I’m not usually into doing “cleanses” – I am pretty healthy in my eating habits, and I don’t fancy the idea of having to severely restrict my usual habits and/or go away somewhere to do it. I don’t drink alcohol, smoke or eat too many sweets, so it’s never really seemed necessary to do a full-on cleanse. That being said, I was pretty intrigued by Dr. John Douillard’s “Colorado Cleanse (it’s called the Colorado Cleanse because Dr. Douillard’s Life Spa retreat center is, as you may have guessed, in CO.) ” I have great respect for Dr. Douillard, who is one of this country’s leading Ayurvedic doctors. Having been into the yoga world for almost 2 decades, I’ve learned a fair amount about Ayurvedic medicine, and many of the philosophies involved, make a lot of basic sense to me. By the way, if you’ve ever dabbled in Ayurveda, which was India’s traditional medical system for thousands of years, you’ll know what body type (aka dosha,) you are. I am a full-on Vata – among other things, this means that I feel the cold and need lots of sleep, soothing rituals, meditation and yoga. Running marathons and caffeine aren’t good bedfellows with a Vata constitution.
Anyway, suffice to say that Dr. John has helped me on numerous occasions with minor health issues that just couldn’t be solved by conventional medicine.
The “Colorado Cleanse” is a mini-Ayurvedic boot camp, where you cleanse your liver and re-boot your digestive system. Not averse to the idea of spring-cleaning my liver, I thought I’d give it a whirl.
A box arrived containing everything I needed: numerous bottles of herbs, a book, a jar of ghee, packets of Khichari (more on that in a bit,) and even a bottle of soothing massage oil – that’s one of the many things that I love about this cleanse, Dr. Douillard makes it so simple. Moreover, when you sign-up you will get daily emails and a weekly call with the doc himself, where he answers burning questions.
The book is absolutely brilliant, and by the end of the 2 weeks, it was almost falling apart. It goes into deep detail on the whys and wherefores of the cleanse, and provides step-by-step guidance, recipes, resources and more. If you read the book properly, you won’t have many questions. It also comes with a DVD, which shows you the yoga poses and all kinds of other useful visuals.
I’m not going to say I loved the 2-week experience because it was extremely challenging. To be on a mono-diet is not my thing – despite the fact that many indigenous cultures still eat this way. I didn’t enjoy depriving myself of my usual goodies, however, it was a great character-builder.
Perhaps the most transformative aspect of this cleanse is not so much the physical cleansing, but the emotional cleansing. When we are steered away from out default-eating patterns, something deep down inside, unleashes. Many “cleansers” experience anger, sadness, irritation, and even deep grief. The 2-week process definitely brings up “stuff”.
The first few days are the pre-cleanse, where you eat an extremely clean diet – preparing your body for the main cleanse (absolutely zero fat, sugar, dairy, wheat etc). This got me to be quite creative in my kitchen. I generally eat a pretty clean diet, but going without oils was the biggest challenge for me. I typically eat a lot of salads and use copious amounts of beautiful olive oil, so that was a big adjustment.
During the main cleanse, you are basically on a complete mono-diet, where you eat 3 meals a day of Kichari – a white basmati rice and split mung bean mix. It’s actually delicious – a soothing and complete food (baby food in India, apparently.) However, 3 meals of a day of this??? There are cleanse options: 1 thu 4 – 4 being the easiest because you can add a little fruit and/or steamed veggies to your rice – wahoo!!! I picked option 4. Dr. Douillard suggests that you pick the option that best suits you. For those who don’t need to lose any weight, Option 4 is suggested, however, if you want to shed the pounds – stick with Option 1.
This is not a “weight-loss” cleanse, although you will shed some pounds if you need to. It’s primarily a digestive cleanse, where your body will be coaxed into burning fats more efficiently. The main part of the regimen is a quite a lot more restrictive, but very doable. During the main cleanse, we were required to drink hot ghee every morning – sound gross, I know, but wasn’t too awful. I mixed mine with coconut milk. At the end of this week, the mega purge takes place where you go to bed having consumed the requisite castor oil. Suffice to say that your entire system will be totally cleansed – and I’m talking squeaky clean!!
I highly recommend this cleanse for anyone who has digestive issues. I love that you get guided through it with notes on exercise and meditation.
Panchakarma is a traditional Ayurvedic rejuvenating (more so than cleansing,) practice that is typically done twice a year. Typically, you are required to either go away for a retreat because it requires a good deal of commitment. If you haven’t got time for that (and really, who has?), this 2-week package is a brilliant thing.
An Ayurvedic cleanse is recommended to be done in both the spring and the fall. So if you feel a cleanse coming on, check out the next guided Colorado Cleanse, which starts in April.
