Author: Lily Mazzarella
Dear Spring Cleansers,
The 21 Days of Inspiration blog posts for your Spring Cleanse are wrapping up. Our virtual and local community’s response to The Seasonal Cleanse outstripped my expectations—dozens and dozens of you bravely dived in and participated on every level of the cleanse. And you reaped the benefits. You’ve expressed your gratitude, and given us fantastic feedback.
It’s the perfect time to highlight The Takeaways—important principles about this season’s body system focus (Liver/Gallbladder). I also want to share some of the feedback we’ve received here at Farmacopia.
But first, a moment of silence for your liver.
As you learned on this cleanse, your liver is toiling ceaselessly. Among its many other duties, your liver:
- is working to stabilize your blood sugar by packaging excess glucose into triglycerides, and creating new glucose on demand in a complex process called gluconeogenesis.
- is screening your blood constantly and detoxifying compounds found in everything from broccoli, to alcohol, solvents, and OTC and prescription meds.
- is helping to keep your hormones balanced by metabolizing your estrogen and cortisol, and converting inactive thyroid hormone to the kind that’s active at the cell.
- is producing bile, which is essential for both fat digestion, bowel motility, and is a route of elimination for many toxins and metabolic waste products.
- is speaking to various parts of your body—it has a direct line to the skin, the lymph system, the brain, and the gut. An inflamed or otherwise disgruntled liver shows up in these areas with outbreaks, sluggishness, brain fog, depression, and irritability, and GI distress.
And now you’ve had the experience of giving it some concerted attention and love. What happened? In our next post, Maintenance, we’ll look at which foods and substances you may wish to periodically take breaks from, as well as which foods and herbs nourish your hepatobiliary system (artichoke, anyone?! Turmeric paste? I don’t mind if I do).
And your gallbladder! Perhaps you began the cleanse knowing that you have a history of gallbladder dysfunction or “sludge,” or you’ve passed gallstones in the past. You felt the benefits of regular support in keeping this muscular little organ moving—and fully emptying—daily. Or perhaps you never thought of yourself as someone with gallbladder problems but felt your digestion and overall energy improve drastically with the diet, and use of bitter herbs (like Farmacopia’s GB Bitters, or Artichoke Water). Now you know what it feels like to pay attention to this part of your body.
You Have Spoken
I’m thrilled to share feedback I’ve gotten from Spring Cleansers so far:
“I haven’t slept this well in years!”
“My cravings went away.”
“I lost 2 inches around my waist.”
“I felt terrible for the first 2 days, then I was on fire! I had more energy than I can remember having.”
“I needed to eat some extra protein at lunch.”
“I found out sugar gives me anxiety and messes with my sleep.”
“I can’t believe I gave up coffee!”
“I realized how tired I really am.”
“I’m so much less irritable. Not eating lunch ever, and sometimes just eating my kids’ cereal for breakfast really wasn’t working for me. My family is really grateful! I “thought I didn’t have time to take care of myself…but really I was caught in a tension cycle that made me less efficient.”
“My period was sooo much easier this month.”
“I love the Emerald Soup!”
“I found out I can’t eat dairy.”
“I’m eating so many more vegetables.”
“Broth gives me energy.”
“I’m so proud of myself!”
How did it feel to give your liver and gallbladder all this support in their detox and metabolic duties? What benefits did you feel specifically? What was hardest about the cleanse for you, and why? Was it still hard by the end?
Please share your cleanse story with us. We’d love to hear it.
Three ways to get in touch:
- Leave your comment below
- Like us on Facebook & post your comment on your wall. Use #theSeasonalCleanse & #farmacopia
- Review us on Yelp!
Cheers,
Lily
The post The Takeways appeared first on Farmacopia.