7 Day Cleanse to Get You Fit!

I’m going to start the year with a 7 Day Cleanse. BAM! Is this something you’d consider? 

Well, I figured it would only be fair, because I ended the last year eating a lot of all the wrong things… And since health is high on my list of goals for the New Year I might as well get to it!

What You Can Learn About Detoxing On this Page:

• What Does the 7 Day Cleanse Look Like?
• Great Resources Where You Can Learn How to Successfully Do a Self Guided Cleanse (including how to brew your own detox tea & where to get the herbs from)
• Lessons Learned from my 4 Detoxes
• Detoxing Essentials – What Products You might Need

Here’s the Outline of my 7 Day Cleanse:

1. Preparation (gradually eat healthier) for 1-3 weeks

• for a smooth transition from normal (not so healthy) eating to fasting and to give you time to source cleanse essentials
• gradually and one by one drink less coffee and alcohol; eat less sugar, wheat (aka less bread and pasta), gluten, dairy and meat until you have removed all those things from your diet. You’ll notice that this will give you lots more energy – so you can tackle step 2…

2. Colon Cleanse for 2 Days

• maybe longer, I’d say 5 days would be good – to expel toxins and speed up the time food takes through your body
• think “pipe cleaner”, do anything that helps you go to the loo ? eating brown rice, hummus and celery, drinking green tea, doing enemas, using a natural colon cleanser for a short time… you get the idea

3. Liver/ Candida Cleanse for 5 Days

• to take a weight of your liver, gall bladder & kidneys by consuming only veg and liquids to flush the organs
• this is the actual “fasting” part (2 days of raw foods and 3 days of herbal teas, juices and broth)

Lessons Learned from My Previous Detox History

I have done about 4 detoxes in the past few years.

My First Detox was Fun but made me incredibly tired, sad & caused skin breakouts

That one I’ll never forget, it  was called “Super Health Detox” by Michael van Straten consisting of:

• 1 day juice cleanse
• 2 days fruit and steamed veg cleanse
• 8 days return to normal eating diet
• 2 weeks of replenishing diet

This month of strict dieting forever changed my relationship with food. Eating according to a menu planner and cooking fresh organic produce every day were completely new experiences for me. More often than not there were foods on the menu that I didn’t like or didn’t know, but I made a point of eating everything.

And not only did I surprise myself sometimes by actually liking foods that I didn’t think I liked, it also made me appreciate the foods that I did like even more. I learned how important having a positive attitude to dieting is and that you need not go hungry.

I had previously believed you’d have to starve yourself to be slim. This book proved me wrong – I was not hungry during this month of conscious eating.

Conclusion: Great for First Timers to Learn Healthy Eating

PRO: Fantastic to learn about the benefits of detoxing and an easy to follow plan.

CONTRA:  On the flipside it does require a substantial amount of time for shopping and cooking. And it is not suitable for people with candida issues, since most recipes include fruit, bread or wheat.

Subsequent Mini Fasts Made Me Feel Really Ill!

I experimented with a couple of 24 and 48 eight hours fasts, where I only consumed water, teas and broth. Since I had launched myself into these fasts unprepared and unguided, straight from previously eating a lot of junk foods, already not feeling well – I felt violently ill during the fasts.

My Cleanse Experience 2012

I wrote a blog post with a fasting protocol about the 7 Day Cleanse I tried last year to get rid off Candida. It was basically 7 days of just veggy juices, herbal teas and broth – nice ?

In retrospect I think it was a bit extreme, and I went into it rather unprepared, which caused more die off symptoms than necessary.

How to Avoid the Dangers of an Unprepared, Unguided or Rushed Candida Cleanse:

• When suddenly a lot of toxins and metabolism by-products that previously had been stored in your fat reserves get released into your bloodstream, your body and particularly your liver quickly gets overburdened and clogged up with waste products. This generally will lead to you feeling exhausted, headachy, nauseous and as if you had the flu. It’s harsh, but it’s a good thing really – It shows that you’re starting to heal!
  
• It can also severely impact on your mood, making you tense, crotchety, tearful and snappy.
• Panic attacks are not unheard of during a Candida Cleanse
• And your skin can break out in pimples and rashes, since your body is trying to eliminate the toxins somehow.
• You can feel weak, lethargic, whoozey, even faint in some cases.
• And worst of all, at some point during your fast, especially if you are doing a long detox like a 7 day cleanse you’ll get insane cravings for certain things. Particularly if you normally drink coffee and eat cakes, bread or chocolates – a lot.

So the idea is to improve the whole digestive process, flush it all out – BEFORE you start the actual candida cleanse (fast). If you follow a clean diet and you do a colon cleanse before the fast then the unpleasant die off symptoms above won’t show up at all or are much more manageable.

And be kind to yourself – don’t force it. A bit lightheadedness is normal, but you should not feel weak or shaky. Eat some light veggy soup or a piece of fruit – That should even see you through a day of work. But Ideally always fast at the weekend, when you can fully relax.  (only eat fruit if it agrees with you obviously, not if you have an acute candida infection)

3 Great Resources for a Natural Full Body Cleanse

In preparation for my 7 day cleanse I have absorbed all the info I could find on the topic of detoxing on the web. These are pages I recommend you take a look at if you are serious about cleansing (warning: may take you days to read through

1) JON BARRON’S DETOX PROGRAM (US) http://www.jonbarron.org

• awesome info about benefits of each herb in formula and explanation how liver, kidney and bowels work
• own range of products; delivering only to US
• he has a free liver detox schedule and rough cleanse outline & also instructions/ recipes to make a liver flush & kidney flush tea

2) DR. RICHARD SCHULZE (US) http://healingtools.tripod.com/thn8.html

• Have you heard of Dr. Schulze’s Incurables program? It’s a fast, diet and natural remedies program, either guided or self-guided that is meant to help even cancer patients. One big part of his success apparently is his detox regime (I’ve included links to his free content below). I’m basing my 7 day cleanse partly on his suggested detox. His program consists of 5 days colon cleanse, then 5 days liver cleanse and 5 days kidney cleanse which I skip (I’m not going without food for 15 days, oh nooo ?
• Free step by step explanation how to make tinctures and healing teas for detox http://healingtools.tripod.com/thn8.html#1 – Make your own so you don’t have to buy expensive brews online!
• http://www.drepperly.com/forms/Dr_Schulze_detox_Program.pdf (tea instructions)
• UK company offering products based on his formula: www.herbshandshealing.co.uk (that’s where I bought my colon cleanse kit from)

3) Dr. HULDA CLARKE (UK)
http://www.selfhealth.co.uk
Good info and products for colon cleanse, liver and kidney tincture/ tonic and 3 combi Paracleanse

Detoxing Essentials – Here’s What I’d Get:

But wait!

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, may I remind you that this is just a crazy candida cleanse plan that I have worked out for myself, to get rid of my digestive issues. You’d be mad to follow it ?

You probably don’t need half the ingredients. You can definitely do a very fine detox just by drinking vegetable broth and water. Do what appeals to you, what feels right for your body and lifestyle.

It’s all about balance. Think nourishment and relaxation, not starvation ?

This is meant to give you an idea what a 7 day cleanse might look like. So you find it easier to work out a self-guided detox plan for yourself, if that’s what you want to do. And if you are ill right now, then be sure to run it past a health care pro first to give yourself the best possible chance at healing.

Everything You Need for a 7 Day Cleanse:

This is All You Need for a Colon Cleanse:

Foods that are easy on the digestive system and promote quick transit: for instance brown rice, hummus, etc. and plenty of water, detox teas and vegetables.

Optional Products for Colon Cleanse:

Colon Cleanse Kit (I bought mine from www.herbshandshealing.co.uk)

• Chamomile Bearberry & Cascara Capsules (natural laxative)
• Clay & Linseed Capsules (bulks up in your gut like fibre to clean it out)
• Enema kit
• Parasite Cleanse e.g. Wormwood complex
  
• Strong Probiotic

Optional to help heal Leaky Gut & Lower Abdomen Problems & IBS

• Slippery Elm & Marshmallow Powder
• Castor oil pack & cloth (instruction see Dr. Schulze’s program)

The Bare Minimum You Need for a Candida Cleanse (Fast)

Plenty of water, salad, vegetables, avocadoes, vegetable broth, detox tea, green juice

Optional to help flush and support the Liver

• Milk thistle complex to support the liver
• Molybdenum for die off and liver protection – start taking before the cleanse
• Lemon, garlic, ginger, olive oil for liver flush
• Optional to help flush the Kidneys
  • Pot Barley (for barley water)
  • Detox Tea (brewed fresh from loose herbal tea leaves)

Where to Buy Detox Teas from?

• Look for loose herbal teas in your local health food shop.
• I bought the tea ingredients and herbs at Woodland Herbs UK online and in the health food shop where I live.
• A good US alternative is mountain rose herbs.

Got any Questions? Then Join the Candida Diet Group on Facebook!

Have any questions about the 7 day cleanse or the candida diet in general?

I’ve set up a group on Facebook to share detox and candida experiences, and keep each other motivated. Fancy joining us?

Alternatively leave a comment below ?

 If you liked this post you’ll probably also like this one: Colon Cleanse 1 on 1

And be sure to check out the lovely healthy living blog “Thank Your Body” where my cleanse outline was featured in January 2013 here.

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