The Detox Dance

It's that time of year again; the time to cleanse, reinvigorate and renew.

Doing cleanses and detoxes through juicing or fasting has become almost common place.  When I started biannual cleanses back in the 90's, it wasn't usual with many people.  Back then, I was dealing with a serious healing crisis, and with the support of a wonderful naturopath went through a 6 month healing that involved several detox cleanses, hydrocolonic therapy, white light therapy and vitamin/mineral therapy. It was intense, expensive and totally worth it.  I completely healed without invasive procedures.  It actually changed my life and put me on the course I presently pursue.

So, why should people periodically detox (if you aren't contending with a healing crisis)?  And what is the best way to do it?

Our human propensity is grounded in habit; the good, the bad, the ugly and beautiful.  We are routine and habit oriented.  Never changing up the way we eat and behave creates a static energy field, and this most often leads to dis-ease.  As I've said in several posts,  we live in a vessel that is constantly working for us, often taxed and on overdrive.  The heart never stops beating, the lymphatic, circulatory and gastrointestinal systems similarly are always at work.  To give them a rest, a break from dealing with breaking down fats and sugars is a way to renew their function.  This sort of change, reinvigorates our metabolism, allows the systems to relinquish stored toxins, provides our spiritual self new impressions and jump starts a heightened awareness, hopefully offsetting the need to ever have to manage a healing crisis.  Cleansing rejuvenates and reinvigorates and is fully sympathetic with the Spring and Autumn seasons.

To the question, what is the best way to do it, well, there are many, many ways.  Back in the '90's it tended to be "hard core".  Juicing juicing juicing.  Water water water.  No morsel of anything with non-liquid texture touched one's lips for 16-30 days.  Kind of rough and kind of exhilarating.  Today, there are all sorts of products and ways to approach it.  What I initially counsel to others and take into account for myself is, who am I right now?  What can I manage?  What is feasible within a budget, and where is my spirit in relation to the endeavor of this type of renewal?

For those going through a healing crisis, jumping into a very intense period of fasting/juicing may not be ideal.  It may be necessary to build the body up first, get the liver filtering optimally before one undertakes a detox.  This requires guidance and support and one should get this from a trusted healthcare partner.

There are a few circumstances to consider when undertaking a detox:  avoiding free-radical conditions and constipation.

Free radicals are molecules with unpaired electrons. In their quest to find another electron, they are very reactive and cause damage to surrounding molecules.  In detoxing, it's important to continue to nourish the body while avoiding a starvation situation.  As soon as the body senses it isn't getting nourished, it goes into lock down to avoid what it perceives as starving/imminent death, releasing an onslaught of free radicals into the blood stream. Free radicals are everywhere, in the air, our bodies, and the materials around us. They cause cellular and molecular deterioration causing age-related illnesses, and are unwanted contributors to heart attacks, stroke and cancers.

Constipation happens when fiber is eliminated from the diet, circumstances which are prime when one is exclusively juicing.  To offset this, maximum hydration is required and use of hydrocolon therapy (colonics) and or use of natural products like psyllium (natural bulk laxative).  Work with a professional to consider the best options for you.

One of the interesting things about cleansing is watching how you handle the stages.  Initially, there can be irritability, headaches, low energy. As the cleanse progresses, it's not uncommon to feel an incredible inner and outer lightness and high energy.  Part of detoxing is listening to the body and providing. If you need to rest or sleep, make the time.  The commitment to the process is an exemplary effort of caring for oneself.  All the time cutting the vegetables, preparing the broths, cleaning the juicer parts.  It's a big investment of time, energy, mental focus/planning and money. It's beautiful when the commitment is strong in oneself; a true sense of self worth and love to oneself is experienced (even if there are periods of grousing about the time consumption!).  Recommitting to one's prayer or meditation practice helps deepen the cleanse experience.  It brings fortitude and a certain internal power and verticality that can offset the challenges and heighten the satisfaction.

photo credit: Lalu Danzker

Ways to approach a detox:

One can gradually move into it, eliminating a meal a day, replacing with juicing and gradually eliminating 2 meals and finally 3.  Have a plan or protocol for yourself, a structure and a way you will emotionally, spiritually and physically approach the effort.  Get some help and support for the plan by a healthcare partner.

Be careful what you juice.  Vegetables should be your primary source of nutrition with inclusion of few fruits.  For those with a big sweet tooth, you will be tempted to do a lot of fruit juicing.  Minimize this.  Also, even if vegetables are your main source of juice, one's stomach lining can get irritated.  Balance the juicing with alkaline broth.  One glass of broth accompanying a glass of fresh juice usually offsets stomach aches.  Alkaline broth can be made with vegetable scraps.  Potato skins, beet tops, spinach/chard stalks, etc.  Avoid salting the broth or using veg high in sodium, like onions.  Add lots of fresh herbs to make it tasty.  You can make a pot-full and strain it into glass containers (old peanut butter jars) for the week.  Try not to drink it cold; the juice tends to be cold and you want to offset the temperature with other.  We are particularly sensitive to "cold" foods when fasting, why we undertake it in the spring, not the winter.  You don't want the intestines to seize up but accept what is received graciously; so warm the broth when possible, drink a lot of herb tea like nettle and hawthorne.

photo credit: Lee van Laer

Go all organic, go seasonal.  You will be tempted to do cantaloupe and watermelon; they're big, you get  a lot of juice at one time, they taste great. But they're not seasonal in April and May (at least not in the northeast).  Tip your hat to disappearing winter and juice a lot of root vegetables in the spring (beets, parsnips, carrots, etc) adding in "new" spring greens like spinach, dandelion, chard.  This is an opportunity to fall in love with bitter greens like arugula; so tangy and delicious.  Organic is a no- brainer even if it's pricey.  The whole idea of a detox is to detox.  You don't want to put into your body low grade foods, taxing your cleanup process with pesticides and unfriendly microbes.  We are trying to decrease and neutralize inflammatory processes, bring more alkaline (vs acidic foods) into the system.  We need high quality vegetables and fruits.  Again, go organic.

For some, it is too stressful not to be able to masticate every day.  Foodies need texture.  Hence, exclusively juicing may not be possible.  There are many good products on the market that provide shakes, even bars to chew on while doing a cleanse.  This process is about wakening to oneself, where one is in the now.  We aren't trying to be perfect or hyper disciplined.  The "discipline" comes from the interest in the process.  If we've committed to eliminating food-food for a period there are going to be challenges.  If you have to masticate something, and there is too much tension and effort around the cleansing commitment, eat something.  If possible make it whole: carrot  or celery sticks, cucumber slices.  Don't complex carb-out with bread or junk. Sometimes a thin soup with vegetable nips the hankering.  Eat a piece of fruit.  Try to stay in the parameter of the things you are juicing (dandelion green salad with a few drops of olive oil and spray of lemon).  There is no guilt or forgiveness necessary.  Take care of yourself.  One of the signs that it's time to move out of the fast is the amount of daydreaming and planning one begins to do in relation to food.  If you find yourself thinking for inordinate amounts of time about what you're first meal is going to be, writing lists of menus for the first week back--- it's time to start shifting out of a cleanse.  When one begins to feel deprived, or is experiencing scarcity in relation to food, this is another cue it's time to back into a more normal dietary pattern.  Denial is not a great place on any level to live.  It undermines what efforts you've made thus far and puts future detoxes at risk.

When we detox, we aren't just eliminating through our gastrointestinal system, but through our skin and respiration as well.  Doing Ayurvedic skin brushing with a medium coarse, dry loofah sponge or brush prior to showering helps this process by stimulating lymph and circulation.  Brush the limbs and the torso several times always toward the heart. Do this before showering.  Finish the shower with a cool rinse.  Do exceptionally good mouth care.  Brush, waterpik, floss, tongue brush, mouthwash; the whole kit-n-caboodle.  Halitosis or bad breath is common during the detoxing period.  As you clean your body, clean your mouth:  with intention and excellence.  In all of this, you'll feel like a million bucks.

Back out of your cleanse the way you went into it:  gradually.  Eat small amounts of complex carbs (1/4 cup cooked per day) after a few days add in some dairy (preferably yogurt). You don't want to shock your sensitized system by going from nothing to a full fledged meal.  By the end of a fast, time has become slower, impressions are received in a much more sublime and quiet way.  Appreciate this.  Take stock in the detox dance you completed.