid Aminos.  If you need something more to help appease your hunger than the above listed juices , oils, drinks, etc., you could add miso broth to your daily cleansing regime.

Products to assist the cleansing process:

There are many different products that we use regularly or during a cleansing period and highly recommend – gentle enough to take regularly.  Some examples are:

• Digestive enzymes

• Kombucha Tea

• Young Thai Coconut Water

• Green Matcha Tea

• BioK Probiotics

• Triphala

• Aloe Vera Juice

• Flaxseed meal and oil

• Coconut oil

• Sea vegetables

• Green superfoods (such as wheat grass, blue green algae and spirulina)

• Chinese herbs and numerous other types of herbs 

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