Category: Cleansing

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Ayurveda Cleansing

The Kitchari cleanse; I’ve made it! (Sort of)

The Ayurvedic Kitchari Cleanse, active portion, is officially over and I’ve been in “rejuvenation” for over a week. This cleanse has had its challenges. I really felt my air and space energy go off the rails, which manifested as everything from an over engaged gut to a disengaged gut to fatigue to spacey-ness to insomnia to whatever else you can come up with.

During the active phase all went swimmingly well Sunday through Wednesday. Then I felt all my systems going from hyperactive to totally inactive within about a five-hour span. After that I had difficulty finding the Kitchari particularly palatable. I stuck with it with the exception of the last day, when I switched to just rice with ghee to get me through the day.  

A little cleansing sabotage

I started the rejuvenation phase pretty valiantly and carefully but then Halloween arrived. You can guess how that went. Sigh.

Damn you Sugar! 

https://youtu.be/CsbYx6hevoQ
Me in the days after Halloween

I’m finally feeling like myself

Today, Wednesday, a week and a half after I started the rejuvenation phase, is the first day I’ve felt myself since the Wednesday of the active phase.  I feel like my body is finally waking up and letting go. Moving is easier, I’m able to make better food and activity choices and I’m starting to feel like myself again. And, most happily, my sleep completely went from total insomnia to absolutely “no problem” with the turnover away from daylight savings time.

I wish I could report on exactly what happened, but I can only guess. I am quite confident that my air and space energy were really out of whack before I started the cleanse. That tends to happen to me in fall and spring. This time around, the weather during the cleanse didn’t help things and really contributed to my energetic imbalance. I also am wondering if my more solid earth energies were more set in place and resistant to change (due to the damp weather), blocking the wind energy and filling the space energy.

Uh oh

Many of you are probably rolling your eyes and thinking “There she goes again. Woo Woo!”.  

The girl on the left is reminiscent of (but way cuter than) me trying to get through Zumba classes the last few weeks!

That’s ok, I totally understand.  This approach is based upon Ayurveda and sounded a little “out there” to me too until I began actually recognizing, feeling, and working with the energy. Now it’s just sort-of the way it is for me. I see no reason why the forces that have such an obvious impact on all other carbon based life forms would, for some strange reason, have absolutely no effect on human beings (of which I am one).

A few simple guidelines helped

Fortunately, I did my best to work with what was present and I followed a few simple rules to get me through the difficulties

  1. I maintained my daily meditation practice even if I felt crummy. Sometimes I cut sessions short but I did my best to not skip them. This created a little space within with which I could function.
  2. I avoided blame and shame around these difficulties. When I look at the echinacea trying to survive the crazy weather I see no indication that it is blaming itself for not looking so hot or for just taking it easy.
  3. Within the space I created by maintaining a meditation practice I tried (and still do) to cultivate compassion for all sentient beings, including those with whom I very much disagree (like the current occupant of the white house). This compassion extends to myself.  I am, after all, not chopped liver! I’m a carbon based sentient life form, not unlike all others.
I wouldn’t think of reprimanding my echinacea for being in such a gnarly state, so I won’t do it to myself.

The Chyavanprash

I introduced you to Chyavanprash jam in the last post and have been using it regularly through rejuvenation. I added a teaspoon to hot water for a tasty chai tea-like beverage. I added it to boiled milk (after the milk has cooled a bit—the jam has honey in it and you don’t want to cook honey) which was super yummy. It was a great pre-bedtime beverage. Ayurveda suggests we cook our fruit before eating it so I cooked up some sliced apples in unsweetened cherry juice and added Chyavanprash and cinnamon. This was also very tasty.  I will be buying more of this concoction. I suspect it will help me manage sweet cravings.

Apples cooked in tart cherry juice with cinnamon and Chyavanprash is quite tasty. Cherry juice is a great anti-oxidant and is anti-inflamatory. I drank a lot of it when I was recovering from knee replacement surgery a few years ago. I think it really helped with inflammation and gut health.

Not the best of times but not the worst of times

As you can imagine, this has been a punch in the gut, what the hell is going on, few weeks for me. But, I’m back and, despite the difficulties, happy with the cleansing process. Based on past experience, I’ll begin to see the results of the process in the upcoming weeks as my body/mind is able to settle down and let go of the past, and stay anchored in the present. I am reminded again that, sometimes I need to walk though a lot of muck to arrive at the meadow. I think I’m on my way to the meadow now.

November community gathering

The November Kindred Spirits gathering will happen Thursday November 21 at St. Peder’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 4600 E. 42nd St., Minneapolis, MN 55406, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

In this session, we’ll explore how compassion for ourselves and others fills the spaces we’ve created and helps us thrive physically, emotionally, and spiritually, allowing us to contribute to the common good during times of intense upheaval.

Categories
Ayurveda Cleansing

The Kitchari Cleanse, part 1

The next stage of my fall cleansing is the Kitchari cleanse. This is an Ayurvedic style digestive cleanse designed to balance the mind body and spirit. It involves eating Kitchari (and ONLY Kitchari), a mung-bean, rice, and ghee based dish daily for the length of the cleanse (seven days, in my case), performing self-message and oliation daily (Abhyanga), soaking the body in a very hot ginger bath nightly, and spending time shifting your gaze inward. Truth be told, it’s a time of self examination.

The Kitchari cleanse is a three stage process. Step one is preparation, step two is the active phase, and step three is rejuvenation. It’s easy to skimp on phases one and three and just jump in and out of phase two. In our culture it’s the natural thing to do–just dive in. But over time, I’ve begun to see the folly in that strategy (if you can call it a strategy). Not properly preparing in advance for the cleanse means you’re wasting valuable cleansing time going through preparation. You can’t skip that part.

Peparation

When I prepare for seasonal cleanses I choose the time for the cleanse well in advance. I clear my calendar as much as I am able. I don’t want to put super strenuous activities on my agenda during a cleanse. Cleansing time is a time for inward focus and contemplation.

As cleansing time nears, I find it good to slow down and begin to contemplate my intentions for the cleanse. In other words, I want to clarify for myself why I’m taking the time to do this.

Then there are the logistical considerations. At minimum I want to stock the Kitchari Ingredients and the oils I will need for the Abhyanga. I also need the ginger bath supplies. While it isn’t absolutely necessary to use, I also like to supplement the Kitchari with an herbal medicated ghee preparation and have other specialty oils on hand. You also want to consider what special foods you may want for rejuvenation and, if not eaten fresh, purchase them in advance so you have them when you need them.

My stuff.

Ingredients

The Kitchari is simple to make and has only a few basic ingredients. It is a porridge like stew made up of split mung beans, basmati rice, ghee, and spices (both ground and whole): cumin, colander, fennel, black pepper and turmeric. Some recipes include brown mustard seed and occasionally I add black cumin. I also add a little salt. You can also add vegetables if you want. I’ll be adding carrots, onions, and spinach to my first batch. I was considering substituting millet for rice this time around but I think I’ve changed my mind for reasons that I may explain in a post far in the future.

There are as many Kitchari recipes on the web as there are people making it. I usually start with the one published by Savastha Ayurveda. Her recipe uses more items than some and I don’t always use all of them and sometimes I add different vegetables. You can also substitute red lentils for the mung beans, although I like mung beans for their high protein content. I also cook my Kitchari longer than the recipe calls for. Everything in the stew needs to be well cooked–soft. Yes, even the carrots (if you’re using them) and especially the rice. The mung beans dissolve and are the basis of the stew. This soft quality of the Kitchari is one of the reasons it is so cleansing–it is very easy for your system to digest.

It’s a good idea to buy these ingredients in advance because you’ll be cooking with them every day for a week. The split mung beans and spices I purchase online from an excellent Ayurvedic retailer, Banyan Botanicals out of Albuquerque New Mexico. I like them because their products are clean and fresh and certified organic. You can find split mung beans at a number of local Indian grocery stores but the beans are typically not organic and are of questionable age. I can tell the Banyan products are fresh by how they cook up and by how they smell (and look). Penzy’s is another great option for spices. I don’t think they are certified organic but they are obviously fresh and well sourced. Penzy’s is by all accounts a terrific company.

Cumin Turmeric and Corriander
The big three: Cumin, Turmeric, and Coriander are used in most Ayurvedic (and other Indian) cooking. They are full of medicinal qualities. I buy from Banyan but would also recommend you purchase from Penzy’s spices. They are a great company and are very aware of the universal body.

The basic oils I use for Abhyanga are organic sesame and organic coconut (sesame when I want a warming oil and coconut when I want cooling). I also use specialty oils based on my dosha (more about that at an undetermined date). Here’s a good video showing how to do the oliation/massage. Fyi: unlike in the video, it can get messy. Unless you have a gigantic spa-like bathroom like in the video, I suggest you clear things out of your bathing area that will just get in the way. You’ll be soaking, massaging, and oliating in that room and the fewer unnecessary things you have in that room, the easier it will be to clean up.

In addition I use nasal oils and am trying a new ear oil. The coconut oil I purchase at Seward Coop in Minneapolis. You can purchase plain organic sesame oil at the coop too but I buy the sesame and specialty oils from either Banyan or another excellent Ayurvedic vendor, Savastha Ayurveda (out of Boulder CO).

  • Oils
    Oleation Oils (seseme and coconut can also be used for cooking). Two specialty oils (far left and far right) are formulated for people of particular constitutions. The one on the left is warming and the right one is cooling.
  • Specialty Oils and Medicated Ghee
    Specialty Oils.
  • Basmati Rice and Millet
    Basmati rice and millet.

Make sure you have easy access to a lot of towels. You also want to put fresh, but possibly older, linens on your bed knowing that they will be absorbing oil (even though you soak after your Abhyanga, your body will still be oily, including your hair). I have a special set of sheets I use only during cleansing time. That way I don’t ruin all my sheets. FYI, you clean the oil off your body in the morning with either a hot shower or soak. You’ll be washing your hair a lot that week.

Rejuvenation supplies

It’s a good idea to have the rejuvenation supplies on hand too. Rejuvenation is a phase of introducing foods and activities that nourish and replenish us. Ghee (more about that in a few) is a great rejuvenation food. I also like to use Triphala tea in the rejuvenation phase (and beyond). It’s a powder made up three ground dried berries that have many replenishing properties. Triphala is replenishing to the blood and aids in reducing inflammation. It is also great for digestion and elimination. I’m trying a new product this year: Chyavanprash which is an herbal jam. Here’s a picture of the ingredients. I haven’t given enough thought to the rejuvenation phase in the past so this is my attempt at becoming more aware of it. We’ll see how it goes.

Label
Here’s what Chyavanprash is supposed to do. Impressive.
Here are the ingredients in Chyavanprash. It looks sweet and rich but that could be deceiving. Will report back.

So, those are the supplies I am stocking for this Kitchari Cleanse. I must say that photographing and blogging about all these items provides quite a different experience than I’ve had in the past. It’s a little difficult to fix my gaze inward while also trying to reflect things outwardly. It produces a push and pull feeling. We’ll see how far I get in reporting how it’s going. You’ll probably hear more about this.

The best part: Ghee!

The final, and very important item is ghee. Ghee is boiled butter and provides the oil for the Kitchari. It is also often taken on its own during a cleanse. You can purchase ghee but is is expensive and not made in your own kitchen. I learned to make ghee from Ruolph Ballentine’s book, Diet and Nutrition. If you are interested in how ghee is made, you can watch my first attempt at cooking while video taping below. Cooking ghee one-handed is quite an experience!

Break the butter up into the pan and heat up using medium-high heat.
More separation.
More separation, color change.
Second foaming.
It looks burnt but it’s not. The bits are actually brown. I suppose I need to learn how to do lighting now!
Categories
Ayurveda Cleansing

The Dietary Cleanse

Shedding the metal

I’m on day fourteen of a fourteen day heavy metals detoxification dietary cleanse. After this phase of my cleansing ritual I will shift into an Ayurvedic-style digestive cleanse—a Kitchari cleanse. More about that later.

I know many folks out in internet-land are curious about and/or interested in dietary cleanses. Many have, like me, experimented with different approaches to cleansing while others view cleansing as a crazy woo-woo ritual that they would never engage in but about which they have many opinions. Since there is interest in this subject, I thought I’d use my platform to describe and explore my approach to cleansing and to document my experience, with cleansing this time around. Please use the comment area (at the bottom of the page) to ask questions or comment.

The regimen

My cleanse regimen this fall consists of two weeks of heavy metal cleansing and one week of a “digestive” Ayurvedic cleanse. I’ve already written about why I detox in the fall and spring and I can’t stress enough the importance of this seasonal approach. My suggestion is that if you are tempted to start a cleanse in the middle of winter or summer, JUST SAY NO. Detoxing then is totally out of sync with the natural processes and has the potential of doing more harm than good. My first wayward experiment, explained in my last post, is a good example of problems with this approach.

The heavy metal cleanse I follow is a simple do-at-home detoxification routine. I learned about it in the book Radical Healing by Rudolph Ballentine. He is the guy (now a Swami, apparently) who wrote the seminal book on holistic nutrition, Diet and Nutrition back in the 80s. That book is still, in my humble opinion, one of the best nutrition books out there. Rudy was way ahead of his time with that book. Anyhow, this cleanse is for detoxing the day-to-day level of metals we are exposed to. It is not intended for more serious cases of heavy metal poisoning.

  • This is the book from which I got this cleanse. Despite it’s overwhelming size it is a very handy reference book for those interested in integrative health and healing.
  • This is a book by the same author. If you read one nutrition book in your life, I recommend you read this one. I inherited the original one on the left from my mother and I don’t really know why I bought a second copy. Maybe I figured it was so good I needed two. I refer to this book over and over.

The (relatively) easy part

This heavy metal detox involves maintaining a relatively clean diet and adding a quarter of a cup (packed) of cilantro to a meal each day for two weeks. The cilantro can be chopped or not (although you do need to chew it), mixed with a salad, or soup, or smoothie or, if you are into it, can be just eaten plain. I think the cilantro should be eaten all at once, not spread over the day to do its job properly but I’m not sure if that is necessary. That’s the easy part.

A quarter of a cup of cilantro once a day provides chelation.

The not-so-easy part

Now the less-easy part. Twice a day for the entire two weeks consume one tablespoon of bentonite clay suspended into a glass of water, followed by a glass of plain water. I buy my clay at the Seward Coop in Minneapolis and you can purchase it online or probably find it at any number of natural foods stores.

How its supposed to work

Here’s the logic behind this regimen.  Cilantro is a chelator of heavy metals so when we eat the cilantro, heavy metals are drawn out of our cells, which is good. But if we don’t drink the clay solution, the metals hang around in our system and are not fully excreted. Drinking the solution manages the necessary excretion of these toxins. The clay does a good job of cleaning up the metal mess and is a good detoxifier in and of itself. 

The additional glass of water is important. It helps to disperse the clay. Essentially, the cleanse combines several stages into one (often other more complex cleanses do the chelating and elimination processes in several stages). The benefit of this approach is that it is simple and easy.

What it feels like

When undergoing a cleanse, how I feel varies from day to day. Some days I feel very good and others I feel crummy. That’s pretty normal when detoxing metals. The process of removing toxins takes a toll on our bodies but I imagine the burden of living with heavy metals, clinking around in my cells, puts a much larger strain on our bodies, particularly on the nervous system.

Day one of my cleanse was Friday, October 4. On Monday October 7 I awoke feeling super great. My joints felt looser and my mood was high. By that early evening I felt horrible. I was head achy, joint achy, and totally fatigued—exhausted.  I knew the detox was kicking in. By the next morning I felt fine. I guess the toxins were being extracted and flushed.

The following Wednesday afternoon I picked up a cold. Often experts suggest you stop a cleanse if you get sick. However, I don’t think that would have been a good idea for me at this point. Detoxing heavy metals is a process that I think needs to play itself out. Stopping early could leave me feeling crappy since my body has released toxins into my system but not yet had a chance to fully flush them out. Since the cleanse didn’t limit my diet I felt I was getting the proper nutrients to manage a cold. I decided to continue. And now, I’m glad I did. I am still dealing with the detritus of the cold but I’m none the worse for wear.

This past Monday I started the day feeling crummy with headaches and joint aches again but by the end of the day felt fine. This leads me to wonder if the detox and flushing might happen in cycles.

Wednesday I was pretty tired early in the day but felt better by mid-day. I can’t tell if the fatigue was a result of the cleanse or the cold.

Things I’ve noticed this time around

  • If I prepare my clay concoction well in advance of drinking it, it is much easier to get down. Preparing it several hours in advance using hot water and leaving it sit allows many of the creepy lumps to dissolve, or at least become slimy rather that powdery.  Believe it or not, after a day or two the clay just becomes a habit
  • I’ve added cilantro to a variety of foods: homemade chili was a great option,  roasted root vegetables tossed with the cilantro was very tasty, I added the cilantro to a burrito, prepared a baked sweet potato with olive oil and cilantro, and prepared a fried ginger, onions, hot peppers, sesame, cilantro, and millet bowl (super tasty). I don’t drink smoothies (I think eating real solid food is a better idea for me) so I can’t attest to how cilantro would taste in one but I imagine it would be fine.  In the past I’ve added it to salads and liked it. Often the taste of cilantro can be enhanced if you add lime to it.
  • Earlier in the cleanse, in week one, I noticed my teeth subtly hurt a little. It was sort of a rhythmic pulling, achy feeling, especially in my front teeth. It was something I’d never felt before. It went away eventually but occasionally I feel it again.
  • My appetite has decreased significantly. I noticed this by day two. I don’t crave sugar (which is good) and my appetite seems pretty stable. I recall this happening in past cleanses.
  • My joints have gone from feeling super good to very achy at times and back to super good.
  • Doing this cleanse is much easier now that I’m not going to an outside workplace every day (I KNOW the digestive cleanse will be way easier now). It really helps to have the time to pay attention to how I’m feeling as I’m doing this.
  • My sleep quality and quantity has varied but I think that is partially due to the cold. At this point my sleep seems ok but erratic, despite paying attention to sleep hygiene.

I’m considering adding one new step to this cleanse. Today is the last day of this cleanse but I think I’ll continue the clay into tomorrow. Having an extra day of flushing out the toxins seems like a good idea to me.

Next up…

Next time I write, I’ll introduce you to the Ayurvedic Kitchari Digestive Cleanse. It’s more than just a dietary cleanse. It’s designed to cleanse your entire “self”—mind body and spirit. I need to do some preparation for the Kitchari cleanse and have been buoyed by the arrival of two packages of Ayurvedic supplies. I’ll fill you in more on that next time.

Categories
Ayurveda Cleansing Politics of Well-Being

Autumn: The season of cleansing

Fall weather, is in full swing. In Minneapolis, after an unbearably wet start to the season, we’ve been treated to a few classic, clear and colorful days. But we’re not expecting them to last. Snow is forecast for the weekend  (and people just can’t stop talking about it).

As I’ve navigated the season, I’m reminded that September and October are difficult months for me. They elicit sadness and grieving and require my special attention. This is especially challenging because autumn is also the time for putting the gardens to bed, tidying up the yard, and putting away all the yard stuff I spent so much time setting up just a few months ago. At a time when I’m not at what I would call, an “energetic high”, I’m expected to dig and tote to turn the patio and gardens into barren landscapes. It doesn’t do a whole lot for my mood.

Patio fall cleanup. Dragging in the hose is my least favorite task. But it’s put away nicely.

In recent years, I’ve added dietary cleanses to my fall ritual. Fall and spring, considered in many traditions to be transitional seasons, when the weather is wild and the winds are blowing, are the seasons in which to perform these rituals. They are not necessarily easy affairs, but they have become significant and helpful rituals in my physical, spiritual, and creative life. In the same way that Autumn blows away the summer heat, a cleanse clears out the stale energy of summer and creates space for new possibilities.  

The garden it going through it’s own cleansing process. Shedding it’s seeds and leaves.

Cleanses happen at many levels

Meanwhile, back at the universal body, the folks in Washington DC are in the midst of a detoxifying ritual of their own. And, similar to a dietary cleanse, the larger body is resisting the act of detoxifying.

What I’ve learned about cleanses is that persistence and discomfort are the key to a successful dietary cleanse. If you stop your cleanse when things become uncomfortable, the toxins that you’ve finally drawn to the surface will remain in your body and continue to do damage, just closer to the surface.

Comfort can be my enemy

I experienced this effect a number of years ago when I engaged in a heavy metal dietary detox in the winter (the absolute worst time –other than summer—to detox). I did it because I felt like it and just had to do it “now”. Advice be damned.  The detox drew out toxins in the form of a nasty skin condition that, on one hand exposed a situation so I could deal with it, but one which took me years to get under control. It would have been a lot easier to manage, had I performed the detox at the right time of year and extended the elimination (of toxins) piece longer. But I let discomfort get the best of me.

The heavy metals cleanse includes consuming clay (above) suspended in water. It is a bit on the unpalatable side but is absolutely necessary to clear the toxins out of the body. Because of the comfort factor, it’s easy to minimize the importance of this step but one does so at ones peril.

Generally, I find it is too easy to stick with what is comfortable, even though I am fully aware that in many ways “comfort” is the enemy. Ayurveda confirms this, the Enneagram confirms this, and my life experience confirms this.  It is so easy  to just fiddle endlessly with my website or design Instagram posts, rather than doing something a little more challenging, like writing this blog post.  As soon as a dietary cleanse becomes a little uncomfortable, I’m tempted to quit. But, quitting just makes life more difficult.

Pushing the cleanse comfort envelope

It looks like finally, in Washington, people are resisting discomfort and pushing through to clean things up. I admire these people because I know the process is not easy. I think that it’s no coincidence that this process is happening in the fall. It’s the right time.

I learned the wisdom of pushing the comfort envelope last spring during my last cleanse. By fully sticking with both a digestive and heavy metals cleanse I saw—to my astonishment—my endless, almost unbearable skin condition simply disappear. (Sorry, I don’t have any photos of the condition but it was terribly oozy and itchy and gross.) AND I experienced my first summer without seasonal allergies in about fifteen years. I didn’t need to take a single Clariton all summer!

I can’t say for absolute sure that the cleanses were the cause of these nice developments but the relief did come as the cleanses progressed. I’ve lived with the discomfort of not absolutely knowing for sure what caused what for awhile now. Long enough, it seems, to understand that sometimes the best action is just to set an intention, take a few steps forward, observe, sometimes follow the rules, pay attention, listen, trust the process, and see what happens. We may be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

October community gathering

The October Kindred Spirits gathering will happen Thursday October 24 at St. Peder’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 4600 E. 42nd St., Minneapolis, MN 55406, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

In this session, we’ll explore what it means to create space, and reflect on healthy approaches to establishing our own physical, emotional, and spiritual spaces, in which to thrive.

Join us.
Here’s a lovely ode to autumn.