We advise preparing over the weekend to give yourself a chance to approach the cleansing week slowly and have certain things ready in advance. For example, if you are working all week, it might be good to make some batches of soup and freeze them so you can have a healthy light meal easily. Or if you don’t normally cook brown rice now is a good time to practice – rather than Monday night when you are tired and hungry!
If you can, take it easy over the weekend. Start to cut out the things you want to avoid for the next few days or week: caffeine perhaps, sugar, alcohol, fried foods. Try eating a piece of fruit before every meal for the weekend and see if it suits you.
If you drink coffee every day (or even tea for some people) you might find when you cut it out that you get headaches. I have found that these don’t respond to any pain-killers, but rather you just have to wait them out and they do go away (normally after one day for me). Drinking a glass of water when you feel the headache comming on helps.
We are also recommending that you start cleansing out your bowels over the weekend, by taking either Chia seeds, Phyllium husks or Linseeds morning and evening. This is particularly important if you intend to take any liver cleansing herbs over the next week. Follow the link for information on Chia seeds; for Linseeds soak a tablespoon each night for the morning in a glass of water and do the same in the morning for the next night. Drink the whole glass and chew a few of the seeds as you swallow them. Psyllium husks are taken in water, about 2 teaspoons is enough in a large glass of water followed by another glass immediately.
You might feel like getting the A.Vogel Detox Box for some herbal help while you detox…we sell them for €34.95 which is cheaper than buying the products separately, and if there are two of you in the same house doing a cleanse you can both use the box for 5 days (if you get another packet of Frangula tablets it will last you both 10 days).
And if you would like more information check out this website - Elson Haas is an inspiring writer and gives lots of healthy easy detox tips.
Another good book is Patrick Holford’s 9-Day Detox Plan (available in Organico). We have a number of books on detoxing – just ask our staff.
Foods to stock up on:
Grains: Organic brown rice, organic Quinoa, millet and organic oat flakes.
Fresh vegetables: fresh and regular garlic, shallots and chives, kale, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage (we give a good red cabbage salad online), beetroot (and a great beetroot salad recipe), and of course carrots. Sweet potatoes and butternut squash are a good alternative to regular spuds for the week (and guess what – we have both in the shop at great prices – organic of course!)
Fresh fruits like apples, pears, oranges, lots of lemons (you might want half a lemon or more per day) bananas, mixed berries, grapefruit, melon, papaya… the list goes on.
For some of our soups, yellow split peas are good, A good, fresh organico olive oil, a good natural sea salt (preferably unbleached – or Himalayan rock salt) and perhaps an organic tamari for natural flavour. For a little sweet stuff, maple syrup or local honey. For some healthy fats, Udo’s Oil or Flax seed oil to add to your vegetables.
It is perfectly fine to go for 3-7 days without eating animal proteins such as meat, fish or poultry. Quinoa has some protein in it, as do split peas, so you won’t be completely without if you eat those things. For this cleanse, the main idea is lots and lots of steamed veggies, some grains, some fruits and a little pulses (split peas or lentils). Gentle, healing, restful food, to give your body a break. Then, if you like, some herbs to gentle detox your system. Lots of water and herb teas to assist also. Gentle exercise is always good.
Reading inspiring health literature is also beneficial, and can be a good way to spend some of your weekend. Call in to have a look at our book selection – we have been buying a lot of detox-related books recently!
Finally: good luck with your preparation, we’ll post more shortly.