Day 6
Good morning,
Congratulations on completing the juice fast! It is not easy to uproot patterns of behavior as deeply rooted as your eating habits and to breathe through mental demands. I hope you are feeling light and accomplished this morning.
If you have juice left over, you can use it as a smoothie base through the end of the cleanse or continue to drink it as a snack.
Because Vata is high after a fast, it is helpful to transition into solid food with easily digestible foods and to be very mindful of water intake. A good quality white basmati rice and well-cooked vegetables are among the easiest on the digestive system. Brown basmati is also ok, but it is harder to digest and not traditionally used after a cleanse.
As you move on to kitchari at lunch, stay conscious while you are eating. Eat slowly and savor the food. Try to resist the urge to continue eating after you reach the two-handful point.
If you do experience a stomachache, try eating avocado, watermelon, pineapple, peach or banana, which reduce Vata.
If you are constipated, try warm apples (1-2) sautéed in coconut oil with a pinch of cardamom, cinnamon and/or nutmeg. You can also eat 2-5 prunes mid-morning instead of an apple or pear. Have a roasted beet dish tomorrow for lunch or dinner, and this often resolves the issue.
If your digestion is too fast, have a ripe yellow banana or oatmeal with cinnamon. You can also have 1-2 cups of kitchari for lunch or dinner. Avoid spicy, hot and sour foods as well as citrus fruits.
Continue your bandha practice to keep your agni, or digestive fire, strong. Remember not to drink cold or iced water with meals, as it diminishes agni and increases Kapha and Vata. Chewing on raw ginger or drinking fresh ginger tea before each meal is another good way to ignite the digestive fire.
Continue moving through each of the cleansing practices for the next two days so you can give the body time to settle into the effects of the juice fast. Even though you're feeling light and energized, and you’ve likely accomplished a lot of what you set out to do -- there is more to come, so resist the urge to celebrate with non-detox food.
Later this evening and tomorrow evening, you'll take a detox bath with Epsom salts, ginger powder, and baking soda. This will alleviate sore muscles and promote deep relaxation. If you'd like, you can whip up a mask for yourself while you soak. Place a warm washcloth over the face to open the pores and then apply either honey, avocado, or banana to the skin.
Tomorrow, you will move on to your liver cleanse, which will require fresh carrot juice. This can be picked up at a juice bar. Garlic is Nature's antibiotic and an excellent blood cleanser, but if you are feeling like you still need to pacify Pitta or that this will aggravate your digestion, you can skip the garlic. If it feels like too much extra water after that cleanse, you can save your kidney cleanse for mid-morning.
Over the course of the next two days, I'll make sure to cover the best practices to continue and the best way to reintroduce the non-detox food again once you're ready.
By the end of this week, you should be feeling lighter, stronger and clearer than you have in a while. You’re doing such a great job. Let’s keep it going!
Warmly,
Lauren