One of the great things about summer is that it inspires you to get around to some of the health challenges that you need to deal with, but for whatever reason, choose not to. One of the things on my summer list was to try a gallbladder cleanse, the one where you drink apple juice for a week, to soften potential gall stones, eat a healthy whole food, mainly veggie based diet all week, then on THE DAY have breakfast/lunch, a dinner of berries with whipped cream, which is then chased down with an Epsom Salt concoction, and later olive oil mixed with lemon juice. This is supposed to be a simple, easy way to cleanse the gallbladder and the next day should be spent excreting stones. Sounds pretty weird! So why do I feel compelled to do it? I am not completely sure, it goes under that category of “that still small voice!” I have felt I needed to do this cleanse for over two years, and with a cross country move, a one state over move and starting a new life in TN, just never took the time. Plus, I will admit it, I was a little scared! But all the berries and whipped cream I can eat one night seems worth it at any price!

You know how it is when you keep coming back to something - the question is always - is this the Lord or I am merely obsessed? If it doesn’t contradict with scripture, then it goes down to the “will it fit in my life right now”and “is there a cost” or “do I already OWN the stuff to do it.” If I already own the stuff - I am usually willing to try it.

Over the years I have tried many herbal cleanses, most purchased from the Health Food Store (HFS) and usually run about $30. I always began my cleanses bright eyed and bushy tailed and sure it would give me stunning results. I never noticed a big change, but felt like perhaps I had so much gunk in me that I needed to do it several times to get great results. I have played with juice cleanses, with my Vita-Mix, following The Juice Lady’s recipes (which are made for a juicer that extracts the pulp and leaves the juice only). I have never totally given up food while doing them and had a water fast. I have done two since we moved to TN, but the reality that we lived on the road for almost 6 months when we moved, with the stark realization that we ate a lot of stuff I would normally NEVER eat, gained a lot of weight (stress and just plain piggle!) and that I haven’t felt great since the move leads me to suspect there is a lot of bad stuff in me that needs to come out!

So what to do?

While perusing a homeschool Yahoo group I am on, another HS mom was talking about her trip down the Epsom salt/gallbladder cleanse lane. She had phenomenal results - and was convinced that it set her back on her trip to health. I asked for her protocol and she wrote it up. It was very similar to the one I have been avoiding, so I decided to give it a try. That was the day of the teeth cleaning - so what better day to try something then when you get your 6 month exam (your teeth are all clean, why gunk them up with sugar and bread!)

Deciding to do a Whole Foods Juice Fast 

So after the dentist, we dropped by the Health Food Store to get the stuff to start the gallbladder cleanse. They did not have half the stuff to do it, with my friend’s protocol, what they did have was terribly expensive. I had read about the Oxy stuff and had been interested in it for awhile, so decided to postpone that protocol and consider ordering online later. You know how you feel there is a constant whisper towards some things, including certain products and that email was the final straw! However, I simply did not have the cash to INVEST in the cleanse….especially since it would just be me doing it and that felt terribly selfish.

Incidentally, it seems the last time I bought organic apple juice by the gallon, it was $4.49 in CA….here it is $11.99. Now that was probably a bulk price at a great HFS chain back home, but still! Does this seem unreasonably high to the rest of you???

As I was talking to one of the women at the HFS and trying to figure out what was in my product wish list and if they had similar items, the HFS woman was talking about juice fasting. When she heard we have a Vita-Mix, she gave us some terrific ideas. My daughter Emily (who is almost 13) was SO EXCITED and begged me to do a juice fast with her. With the other being so pricey, it wasn’t hard to discourage me. I still need to do it, but was planning on buying fruits and veggies anyway (it was our food shopping day) We decided to do a JUICE FAST. Hubby will drink the juices AM and PM, but eat his homemade gourmet meals at work. For once in my life, I actually checked with a Dr. before starting something (now that we have one and all) Our new family physician is THRILLED and gave us the okay for 3-5 days - so off we go! Her brother is an NP and he laughingly said - “Tell them not to do it for 40 days and 40 nights.” They did say to eat a few almonds if we feel our blood sugar is vacillating too wildly - so that is good.

So juice fasting it is - and I will do the gallbladder cleanse later. I am really craving that bowl of whipped cream and berries….but I digress! LOL! 

Update on the Proposed Juice Fast

Whir up some delicious Vita-Mix veggies

Overall, I felt okay Tues AM, felt great after exercising, but went into a downward spiral without the spinach concoction,

Will it BLEND?

Delicious Vita-Mix Juice!

The solution - go on a partial juice fast with AM’s juicing! I am loosely following the Juice Lady’s cleansing guide. So I have a morning Vita-Mix juice with beets/carrots/green apple/lemon/ginger and I threw in parsley, and a midmorning juice of celery/green apple/spinach/lemon/romaine. With the Vita-Mix you throw the chunk of lemon in with the SKIN (if it is organic), the celery, etc and it is quite a pulpy, texturey thing but the nutrition is PHENOMENAL and the fiber boost is amazing. It isn’t as concentrated and full of sugar as “normal juicing” which gives a smoother liquid, and you discard the pulp fiber. The Vita-Mix makes all of the nutrition and the fiber in the fruit/veggies bio-available and it is wonderful for your body - you can FEEL your body react with glee as you drink it. It is amazing. It also makes a HUGE AMOUNT if you use her recipes! Adapting the Juice Lady’s recipes is a bit of a trial and error with some weird concoctions that don’t always taste amazing! A straw helps! All in all, it is a great experiment and I am learning what makes me feel good, out of the produce I have on hand, and adapting the Juice Lady’s recipes/my recipes/Vita-Mix recipes and what I have on hand.

Bentonite Clay

For additional detox and cleansing benefits, I am having “shakes” of psyllium fiber with bentonite clay (uh-huh, nothing chocolate or malty about MY shakes! LOL!) Why those two? Because I just so happen to OWN the stuff and it does not require additional purchases! Venturing through the prudent lifestyle - I also decided to take the multi-purpose bentonite clay and make a silky smooth, pore refining clay mask out if it, which I applied while doing my AM exercise routine, just after drinking it in the “shake.”  My husband howled when he got home and I related my

Psyllium Fiber

adventures - only his wife could drink clay AND put it on her face! He howled even more when I told him that this stuff makes me feel normal…..and I didn’t get to point out the SAD (Standard American Diet) makes me feel abnormal. Life is never dull in the Baughn household - I tell you! More info on the bentonite clay at  http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/bentonite.php

We are returning to a more veggie rich lunch (salads instead of those sandwiches that are so easy to make and eat!) with dinners being our normal meat, salad, veggie but without a starch. We have a neighborhood walk each night, we live in a circle and half the neighborhood walks and the other half are on their front porches cheering us on. You have to be diligent to walk and not stop to talk! We come home and using the bounty of summer fruits, make a delicious berry/peach/whatever is fresh and we have on hand, fruit salad for dessert, with a spritz of lemon, or citrus. This all makes such a difference and we are all feeling much better and sleeping like LOGS at night! In a mere three week period, we had lazily cut back on the amount of fruits/veggies we were eating,  and were down to three or four servings a day — when normally we try for 7-10. So we are back up in the 7-10 category that we all do best at. The ratio there would be about 6 veggies and maybe 4 fruits. With it being summer, we eat a little more fruit with the bounty available!

So that is my story and I’m sticking to it for now! I have been doing the partial juice fast for a 4 days, and hope to go at least week, maybe two and then maybe give the total juice fast another go the following week - shall see. I was not quite prepared for the transition (it tells you to up the fruit/veggie content and cut down on the other stuff in the days ahead and I thought I would charge through and do my own thing) I will do the gallbladder cleanse a little later on. We are in the middle of a few huge projects and I frankly cannot afford the time of detoxing and brain drain, until they are launched.

Hope this helps someone else out there! There are a LOT of ways to go about this and it is so easy to become confused in the mass of information and wonder it to death rather than try it. It is also difficult to finally decide on a protocol, research it, pray through it, then run to the HFS and find that they don’t have what you want, so you either change tactics or go back and order online (which means you wait) If you are emotionally READY and RARING to go, it is a huge downer to wait or change. Once you make that decision, you just want to do it. I am a full board, black and white, 100% kind of girl, so doing a “partial” is not my norm. This modified course is working beautifully within my limited budget, ability and time level right now! And it is a good prep for my desire for a more thorough cleanse and the gallbladder upcoming (really I just want that bowl of berries and whipped cream!). For now, I know that the beets are detoxing the liver and gallbladder and getting me in line for the stone issues, and that I am back to a really fabulous diet rich in the Lord’s bounty of fruits and veggies! I know that I am feeding my family incredibly well and that everyone is benefiting!

Juicing Results.....

Day 5 Juicing results so far…

• Skin is beginning to glow, wrinkles diminishing, eyes very bright and teeth look bright (that cleaning?)
• Feel pretty good so far, I get the sensation that my natural buoyancy is coming back
• Excercising twice a day
• Sleeping like a LOG - which is very abnormal for me, what a praise
• Hubby says my legs are getting thinner (who wouldn’t want that)
• Studying some instances of fasting in the Bible…. 

Another Cleanse found

The Protocol

Juicing/Cleanse Update - Day 12

I  must be the only person in America that can go on a 12 day AM Juice Fast ,eat a sensible lunch and dinner, get a massive 9-12 servings of fruits and veggies in a day, exercise twice a day, have a psyllium fiber/bentonite clay shake daily, and not really lose weight! Had hoped to to have gotten below my current set point.  No such luck! 

It is a good thing I am incredibly STUBBORN and am looking far beyond merely "losing weight" and looking at the overall heath benefit I will get from sticking with this month long plan. If I have a temper tantrum about not losing weight, I will be tempted to quit, ultimately losing the far reaching benefits of the kidney cleanse, intestinal cleanse, gallbladder flush, and overall cleanse and detox. So I do not focus on today's result, which seems utterly pitiful, but on the long term effect and the long term desire, a cleansed system that funtions better, improved health, more energy. Everything I am doing is working toward those goals. Believe me, when  you taste some of my concoctions, as I am figuring out this whole Vita-Mix juicing/Cleansing thing, some have been pretty disgusting. But it is all organic, so I just drink it down and focus on results!

I did find some organic apple juice, a gallon of it for $4.99 at the regular store (as opposed to $11.99 at the HFS) so am now choking down 2 cups of apple juice to prepare for the flush. I am on a roll with this Cleanse - and am determined to see it through to the momentous gallbladder flush day. The Pig Roast (how totally cool is that, and how Southern) is today, and the blockwide July 4th party is Weds, and I know that I need a day or two away from those potentially UNHEALTHY events (where I am going to give myself permission to TASTE stuff - I am a foodie and love to TASTE all the different stuff, but know that means I will ingest chemicals and the un-organics!) so trying to find a day to do the gallbladder flush is quite the thing.  Goal - next Friday. 

Currently drinking juice in the AM - finding that I really like

• I piece of celery organic
• 1organic carrot
• 3 handfuls of organic spinach
• 1/2 an organic apple
• 3-5 sprigs of parsley
•  1/4 organic lemon, with peel (the white part has a lot of vitamin C)
• 1/2 small beet
• 1/2 inch piece of ginger

About half a cup of water and ice. Whir in the Vita-Mix and make sure you grind up WELL! This gives me two large glasses of juice. I feel immediate energy when I drink it, and I know it is cleansing my body beautifully. 

 Day 15 of the AM Whole Juice Fast

I have been AM whole juicing with my VITA-MIX  for 15 days now consuming 9-12 fruits and veggies daily, did a juicing kidney cleanse, am 2 weeks into a 3-4 week intestinal cleanse, drinking my bentonite clay and psyllium husk shakes, walking 5x a week, doing Oxycise 5-6x week and am taking the leftovers of an herbal cleanse while drinking the apple juice in preparation for THURSDAY - which is gallbladder/liver cleanse day and I FINALLY get my bowl of whipped cream and berries - after downing the Epsom salts! Something to LOOK FORWARD TO! But then I am chasing that with olive oil and lemon juice, so what is really not to love about this whole protocol! Haha. 

LisaB! -- who is absolutely DETERMINED and will not give up! And who would like to lose SOFT gallstones and a couple of pounds on Thurs/Friday!

Ultimate Goal of Cleanse - Trying to Conceive After Secondary Infertility

 Miracle of all miracles, we ended up reversing our secondary infertility and conceiving! Watch for more articles on this soon!

Disclaimer
As ever - we are NOT medical professionals at The Prudent Wife and highly suggest that you consult with your health care professional before attempting any of our healing options, recipes or suggestions. You are responsible for your own health and need to find a health provider that will work closely with you on your journey toward prudent health. You must ABSOLUTELY check before trying ANY suggestions with children. 

Incidentally, here is some information on flushing while pregnant. You absolutely MUST check with your OB/GYN if you want to do this. Here are some articles that would be worth reading http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=331948