By Ann Louise Gittleman, Experience Life

As noted in Fast Track Liver Detox: Part One, the liver is an amazing organ that chemically breaks down all the nutrients and toxins that enter your body. When the liver is clogged and overwhelmed with toxins, it can’t do a very effective job of processing nutrients and fats. The upshot: The more toxic your body becomes, the more difficulty you’ll have losing weight and keeping it off. To keep this overachieving organ in optimal shape, challenge yourself to complete the three-part Fast Track Liver Detox. For Part One, click here.

Part Two: One-Day Juice Fast
The one-day juice fast portion of the Fast Track Detox is designed to flush impurities from your liver and other cellular tissues while supporting your general health and energy.

While I do not advocate water fasts, or even long-term juice fasts, decades of professional clinical experience and research have convinced me that healthy, short-term juice fasting — the kind supported by adequate nutritional preparation for the liver and sufficient fiber for the colon — is probably the best-kept secret around for good health, long-term weight loss and an overall feeling of well-being.

By reducing the amount of work your digestive system has to do, you free up a great deal of energy for healing and regeneration. And while you will be limiting your caloric intake for one day, it is not an extended enough period to suppress your metabolism or set off a starvation response. In fact, every ingredient of the one-day juice detox has been specially chosen to stave off hunger, balance your blood sugar, rev up your metabolism, and keep you feeling fit, energized and trim throughout your fasting day.

Here’s the basic protocol you should follow for your One-Day Juice Fast, and some idea of what you might experience during the detox process. (Keep in mind that the effects and results will vary from person to person.)

Before you conduct your One-Day Juice Fast, make sure you have completed the Seven-Day Prequel. Then, follow these four steps:

1. Prepare the Detoxing Juice (for complete recipe and preparation instructions, see my book The Fast Track Detox Diet):

• Cranberry water: unsweetened cranberry juice or unsweetened cranberry juice concentrate diluted with filtered water (be sure to use 100 percent pure, unsweetened cranberry juice that has no sugar, corn syrup or other juices added)
• Ground cinnamon
• Ground ginger
• Ground nutmeg
• Freshly squeezed orange juice
• Freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Stevia (a sweet-tasting herb that is widely available at natural foods stores) to taste

Directions:

1. Bring cranberry water to a light boil; reduce heat to low.
2. Place cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg into a tea ball; add to the cranberry water. (For a tangier juice, add the spices directly to the liquid.)
3. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes; cool to room temperature.
4. Stir in the orange and lemon juices. Add stevia at this time, if desired.

2. Alternate drinking 1 cup (8 ounces) of filtered water and 1 cup (8 ounces) of detoxing juice during the day. Drink at least 72 ounces of filtered water throughout the day, in addition to the detoxing juice. Make sure you drink at least a cup of liquid — either the detoxing juice or water — every hour. Begin the protocol when you wake up in the morning. You don’t have to begin at a specific time, but be sure to have eight glasses of detoxing juice in addition to the 72 ounces of water by day’s end.

3. Upon rising and at the end of the day, take one serving of a colon-caring supplement, chosen from among the following:

• Powdered psyllium husks (1 to 2 teaspoons mixed in 8 ounces of water or detoxing juice)
• Ground or milled flaxseeds (2 to 3 tablespoons mixed in 10 to 12 ounces of water or 8 ounces detoxing juice)

4. Engage in only light exercise — such as a 20-minute walk, mellow yoga or 10 minutes on an elliptical machine.

Part Three: The Three-Day Sequel
Fasting without follow-up support means that toxins released into your bloodstream during the fast may remain in your system, making you feel tired, anxious, headachy and fatigued. Skipping the three-day Sequel also sets you up to regain lost weight. So support your body’s natural detox process and seal in the results of your one-day juice fast by following these simple steps:

1. Each day, choose at least one of the following probiotic food sources to restore “friendly bacteria”:

• Sauerkraut (1/2 cup). You can either make your own or buy an organic, raw variety. Most store-bought sauerkraut is processed with heat, which kills the naturally occurring enzymes and microflora, so check the label carefully.
• Yogurt (1 cup). Whole-milk yogurt is fine (you can choose low-fat if you prefer), but look for plain, unsweetened yogurt with a label that reads “live, active cultures.”

2. Before each meal, take one or more tablets of hydrochloric acid in a formula that contains at least 500 to 540 milligrams of betaine hydrochloride with at least 100 to 150 milligrams of pepsin, and at least 50 milligrams of ox bile extract (such formulas are widely available at most health and nutrition stores and at many natural groceries).

3. In addition to the above, observe the steps of the Seven-Day Prequel.

Where to Go From Here
Once you’ve completed the Fast Track Detox as outlined here, I suggest that you ease back into normal eating by choosing nutritious, cooked foods that are easy to digest. Pay attention to the positive, dramatic impact that supporting your body’s natural detoxification systems can have on your overall health and well-being. Follow these basic detox suggestions, and I trust that you will feel lighter, happier and more excited about your body’s healthy potential than you have in years.

Next: Fast Track Detox Shopping List, plus When you Should NOT Fast