Detoxing: How to Cleanse In a Week

Heard About Detoxing?

It’s actually really fun, and not at all about starving yourself and living on water and feeling deprived.

From the Ayurvedic point of view, detoxing is really an off-the-mat yoga lifestyle immersion that we take ourselves through (although I find it’s almost impossible to do it without some support throughout), in which we choose food, activities, and daily rhythms that are more nourishing than our usual choices.

In the process, we up-level our game: we wake up intelligent cravings; we pare down our bodies; and we find a deep source of energy that we may have been covering up by using stimulants like caffeine, sugar, and worry.

For me, it’s about choosing only the most whole foods, inspiring teachers, and yoga and meditation practices that leave me feeling fulfilled rather than full.

And leaving out as much of what’s been overwhelming me and stressing me out as possible.

 I just finished a 4 week cleanse in which each week I took another step. Now I’m craving fruit and vegetables again, and my body looks and feels much more like ME (ie yes, I lost a bunch of extra weight I’d put on, and pretty painlessly).

For you, it might be about getting to sleep before 10 and then first thing in the morning, drinking hot water to fully hydrate, cleanse your channels and get elimination happening (or, as my teacher Cate says, “drink til you poop.”)

Or maybe you just want to try letting yourself get hungry between meals, instead of snacking (as much as you can, or just raw fruit and veggies when you need to).

And this applies not only to food, but to experiences, input, and stimulation. We expend energy to digest it all. Detoxing means letting this energy work toward our own healing.

When we give ourselves a break from NPR, from packing our schedule tight, from building and creating, the emotional and mental body processes lingering emotions and experiences that have been blocking us from fully enjoying our life while we’re here in this body.

The closer I get to what seems like nothingness, an place within that is sometimes called the Ground of Being, I find there is SO much going on there:  far from nothing, we experience our deeper source of energy, wisdom, and power.

Consider detoxing for a week if:

– your schedule feels like too much and you’re stressed out

Is the sheer quantity of it all blocking you from clarity of thought and intention? Find some time for silence. Arrive at one place early, and sit in your car and meditate. Take a 15 minute walk each day. Talk less and listen more. Find something to cut out of your day and replace it with rest and rejuvenation.

– you’ve been feeling low-energy and exhausted

Have you been relying on stimulants for your energy? Re-discover the deeper source of feeling vibrant and excited about life. Commit to getting to sleep before 10 and moving your body for 20 minutes at the beginning of every day.

– you’ve been grabbing food when you can and you have toxins (or “ama”), extra weight, and/or you want to reset your cravings to go toward more healthy foods

Click on the category Yoga of Eating in the sidebar and check out some easy, nourishing foods, like Green Smoothies in the morning and this easy Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup for lunch and dinner.

Get ahead of the game: plan out your meals for each day the day before.

Avoid processed foods and sugar for a week; if you already do, lighten up what you eat by eating less protein and grains, and more dark greens (with all the enzymes your body needs to make its own protein).

If you’re a snacker, eat only fruits and veggies between meals.

If you already do that, skip snacking altogether and get down to 3 meals. Make lunch the biggest meal.

If you already do that, go down to 2 meals, or make dinner lighter and easy to digest by eating soup (or just a little bit of what you had for lunch).

 Give your digestive fire (agni) a break from constantly working on food, and let it work on what’s extra in YOU. Waste that builds up in the body is called ama: a gooey gunk that clogs our channels when we eat too much, eat processed foods, or eat before our previous meal got digested.

According to Ayurveda, the ancient sister-science to yoga, ama is the cause of all disease and many aches and pains.

 Starting is the hardest part. Have clear intentions for why you’re doing this.

Remember, it’s not about deprivation, it’s about turning toward real nourishment; to find the real, divine, vibrant you again.

Most importantly, you want to be able to follow through on your intention so you can build trust in yourself, and integrity.

So make it easy and super do-able (if you like it, you can add a new challenge for the next week).

 I loved my cleanse. I know it sounds crazy, but even though I cut out grains, meat, processed foods, and sugar, it didn’t feel like I was denying myself.

It felt like I was getting a huge gift. Which, my Divine Ma goddess reader, I believe we all deserve.

 Please let me know how it goes!

Jessica Jennings, MS, ERYT, RPYT, founded www.MaYogaLiving.com to provide yoga, education, and support for moms and moms-to-be in their own homes. She loves helping people use their experience in the years around birth to create lives that reflect their own authentic feminine power and wisdom. If you are a mom, pregnant woman, yoga teacher or birth or mom expert - or you want to be - join our online community.