Day Ninety Eight!!

Hey weight busters,


I decided to do a juice cleanse. I have heard about juice cleanses from Pinterest, and I know at least two people who tried them (they were both unsuccessful, but whatever). I have often seen on Pinterest, twitter, and Facebook the benefits of doing a juice cleanse, but I never really thought about trying them. The other day a woman came into the office and told me about how she specialized in colonoscopies. Now I wasn’t interested in doing that, but she did mention the juice cleanse and how wonderful and ingenious it was to remove toxins and get the gut going again for those that have shut their gut down. So here I am, my second day of cleansing. I have included the recipe to my juices under the recipes, but be warned, this isn’t something to do if you are on the hunt for flavour (yummy flavour that is).
 
I thought that I would be starving by today (I started yesterday), but with the enormous amount of water I am drinking, I haven’t had one single hunger pang. I thought I would feel weak and unable to focus, but I actually feel quite energized. To be perfectly forward I thought I would be pooping non stop, I envisioned myself chained to the toilet, in pain, cursing myself and whoever recommended the cleanse, but nothing has come out at all, except of course a river of pee. That has pretty much been non-stop since the start. 


Apparently the purpose of the cleanse is to detox the liver. The liver is the second heaviest organ in your body. Your liver takes in all the nutrients and toxins, sorts them, detoxifies them, and then ships them to the other areas of your body to use as energy. Everything happens in the liver, and can result in an inflammatory response if there are not enough nutrients to be digested. Detoxification is actually really to help the liver clean itself out. 
So, when foods enter the small intestine there is a process in place to screen the nutrients. Only, if it happens to be the wrong kind of food or has toxins with it, then there is an inflammation that results, which can lead to pain, gas, nausea, or gastrointestinal discomfort.


There are two phases that occur during detoxification, apparently named (this one will be hard to remember) phase 1 and phase 2, detoxification. Phase 1- your liver converts fat-soluble toxins into water-soluble substances. Phase 2, excretes these toxins using urine, sweat, and other bodily fluids (yes, even the saliva you spit at mean people).


Both phases require optimal nutrients, without adequate nutrient intake, detoxification can slow down and contribute to something called oxidative stress, which contributes to inflammation, cell damage, and disease.


Some of the nutrients your liver requires to detoxify are:


B vitamins
Vitamin C
Minerals like selenium, copper, zinc, manganese, magnesium
Glutathione (a super antioxidant your body creates from vitamin B6 and amino acids)
Coenzyme Q10
Sulfur
Amino acids


Amino acids become especially important during phase 2. Many metabolites in phase 1 are free radicals (an uncharged molecule (typically highly reactive and short-lived) having an unpaired valence electron) and harmful on their own to your body. If your liver doesn’t have the nutrients it needs to perform phase 2, your body can’t properly excrete those toxins. In other words, you become more toxic, achieving the opposite effect. 


The most frustrating thing about doing this process is that I have to drink my food. I miss chewing! I miss flavour! I miss meat! I miss the act of swallowing something solid!