I’ve recently discovered that I’m pretty lactose intolerant (sigh, I love ricotta and mozzarella and the list of fresh chmoosy cheeses goes on). This had been giving me a bit of bloating, skin blemishes and general digestive discomfort for many years without my ever really knowing what it was. I think my daily yoga practice, which always includes so many inversions (the sarvangasana cycle and, of course, my beloved sirsasana and cycle, which results in about 45 minutes of inversions daily), really did keep any stomach pains to the bare minimum despite my pretty severe lactose intolerance, but it did show up on my skin at regular intervals and I was one of those people who “just have bad skin” and sometimes felt bloated (which all women experience from time to time). I should probably have realised it sooner, seeing that with a vegetarian diet and daily yoga practice, plus many hours of teaching yoga, I should have had radiant skin. But, I’m not one for much overdue ado about aches and pains, so I never thought of checking up on it. Needless to say, after just a week of not eating any lactose, I feel amazing. However, I thought “this is the next step in my yoga journey, so I am going to go all the way and take this as a push from the universe to go back to being completely vegan, and practising more shatkarma (yogic cleansing)”. So, I brushed off my recipes for cleansing drinks and diets, my pure vegan recipes, and put myself on a cleanse for the next few months so as to lose the toxins and excess water which have no doubt developed over the years from my lactose intolerance. The results have been amazing, and I feel so great, more toned, much lighter, and my skin is already much cleaner. So, for those of you who would like to cleanse and detox, lose excess fats, tone the skin, and stimulate the lymphatic system, here are a few of my recipes in this new series of posts on “Cleansing the body”.
These two drinks are great for losing excess water, cleansing and toning the body, losing weight (if combined with the correct diet, which will be my next post), and stimulating the lymphatic system.
Lets start with the Yogi Detox Drinks:
Version 1
3 Litres of water
2 cucumbers
the juice from 1/2 a lemon
a stick of fresh mint
Peel the cucumbers, place them in a blender with 2 cups of the water and the lemon juice. Blend well. Pour the mixture into a large bottle with the remaining water and the mint. Drink a cup of this every 45 minutes throughout the day. Start drinking it in the morning before your breakfast and finish it throughout the day, taking your last cup of it at night before bed.
Version 2 (the stronger one)
3 Litres of water
2 tsp ginger powder (or 3 pieces of fresh gingers)
2 tbsp goji berries
2 cucumbers
the juice of 1/2 a lemon
Place all the ingredients into a blender with 2 cups of water and blend thoroughly, then pour the mixture into a large jug with the remaining 3 litres of water. Drink a cup every 45 minutes and finish it throughout the day.
I recommend starting with version 1 for a week daily. Then, after your body has begun the cleansing process, combine the two versions by alternating them: one day drink up version 1, and the next day version 2 and so on for two weeks. It’s best to take the drink with you to work, keep it in front of you on your desk and finish it before you get home in the evening. You may feel the need to go to the bathroom a lot (really a lot), but that’s good, it means your body is cleansing itself from within.
My Beloved Yogi Ji once said — “Yoga is nothing more than a cleansing: a cleansing of the body with yama, niyama, asana and pranayama, a cleansing of the mind with pratyahara, dharana and dhyana, and finally, when the mirror of the body and mind become clean, the purity of the soul can be reflected from this mirror and shine brightly.”