The best order for cleansing is:

Colon Cleanse – essential to clear your gut first! Blessed Herbs makes some great kits that are easy to use.

Kidney Cleanse – Try filtered water with fresh lemon or lemon concentrate. Sweeten with maple syrup and spice with cayenne which is a great blood cleanser. Some people fast on this, but I don’t. 7 days should do it. People with lower back pain should definitely cleanse their kidneys!

Read on for more cleansing options

Parasite Cleanse – if you’ve got pets that might have worms, this one is good.

Liver Cleanse – I’ve read a lot about Liver Flushes and tried a few, but never felt any different after one so I assume that I didn’t need them. Some were difficult and uncomfortable. If you want to try one, this one’s not too bad: http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=886965. Milk thistle and apple juice are good for the liver. I prefer to drink lots of apple juice when in season and add a bit of Milk Thistle concentrate. (Available ant any Health Food store. I do this for about a week.

Lymph Cleanse -  dry brushing, alternating hot/cold showers or alternating between the sauna and a cold shower, walking, exercise – anything that get your circulation going. Your lymph system removes toxins from your blood, but doesn’t have a pump to move the fluid around. Keeping your fluid intake up helps keep lymph fluid thin.

There are many more cleanses, but these are the basics.

More on Colon Cleansing here.

Take a look at what you’re eating and cut out the junk, the processed food, the mystery meat, and the refined sugars and carbs. Read Dr. Weil’s books and website. Eat healthy, stay active, relax and enjoy life.

If you invest in your health by living a healthy lifestyle, you’ll look great, your skin will glow and you’ll save on fancy skin care products and doctor bills.

Another way to save money is to take care of your teeth. I’ve put quite a bit of information on this site about dental care. It’s based on how I have stopped boneloss, receding gums, brittle teeth, decay and hypersensitivity. For the past 3 years I have only had regular check ups with my dentist – no more gum treatments, root canals, fillings or extractions. More here…

Another great way to save money (and help the environment) is to stop buying bottled water. Get a water filter and enjoy the benefits of pure water on your health. I’ve saved a few old bottles in various sizes – I fill them up and have them with me when I’m out. More here…

Back to skin care… I was using coconut oil mixed with a bit of almond oil. Over time, I noticed my t-zone looking a bit unclear so I’m trying store products bought on sale, of course.

I still use coconut oil to massage around my eyes. It feels great and keeps the wrinkles away, which is just as much about the massage as it is about the oil! The massage technique is from the ‘Complete System of Self Healing: Internal Exercises’ by Stephen T. Chang.

Complete System of Self Healing: Internal Exercises

I do miss my Dermalift, but I feel better when I’m saving these days…

What has been life altering, are the breathing exercises and the introduction to Chinese Medicine. I have since had acupuncture and herbal treatment for menopause symptoms which has worked a dream and which I can recommend. I just went to one of those chinese doctors (a husband and wife team) in a shopping mall. They were fantastic.

I have also found a book called the ‘Complete System of Self Healing: Internal Exercises’ by Stephen T. Chang. I had heard the the eye exercises were very good. I’ve needed reading glasses for a while, but this year I’ve needed glasses for driving and my night vision is also getting worse. I’ve been doing the eye exercises for about 7 weeks. My eyes feel much better. The exercises are great for tired eyes, after work or after a long drive. You can even do them while driving. If I’ve had any improvement with my vision, it has been very subtle, but the book does say you need to do them for 3 to 6 months.

Complete System of Self Healing: Internal Exercises

I’m also doing a few of the other internal exercises. They work with Chinese concepts like meridians and chi (energy or life force). They are easy to do and fit well with Dr Weil’s program.

Dr Weil has an online program which I may start when the weather gets a bit better.

The book is an excellent example of a sensible approach to healthy eating and living. Nothing new or ground breaking, but instead an approach that is easy to understand and follow. What I love about it is that it not about dieting. I have always believed that as soon as we start to diet and deprive ourselves of things we like to eat, we want them even more. What we resist persists!

Dr Weil promotes eating whole foods, getting moderate exercise and managing stress through breathing techniques. He also considers our spiritual side and suggests simple things like creating beautiful and orderly surroundings.

I’m in my first week and really enjoying it. What’s very different than what I have been doing over the last few years is his approach to supplementation. He doesn’t suggest taking high doses of supplements, but rather low to moderate doses based on research on how much our bodies are able to absorb.

He focuses heavily on cholesterol, but acknowledges a growing body of research showing that other factors such as triglycerides and inflamation are more likely to cause heart disease. He makes no mention of coconut oil or any other tropical oil, I suspect because they are saturated fats which he suggests keeping low (this is the one area where I disagree with him). I was very relieved to read his advice on poly-unsaturated vegetable oils – don’t eat them – throw them away and use olive oil instead.

Dr Weil is also a proponent of drinking filtered tap water for the same reasons we outline on out water page.

I’m looking forward to my eight weeks. The breathing exercises are a revelation and I am learning more about the power we have to heal ourselves.

Eight Weeks to Optimum Health, Revised Edition: A Proven Program for Taking Full Advantage of Your Body’s Natural Healing Power