Every year at the beginning of spring I do a cleanse of some sort. It used to be a few days of juices and papaya (the ultimate parasite cleanser!), and I’ve tried other methods in the past, but last year I decided to go hard and do Medical Medium’s 3:6:9 cleanse.
It’s 9 days long and isn’t for the faint-hearted. Cutting out all proteins and fats is fine for a few days of juicing, but 9 days … not easy.
However I persevered.
But I did find it hard. I was hungry A LOT, felt unsatisfied after the meals I did have, and found that because of the amount of fruit (I don’t usually eat nearly that much sugar), I was having sugar spikes then getting hungry quicker than I normally would.
At the end I felt good, after a day of headache and low energy. I lost 7lbs (which wasn’t the intention – this was for health reasons, though I was very bloated so didn’t mind), and felt lighter.
This time I decided to take some of the methods from the 3:6:9 cleanse, and make it my own, based on my own needs and goals for the cleanse.
Why do I cleanse?
I cleanse yearly because, even for those of us eating organic food and living as healthily as possible, there are many things in the environment that contribute to the absorption of heavy metals into the body (and therefore the brain). I do find at this time of year my body tells me it’s enough, that I’m ready to rebirth myself ahead of Spring, and that I need to cleanse everything out of my body that isn’t serving me; of course that serves beautifully for energetic purposes too. I’ll often notice my face being bloated once or twice a year, and this is always a good sign that I need to cleanse.
I also think we all carry parasites we don’t know about, and doing an occasional parasite cleanse – even if you don’t have symptoms – keeps the gut healthy and strong, leading to stronger immunity.
Why did I change it?
As I mentioned, I found the 3:6:9 cleanse very hard (and I’m someone who has done the hard things when it comes to nutrition and lifestyle so I don’t scare easily!). I also think it’s important to note that while I respect Medical Medium and believe many people have healed some issues using his methods, I don’t believe that cutting fats out the diet is remotely healthy. In fact, I’m not sure how anyone believes it is. Fats are brain food – the brain can only be healthy (and indeed survive) with fats. It’s the reason so many women between the ages of 60-80 right now have or had early onset Dementia. They were the generation to fall victim to the multi-billion dollar weight loss group industry in the 80s and 90s, that advocated for “fat free” everything, convincing people to opt for health-destroying artificial sweetener-laden foods and drinks such as Diet Coke, “sugar free” squashes and foods, and cut any and all fats, including avocados and nuts. If you’re genetically predisposed to Dementia, Parkinson’s, or any other neurological degenerative disease, not eating fats is a sure-fire way to trigger these early.
Aside from the brain, our hormones are made of fats. How can we support our hormones if we aren’t eating healthy fats?
All that to say that I don’t agree with eating no fats, but for the purposes of a cleanse over a short, weeklong period, I think it actually helps the liver which can get quite fatty. If you’re used to eating a lot of fats like I am (olive oil, avocados, nuts etc), it isn’t easy to cut them, but it’s just a week, so it is managable if you commit to sticking to it before you start (it’s all mindset!).
What else did I do?
In order to clear parasites, I added a parasite supplement as part of the cleanse protocol, as well as a digestive enzyme, a castor oil pack and a detox binder.
How did I feel this time?
The first 3 days I was on the toilet a lot, which tells me that I must’ve had parasites and the supplement was working. After those days it calmed down, and I felt a lot less hungry than last time – it was very manageable. I still felt hungry earlier than I would have done for lunch, due to the fruit, but ultimately my body felt good. For 5 out of the 8 days I had body aches. This happened last time as well, and is a very clear sign you’re detoxing, so I didn’t mind it. I had Epsom salt baths each evening to help.
A few days after finishing, I now feel light, my stomach feels great, my head feels clear and generally I feel great.
How to do the cleanse – The Protocol
The Food:
- Begin each day with lemon water
- Follow with celery juice (juice one celery for each time)
- Half a papaya before breakfast & dinner
- Spoonful of papaya seeds into smoothie (which you can have for breakfast most days)
- Mainly fruit & water-rich veg as main source of food
- Some gluten-free oats are ok for first 3 days
- All veg steamed or baked
- No fats (oils, butter, avocados, nuts)
- No animal-based products
- No pulses (lentils, beans, legumes)
- 2-3L water a day
- No coffee, chocolate, caffeine
- Caffeine-free herbal tea ok
- Goes without saying no processed foods, gluten, sugar, transfats etc
The Extras:
- Para 1 parastite supplement, 1 twice a day, from day 4, 2 twice a day on empty stomach
- Detox binder each evening
- Castor oil pack on liver each evening
- Digestive enzyme before each meal
- As much food as possible to be organic
- Start during follicular or ovulation phase (for women)
- Lots of rest
- No heavy exercise – walking & yoga
- 7-9 days
All supplements are linked above. The first 3 can be bought from Amrita Nutrition using practitioner code LAUREN. You’ll have to set up an account to be able to access them. The digestive enzyme is from a different company and details are on the link.
To finish
Once you finish, ease back into normal eating slowly; some eggs, salad with olive oil, an avocado etc before rushing back into red meat and lots of fats.
I hope this helped to explain how to do a great cleanse ahead of Spring!
With love & gratitude,
Lauren
