Spring Cleaning the Body

The human body is truly amazing.  It is capable of healing itself from minor to serious ailments if it is given the right building materials and it can absorb them.  Cleansing the body can be a good first step toward removing harmful toxins from the cells and cleaning the bowels so absorption can happen more efficiently.

Just as we take time to do spring cleaning in our homes and yards, so we might consider doing some spring cleaning for our bodies.  The last time I completed the Master Cleanse (created by Stanley Burrough), I lost 7 pounds over 21 days and eliminated many toxins from my body.  A juice fast, raw food fast/diet or Young Living’s 5 day nutritive cleanse are all great options for eliminating toxins and cleansing the body.  Dr. Oz even has a 48 hours weekend cleanse using certain foods. Dr. Alejandro Junger, author of Clean Gut, has a 21 day cleanse which is also designed to help you discover your trigger foods and heal your gut.

After a cleanse, just as in our homes, keeping junk out is a very helpful step in avoiding the clutter or build-up of toxins.   I suggest that you take time to read more labels.  What are you putting into your body?  Do you really want it in your body?  Can you eat foods “closer to the way God made them”?  Toxins also come in the products we use for toiletries and to clean our homes.  Using natural products without harmful chemicals means there are less toxins going into me.

Regular cleaning, as in a one or two day fast weekly or monthly, can assist the body and keep systems functioning smoothly.  I find it helpful to  do a few days of just raw foods or juice every 6 weeks and then I do a longer 10 day cleanse twice a year.  It really is not as hard as it might appear and I find that my body, especially my taste buds, reset, and my cravings are gone.  I achieve an emotional victory too as I say no to all sorts of foods for the duration of my fast/cleanse.

Lent is an especially good time to turn our thoughts away from food and refocus our energies and thoughts to what really matters, what is most important to us and what our life's purpose is. It is as if the church has given us a chance to "reset" our hearts and be sure our time and attention is being put where it matters most.

Have you done a cleanse, either physical or spiritual? What did you try and what results did you experience?