Body Reboot: A Guided Cleanse from KYN

There are so many different ways to support the body from the inside out, but one of the most efficient and precise methods is through a cleanse. A cleanse is where you take a period of time to eliminate aggravating foods and drinks while increasing specific liquids or foods with the intention of ridding the body of toxins and promoting overall health. 

What is a cleanse? 

You might be surprised to hear that there are many different types of cleanses and they don’t all consist of slugging back green juice all day with zero food. There are liquid cleanses, food cleanses, and a fusion of the two! Although Lindsay & I have tried many different cleanse methods from a juice cleanse to the lemonade diet, to an apple and raw garlic liver cleanse, we really love the middle road where you drink nutritious beverages AND you also get to chew and swallow some food — delicious food at that!

Why cleanse? 

Before we get into the KYN cleanse approach, let’s talk about why we might consider doing this. Our bodies are taking on environmental toxins all of the time and even if we consider ourselves health conscious and we are doing all the things (eating well, staying hydrated, exercising, etc…), it’s quite difficult if not impossible to avoid toxins altogether. They are in the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the things we put on our skin. 

This means our bodies are working hard to filter these toxins out to keep us in balance. Our body filters and flushes toxins out through our liver, digestive system, kidneys, lungs, and skin. Detoxification is actually a natural process that happens in our bodies all the time, but sometimes our toxic load piles up or one of our organs of detoxification doesn’t function optimally and so our bodies need some assistance to clean out and reset. This is where a cleanse can be useful 2 - 3 times/year along with some daily cleanse habits to help maintain and support the organs of detoxification.

What’s gotta go? 

We have come to understand that some of the main digestive aggravators are in the most common foods that we eat — refined sugar, gluten, and dairy. Refined sugar is obviously abundant in cookies, cakes, and sweets of all kinds, but it is also usually the second or third ingredient in less obvious items, like fruit juices, yogurts, and condiments to name a few. It’s one thing to have a little sugar in this and that, here and there, but refined sugar does nothing good for the body and it interferes with blood sugar levels, inflammation in the body, our insulin output and is a main contributor to increased body fat. 

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye and most of us have a gluten sensitivity, meaning that we do not digest this protein efficiently. With a more serious intolerance or allergy, we experience a bloated belly, pain, and discomfort in our stomach. Bread, pasta, pastries, muffins, cookies, crackers are some main gluten-containing foods, along with some of the less obvious foods like condiments, granolas, powdered seasoning mixes, and soy sauce. 

Dairy causes inflammation in the digestive system and most of us have some level of intolerance to this food as we do not digest the milk sugar, lactose, very easily, or the milk protein, casein. Dairy is another one of those common offenders found in so many foods from pizza to pasta to soups, sauces, cookies, crackers, and most deserts. 

With this in mind, we have eliminated these foods for this cleanse, first to give the system some R+R, second, to see if YOU notice any changes in how you feel, and, third, so you can explore new foods and meals that do not have these ingredients in them. 

Along with removing refined sugar, gluten, and dairy, we are also taking an alcohol and coffee break (and not the “break” you might be thinking – it’s OUT for 5 days). Alcohol is toxic in our body and our liver has to work very hard to filter it out. It also disturbs our hormone balance and contributes to weight gain. Aside from that, it’s just a good idea to hit pause on booze every once in a while and especially after the holidays when you may have overindulged! Lastly, coffee will be eliminated over this cleanse period. Less caffeine, less stimulant, less work for our liver! 

Here’s the good news!

You might be wondering, “what the hell am I going to eat then??”  Well… an abundance of plant foods!! Fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts and seeds, and herbs in recipes like our Morning Elixir, our Green Machine Smoothie, delicious meal salads, as well as warming and nourishing soups. In our 5 Day Plant-Based KYN Cleanse, we keep the menu plan simple and doable with some recipes on repeat and some meals prepped in advance for ease of dishing up. Also, Lindsay and I will be doing the cleanse WITH YOU! We’ll be posting about it daily and even coming to you LIVE on Instagram to check-in and answer any questions. In other words, you’re not on your own. We’ll be here to guide you through it.

This cleanse can even double as a therapeutic diet — it may be something you choose to continue longer than the five days we have outlined. Along with consuming these nourishing foods, there are some basic ways to amplify the effects of the cleanse and detoxification process. For example, you can add lemon water, tongue scraping, dry brushing, and sweating–ideally through some movement practice, a sauna, or an infrared sauna. If this is sounding like something YOU want to explore and you are curious about this cleanse, give it a try!! This is a cleanse designed by a Certified Holistic Nutritionist - ME! (Laura) –however if you have any health concerns at all, you should check in with your doctor before beginning a cleanse of any kind.

The new year is always a great motivator for jumping into a cleanse to kick start some healthy habits, but really the best time is whenever you can make the space for it in YOUR LIFE. We hope this gave you some insight and inspiration for a healthy and abundant 2022!