How to do a Gentle Spring Cleanse

After a long winter, the arrival of Spring feels like a brand new beginning.  However, the long nights, cold days, and holiday celebrations during the winter season often lead to less movement and extra indulgence, leaving the body feeling sluggish and lethargic come Springtime.  This is why Spring is the perfect season to do a gentle cleanse to reawaken the body, increase energy levels, remove stagnation, and support optimal digestive health.

Often, cleanses are considered to be challenging and restrictive, with a limited number of ‘allowed’ foods, and very strong herbs that leave us feeling sick for the first few days.  But we don’t need to reduce food intake or go to any extreme measures to support natural detoxification in a gentle and loving way.  The type of cleanse we’re talking about is more sustainable, focuses on abundance, and leaves you feeling nourished instead of depleted.

We hope these recommendations help you feel inspired to incorporate a gentle cleanse this spring season.

Focus on whole foods

One of the most supportive ways to cleanse the body is by incorporating an abundance of whole foods, straight from nature!  Think lots of dark leafy greens like kale, arugula, and chard, nutrient-packed microgreens, antioxidant-rich fruits and berries, anti-inflammatory oils such as extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds, fiber-filled legumes, starchy root vegetables like squash and sweet potato, and a variety of whole grains.  Add turmeric and ginger to cooking for additional anti-inflammatory properties.

Spring is an excellent time to incorporate smoothies and fresh-pressed vegetable juices, colourful salads, and more raw foods into the diet.  Come into Roberts Creek Well-being to shop our selection of local microgreens, fresh produce, canned and dried beans, organic grains, and organic cooking oils.

Consider temporarily eliminating common food sensitivities and pro-inflammatory foods, such as gluten, refined sugar, dairy, inflammatory oils like canola and sunflower, and processed foods.

Up your liquids

Staying hydrated is key to supporting regular elimination.  Add a squeeze of lemon and pinch of sea salt to room temperature water in the morning to promote gentle detoxification, and carry around a large water bottle to help you stay hydrated. We love Prairie Naturals Morning Rise and Shine mineralizing lemon and aloe drink mix to help balance the body’s pH in an easy and delicious way! A new favorite in the shop is Noorish Sunshine in a cup honey. This ayurvedic honey contains anti inflammatory ingredients such as turmeric, clove, cardamom, ginger, cayenne, black pepper and more! We love it in tea or hot water.

To further increase hydration, we recommend adding Trace Concentrace Drops to your water. Sourced from ocean water, this natural electrolyte solution contains a perfect balance of over 70 trace minerals to remineralize and restore nutrition to overly processed and nutritionally void water. 

Water quality is important too, since unfiltered tap water contains a variety of chemicals and synthetic hormones.  Consider investing in a Santevia Water Filter to ensure the water you’re drinking is of the highest quality!

Utilize gentle herbs

In the Springtime, we love herbs like nettles and dandelions, which naturally grow wild this time of year.  Aside from foraging your own to create teas, infusions, and delicious herbal stir-frys and salads, considering trying some of the following herbal supplements:

• Harmonic Arts Herbal Bitters to support digestion before meals
• Replace coffee with Dandy Blend (a roasted herbal coffee alternative made with liver-loving herbs like dandelion and chicory) or a cup of Traditional Medicinals Roasted
  Dandelion Root Tea.

Nettle infusions are a wonderful way to increase hydration and supply the body with important minerals.  Learn how to make a nettle infusion here!

For a little stronger herbal support:

Focus on Gut Health

A healthy gut is key to supporting natural detoxification. In order to rid the body of unwanted impurities, our elimination pathways must be working properly — and having a bowel movement 1-3 times per day is a good place to start! The following tips promote good gut health and support optimal digestion and elimination:

• Seal the Intestinal Lining — Alcohol, processed foods, and toxins from daily life can damage the gut lining, resulting in symptoms like bloating, constipation or diarrhea, increased food sensitivities, eczema, acne, fatigue, brain fog, and more!  Heal and seal the gut lining with ingredients like L-glutamine, marshmallow root, aloe Vera, and slippery elm bark. We recommend Healthology Gut-FX powder, which contains all of these gut nourishing herbs along with probiotics to repair the intestinal lining.  
• Introduce a probiotic — Probiotics are healthy microorganisms that colonize the gut with good bacteria. Garden of Life Once Daily is an excellent daily probiotic supplement that contains a blend of well-researched probiotic strains to support overall wellness. 
• Gently stimulate the bowels — having less than one easy to pass, fully formed bowel movement per day is considered constipation. During a cleanse, regular elimination is more important than ever, since you’ll want to ensure all those toxins that you’re purging have somewhere to go. Healthology Go-Lax Bowel Formula gently stimulates the intestines using a formulation of magnesium and herbs to relieve occasional constipation and aid in colon cleansing. 

Incorporate a greens supplement

Chlorophyll is a natural compound found in green plants that neutralizes toxins, reduces inflammation, and supports digestion.  High concentrations of chlorophyll can be found in sea algaes and greens supplements like Prairie Naturals Chlorella, Prairie Naturals Spirulina, House of Origins Nourishing Green Tincture, Harmonic Arts Green Powder Blend, Organic Traditions Super Greens, and Land Art Liquid Chlorophyll.

Sweat out the toxins

Sweating is key to releasing toxins and energizing the body.  Incorporate some form of daily movement that you love, move your body in nature as much as possible, and utilize hot baths (with epsom salts!), saunas, and steam rooms when available.  Just make sure you’re staying extra hydrated!

Cleanse your mind

Cleansing isn’t just about detoxifying the physical body – it’s also about supporting emotional and spiritual well-being, detoxifying the mind of negative thought patterns, and purging any habits that no longer serve you.  Use this time to remove unsupportive technology such as social media and tv, set energetic boundaries with negative people, and free up space to meditate, journal, do inner-child healing, be in nature, practice gratitude, use affirmations, and read supportive spirituality and self-development books – we have a wide selection here at Roberts Creek Wellbeing. <3

Consider a cleanse kit for additional support 

If you’re interested in going beyond a ‘gentle cleanse’, the following cleanse kits can add an extra layer of detoxification support: