After my mentions of my liver detox last week, I had a whole host of people asking me what it’s all about, and how it all works – so here you go!

Due to our unhealthy eating, drinking and generally bad lifestyle habits, our poor livers and gallbladders take quite a strain processing all the fatty food and alcoholic beverages we consume. I try to do the cleanse twice a year, but I am sure more often would be better (I would not do it more than once every two months – as it is quite strenuous and your body does need to repair afterwards.)

I select a day when I do not have to work the next day – so usually a Saturday is a good day, as you may feel a bit depleted or weak afterwards.

During the course of the day you have selected to do the detox – eat very light foods – no meat, no cheese, no milk. So I usually have a veg omelette or scrambled eggs for breakfast with some fruit, and a light salad with olive oil for lunch. Drink plenty of water.

At 4 pm i mix a tablespoon of Epsom salts with a little warm water and drink that down. (It does taste revolting – I keep a chewing gum stick on hand to clear my mouth afterwards)

Repeat at 6 pm and 8 pm. Do not drink or eat anything in-between – just the Epsom salt mixture.

At 10 pm mix half a cup of olive oil and half a cup of grapefruit juice and drink that. Go and lie down with a book or some series and go to sleep. (Your tummy will make bubbling sounds and you may feel nauseous – this is normal)

When you wake up in the morning you will need to go to the bathroom and your bowels will cleanse themselves, you may see many little green balls that look like pea’s – these are gall stones, and this is what you want to come out of your body, along with other toxins. You may get woken up earlier in morning before your alarm, depending on your body and how often you do these cleanses – but what needs to come out will.

Do another Epsom salt mix if you can, and about an hour afterwards I do a cup of hot water with a splash of lemon juice to start re-hydrating the body.

I usually follow this cleanse with a fruit detox for 3 days – nothing but fruits and fresh fruit juices. You can feel a bit wobbly, so over the holidays or possibly start on a Friday so that by Monday morning you are less wonky on your feet.

You will be surprised how much lighter you feel, and your tummy will be flatter too! Happy detoxing 🙂