The Secret to Great Health (Part II)

“I consider cleansing and detox dieting to be the missing link in Western nutrition and a key to the vitality of our civilization.”

—Elson M. Haas, M.D., author The Detox Diet

The majority of the world’s cultures use cleansing/detox as an integral part of their lifestyle.

Yet in the West, we don’t.

And so the U.S. is among the world’s leaders in rates of heart disease, cancer, stroke and a bevy of other degenerative illnesses.

It doesn’t take a genius to see the devastating effect our lack of cleansing has had on our culture.

Consider the lives lost.

The chronic pain and illness people live with every day.

The insane cost of medical procedures, prescription drugs and insurance.

The good news is that if you’re suffering in pain and reliant on doctors and drugs, there’s one way out.

If you will take action before it’s too late, you can completely improve your health and change your life.

I just completed the 9-day cleanse I mentioned last week.

The results:

Day 1 / Day 10 / Net

Weight: 178 lbs. / 175 lbs./ - 3lbs.
Body Fat: 11.1 % / 8.6 % / - 2.5 %
Body Water: 57.5 % / 61.6 % / + 4.1 %
Visceral Fat: 5 / 4 / - 1
Muscle Mass: 150.8 lbs. / 151.9 lbs. / + 1.1 lbs.
Physique Rating: 6.5 / 6.5 / -
Bone Mass: 7.8 lbs. / 7.8 lbs. / -
Metabolic Rate(DCI): 4005 calories/ 4016 calories / + 11 calories
Metabolic Age: 18 / 14 / - 4 years

Although I was happy with these results, they aren’t as dramatic as a typical person may have.

Overall, my lifestyle isn’t all that divergent whether I’m cleansing or not.

Unlike people who use cleansing occasionally as a healthy way to lose weight quickly, I’m committed to feeling my best all the time.

Anyway, I’d like to break down a few of the numbers so you get a sense of how important cleansing is – and the “miracles” it can do for you.

Weight: 175 (-3 lbs.)
I didn’t have much to lose, so I didn’t lose much. Amazingly, it’s not uncommon for people who are underweight to actually gain weight on a cleanse.

At my heaviest, I weighed 218. And when I first learned of this technology in 2004, my initial results were dramatic.

And if you have extra weight you’re carrying around, the results that you’ll get may be dramatic as well. In fact, losing 15 pounds over 9 days is fairly common with the people I’ve coached through a 9-day cleanse.

Body Fat%: 8.6 % (- 2.5 %)
Nice drop in fat really toned me up and has my muscles looking more defined.

Visceral Fat Rating: 4 (- 1)
An important rating. The healthy range is from 1 – 12. A rating between 13 – 59 indicates unhealthy levels. Visceral fat is the fat in your abdomen that surrounds your vital organs. (Note: It’s possible to have a low body fat rate and still have a high visceral fat level.) Visceral fat is important because it’s an indicator for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.

Body Water%: 61.6% (+ 4.1 %)
Notice that when your body water % goes up, your body fat % comes down (and vice versa). For people who want to lose weight, that’s just another benefit of drinking lots of water. The healthy range for men is 50 – 65 %. Women naturally have a little more body fat, so the healthy women’s range is 45 – 60 %.

Metabolic Rate (DCI): 4016 calories (+ 11 calories)
Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the minimum level of energy your body needs when at rest to function effectively, including your respiratory and circulatory organs, neural system, liver, kidneys and other organs. BMR is then used to calculate DCI (Daily Calorie Intake), an estimate of how many calories you can consume within the next 24 hours to maintain your current weight.

Metabolic Age: 14 (-4 years)
Metabolic Age calculates your BMR and indicates the average age of a person associated with that type of metabolism. Which explains why I can easily outwork someone 1/2 my age.

How you can achieve and maintain the metabolism of a teenager or 20-something is one of the themes of this blog.

We’ll also discuss anti-aging secrets, weight loss and a whole lot more.