Before You Fast:
Support Your Detox with Nutrition & Awareness
I’ve been studying and experimenting with health and nutrition for nearly two decades, with a particular focus and passion on detox. I moved to Koh Samui, Thailand in 2009 to research all of the detox programs, offered at the health resorts, in order to share my research to fasters looking to select the right program for their needs.
After trying nearly all 12 detox and fasting programs in my research I saw and experienced what was missing: the emphasis and education on how to properly support your body in the detoxification process. The end result of many unsupported fasts left me with poor digestion and an overburdened, sluggish liver contributing to the uncomfortable Buddha-belly bloat. Listening to my body and signs along the way I began a new search to understand the liver and the actual detoxification process. My new awareness lead me to doctors, nutritionists and many books that provided me with the answers and the protocol that I was looking for.
The detox programs offered on Koh Samui do touch on the importance of following a “pre-cleanse” and “breaking the fast” but fail to explain why these are so important. Before you embark on a fasting program, or just stop eating on your own, know what you are dealing with. Is your liver already weak from years of toxic abuse and negative emotions? Is your colon clogged with undigested food, chemicals, drugs, parasites and yeast? Will they support you in your detox? What habits and behaviors caused your current state?
Before you stop eating, at least a week of liver and colon preparation is an essential part of any fast, you can’t skip that. If you do, you risk health problems, unpleasant symptoms, and the likelihood of gaining back all the weight you lost during your fast. I like to think of the protocol as a Liver Care Plan. The word liver comes from an Old English word for “life”. The liver is your key to life, even possessing the unique ability to regenerate itself. You can rebuild this vital organ with the right diet and detox plan. The liver breaks down everything that enters the body through our mouth, skin and lungs. It’s your liver’s job to distinguish between the nutrients you need to absorb and the toxins that must be filtered out of your bloodstream. If your liver is already bogged down from pesticides, chlorinated shower water, alcohol, medication, coffee, cigarettes, cosmetics, and unnatural, processed foods it will be overwhelmed with a sudden fast accelerating a “toxic dump”. Also, if your liver doesn’t complete the second stage of it’s detoxification process, where the toxic compounds are converted to an even more toxic substance to be broken down, your efforts at detox have just had the opposite effect: overloading your system with extra toxins.
All too often, your liver doesn’t finish phase 2, because highly refined carbs (like white flour, white sugar, colas and candies), nitrates, hormones and preservatives interrupts the detox process. And you’ll get major disruption from liver stressors like caffeine, alcohol, smog, secondhand smoke, medications, hormone supplements (including the Pill and HRT), and an excessive use of antibiotics. Any of these elements can interrupt the two-phase detox process, causing toxins to build up in your system.
That’s why, if you are asking your liver to do extra work, such as during a fast, it’s crucial to give your liver heavy-duty nutritional support, supplying it with the liver-loving foods it needs while protecting it from toxic liver stressors. You liver is your major detox organ and needs a high-functioning colon to expel waste from your body, keeping you and your blood healthy. If your colon is clogged and toxic, as so many of our colons are, you’re likely to encounter health problems as well as weight issues. That is why it is also important to clean the colon starting with a colonic and continuing by loading up on fiber daily while preparing for a fast.
A healthy detox – the kind supported by adequate nutritional preparation for the liver and sufficient fiber for the colon – is the best-kept secret I know to good health, long-term weight loss, and an overall feeling of well-being.
Emotions and the Liver
More than any other organ, the liver is affected by negative thoughts and feelings. Anger, resentment, depression, fear and all of the emotions that accompany them do more harm to the liver than anything else. So during this Liver Care Plan it is just as important to know which thoughts are “feeding” your emotions.
Before and during a fast is the optimal time to begin to understand and release the negative thoughts, feelings, and habits, which have caused poor health, unhappiness and failure in your life.
You can support your release and new awareness by keeping a journal; writing down your feelings, reflections and desires. Journaling can support you in all areas of your life and is available free of charge anytime you need support, clarity and change.
1st Step: Know The Condition of Your Body & Soul
Before you begin a cleansing program, know what’s going on in your body (and soul) and the root cause of the stress in order to know how to properly heal. Out of all of the medical and holistic health assessments I’ve done I believe the most accurate was the one I’ve received from Laura Bruno, a medical intuitive, who answered my health and life questions by scanning and “reading” me on a metaphysical level. A medical intuitive is not a doctor so she cannot legally give “medical” advice. Laura works on intuitive levels, and will help guide you to what sorts of things to research, follow-up on or explore on the physical level. If you like, she will “read” all of the energetic, soul, emotional and mental awareness that also factor into your equation.
Laura is offering a great deal on her one-hour medical/soul reading for friends of Samui Healing for $111 (discounted from $175). To learn more about her, contact her and read some interesting insights please visit her blog.
