Punch Reset: 28-Day Cleanse

Healthy Lifestyle is key to a healthy body and mind. In today’s world we are busy, overloaded with activity and overwhelmed with responsibility. Many times, we put our own personal needs last in order to serve the greater good…whether that be for kids, work, friends, spouses, or significant others. This can lead to making lifestyle choices based on convenience and speed rather than taking the time to reach for healthier ways of living. Unfortunately, this actually lowers our ability to be there for others, and ultimately lowers our overall health and peace of mind. It has the exact opposite effect of its intended mark.

BUT…there’s good news!! With a little thoughtful planning and action, we can be prepared to make better choices which leads to improved health and happiness. This trickles down to EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY in your environment and raises the quality of life.

To get a head start on working towards integrated health it’s a good idea to do a deep cleanse of your body tissues and organs. I call this my 28-DAY RESET CLEANSE. It sounds difficult, but it does not involve fasting or going hungry. It allows you to learn and implement healthy cooking and meal-planning which leads to good results! You can do nearly anything for 28 days, right?

The first rule is…you are going to EAT your way to improved health and well-being. You will need to remove specific foods from your life, and add some as well. Sometimes it’s helpful to open your calendar and mark off the days needed for this cleanse. Try to plan the start-date in advance so you are able to clear your cabinets of unhealthy items and shop for those that you will be using often. I will be posting some healthy recipes in the NOURISH section of this website that can help with this.

Let’s go over the specifics first, and then talk about implementation and maintenance of the process along with suggestions.

THE RULES

REMOVE THESE FOODS: throw them out if necessary for 28 days and do not buy them!

• Dairy Products: animal milk, yogurt, cheese, kefir, etc.… .

• Bread Products: bread, pasta, crackers, pita, naan, etc.… .

• Sugar: white table sugar, brown sugar, Sweet n Low, Splenda, Sucralose, Agave Nectar

• Caffeine: remove Coffee, Sodas, Teas w added caffeine

• Alcohol: all of it! LOL

• *Grain: this is optional

• All pre-made foods in boxes, cans, frozen meals, bottles, etc.. .

ADD:

• Water: drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water daily

• Digestive enzymes: Take a capsule with each meal to help your body breakdown the fuel

• Colloidal Multi-minerals: helps your body work more efficiently

• Alkalize: Multi-minerals help this as does alkaline water and lots of green foods

SWEETENER: If you need to sweeten tea, beverages, or a recipe please use 100% Stevia powder or drops. Be sure to read the label as some brands try to add sucralose or Maltodextrin (code name for sugar) to their blends. I’ve found that Sweet Leaf is clean and tastes very good. Organic Wildflower Honey can be used in recipes in small amounts instead of Stevia or in combination with Stevia. Try to use Stevia for tea and other beverages.

OILS: Organic, clean pressed Coconut Oil is the oil of choice. It’s a Medium Chain Triglyceride and cannot be stored as fat in the human body. It’s a mandatory burn. It’s also great for high-heat cooking, and adds a savory taste to stir fry meals, steel cut oatmeal, quinoa, etc. Olive oil and Avocado oil are also good choices.

Breakfast ideas: Grain-Free Muffins, Eggs, Quinoa, Steel-cut oats

Lunch ideas: Salad with protein, stir-fry, vegetable soup, lettuce wraps with turkey and veggies

Dinner ideas: Fish with Steamed veggies, Turkey burgers, Turkey Stir fry, Shrimp sautee with fresh veggies, Cauliflower Pizza, Roasted organic Chicken with veggies

Snack ideas: Raw almonds, Apples, Fresh Veggie Juice, Watermelon, Citrus

THE METHOD

Prepare all of your meals from scratch, using the actual whole food ingredients necessary to do so. This can be as simple as steamed veggies, or can be as intricate as making a Cauliflower Pizza.

It’s a good idea to make large amounts of food when you are cooking or preparing. You can make enough for several meals, keeping it in storage containers in the fridge or freezer safe bags for eating later on. If you have a container full of prepared Quinoa or Grain-free Muffins for breakfast it’s much easier to stay on track with the cleanse.

You can make a very tasty veggie stir fry, Soy-free Thai stir fry, Turkey burgers, Homemade Vegetable soup, Salad with veggies and fish or another protein source, etc. The list goes on!!! These can be used as school lunches for the kids…or for yourself. You can re-heat food and have it for a few days at a time without having to stop and prepare every meal each day. This will help you keep an active, on-the-go lifestyle and maintain your cleanse and your health!

The first week will be hard. Your brain and body are full of receptors that will very likely cry out for the fast-energy type foods that may be plaguing your health. You will go through some withdrawal at first in the form of low energy, flu-like feelings, sluggishness and such. Your body will be removing toxins that have built up in your system, and it’s not particularly pleasant. The fatigue you feel is the load of toxins that your organs of elimination are removing from your body. THIS WILL PASS! But you have to give it time. Be sure to drink copious amounts of water to dilute the toxins which makes it easier for you to remove these waste by-products from your body.

By the end of the 2nd week you will feel much better and start to burn your clean food more efficiently. Your toxin load will be much less, and you will have more energy. Weeks 3 and 4 will be amazing! You will notice a heightened sense of well-being and lots of energy. At this point the daily sugar cravings will be much less or gone.

HELPFUL HINTS

Sugar/Caffeine cravings?

-If you notice yourself craving sugar eat a large Granny Smith Apple (or apple of your choice) and it will curb your sweet tooth completely along with helping your Gastro-intestinal tract to move food along its pathway more quickly.

--If you feel tired, sickly, and fatigued drink a glass of Green Tea (no caffeine added), or Hibiscus Tea which is naturally non-caffeinated and gives a lot of energy.

Fatigue and toxin overload?

The remedies below help to remove more toxins by addressing all organs of elimination in your body: Skin, lungs, lymph, liver, kidneys, and colon. Your skin is the largest organ of elimination in your body.

- Soak in a hot Epsom Salt Bath for at least 20 minutes to help remove toxins through your skin.

- Dry brush your skin to increase toxin release. You can buy a dry brush for a few dollars at your local health food store.

Drink a large glass of room-temp or hot lemon-water and take a nap. This helps to alkalize your GI tract which improves elimination.

- Exercise to help your lungs clear more through CO2 release.

- Take a trip to an Infrared Sauna location and use their facility. Both Far and Near Infrared are strong detoxification tools. Near Infrared is gentler and also helpful for collagen stimulation in skin.

**Get a partner in crime! Do your cleanse with your spouse, significant other, friend, or whoever will help push you to stay on track. It’s much easier when you have local support!

If it starts to get too difficult, remind yourself that 28 days will pass in your life whether you do this cleanse or not. You can stick it through and be done in 28 days and learn a lot about how food affects your personal body chemistry. You will feel better, possibly lose some weight and maybe even apply some of these rules to your long-term lifestyle. I do this cleanse at least once per year. I have integrated this clean eating protocol into my daily life for years now, and the results are undeniable.

BENEFITS: Friends who have taken this 28-day challenge have had amazing results from losing significant weight to resolution of some health issues. The following have been experienced by me or reported by friends who have completed this cleanse:

• Increased energy

• Clear thinking

• Restful sleep

• Improved GI function

• Weight loss

• Clearer skin

• Improved Mood (after the initial withdrawal stage…LOL)

• Improved bodily functions

• Resolution of some health issues

• Feeling gooD

FINISHING NOTES

At the end of your cleanse it will be very tempting to go out and eat a big, sugary, cheesy, doughy meal…and you can certainly do so! But keep in mind that you have taken the time to clean your entire system deeply and you may feel very sluggish and tired after a big, sludgy meal. Stop and notice how it makes your body feel to eat this way. It may be certain foods that affect you particularly, but the bread and sugar will likely give you a food hangover. You may decide to keep some of the cleanse rules as you move forward for your long-term lifestyle. Remember: it’s OK to treat yourself in order to eat consistently clean. It’s simpler than it seems once you get started!

Life can build up sludge in your body which affects your daily life in the forms of Stress, Foggy thinking, Lack of energy, fatigue, digestive imbalance/upset, low pH/Acidic body conditions, and much more. Don’t let your life slide down the slippery slope by making bad food choices! Take control of the situation by changing your lifestyle for just 28 days. You will notice the difference and may even make a noticeable breakthrough!!! This will only help you in all areas of your life with work, family, loved ones, the gym, future goals and such. Now, get out there and take action!

GOOD LUCK AND LET ME KNOW HOW YOU ARE DOING! I AM HAPPY TO MAKE SUGGESTIONS AS YOU GO THROUGH YOUR CLEANSE!!!

CHEERS TO YOU!