Your body is awesome in so many ways. It knows and does things without you consciously thinking about it. It has the most amazing healing abilities too and, remarkably, it continues to function extremely well even in adverse conditions like carrying excess weight, a stressful lifestyle and not enough sleep. Given the chance to return to its natural weight, your body will become much stronger and it will be far less likely to ‘break-down’ or suffer from disease or illnesses. Doing a Body Cleanse helps to kick-start your body back to natural health.
Cleanse and rebalance your body
During the Eat Well—Be Well programs, we do a 4-week Body Cleanse to detoxifying your body of all the chemicals you have eaten in foods including: preservatives, flavourings, sweeteners, colourings, thickeners and food modifying agents. Whilst doing the Body Cleanse, you avoid eating (and drinking) anything with added sugar, wheat, caffeine and alcohol. Most dairy is eliminated too—or if you believe dairy is problematic for you, then all dairy is excluded.
Reading this you may begin to wonder what on earth you will be eating during the Body Cleanse! I know it sounds daunting, but you will be eating lots of food including vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts, seeds, eggs, fish and some meat too. A body cleanse is not a fast. Fasts can be very healing in their own right: but this is not what this is.
If you are embarking on a Body Cleanse by yourself, choose how long you can do this; 2weeks is a great start. If you can do 4 weeks, you will massively notice the difference. And whilst it can be challenging, doing this for 6 weeks is rejuvenating. Over 6 weeks, your digestive tract has a complete rest from processing artificial food additives which allows it to heal, become stronger and more effective. Choose the time period you know you can stick to—this is better than being unrealistic with yourself. Even a 2-week cleanse helps your body.
Use the Clean Eating Pyramid as your guide for nutrient balance
Follow the food pyramid as your guide as to what to eat—but excluding the treats at the top of the pyramid. This means that the biggest proportion of your food will be vegetables, then fruit, then protein etc. It is important that you have some good fat in your diet. I know this can be a scary thought—but good fats as found in nuts, seeds, nut and seed oils, avocado, olives and olive oil and oily fish are truly beneficial to your body. Good fats lower bad cholesterol and help the body release stored body fat.
Whilst cleansing your body, I don’t want, nor do I recommend, for you to be hungry at all. As contrary as this may seem, hunger is counter-productive to initial weight loss. Instead see the Body Cleanse for what it really is: a healing, cleansing process from where you can begin to test and experiment with what your body, likes, digests easily and/or what causes bloating, gas and problems with bowel movements. You will find out what energises you and which foods (or drinks) sap your life force.
Is it easy? No—but is LESS challenging than you think. AND it’s just for a few weeks.
Healthy weight loss during your body cleanse
During a 4-week Body Cleanse, you may lose 7–10lbs of excess weight depending on how unhealthy and or how much convenience and ready meals you currently consume. And for some people they will be eating more than they have done in a long time.
Whilst doing a Body Cleanse, things initially may take you a little longer in terms of shopping, preparing and cooking—but not by much. Mostly it’s when it’s all new to you. Reading food labels takes time, but once you know which brands you can choose, then it becomes so much easier. As you get used to it, you will discover your own shortcuts.
The rewards for giving yourself natural foods is far more than the weight loss—it will give you a real boost of energy, your complexion will glow once more, and it will improve your sleep too. Most of all I believe your curiosity about food will be reawakened as you begin to experiment with different foods, different tastes and how the different foods help your body be the best it can be. You can do it! I know you can! You can change your life and health for the better. And, of course, shed your excess pounds too.
