best colon cleanse . . . part 7 of 9 on ELIMINATION
I love Arise & Shine, which I think is the best colon cleanse on the market. Don’t underestimate it—it’s a commitment! I don’t think anyone should do it for just a week. Often the rubbery, mucoid plaque (described and shown in hundreds of photos by Dr. Anderson, Dr. Jensen, and many others) doesn’t even START coming out until Day 7. You wouldn’t want to stop just as you’re getting results, even if you have to slow down the cleanse by eating a bit more. Keep what you DO eat to blended raw plant foods or a green salad (no commercial salad dressings or vinegar).
If you want to read about it, buy Dr. Richard Anderson’s Cleanse and Purify Thyself books, parts 1 and 2. They detail how he came up with the formulas for cleansing that resulted in these products. Most of the photos, someone is holding up what was eliminated with tongs, or a stick–this is NOT just the herbal material you use in the cleanse being eliminated! (You like how I warmed you up to this topic for a week before hitting you with the big whammy?!)
You can actually tell by the shape and striations in the eliminated mucoid plaque what part of the digestive tract it came from! You know you’re really deep cleansing when 2 quarts of water goes in during your home colonic (instead of 1/2 a quart or less–typical of people eating the S.A.D. the first several days of cleansing), and what is coming out has the striations and shape of the small intestine towards the end of your cleanse!
My husband just says, “Cleansing is GROSS!” and runs away. I think what’s “gross” is to leave this stuff inside us, never clean it out, and/or go back to how we were eating that we got plugged up with in the first place.
I have done this best colon cleanse three times–never had the crazy results I did after the first one, though, which cleansed 30 years of buildup, part of which was eating the S.A.D. That first cleanse provided motivation to keep my colon clean for LIFE. I was astonished each time I cleansed that I had loads of energy despite being hungry and was well supported by the nutritional herbs despite eating less than 800 calories daily. I exercised my usual 1 hour daily, worked, ran the kids around, cooked meals, did everything I normally did–and needed even less sleep than usual. That said, I think we should do deep cleansing only very occasionally, as it can be a bit invasive and stressful. Some people take it too far.
Some won’t be ready for some of what Dr. Richard Anderson and others who have experienced deep cleansing have to say. For instance, about how negative thoughts, emotions, and experiences are trapped in our proteins, and as mucoid plaque builds up throughout our vast lengths of intestines and colon, we retain those negatives in rather physical ways. It’s theory and I find nowhere that “proves” it. I rolled my eyes a bit when I first read it. But, only someone who has released all that stuff can speak to the very real spiritual and psychological power (joy, even) of letting go of decades’ worth of negatives–harbored resentments and toxic anger. My first cleanse was honestly one of the singular experiences of my life: powerful, unforgettable, wholly positive.
Will eating the way you propose (mostly raw, fruits/veg/grains, etc) eventually clean out the colon, albeit much slower than doing a cleansing product, or colonic?
I believe it will, yes! Especially with a quart of GS daily and leaving meat and processed foods out.
Not sure I want to know the answer to this, but how do you do home colon irrigation?
I’ve done professional colonics before, but that was a loooong time ago!
Are you saying that eliminating meat, dairy and processed foods and only eating mainly organic raw vegan foods will do the trick? I know of raw vegans who still do fasting. Is this necessary? Arise & Shine sounds like a very expensive process.
Was looking last night at photos of eliminated mucoid plaque in Dr. Jensens book – yes, I agree with your husband. It is GROSS. But as you say, better out than in. Your thoughts regarding the psychological and emotional aspect of cleansing is fascinating. Getting rid of years and years of toxic anger and negativity … is this possible? Perhaps it is, a friend of mine, who lived a very clean, conscious life went to eternal sleep with pancreatic cancer. Is this the seat of toxic anger? I have never met such an angry person, who could not come to peace with her lot in life.
Very interesting-I have to say I can completely believe the bit about emotional buildup in the colon-it may seem crazy, but we know our bodies hold our spirits; anything that affects our spirit can and often does affect our body-our emotions can sometimes bring out physical sensations/symptoms without medical explanation…
I will have to try this, partly for the physical but I would be curious to learn just how much emotional crud can be built up (i came from a very traumatic childhood/history).
Is there a certain level of GS you should be at to attempt this? Should you be wholly ‘whole’ foods, or can you do it at any time-is it something where I should plan on living in a bathroom for 21 days?
Sorry-another comment I had to make is about my 3 year old-she has suffered since she was 1 with chronic, terrible constipation-she would bleed and cry and refuse to go, which of course starts a viscious cycle…for 2 years i asked docs, they of course pushed fiber (this kid lived on raisins, prunes, cherries and apple juice!), then finally told me to give her a laxitive…i felt really horrible but i was willing to do that rather than have her eliminate bear size, rock-hard stool, crying and bleeding every other day…since we’ve started GS, that has been the most powerful motivator for me to keep going–NOT losing weight, NOT eating healthier–as a mom, protecting my tiny little baby (who’s not so tiny or little
) from that kind of experience is 1000% worth it. Even SHE believes that–whenever we talk about why we drink our GS, she always chimes in “and it makes our poopoo not hurt!”
Hal,
I’m not sure what religious tradition you come from, but there’s a Christian book called “A More Excellent Way” that talks about how sin and spiritual stuff is the seat of so much disease; ie women who have issues with their mothers tend to have breat cancer, and those who deal with auto-immune disease really have self-gatred problems.
Not sure I’m totally on board, but when I think about the people in my life who have dealt with these things, I can see those problems in their lives.
My personality changed when I did the A&S cleanse. I KNOW it lifted emotional toxins from my system which were making me very paranoid and manic at times. I became so much calmer and relaxed. That was a year ago and I am still the new person. I can’t wait until I can cleanse more!!
Hal, although I wouldn’t make a claim that anger contributes to cancer, I do personally believe that. First of all, stress and anger create free radicals, and free radicals damage our cells and cause cancer, so it’s not far fetched, right?
Annalise and anyone who read her comment: when I had that amazing experience with the A&S cleanse years ago, I found myself letting go of bitterness in a relationship that needed to be healed. I forgave someone completely, someone I had needed to forgive for many years. The whole experience was “cleansing” on so many levels, and I’d only been EXPECTING the physical one. I can’t believe I’m talking about this on such a public forum, as it was an intense and personal experience, but I feel compelled to do so, so I hope it helps someone. My personality changed as a result, too.
Yes, I do think that a plant-based diet–not just adding a GS to an otherwise subpar diet, but a true change–can achieve the same result, especially if you water fast for a day, once in a while, and ALWAYS drink 8+ glasses of water daily.
In a week or so I will do a multi-part blog about water and dehydration.
I have to say, eating and feeling the way I have has certainly had an impact on my personality. Over the years, going from thin and healthy to way overweight (even though people say to me “You don’t look THAT big–the death sentence, you know) has had a significant impact on my personality. I rarely look in the mirror, don’t like to try on clothes, and therefore I own few and don’t get new ones often, even though I used to be a clothes horse! I am so self-conscious–all negative negative things. It casts a shadow on everything.
Robyn, I’m thinking of the post you wrote about wanting to go up to that woman and hug her, and tell her there was someone healthy and vibrant (not exact quote) inside of her. I’m here to tell you, that’s exactly how I feel.
I’m not me. I’m not who I see when I look in the mirror. I still have a dress I could wear back when I looked good, just waiting for me to put it on. It may be old, and have fade marks where the hangers are holding it, but it’s waiting for me.
The stuff in us does have an effect on us–weighing us down in more ways than one.
I was also wondering about the mucoid plaque thing. When I was pregnant with my 6 mo old, I had started to eat healthier, and one bm I had included some rubbery looking stuff and a lot of bloody looking stuff too. It scared me senseless. I was so worried about the rubbery looking stuff, but it’s so hard to ask anyone about it (you know, the “stigma” of the conversations about pee and poo). I also hoped that the gs and healthy way of eating would clean us out rather than needing any other “intervention”. Also, I don’t think I could undertake such a thing while I’m nursing, anyway–I would need to wait, don’t you think?
Janelle, the really good news about what you just said is that you envision yourself “how you really are.” That’s really positive, because some people don’t remember what it felt like to look and feel energetic and healthy, or have always been overweight. (Someone wrote that on that blog entry, I believe.) It’s that much easier to get there when you can remember and visualize it, and direct our choices about what we do every day that direction: the direction of getting back to who we really are.
I always say that there are other ways to lose weight. Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, or simply counting calories. But none of them have the added, massive benefits of actually GETTING COMPLETELY HEALTHY in the process. That’s what I’m trying to teach here: it’s about getting healthy, and your ideal weight is just a place you inevitably end up at, in the process.
The rubbery stuff: even if you don’t have Jensen’s book, you can do some google searching and find photos just like that so you needn’t be so afraid. I would not do a radical cleanse like A&S while you’re nursing. The slower approach so that large amounts of toxins aren’t flowing through fluids (like breast milk) would be to just do a quart of GS daily, with no sodas/sugar/white flour/meat/dairy, following the GSG recipes and program. You’ll still cleanse that way, and your baby will get all the good nutrition too!
Robyn
I totally agree-I have a friend who is attempting GS, but is still hooked on SouthBeach because she lost 20lbs with it. It’s interesting, because even though I’ve always been overweight, I would say that I’ve always also felt that fit person inside of me-you know, felt that desire for energy and “life” that I knew came from living healthier…but I also know lots of women who don’t know that part of them. So many of us really need to look inside of ourselves for affirmation, discover who we really are, not what other people see-it’s like the “ideal” body weight, etc-I’m certain that we’re not all desitned by God to be thin, tall, long legs, big boobs, etc-but there is beauty in a healthy body, no matter the size (though the size tends to be smaller, lol!).
Nice article. So Inspiring.