Dear Modern Hippie, I Want to Do a Quick & Easy Cleanse...

My recommendation would be to do an "Elimination Diet".  If you're already a person that enjoys fruits and vegetables it won't be too hard for you.  If not-so-much, this will be difficult BUT still entirely worth doing:)  

My Elimination diet is all about removing (one day at a time), the foods that create acid in the body and are more difficult for the body to process.  This gives your body a break from the "heavy lifting" of digesting meats, breads, dairy and other acidifying foods and beverages.  When you give your body that "break", it can focus on other tasks at hand, like cleaning out the colon, purging the liver, or cleansing the pores of the skin.  The body knows best and if you give it a chance to heal, it will! 

Eating for detoxification is easy; just begin removing systematically the acidifying foods from your routine. One day remove coffee, the next day remove sugar, the next day remove meat, on the following day remove cheese and milk, the next day no wine and soda, finally eliminate bread. By day 7 you should just be eating fruits and veggies.

Here's what the day looks like once you've eliminated the 6 aforementioned foods:  

In the morning until noon, eat all the fruit you want!  Fruit is best in the morning on an empty stomach.  Fruit digests the fastest in the stomach and therefore should always be eaten on an empty stomach without exception.

At lunch, have a salad with everything (except croutons and ranch dressing), preferably have an oil and vinegar dressing (simple is best)- or chop up a ripe avocado and mix that into the salad for dressing with a splash of lemon. Do steamed veggies at lunch too if your still hungry.

For dinner, have a baked yam or potato; if you must, use a little bit of real butter.  Have a large salad with everything (no croutons obviously, same as lunch), and steamed veggies of your choice. If your going to eat fruit, always eat it on an empty stomach so no fruit for desert.  If you want fruit for desert,  wait at least 2 hours after dinner to consume it.  Snacks should be veggies, fruits and nuts.  Drink herbal teas all day long; try Traditional Medicinal Brand in Peppermint, Nettle, or Chamomile tea, what ever caffeine free herbal tea you like. Drink lemon water and plenty of clear fluids.  Always shoot for half your body weight in ounces.  So if you weigh 150lbs, you should be drinking 75 ounces of purified water per day. 

Eating all fruits and vegetables for 5 days plus the preliminary "Elimination Week" puts you at a nice little 10 to 12 day detox, while eating food! 

You can also do a detox kit supplement like the Renew Life Brand "First Cleanse" on top of this to further encourage detoxification. This is super straight forward as it is 2 pills at night, 2 pills in the morning and it's extremely gentle. It shouldn't have you running to the bathroom or anything like that but it will encourage bowel movement. Use as directed.

Eating healthy is all about preparedness. On Sundays I always buy and clean all my salad veggies for the week. This way I have healthy food ready to go any time. I also make a vegetable broth soup once a week and store in canning jars, for quick easy homemade soups.

Doing this Elimination Diet for 10-12 days is a great way to detox, eliminate the "taste" for sugar, rekindle your love of vegetables and fruits and get yourself back on the "health horse".  You will likely loose a few pounds too with this detox which is a bonus! :)

Feel free to reach out to me with questions anytime at desiree@modernhippie.org