A Gentle 15-Day Ayurvedic Cleanse

There will usually be one dosha that is more out of balance than the others. Additionally, if your constitution is very high in one dosha, that dosha may go out of balance more frequently than the other two. Furthermore, when Vata is highly out of balance, even if other doshas are also out of balance, it can be beneficial to focus on Vata. Why is that? Vata governs movement and when it goes out of balance, it will almost surely take the other two doshas down with it! A great rule of thumb is that when Vata is highly out of balance, bringing Vata into balance is likely to begin bringing everything else into balance, too. A lot of people will find themselves focusing on pacifying Vata dosha especially during the Winter cleanse. 

Scrape your tongue before brushing. 

The practice of tongue scraping is a traditional part of Ayurveda that has made its way into modern day health care. It helps you check in with your body and notice how it's feeling each morning before starting the day. It tells if there are any signs indicating digestive problems or discomfort from food intake yesterday.

Any food that is made in a facility is processed. A can of soup, a box of cereal, a protein bar, mustard or ketchup from a squeeze bottle, etc. These are all processed foods. And then, some of the things that we cook with typically and might be easily missed are also processed foods. Wheat or grain flours are processed to be ground down into a flour. But we are saying to a certain degree that is ok, like using the brown rice farina or other "cream of wheat" kind of breakfast is OK.

You could use white rice if you wanted to. I chose brown rice for the additional fiber and other nutritional content. Quinoa is actually great for all three dosha types. If you felt strongly about having it with your congee or kitchari that would be OK. During Phase II, we’re just keeping it super simple. Brown rice and lentils are a classic combination and compliment each other well in our digestion. Millet is also complimentary if you are really itching to expand your grains during those 5 days.

You can have fruit during Phase II that is cooked. At this point, we all want to start turning away from raw fruits and vegetables toward cooked fruits and vegetables. During Phase II nothing raw. But feel free to have a whole apple or a whole pear (or both!) in your warm breakfast cereal. Or make some warm apple sauce. I love fruit, too. You could also put fresh berries in the warm breakfast cereal. But no heating up frozen fruits.

If you are still receiving your cycle on the date Phase II is intended to have ended, please continue with the Phase II foods until your cycle is over. You can resume a “normal” schedule of living and eating but don’t begin reintroducing foods until your cycle is complete. 

Our cycles are a big, beautiful, natural cleanse & purge for the body. We will want to wait to begin reintroducing until the body is finished. 

This is an important step. Just one teaspoon first thing in the morning with cumin and salt. 

I was terrified the first time I did it and was surprised to actually find it pretty yummy. 

Ghee flushes old bile from the body and stimulates the liver to make new bile so that old toxic bile that’s been floating around our system is not reabsorbed. 

That’s just one piece. There are other fat-soluble toxins that the ghee actually pulls from the cells of our internal organs. When we take the oil on the inside and the outside we are beginning the process of oleating all of our cells so that we can actually have a cleansing bowel movement down the line that is really clearing all that yuck from our system.

You should still use it with your sweet potato and farina! You can plug your nose OR if you are totally averse, you can use a teaspoon of warmed flax oil instead.

Normal exercise regimen in Phases I and III is ok! During Phase II, limit movement to light weightlifting or yoga without inversions. We’ll share some options during those five days for exercise for folks.