is a familiar one: consuming lots of processed salt, fat, caffeine and sugar topped while popping daily handfuls of expensive nutritional supplements has caused a sort of schizophrenia about what constitutes good health and being healthy in Western culture.
That’s how I was living for the first 33 years of my life. A dairy eating, cigarette smoking, asthmatic who kept a fast acting inhaler on the night stand next to a pack of cigarettes!
The paradox with my health started in childhood. I grew up back in the “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” days when you were supposed to drink whole milk (straight from the carton), eat hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches with sliced American and whole toasted bagels with butter and Philly cream cheese.
A childhood asthma and allergy sufferer, I turned to sports in high school to combat my health challenges during his middle and high school years.
Over the next decade or so, things continued on a downward slope, I became more sedentary, nocturnal and addicted to the comforts of “bulletproof” Chinese take out, Micky Ds, Dominoes Pizza and whole milk on my cold cereal.
It wasn’t until 2002, at the less than tender age of 33, that I paid any attention to the declining state of my health. My mother’s breast cancer returning certainly played a humongous part. A year and a half later, in 2003, my 43-year old sister was diagnosed with breast cancer too.
Both mom and sis sought alternative medical treatments from licensed naturopath in addition to conventional oncology treatments.
A 4-week whole body detoxification was one of the alternative treatments.
I admit at the time I rejected all of this Northern California, touchy-feely-hoodu-guru (it was 2003 and I was raised in Boston), but I was stunned into hopeful silence when they both returned from the detoxing almost like a new women. Much of their physical weakness was gone.
They had more energy, more vitality, and despite the chemo therapy, they were almost like their old selves.
They were much stronger emotional forces working against them, but without a shred of doubt, the detox radically improved the physical quality of their lives which made their terrifying journey a whole more bearable.
Summer 2004
I wondered if detoxing would work for me?
I wasn’t sick like my mom or sister, but was definitely chunky and bloated to say the least (a steady diet of salt, fat and sugar made that possible). I used my asthma pump more than I should have. I had bad allergies, constipation and felt chunky and bloated all the time.
I was 33 years old. Inside I was desperate about my poor lifestyle choices in light of everything going on, but I was also scared to do anything about.
- Would I get sick from detoxing?
- Would I get explosive diarrhea?
I just didn’t know and considering what they were going through at the time, I didn’t dare ask my mom or sister.
So I went to work like a madman figuring this out. I took baby steps at first. I started eating organic food, tried acupuncture, colon cleansing and whole body detox, herbal medicine, liver flushes, the master cleanse diet, Kombucha tea, chiropractors, Abraham-Hicks and the power of the present moment. And my two year quest resulted in the most amazing research: a now-famous “detox guide” that’s shocked and delighted even some mainstream doctors…
I still go my regular doctor every January for a yearly check up. Fortunately, because I’ve done so much on my own to regain and maintain my personal health, we only see each other once a year.
I still eat “junk food” too. I like my skirt steak medium rare, an occasional Ketel One and cranberry cocktail or even a large pepperoni and mushroom pie with my beloved on a Saturday night. I can do this because I know that every six months without fail, I’ll be doing regularly scheduled maintenance on my body with a 7 or 14 day detox/internal cleansing program.
Funny, now that I’m officially “middle-aged” (born in 1968), I feel more like a kid. I’ve gotten better at integrating eastern, alternative and herbal medicine into my daily routine as a “regular” part of my everyday life.
“To feeling better right now!”
Researcher | Author | Holistic Health Coach
