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Kirsten Hartvig ND, MNIMH, DipPhyt is a medical herbalist, naturopath, nutritionist, writer, and author of 14 books on herbs and plant foods as medicine. She specialises in food as medicine. Kirsten has analysed hundreds of diets over the years, and has worked out as many personal treatment plans. She is also a keen botanist, cook and herb gardener; and director of The Healing Garden - the physic garden in the Biodynamic Botanic Garden at Emerson College.
This workshop is an invitation to join me in a spring detox or fast that can be adjusted to your personal circumstances. It is also a chance to do a guided detox during the time of year when it is easiest: During Lent. We start slowly and take one day at a time. Each person follows their own monitored pattern.
The Detox consists of a series of simple steps. You take one at a time and you can decide to remain at each step or go further as you wish, and your fat reserves allow.
And remember, it is a time to be good to yourself and your body, by giving yourself time to rest and regenerate.
Lent starts with Ash Wednesday, the first day of fasting, and lasts for 40 days until Easter. In all the various versions of Lent, the tradition is to abstain from eating rich foods containing meat, dairy, eggs and sugar. Apart from simplifying ones diet during Lent, it is also a time to become a better person, for example by letting go of a bad habit or doing something that reinforces a spiritual connection.
Whether you call it Lent or spring detox, it is a time for cleansing and rejuvenation, spiritual as well as practical. In nature, the early spring is the time where everything starts to reawaken. Green sprouts and flowers suddenly appear, the light grows stronger, and so does our need for renewal. It is time for new life and new beginnings. Nature serves many free detoxifying foods at this time of year – green shoots filled to the brim with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other phytonutrients – to renew and recharge our batteries and free us from the grip of winter.
At this time there is a natural urge to go on a diet and get rid of the winter fat, have a good clear out in house and garden, as well as body and mind, getting ready for the return of the summer sun.
From the earliest times the lean season has been a time of cleansing and detoxification. By abstaining from the normal amount of calories, the body has a chance to use up the fat reserves that have been gathered through the winter, which is a good idea since fat reserves also store waste and toxins.
