Week 1

Week 1: We started drinking a cup of lukewarm lemon water with cayenne pepper every morning when first waking up, on an empty stomach. (I do not give my kids lemon and cayenne water for obvious reasons, however, I do freeze peeled lemon wedges and stick them in their water bottles instead of ice cubes. They bring a water bottle with them every day to school.)

frozen lemons

Cayenne and lemon are two of the top six alkaline foods (others include root vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens & garlic). An acid body is a magnet for sickness, disease, cancer and aging. Eating more alkaline foods helps shift your body’s pH and oxygenates your system. Alkaline foods keep your body healthy and functioning correctly, preventing and combating cancer. Cancer cannot thrive in an alkaline environment.

“It is important to note that we can not tell which foods are acid or alkaline by taste alone. For example, an organic lemon that is ripe tastes acidic, and will add a nice acidic base to salad dressings, but is actually alkaline-forming in the body, as its high concentration of alkaline minerals has an overall alkalizing effect. Lemon juice promotes the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach (a great thing), and its acids are oxidized into carbon dioxide and water, which keep it from acidifying our systems. We want to consume alkaline-forming foods in abundance and make our bodies more alkaline, which will help keep us vibrant and beautiful, full of youth-inducing oxygen, and mentally calm and peaceful. Acidity is associated with a hard, lined face, wrinkles, disease, toxicity, low energy, a bleak outlook on life, and depression. We simply have more life force when we are alkaline! Fruits that are ripe are alkaline-forming. Organic fruits are the most alkaline, because they are grown in mineral-dense soil. Most fruits that are not ripe are acid-forming. Therefore, only eat fruit that is ripe!” – KimberlySnyder.net

Vani Hari, a.ka. “Food Babe” has been one of my primary inspirations to transform my families eating habits. She investigates the food we eat on a daily basis and explains, in great detail, why it is not good for us. She is very inspiring and I highly suggest following her blog at www.foodbabe.com. Drinking warm lemon and cayenne water was the first change we made in our eating lifestyle and it was based on a newsletter I received from Food Babe. The letter contained the following information:

Drinking this every morning provides a super stimulant to the liver, your main detoxifying organ in the body. Your liver will release uric acid and create bile to safely eliminate environmental and lifestyle toxins that would otherwise be trapped in your digestive system longer. Keeping your liver and digestive system clean and in optimal condition will help your body prevent diseases like cancer in the future. Combining cayenne with lemon increases the detoxifying effect and raises the temperature of your body, thus increasing your metabolism. Drinking this combination will cleanse your body every single day safely and naturally, and your vitality will increase.

Lemone Cayenne

  • Store your organic lemons in the fridge – organic ones will last longer because they do not contain fungicide like conventional lemons.  Each night take a lemon out of the fridge for use the next morning — it is much easier to get the juice out of a warm lemon.
  • Remember not to squeeze your lemon directly into boiling water, you will destroy the live enzymes in the lemon. This is why we use half of water at room temperature and half hot water.
  • Using a stainless steer juicer will allow you to get most of the juice from the lemon and is much easier on your hands too.~ Information provided by: http://foodbabe.com.

Squeeze half a lemon and add a pinch of cayenne to a glass of 8oz warm water. Again, make sure the water is not hot because the heat will destroy the live enzymes in the lemon.

When I first presented the lemon & cayenne water to my husband, he thought the idea was “gross”; he then tried it and thought it was okay, not great, just okay.  He now enjoys it and asks for it if I forget to make it for him.  When we go on trips we throw some lemons and Cayenne in our suitcase. We use the Norpro Stainless-Steel Citrus Juice Press to squeeze the lemon — we split a lemon every morning — each cup gets half a lemon.  Do not use artificial lemon juice, as it is often filled with additional chemicals you want to avoid.  Use real lemons, your body will thank you!

We also started a 10-12 hour fast every day:

It takes at least 8 hours for your body to completely digest it’s meals from the day. If you add in another 4 hours to that time without introducing more food to digest, the body actually goes into detoxification mode and has more time to remove dead and dying cells from the body. During this “idle” time, the body also stimulates the development and regeneration of new cells. Aging occurs when we have more cells die than are being produced. Allowing your body sufficient time every single day to digest, eliminate dying cells and develop new cells is a habit that will get you closer to drinking straight out of the fountain of youth!
~ Information provided by: http://foodbabe.com.

According to ayurveda (a system of traditional medicine native to the Indian subcontinent and a form of alternative medicine), the body is programmed to direct its energy toward cleansing and assimilation in the hours just before midnight, when agni (digestive fire) is weakest. To support this process, ayurvedic physicians recommend refraining from late-night snacks and going to bed around 10 p.m. By fasting for 12 hours every night—between dinner and breakfast (7 p.m. to 7 a.m., for example)—you free your body from the burdens of meal-related digestion so it can conduct mental, emotional, and cellular cleansing in a more concentrated way.
~ Information provided by: www.himalayaninstitute.org

You will feel better and your body will function better if your digestive system is given the opportunity to properly cleanse itself. This fast did not take a lot of adjusting to our schedule. We put off breakfast for 1/2 hour and shifted our dinner schedule to a little later in the evening (we used to eat at 5:00  PM, now we eat around 6:30 PM), but those were the only adjustments we needed to make a the 12 hour fast work. This also make us aware of our eating schedule.

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“When you know better, you do better.”

10 thoughts on “Week 1

  1. What can I drink during the day. Coffee at 9am? Lemonade during the day? Lemonade through out the day? Then what for dinners? I have done none of this and really want to be healthier and lose 30 pounds. Had 5 heart attacks and it’s important for me to finally do something about my weight….. thank you….. Dick

  2. I want to try this lemon/cayenne water. However, I take a thyroid pill as soon as I get up each morning. Do you know if there would be any interference with the thyroid med adsorption should I drink the lemon/cayenne water with the pill?
    Thanks, Terry

    • Hi Terry,

      That would be a great question for your doctor. I am not a doctor and do not feel comfortable providing feedback.

      Thanks!
      Julie

  3. Hi Julie,

    In my research I learned that if a food label lists sugar as an ingredient that it may be sugar made from beets which could be gmo. If the sugar is listed as cane sugar or evaporated cane sugar it should be safe as I don’t believe any cane sugar is gmo at this time based on my research. If the sugar is listed as “organic sugar”. I believe it’s gmo free because organic labeling requires that the ingredient be free of gmo. Although unless it says 100% organic, it may not totally be organic.
    Check out the USDA criteria for organic labeling.

  4. I am curious as to why you recommend organic lemons for this? I understand if you are using a juicer and put the peel in, but is it really necessary if you are just squeezing the lemon? Looking at changing our eating habits, but also trying to mitigate costs.

  5. Pingback: A Real Food Beginning | Whole Food. Real Food. Good Food.

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