It’s advised by many contemporary digestive experts, as well as many ancient medicinal traditions, to periodically cleanse your system of the many toxins that are in our air, water, soil, and food that we ingest.  In addition stress is toxic to our health.  Negative thoughts and emotions are also stored in our bodies as “emotional molecules.”  All toxins are stored in the fatty tissues – that’s why it’s so important to burn fat.  The body can process most toxins and release them from the body, but when it’s overloaded, as we all are in the polluted environment we live in, it’s very important to detox.  Some people do a form of cleanse every month, every season, or every year.

Dr. John Douillard recommends doing a cleanse in the spring and summer, the best seasons because your body is naturally ready to cleanse and nature is providing a harvest of natural foods you need to do that, and he makes available special herbs to take before and after each meal that help the body cleanse and release toxic fat.  John Douillard is one of the most beloved teachers at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and I experienced his sessions live.  He is a doctor of chiropractic, PhD and directs LifeSpa, an Ayurvedic Retreat Center that carries a line of ayurvedic herbs.

I decided to join him and thousands of others across the nation doing what Dr. Douillard calls the “2 week at-home detox and digestive rejuvenation program.”  The description on his book jacket, Colorado Cleanse reads, “It is designed to balance blood sugar, improve digestion, release old patterns of stress, decrease cravings and detoxify fat soluble chemicals that store for years on the fat cells.”

What was my motivation? Last year a naturopath had diagnosed me with high levels of lead and mercury, which I wanted out of my body.  I also had had some digestive problems that had improved by taking digestive enzymes.  However, Dr. Douillard told us when he addressed us at a conference of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in Miami, Florida last February, that he believes it’s not always the best method to to simply give the body the enzymes it is sluggish about making.  He says, putting aside a condition or allergy,  it is not normal with age to lose the ability  to produce digestive enzymes.  Our digestion becomes sluggish because it’s clogged with the wrong foods and toxins.  It’s better to rebuild the digestive system by clearing it out, and then resetting it, turning on the fire again so we can digest a whole array of foods.

And who doesn’t  like the idea of burning fat, and releasing old negative emotional patterns?! So I was in.