79: The Equinox Detox
It’s almost fall and we’re about to do a 3-day detox in The Christian Health Club! It’s historically traditional in both holistic medicine and the liturgical calendar to honor the transition of the seasons with a quarterly physical and spiritual check-in.
In this week’s podcast we’re talking about targeting seasonal detoxes to align with solar cycles and Ember Days plus outlining a simple detox you can put into practice.
EPISODE 79: The Equinox Detox
SHOW NOTES
(0:00) Intro
Welcome back to the club!
We’re almost into the fall season and we’re about to do a short 3-day detox in the CHC group.
It’s actually quite traditional historically to time detoxes or cleanses according to the seasonal calendar. I’m working these seasonal detoxes into the Christian Health Club calendar so that we can intentionally do them together as the seasons change.
(2:30) Ember Days, Fasting, and Abstinence:
I was inspired by something I read about in the book Eat Fast Feast called Ember Days.
Author Jay W Richards advised us to get more in tune and aligned with the liturgical calendar which is the church calendar which encompasses the different seasons and events that as Christians we recognize and honor throughout the year.
As Jay W Richards remarked in his book - most churches have discontinued a lot of these traditional disciplines
Orthodox church comes to mind as being the most active in an annual calendar of honoring abstinence, fasts and feasts. When I say abstinence, I’m talking in relation to food. There’s a difference between totally fasting from food and temporarily abstaining from food.
Some denominations abstain from meat on certain days. If you haven’t listened to the podcast interview I did with Cynthia Damaskos of Holistic Christian Life we talk about the Orthodox calendar of abstinence and fasting - it’s very interesting and fascinating. Listen in here!
For many of us There’s no church requirement or even generally speaking there’s no Christian obligation that we HAVE to practice these fasting and abstinence disciplines.
We’re not better people if we feast, fast or abstain - these “works” do not get us into Heaven but they can certainly help us here on Earth - in our health, in our relationship with the Lord and that’s why I’m with Jay W Richards here - let’s get synced back up in spirit, mind and body with these traditional disciplines and church calendar.
Like I said My goal is to get into a cyclical rhythm in The Christian Health Club where we come to expect and practice some of these disciplines like seasonal detoxes as part of our regular annual routine of spiritual and physical health maintenance.
(6:00) Equinoxes and Solstices:
We are about to do a short, simple 3-day detox in the CHC near the fall equinox which falls around September 22nd. Each season of the year is marked by the relation of the Earth to the sun.
Seasons of the Earth change because the planet is slightly tilted on its axis as it travels around the sun. Therefore, different parts of the Earth receive more or less sunlight at different times of the year. If the Earth wasn’t tilted, this wouldn’t be the case and we wouldn’t have seasons.
We mark these seasonal changes driven by the sun’s position 4 times a year.
We have two solstices - one in the winter and one in the summer The two solstices occur when the sun’s path in the sky is the farthest north or south from the equator.
And we have two equinoxes that happen in the spring and fall when the sun is exactly above the Equator and makes the day and night of equal length.
The Summer Solstice traditionally happens around June 20 or 21
It’s the longest day of the year, marks beginning of summer.
The Winter Solstice is around Dec 21 or 22
It’s the shortest day of the year, marks beginning of winter.
The two equinoxes happen in the spring and the fall (March and September).
Autumnal Equinox is usually around Sept 22nd or 23 - day and night are of equal length, and marks beginning of autumn.
Vernal Equiniox about March 21 and marks the start of spring .
It makes sense that these would be good times of the year to prepare our bodies for transition and so historically, traditionally this is when people would do detoxes and cleanses.
(9:19) More on Ember Days!
Ember Days were traditionally recognized as three days set aside for fasting, abstinence and prayer during each one of the four seasons of the year.
The word “Ember” comes from a Latin phrase that means 4 times.
Four times a year, near the beginning of each season of the solar cycle, the Church set aside three days to ask for blessings upon mankind, and to pray in gratitude for the blessings of nature, particularly harvests such as olives, grapes, and wheat. The days were marked with prayer, fasting, abstinence and spiritual renewal.
I read here that Ember Days were like quarterly spiritual check-ups - and I absolutely love that way to phrase it and might have to steal it.
Ember Days don’t exactly match up with the solstices and equinoxes
It’s also based on the liturgical calendar and certain holy days.
The 3 days of the Ember Fasts are not consecutive, they are practiced on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
The significance is that Wednesday was the day Christ was betrayed, Friday was the day He was crucified, and Saturday was the day He was entombed.
(11:48) Breakdown of Ember Days:
Spring: the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Ash Wednesday, is the Ember Fast recognized to give thanks for the rebirth of nature and for the gift of light.
Summer: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Pentecost, the Ember fast marked a time to give thanks for the wheat crop.
Fall: the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the Holy Cross Day was to give thanks for the grape harvest.
Winter: the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday traditionally occurs after the Feast of St Lucy, during the third week of Advent, to give thanks for the olive crop.
So for the remainder of this year, the Ember Days for Fall are:
Fall Ember Days: September 16, 18, and 19
Winter Ember Days: December 16, 18, and 19
Whether you go by the ember dates or the actual solar dates, it’s a good time to mark the passage of seasons with food abstinence and fasting plus more intentional gratitude and prayer.
(13:28) So here is what we’re about to do in The Christian Health Club:
I’m designating between Sept 16th - 26th to do a 3-day detox - that time period encompasses the Ember Days and the equinox and so members can decide what works best with their schedules
If they want to try the traditional Wed, Fri, Sat format of the Ember Days or do it for 3 consecutive days nearer the actual equinox - so there’s some flexibility there.
(14:44) Some of the key goals for the detox are:
No meat, fish, eggs, dairy, grains/legumes, nuts/seeds, sugar or alcohol
Reducing protein intake. We’re going to keep protein under 20g for the 3 days that we’re detoxing.
I’m combining a few principles here:
#1. It is traditional to abstain from eating animal sourced foods during these holy and fasting days - it’s that symbolism to abstain from flesh to bring our flesh under control.
Proteins are what build up the body and make us strong but during this kind of fast we can lean into God for that - the BUILDER of the body and being sustained and strong by Him and through Him instead of food.
#2. The strategy of protein cycling:
As much as it is good and important for the body to get plenty of protein on a regular and consistent basis for long term health, it’s also good to cycle it out here and there as a health and longevity strategy.
You’ve heard me say here that variation and metabolic flexibility are keys to keeping the metabolism and your cells in general at their healthiest.
#1. it gives the body a break from digesting protein which is a pretty energy intense process.
#2. It helps boost autophagy which is the body’s cellular cleansing process. Autophagy is a greek word that means “self eat” and it’s one of the most powerful housekeeping functions of the body for keeping it healthy. The main way to induce autophagy is through fasting but you can also boost it with protein cycling by periodically lowering your protein intake to allow the body a deeper cellular cleansing process.
Some people protein cycle weekly but I think at a minimum it’s a good idea to do it seasonally which is part of what we’re building in here with the seasonal detoxes.
The autophagy process is an amazing anti-aging tool. It’s so good for longevity and so that’s why intermittent fasting is awesome for the body and we do it in F2F and now we’ll be layering in the protein cycling regularly through our seasonal detoxes.
(18:38) Seasonal Produce:
As part of our Equinox Detox we’re going to honor the season by sticking to seasonal produce.
Vegetables and broths: I am allowing meat broths as long as we keep the protein under 20g. This detox is also about nourishing the body with some really healthful foods and bone broth is a great one.
So really you could make a big pot of soup and eat on it for most of your meals for three days and be good. I’ve also got a “Fast Food” option for people who don’t have time to make their own broth or soups you could easily do this detox with high quality store-bought broths and soups like Epic, Kettle and Fire, Amy’s organic soups, that kind of thing. We can make this very simple - I love the idea of simplicity in these seasonal detoxes.
Fruit: We’re also going to bring in a little fruit - particularly for this equinox detox I’d like participants to include an apple each day. Apples are a beautiful fall food with some wonderful health properties.
Regenerate by Sayer Ji: He suggests doing a reset where you only eat organic apples for 1-3 days. He says it’s a great food resetting for the metabolism and helping the body to clean house.
Tea: We’re also going to drink 2-3 cups of detox tea daily - you can find several good options at the store - both Traditional Medicinals and Yogi make good every day detox teas and those will work just fine. There are a lot of good herbs and spices that promote healthy detoxification and so I think it will be very nice to be intentional with those teas during these days.
Supplements: I’m also offering supplement suggestions for the group if they choose to include them - they are not mandatory, only enhancing so that is an option. Again, I’m trying to keep it very simple, so I’m suggesting a good mineral and bile supplement and a binder to help more efficiently excrete toxins.
(25:12) Closing thoughts:
So if you’re listening to this in real time, you could put this into practice over the next week as we recognize the Ember Days and draw near the equinox.
If you’re in the CHC we’ll for sure be doing this together and you can find all of the details in the portal.
I hope today’s podcast inspires all of you to usher in the fall with more of the beautiful real food that God made, with more intention for health, and with more prayer and gratitude for all of the blessings we’ve been given.
(26:14) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!