Summer’s End “Living” Food Cleanse

Have you ever tried a Summer’s End Cleanse? It’s a wonderful way to prepare for Fall, looking and feeling your best with a healthy glow and beautifully refreshed energy.

The Summer’s End Cleanse is neither about starving nor fasting. On the contrary, you can enjoy as much food as you want each day, provided it is fresh and alive. This is your chance to fully unlock the healing power of raw foods.

Dietary cleansing can be highly beneficial, helping to remove congestion and toxins and help you feel rejuvenated, notes Dr. Elson M. Haas., founder of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin in California. For Dr. Haas, both professionally and personally, detoxification is a core healing principle—the missing link in modern healthcare and nutritional medicine.

A raw foods diet is comprised of clean, fresh, anti-inflammatory whole foods including fruits, vegetables, activated (sprouted) grains, nuts, and seeds. These highly nutritious. enzyme-rich raw foods help to alkalize the body, reducing excess acidity and minimizing dangerous, chronic inflammation—all of which is cleansing to cells and tissues and beneficial to overall wellness.

Consider these tips to successfully customize this cleanse to your lifestyle:

Pick your time – It’s important to Select a convenient time for your cleanse, when you can focus on yourself. You will want to be patient if some of this is new for you, ensuring that you can get comfortable blending, chopping, juicing, and sprouting your entrées, snacks, and drinks.

The amount of time you can allocate may dictate the length of your initial cleanse. Even a short weekend dedicated to salads, juices, exercise and deep, restorative sleep is extremely beneficial and can lay the foundation for new healthy habits moving forward.

Lay the groundwork – If you’re not used to eating all raw foods, you may want to focus initially on smoothies, shakes, and blended soups, in which your food is partly predigested. To help ensure a comfortable transition, eat lighter for a few weeks leading up to your cleanse.

Stock cleansing staples – When you keep your fridge and pantry filled with healthy, versatile staples, you can easily create a wide range of meals and snacks. Stock up on fresh, seasonal fruit, leafy greens, colorful veggies, sprouted/raw nuts and seeds, raw nut/seed butters, and fresh herbs/spices.

Customize it for you – You can keep your cleanse simple if you’re busy, snacking on fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds. If time permits, you might want to explore rainbow salad meals. You could also focus on raw juices, smoothies and shakes, which make for easy, quick meals. A veggie juicer and a high-speed blender are both great investments, as raw juices and smoothies are easy and quick to digest when you are focused on cleansing.

Go easy on yourself – In addition to adding more raw foods and juices to your daily menu, you will also want to get your body moving, which boosts the circulation of lymphatic fluids, facilitating the removal of pollutants and bacteria. However, gentle exercise is best during your cleanse. Walk in nature, take a gentle yoga class, practice Tai Chi, or simply stretch at home daily.

For optimal success, plan ahead for your Summer’s End Cleanse. This includes selecting a time when you can focus on yourself and healthy eating, ensuring you have the support of loved ones, and provisioning yourself well with fresh produce and other raw staples in advance. If you keep a journal during your cleanse, you can record the details of your experience, and your insights which will serve you well in future. Happy cleansing!