Some of the topics we will address include
cleansing diets, intermittent fasting, liquid fasting diets, liver detox,
kidney & gallbladder detox,
home colonic-cleansing and professional colon hydrotheraphy. You may want to check out our
lemonade diet series when you have a chance. The lemonade or "Master Cleanse" diet is another
powerful fasting and cleansing system at your disposal. If at any time
you have a question that is not answered in these articles, please
Contact Us. Ok: Let's hit the
pavement running!
In Hell
When I first started the process of fasting and cleansing as a lifestyle, my body was more than 70
pounds overweight. I was constantly constipated and suffered from recurring acne and lethargy.
Concentrating on any one task for more than a few minutes was nearly impossible.
I woke up each morning hating life.
I despised my bloated image in the mirror. I suffered from severe depression, low self-esteem and
deep feelings of worthlessness and inferiority. Knew nothing of self-control or fasting and detoxification.
Basically, I lived life to eat and appease the round-the-clock cravings that controlled my existence.
I went to mental health professionals and took a myriad of medications for anxiety and depression, meanwhile
ballooning to 260 pounds (my ideal weight is 190). Went to colonic clinics and bought every colon cleansing
product under the sun. But nothing seemed to help.
To my dismay, they were not able to fix me.
I was in my early thirties yet looked at least ten years older. When I would go out with my mother,
people actually asked if I was her husband (a great compliment to her, at least :). Much of my time was
actually spent fantasizing on how I could take my own life and end the misery. I was ... in hell.
A Turning Point
Fasting and cleansing came into the picture sort of by accident. I had read in a magazine how people had
lost dramatic amounts of weight and improved their health through
30 Day Detox Fasting.
My health situation was worsened by a
liver illness that threatened to cut my life short. I was literally
a walking ball of obesity and toxicity. So much so, that some of my "friends" said I looked like the
Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Disgusted with my obesity and overall poor health, one day - out of nowhere - I
simply decided to start fasting to lose weight. I just stopped eating. I had no clue what I was doing.
I was an act of desperation. But I knew my heart that my life was in danger. I needed a viable way to
achieve Quick Weight Loss and
rid myself of the dangerous rolls of flab that padded every inch of my body, barring perhaps the soles of my
feet. :-)
Within six-to-eight hours after I stopped eating, the hunger pains were horrendous. I had chills all over
and my head was throbbing. I soon developed a metallic, unpleasant taste in my mouth.
Upon closer examination in the bathroom mirror, I noticed my tongue was covered with a white, sticky film
and what looked like white boils or spots on the inside of my lips. A foul stench started coming out of my
pores; I became dizzy and felt like I was gonna pass out.
I tried to tough it out. But, unprepared and toxic as a
landfill, the symptoms overcame my feeble resolve and, inevitably, I ate a cheeseburger with fries. Once
I inhaled the food, all of the symptoms disappeared and I felt fine. I recall feeling like the most
disgusting failure that ever walked this earth. But, at the same time, I was puzzled and felt compelled
to learn why I had had such violent symptoms. Was I too late? Was I dying?.
Curative Crisis
I was in for a very rude awakening. Being a writer and journalist, I started doing research.
This quickly led me to fasting and cleansing and what is known as a
curative crisis. A curative crisis is basically a detoxification "illness" that the body goes through
when one stops eating for more than eight to 24 hours. It is a period of withdrawal where the toxicity
embedded in the bowels becomes acute and one experiences headaches, dizziness, weakness, nausea,
vomiting and all the other symptoms I experienced.
My body had gone into toxic
food withdrawal. In other words, since I stopped eating the junk (pizza, donuts, cake, massive
amounts of coffee) that was making me sick, my body started to purge the toxicity that these foods contained.
It is NOT a pleasant process. Ask an ex-smoker how he or she felt the
first 72 hours after puffing the last cigarette. I learned that fasting and cleansing is very similar to
breaking a drug habit. And the my drug of choice was.... food. Ahhh, so that is why the symptoms went away when I
ate the cheeseburger and fries! Yep... the junkie had had his fix.
Further research led me to discover that depression can, in many cases, be a byproduct of toxicity
such as the one I suffered from. In addition, I found out that many overweight and toxic people often
experienced trouble concentrating, confusion, mood swings, irritability and an overall sense of doom and
despair. What the...? This was all very shocking to me. It became apparent that my food addiction
was causing much more than just obesity and a toxic colon. It was also destroying me mentally and emotionally.
It was then that I hit my ultimate bottom.
Reality hit me like a ton of bricks. I went back to my ill-fated
fast of a few days prior. Fasting and cleansing put me face-to-face and toe-to-toe with the consequences
of my destructive lifestyle. Soooo, I realized that, when I was feeling terrible from the detox symptoms and
hunger pains, I was actually getting better! This is the specific point I want to emphasize:
IT WAS THE FASTING THAT INITIATED THE CLEANSING. What did that mean? To me, it
meant that if I wanted freedom, I had to return to the curative crisis and let it run its course.
How long?
The curative crisis usually takes anywhere between 14 to 30 days of
Calorie Restriction to reach its completion. If you want to get there faster, you can do so with
juice fasting or
water fasting. Fourteen to 30 days? Wow, that is an eternity, you may think. But is it really? It is better to go through
discomfort for a few days NOW and reap better health, or would you
prefer to suffer with obesity and toxicity for the rest of your life? That question put things in an amazing
perspective for me.
Toxic
Perhaps a graphic illustration can help depict just how destructive
body toxicity can be.
I was an environmental reporter for various years and could vividly recall the putrid smell of lakes that
had been used for illegal dumping. I actually stepped into them to take pictures, so I was able to get a
nose full of the stench. To see garbage overflowing from what used to be a beautiful lake was very sad.
It was a horrible, devastating sight.
Well, that was exactly what my body had become due to my binging and obesity. In essence, my bowels, my
blood, my cells ... my entire being, was polluted and ailing. This was a hard pill to swallow for a
stubborn person like me who hated to admit he was wrong. But I did admit it. I had to.
The evidence against me was too overwhelming. Thus the door to change opened ever so slightly, and I was
able to start earning my freedom through fasting and cleansing.
Change and transformation was there for the taking, but it would
come at a price. My body had to go through an emergency detoxification process that only fasting and
cleansing could accomplish. I knew that, at this particular juncture, no diet could help me.
Fasting and cleansing was my best option if I truly wanted to break the food addiction/binging cycle
and give my body time to heal.
Again: I needed to stop eating altogether for some time to give my body the
time it needed to detoxify. Now, let's move forward to
Cleansing Diet and start
to look at specific ways to begin the fasting and cleansing; detoxification/healing process!
