Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a GREAT weekend! I know I sure did. Ryker passed his Real Estate Exam on Friday!!! YAY!! I was SO excited for him! I spent the weekend with my girlfriends from college and that was a blast as well!
So today we are going to start talking about “Clean.” I had gotten this book a little over a year ago because I wanted to try this detox. It would have been my first one, but I never started it. Now I think I am up for the challenge! This book was written by Dr. Alejandro Junger and all credit for this information goes to him. And please… I am not a medically trained person… I just find this information and share it with you. Please be smart about your weight loss, if you have questions or concerns, TALK TO A DOCTOR!
CHAPTER ONE: WHY CLEAN?
You are sitting on a familiar box, begging for pennies to survive, unaware that inside the box is a treasure that will not only fund this survival, but will also give you wealth beyond your wildest dreams.
Maybe you’re begging for help to solve a small but troubling health problem, like extra weight, ongoing fatigue, allergies, depression, or a digestive disorder. Maybe you need help to avoid developing a bigger problem, like one of the so-called diseases of civilization – cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, and auto-immune disorders.
The pennies you are asking for are the prescription medications and surgeries that you have been taught are essential to remedy your problems. But the truth is different. The power to heal lies somewhere much closer. You already have it, and you don’t need prescriptions, treatments, or expensive experts to get it. In fact, you’re sitting right on top of it.
That familiar box that’s supporting you, almost unnoticed, is your own body, run by its incredible natural intelligence. And the treasure inside that will deliver this state of vitality, beauty, and vigor? It’s a system that is designed by nature to keep you healthy, youthful, and happy, if you only help it carry out its functions. It is the on-board system that makes you and keeps you clean, your system of detoxification.
This system, which comprises many organs and physiological processes working together throughout the body, is a wellspring of health. Many of the health problems that trouble so many modern humans and cost society so much money can be alleviated when – instead of getting more detail-oriented in your approach, recruiting more specialists, inventing more technology, and adding in more medication – you take a broader perspective and do something simpler: turn your attention to the treasure that is already there, the detoxification system, and reactivate its potential.
A focused period of detoxifying is a reset for the whole physical and mental body. It delivers an all-access pass to boundless reserves of energy you didn’t know you had. You find that every part of your body works better, imbalances are rectified, and irritating symptoms get a chance to melt away on their own – all by simply “switching on” a system that you were born with and that has been patiently waiting to serve you.
For thousands of years, humanity has recognized the existence of toxic influences that cause dysfunction, damage, disease, premature aging, and death. These toxins have the potential to irritate and stress us and ultimately cause the body to suffer in many ways, small and large, from the unmeasurable realm of thought and emotion to the material chemicals generated as the waste by-products of our cells’ daily lives.
This system is continuously working; in fact, it keeps us alive every second of every minute of every day. If the body didn’t constantly coordinate its complex symphony of activities, these waste products would build up, we would become sick, and we would eventually die. The “baseline” detox mode that is occurring at every moment of our lives is part of the basic formula of life. It makes our very existence possible.
Practitioners of early healing traditions understood that resting some of the major body systems, especially the digestive system, was integral to life. Fasting, silent retreats, and contemplative times were considered essential to a peaceful, healthy, and fulfilling experience of life.
Human beings’ genetic evolution – the way our bodies work best – has been shaped by the fasting that was imposed on us by the hunter-gatherer way of life. For millennia, humans experiences periods of feasting followed by periods of imposed famine. The detoxification system could switch on and stay on with plenty of time and energy to do its essential cleanup work, liberating the body of a whole backload of waste products trapped inside, because it wasn’t competing with the digestive system for fuel.
The more dangerously toxic life has become, and the more depleted of vital nutrients our diets have become, and the more rushed life has become, the more our grand detoxification system has gotten overwhelmed. It is almost hibernating: it is still there, doing the daily “baseline” work that allows us to live, but it is faltering under the additional twenty-first century burden of poor diet, environmental toxins, and stress.
Clean will show you how toxins, far from being invisible agents floating somewhere “out there” in the environment, actually enter your body and corrode it from the inside. As toxicity accumulates, your body systems are damaged one by one, starting with your intestines.
You will discover how the early signs and symptoms of toxicity are confused and ignored in our culture, often written off as the “normal” wear and tear on our body parts, as if nothing can be done. This failure to catch the early symptoms means that more serious signs and symptoms appear later on.
CLEAN will reveal to you the connections that – like the familiar box you didn’t think to open but have been sitting on for years – have been ignored by most of society and most of modern medicine. It explains how intestinal irritation caused by dietary and environmental toxicity can present as a range of symptoms you might never have thought could be connected to toxicity, such as seasonal allergies, skin rashes, depressing, or simply a lack of enthusiasm for life. Clean provides clarity among the hundreds of different cleansing-detox programs that have flooded our market and explains the science that ties them all together. It details what these toxins are, where they are, how you are exposed to them, and how they affect your life and health. It is a primer to surviving and thriving in a toxic world.
But more important, Clean will give you the tools to reactivate your detoxification system to its fullest, giving it a chance to go into deep-cleaning mode and restore your body’s own ability to heal, regenerate, and even rejuvenate itself. It will show you how a cleansing-detox program does not have to be disruptive to daily life or make you feel deprived. It can be incorporated into a regular schedule and support your need for energy while gradually eliminating the toxins that have blocked optimal functioning of body and mind. You can start slowly on your first-ever cleanse by doing a one-week program, make a bigger commitment with a fourteen-day program, or jump right in for a full commitment of three weeks.
What is Clean?
Clean is a tool that anybody can use for restoring, rebalancing, and healing. Designed with the needs of busy people in mind, Clean is a simple and practical detoxification plan that fits into day-to-day life instead of asking you to put your life on hold.
At its core, however, are these very simple easy-to-understand concepts:
- Toxins and stress create obstacles for the normal functioning and self-healing capabilities of our bodies
- Modern eating habits and lifestyles pollute our bodies and don’t provide the nutrients necessary for them to function at optimum levels
- By removing the obstacles and providing what is lacking, our bodies bounce back into health, energy is restored, and we begin to look and feel our best
The Clean program breaks down into three one-week plans, with a preliminary phase consisting of an elimination diet to prepare for the cleanse. Ultimately, you will work your way toward a three-week cleanse. It will be your choice whether to take Clean all the way through and complete the three-week program, or to work up to the three-week cleanse in incremental phases, completing a slightly longer program each time you do it (in most cases it is recommended doing Clean once a year).
Three Steps of Clean
One-Week Cleanse. Your first three to five days on the program will be a lesson in how the body resists changing the deeply engrained habits around eating and drinking, even habits that your mind understands to be toxic and wants to let go of. One week is enough time for your body to take advantage of this new state that you are creating. The Clean program optimizes the conditions needed for our bodies to fully express their miraculous potential of regeneration, repair, and healing.
Two-Week Cleanse. If you are able to continue, don’t stop. Set a goal of carrying straight on and accomplishing a second week on the program. Two weeks on Clean will deliver to you greater benefits, as systems in your body that had been blocked and slowed begin to be optimized again, while other systems that had been on “red alert” to help you survive the insult of the toxic world get soothed and settled. Long-standing symptoms of imbalance on the “surface,” such as skin problems, weight issues, allergies, and intestinal issues, begin to disappear.
Three-Week Cleanse. The completion of your third week will show you how it feels to slow down and even reverse the aging process. Improved physiological balance can have a positive effect on psychological and emotional levels too. Moods improve, and a sense of mental clarity returns. After completing the program, many find that their cravings are reduced, poor foods and highly caffeinated drinks lose their appeal, and a mindful relationship to meals is restored. Most report that their work and relationships get a boost from what they can only describe as a heightened state of self-awareness.
The Importance of a Wellness Plan
A plan is essential to any endeavor where we want to see growth and success. A reasonable yet organized Wellness Plan that sets out small goals for the year empowers you to achieve the ongoing state of health you need to thrive in our toxic world. The Clean detox program helps you get clarity on your health goals and priorities.
Clean is safe for almost everyone. Note, however, that all cleanses can have an effect on the way prescription medications are absorbed. Some treatment regimens will exclude you as a candidate for a detox program. If you are currently taking prescription medications, please read on carefully before proceeding with the program.
The Clean Audit
Answer the questions on this list and note your “yes” answers.
- Do you have headaches more than occasionally?
- Do you tend to get colds or viruses each year?
- Do you have bowel movements less frequently than after every meal?
- Do you have bowel movements that are not soft and easily passed?
- Do you have diarrhea more than very rarely?
- Do you get itchy or watery eyes and nose at certain times of year?
- Do you have allergies or hay fever?
- Do you often get congested or mucusy?
- Do you get bloated after eating?
- Do you have extra pounds that won’t come off with diet and exercise?
- Do you have puffiness in areas of your face or body?
- Do you have dark circles under your eyes?
- Do you get heartburn?
- Do you have gas more than occasionally?
- Do you have bad breath or body odor?
- Is there a thin white coat on the back of your tongue when you wake up?
- Do you get cravings for certain kinds of foods, especially sugary, starchy, or dairy foods?
- Do you have a tendency toward restless sleep?
- Do you have itchy skin, pimples, or any other troubling skin condition?
- Do you get pain or stiffness in your joints or muscles?
- Do you have low moods or a foggy mind?
- Do you find that you are forgetful, have difficulty concentrating, or can’t find words?
- Do you feel apathetic and tired?
- Do you feel anger or bursts of irrational frustration?
- Do you have higher than average sensitivity to odors?
- Have you noticed an increasing sensitivity to toxins in everyday life, such as feeling more nauseated when you smell dry-cleaning fluid or fill up your car’s tank with gas, noticing stronger effects of certain food additives, or having reactions to cleaning or personal-care products?
- Do you multiple prescription medications?
- Do you use many potentially toxic chemicals in your home or work environment?
- Do you have musculoskeletal aches and pains or symptoms suggestive of fibromyalgia?
- Do you have tingling or numbness on one side?
- Do you have strange reactions to medications or supplements?
- Do you have recurrent edema?
- Have you noticed a worsening of any troublesome symptoms after anesthesia or pregnancy?
These could all be symptoms of toxicity. It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t answer “yes” to at least one or two of these questions. Some people have many more “yes” answers than that. Whatever your response, affirmative answers to any of these questions indicate that you would benefit highly from Clean, which has been shown to improve and clear up these symptoms and many others.
Clean is not a magic bullet. It is not designed to cure every ailment. It is designed to be a jump start – a reboot that gets all systems running better. Once you’ve completed part or all of it the first time, it is a preventive tool that you’ll use periodically to shed accumulated toxins and switch on deeper healing. Meanwhile, you will create an ongoing Wellness Plan to achieve a set of longer-term toxin-beating goals.
Keep Calm and Lose On 