// Liver & Gall Bladder Cleanse
Recently I've been working on myself quite a bit, emotionally, moving a lot of old, stagnant emotions and thought patterns that don't serve me. But of course, with the emotional also comes the physical. I am a firm believer that our emotional and mental states have a huge effect on our physical states (and vice versa) so I knew that to get past certain things, I needed to incorporate some physical cleansing along with the emotional and mental. I've been eating really well and working out, trying to take care of my body and give it the extra love it deserves. I've also been doing some cleanses to flush out any build up of things from over the years. Initially, I was actually researching how to do a parasite cleanse but read somewhere that I should do a liver cleanse first so that is what I did. Although in my research after the liver flush, I read that you should do them the other way around so I don't necessarily recommend this order of cleanses.
Nonetheless, I definitely enjoyed (most) of this cleanse and highly recommend it! The fasting in particular was surprisingly refreshing, and I think I will incorporate more fasting into my life when I feel a need to do some purging. Overall though, this cleanse left me feeling so clean and light, like starting with a fresh new slate. Emotionally, I felt like there was so much baggage that I just released. I felt so peaceful and as if I had just let go of so much anger and negative emotion that I had been holding on to. And the physical releasing results (aka the gallstones coming out) was extremely satisfying. Guys, I got rid of HUNDREDS of gallstones that I had no idea I even had. I mean, I consider myself to be a fairly healthy person and this shocked me. I can't even imagine what it would look like for someone that eats more poorly than I.
After the fact, I've definitely noticed that my digestion has been pretty top notch. Even when I eat some not-so-healthy foods (it happens to the best of us). I've also been able to work past some emotional and mental issues that had been stumping me before. Plus I'm all ready for my parasite cleanse and am excited to see the results from that as well!
But anyways, here's what I did for my liver & gallbladder cleanse and my experience with the whole thing.
source.
I did a ton of research prior to this and I suggest you do the same! Here are some resources I found the most helpful:
Dr. Axe
Healing Daily
Wellness Mama- I followed this the most, the comments on this are particularly helpful too
Conscious Lifestyle Mag
And here is what I did:
// 1st 4 days
Eat: almost vegan diet, as little grains as possible. I ate a small amount of healthy meats and a tiny bit of dairy but mostly I ate a ton of fruit, veggies, and healthy fats. I didn't eat any gluten or processed sugars. I also ate a lot of garlic olives (healthy fats + garlic is good for your gut). And I put ground flax seeds in my morning smoothies to add extra fiber to my diet.
Drink: Colon cleanse tea 2-3 x per day (this is very important!)
1 L apple juice per day (to soften the gallstones)
Plenty of water, adding lemon is a plus
Maybe a nuun or emergen-c for electrolytes
Apple cider vinegar shots (optional, I didn't but I'd like to try next time)
Take: Activated charcoal 2-3 x daily to absorb toxins
Probiotics 1-3 x daily to increase gut health
// Day 4
Note: I changed the standard schedule because I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep earlier than 11. Do what's best for you. Also, make sure to stay hydrated throughout the day!! You can drink teas.
Morning-2:00 PM: eat light breakfast with no fat (helps to accumulate bile and put pressure on your liver)
2:00 PM: mix 4 tbsp epsom salt with 3 cups water, put in fridge to cool. DO NOT EAT AFTER 2
6:00 PM: drink 3/4 cup of epsom water mixture
8:00 PM: drink 3/4 cup epsom water mixture
11:00 PM: pour 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil into jar with 1-2 grapefruit's worth of juice (I only did one but didn't get much juice, next time I'll do two). Drink, use straw if helpful. Lay down immediately on your right side with your knee up. Stay still and try to sleep.
6:00 AM (or whenever you wake up): drink another 3/4 cup epsom water mixture.
8:00 AM (or two hours after you wake up): drink the last 3/4 cup epsom water mixture.
10:00 AM (or two hours after your last dose of epsom salt): you can start eating, start with liquids then slowly move to fruit and by dinner you should be fully recovered.
// Recovery
Eat: healthy, lots of fiber to make sure everything is out. Ground flax seeds are great!
Drink: Lots of water, keep hydrated always!
Maybe a detox tea to help remove any remaining stuff left in colon
Take: Probiotics to reboot your gut and make sure there is still healthy flora in there
// Colon Cleanse Tea
1 tbsp dandelion root
1 tbsp milk thistle
1 tbsp licorice root
1 tbsp senna
1 tbsp dried peppermint
slices of fresh ginger in each serving
// Experience
I really enjoyed the eating healthy beforehand. I noticed I was feeling really good. One thing I wish I would have done better these first 4 days was be really good about drinking my colon cleanse tea. I was not interested in getting an enema or colonics so this was my solution. I'll explain the importance of the colon tea later on.
The fasting on day 4 was challenging (for some reason, I could not get buffalo wings out of my head) but was actually very invigorating. That night, I felt SO peaceful and relaxed. I'm sure the epsom salt had a lot to do with that but my body just felt clean and decluttered. I didn't really expect to feel like that, I honestly thought I'd be so hangry and such a grouch, so that was a pleasant surprise.
The epsom salt water tastes DISGUSTING. Like bitter acid. It's very gross. I've heard you can take capsules and I think I'll try that next time. Also, by 8:00, I was on the toilet like every 10 minutes. Word to the wise, stay close to the bathroom and be gentle with your butthole (tmi?), by tomorrow you will have wiped so much that your poor butthole will be raw and begging for a break. It's kind of like when you are sick and have to blow your nose every 2 seconds. It's just a lot of rubbing and gets to be painful.
The evoo and grapefruit mixture however was actually not as repulsing as I thought it would be (I remember taking castor oil when I was pregnant and having to swallow it was the worst part so I was very apprehensive about this step). After drinking it, I felt fine and went to sleep.
So here comes the part where I start regretting not drinking more colon cleanse tea. At about 2 am, I woke up feeling HORRIBLE. I was so sick to my stomach and felt like I needed to throw up. I tried to keep it down and go back to sleep but after laying in bed in agony, for probably about an hour, I gave up. I went to the bathroom and started puking. It was horrible coming up. But so worth it, I felt immediate relief and was able to fall back asleep for a little bit. But at about 4, I woke up again and had to puke. This time, I was reaching an empty stomach and the last of it was just dry heaving. I felt better and went back to bed. And then about 30 minutes later, I woke up one last time to throw up and this one was the worst. I started throwing up this bright yellow, bitter, acid-y, slimy stuff that was just horrible. I knew it had to come out though, there was no way I could keep it in. My stomach needed it to be out and I listened. I'm so glad I did, because after that I did some research and I think what caused it was my lack of colon cleansing! I don't think that my colon was properly cleansed and so the bile my body was trying to purge was building up too much and overflowed back into my stomach! At which point my body tried to purge this bitter, yellow bile from my liver upwards instead of downwards. I was kind of afraid that throwing up would ruin the whole cleanse but at this point, I didn't really care. But it didn't anyways, so that's pretty cool.
After that last puking session, I was able to fall back asleep. I woke up a few times feeling a little queasy but nothing that kept me from falling back asleep again. I slept until about 10, I didn't feel quite well enough before then to wake up and drink the rest of the epsom salt/water mixture. And to be honest, I didn't know if I'd be able to. But at 10, I woke up and I drank my 3rd dose. It wasn't so bad and I went back to lay down.
At about 11, this is where the fun starts happening. After the epsom salt/water mixture starts kicking in and I have to go to the bathroom every couple of minutes again, I started seeing them! HUNDREDS of tiny green, floating, gallbladder stones. Like every time. There were so many. And this is when all of that suffering the night before starts being worth it. I kept this up through the next couple of hours. I was able to drink the 4th dose of the epsom salt/water mixture and by 3-4 I started getting food back in my body. I was completely exhausted at this point, mostly just laying in bed, netflixing. Walking kind of sucked so I avoided it. My nausea from the night before dissipated by about 1 pm. And by dinner, I was able to have those wings I had been thinking about for the past 24 hours! Probably not the most wise choice but man, I deserved it.
Besides feeling absolutely miserable in the middle of the night and puking for several hours, it was a pretty great experience. I didn't think I'd want to do it again but here I am, several weeks later, recalling this whole experience and thinking that maybe, sometime in the near future, I'll try it again! But I've got a parasite cleanse to do first! So we'll see.
Dr. Axe
Healing Daily
Wellness Mama- I followed this the most, the comments on this are particularly helpful too
Conscious Lifestyle Mag
And here is what I did:
// 1st 4 days
Eat: almost vegan diet, as little grains as possible. I ate a small amount of healthy meats and a tiny bit of dairy but mostly I ate a ton of fruit, veggies, and healthy fats. I didn't eat any gluten or processed sugars. I also ate a lot of garlic olives (healthy fats + garlic is good for your gut). And I put ground flax seeds in my morning smoothies to add extra fiber to my diet.
Drink: Colon cleanse tea 2-3 x per day (this is very important!)
1 L apple juice per day (to soften the gallstones)
Plenty of water, adding lemon is a plus
Maybe a nuun or emergen-c for electrolytes
Apple cider vinegar shots (optional, I didn't but I'd like to try next time)
Take: Activated charcoal 2-3 x daily to absorb toxins
Probiotics 1-3 x daily to increase gut health
// Day 4
Note: I changed the standard schedule because I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep earlier than 11. Do what's best for you. Also, make sure to stay hydrated throughout the day!! You can drink teas.
Morning-2:00 PM: eat light breakfast with no fat (helps to accumulate bile and put pressure on your liver)
2:00 PM: mix 4 tbsp epsom salt with 3 cups water, put in fridge to cool. DO NOT EAT AFTER 2
6:00 PM: drink 3/4 cup of epsom water mixture
8:00 PM: drink 3/4 cup epsom water mixture
11:00 PM: pour 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil into jar with 1-2 grapefruit's worth of juice (I only did one but didn't get much juice, next time I'll do two). Drink, use straw if helpful. Lay down immediately on your right side with your knee up. Stay still and try to sleep.
6:00 AM (or whenever you wake up): drink another 3/4 cup epsom water mixture.
8:00 AM (or two hours after you wake up): drink the last 3/4 cup epsom water mixture.
10:00 AM (or two hours after your last dose of epsom salt): you can start eating, start with liquids then slowly move to fruit and by dinner you should be fully recovered.
// Recovery
Eat: healthy, lots of fiber to make sure everything is out. Ground flax seeds are great!
Drink: Lots of water, keep hydrated always!
Maybe a detox tea to help remove any remaining stuff left in colon
// Colon Cleanse Tea
1 tbsp dandelion root
1 tbsp milk thistle
1 tbsp licorice root
1 tbsp senna
1 tbsp dried peppermint
slices of fresh ginger in each serving
// Experience
I really enjoyed the eating healthy beforehand. I noticed I was feeling really good. One thing I wish I would have done better these first 4 days was be really good about drinking my colon cleanse tea. I was not interested in getting an enema or colonics so this was my solution. I'll explain the importance of the colon tea later on.
The fasting on day 4 was challenging (for some reason, I could not get buffalo wings out of my head) but was actually very invigorating. That night, I felt SO peaceful and relaxed. I'm sure the epsom salt had a lot to do with that but my body just felt clean and decluttered. I didn't really expect to feel like that, I honestly thought I'd be so hangry and such a grouch, so that was a pleasant surprise.
The epsom salt water tastes DISGUSTING. Like bitter acid. It's very gross. I've heard you can take capsules and I think I'll try that next time. Also, by 8:00, I was on the toilet like every 10 minutes. Word to the wise, stay close to the bathroom and be gentle with your butthole (tmi?), by tomorrow you will have wiped so much that your poor butthole will be raw and begging for a break. It's kind of like when you are sick and have to blow your nose every 2 seconds. It's just a lot of rubbing and gets to be painful.
The evoo and grapefruit mixture however was actually not as repulsing as I thought it would be (I remember taking castor oil when I was pregnant and having to swallow it was the worst part so I was very apprehensive about this step). After drinking it, I felt fine and went to sleep.
So here comes the part where I start regretting not drinking more colon cleanse tea. At about 2 am, I woke up feeling HORRIBLE. I was so sick to my stomach and felt like I needed to throw up. I tried to keep it down and go back to sleep but after laying in bed in agony, for probably about an hour, I gave up. I went to the bathroom and started puking. It was horrible coming up. But so worth it, I felt immediate relief and was able to fall back asleep for a little bit. But at about 4, I woke up again and had to puke. This time, I was reaching an empty stomach and the last of it was just dry heaving. I felt better and went back to bed. And then about 30 minutes later, I woke up one last time to throw up and this one was the worst. I started throwing up this bright yellow, bitter, acid-y, slimy stuff that was just horrible. I knew it had to come out though, there was no way I could keep it in. My stomach needed it to be out and I listened. I'm so glad I did, because after that I did some research and I think what caused it was my lack of colon cleansing! I don't think that my colon was properly cleansed and so the bile my body was trying to purge was building up too much and overflowed back into my stomach! At which point my body tried to purge this bitter, yellow bile from my liver upwards instead of downwards. I was kind of afraid that throwing up would ruin the whole cleanse but at this point, I didn't really care. But it didn't anyways, so that's pretty cool.
After that last puking session, I was able to fall back asleep. I woke up a few times feeling a little queasy but nothing that kept me from falling back asleep again. I slept until about 10, I didn't feel quite well enough before then to wake up and drink the rest of the epsom salt/water mixture. And to be honest, I didn't know if I'd be able to. But at 10, I woke up and I drank my 3rd dose. It wasn't so bad and I went back to lay down.
At about 11, this is where the fun starts happening. After the epsom salt/water mixture starts kicking in and I have to go to the bathroom every couple of minutes again, I started seeing them! HUNDREDS of tiny green, floating, gallbladder stones. Like every time. There were so many. And this is when all of that suffering the night before starts being worth it. I kept this up through the next couple of hours. I was able to drink the 4th dose of the epsom salt/water mixture and by 3-4 I started getting food back in my body. I was completely exhausted at this point, mostly just laying in bed, netflixing. Walking kind of sucked so I avoided it. My nausea from the night before dissipated by about 1 pm. And by dinner, I was able to have those wings I had been thinking about for the past 24 hours! Probably not the most wise choice but man, I deserved it.
Besides feeling absolutely miserable in the middle of the night and puking for several hours, it was a pretty great experience. I didn't think I'd want to do it again but here I am, several weeks later, recalling this whole experience and thinking that maybe, sometime in the near future, I'll try it again! But I've got a parasite cleanse to do first! So we'll see.
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