Why Everyone Should Try a Cleanse
Don’t be scared to cleanse, save that for the movies
Cleansing isn’t all that scary friends. Most people think that the only way to cleanse means that you can’t eat for days, you have to sip on water filled with maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice, or that you have to take pills to clean out your colon. Yes, it’s true that these are some ways to do it, but they are not the ONLY ways to do it. The key is to either jump in and go for it (if you can handle that) or start an elimination diet, to ease you into it, then move into other layers. Trust me, you will receive benefits that will cleanse not only your body but your mind as well. So why should everyone cleanse you ask? Let me tell ya…
Why cleanse
There are many reasons to cleanse: mental clarity, weight loss, gut health, food addiction, colds and allergies, skin conditions, and sleep disorders are just a few. I believe the three I chose below to be the top reasons because simultaneously the others above will fall into place.
Healing your gut
If you read about healing your gut (which I recommend a little google search or a book) you will see how so many things are linked to our overall intestinal health. Ehhhh, like almost everything! Our intestines work very hard to break down substances and sometimes they just need a break to reboot. You know that feeling? They have to deal with bad microbiota attacking and are constantly thinking about how to maintain a well-regulated barrier function to keep us safe. Cleansing is a nice way to gently lay your intestines down in a nice fluffy warm bed with tea, cucumber water, and your password to Netflix, so they can re-energize and re-strategize their army to get back in the game and fight for your life. Pretty intense huh?
Change your relationship with food
Our relationship with food can be complicated- sometimes even a love/hate type thing.
Love relationship – is when it nourishes us, gives us energy, calms us, helps keep our bodies running smoothly and gently.
Hate relationship – is when we desperately yearn for it and it tastes so delicious that for that short period of time we forget the negative emotions we may have been feeling. That sounds kind of good right? But, a few minutes later, what that food just deceivingly offered us was snatched back up and thrown into a pit only leaving us feeling exactly what we felt a second before. Then, add on some extras like deceit, guilt, self-hate… We start to ask ourselves how we fell for that trap. We start to judge ourselves and call ourselves names for falling for the same trick again and again and yet again. Does this sound familiar?
Cleansing helps you detach from any addiction or dependence on the physical and emotional reactions that food sometimes offers you. You begin to recognize your habits and things start to slowly change. Better choices begin to emerge that offer a hundred times more benefits than the old choices. Self-esteem begins to evolve because you did it-you were aware and made the right choice and didn’t let food deceive you.
Toxins
Toxins are everywhere all around us and I don’t foresee it ending anytime soon. So the idea of a cleanse is to clean out your system of toxins and to give your intestinal tract a little break. What are toxins? Toxins are essentially biologically produced poisons by animals, plants, microorganisms, or infectious substances that get into our bloodstreams and organs which then produce all sorts of reactions. We have to rid our bodies of all these toxins we not only ingest but also absorb from the world around us. Our poor liver has to deal with most of this abuse because our intestinal tract dumps it all right into it like a river to a lake. The liver flushes any unused nutrients, medications, and toxins right out with the help of water. This is one of the reasons why we continuously hear and read about drinking more water, water, water and taking full deep breaths, breaths, breaths!
The 4 Layers of Skin
As you keep reading and learning about intestinal integrity, you will see that it’s not just what we ingest in terms of food. There are many, many, other layers involved. For instance, there are four layers of skins which hide toxins.
Layer Number One:
The first layer is that large organ that separates all our other organs and blood from the world. It absorbs and expels as much as it can, but in today’s world, it’s not as easy. An overwhelming amount of toxins inhabit our air and our skin is in overdrive constantly.
Layer Number Two:
The second skin is everything we put on our bodies from clothes, to sprays and perfumes, to lotions, and even to the sheets we sleep on. Cotton requires tons of pesticides to grow in abundance (I mean, it doesn’t “require” but they are used) and when we rub our bodies all over it, there is bound to be some absorption going on, you know what I mean? Synthetic fabrics are a breeding ground for bacteria and do I need to say that when they are on our bodies that our skin can’t fight it all? So, the toxins our bodies are expelling ultimately get soaked right back up into the epidermis and travel through our system and the body again trys to find another way to expel them! Yikerz!
Layer Number Three:
The third layer is our living space and environment from our air fresheners, candles, cleaning products, to formaldehyde on furniture and synthetic carpeting. Most times, our homes are more polluted than the outside environment.
Layer Number Four:
The fourth layer is the humungous atmospheric protective barrier that surrounds our planet that is just getting bombarded by emissions from cars, trains, planes, and by-products of agriculture and other industries. I mean, radiation from power lines and cell-phone towers?! Heavy metals like mercury and arsenic? I can’t even go on because my brain will explode!
So, now what?
So, keep the above four layers in mind. You don’t have to change your life today, but at least hold the information at the forefront of your mind so you can begin to change a couple of things, here or there.
The Easiest First Four to Change:
- Soap (hand and body)
- Shampoo
- Toothpaste
- Detergent
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has a fantastic database on hazardous chemicals.
The Environmental Working Group is another incredible website where you can check out a plethora of products and see if they are safe.
If you want to read a little more about my experience with the actual body cleanse and some tips, you can! Stay tuned for that… 🙂