Great Sex, Naturally (10 page)

In addition, you need to examine every other aspect of your home environment and daily routines, and ask yourself where you may be coming into contact with chemicals that could undermine your health and libido. For example, your sunscreens, laundry detergents, dry-cleaning services, pest-control treatments, and yard products like weed killers and fertilizers can all be sources of toxins and unhealthy, antisexual synthetic compounds. Another concern may be automatic-dishwasher soaps that include ingredients you wouldn’t want to ingest, even in minuscule amounts—and those “spot removers” for dishes that contain known skin irritants. And don’t forget about your medicines and health-care products, which all too often can be sources of questionable chemicals. (See sidebar, and if you use birth control, see
Appendix H
.) Remember that when it comes to your health and libido, less is more; if in doubt, leave it out. Your vigilance in rooting out hidden health foes and sex saboteurs, and eliminating them from your personal surroundings, will contribute to the success of your Great Sex Detox.

To learn more about the potential health effects of many chemicals found in products you may be using in or around your living area, visit:
www.ewg.org
.

Can Your Medicines Be Unhealthy?

If you comb your medicine cabinet, reading the fine print on products like cough medicines, nasal decongestants, antihistamines, and diet aids, you may be surprised by what you find. Many products contain synthetic additives, fillers, or colorings, some of which may even be listed by the EWG as hazardous to one degree or another. Eliminate anything you can do without; with a little research, you can find healthy natural remedies to replace a wide variety of health-care products. If you need assistance, consult a licensed naturopathic physician. (See
Appendix B
to find one.)

As you research your alternatives, keep in mind that natural remedies—including some that have been used for centuries—have a big disadvantage in the world of modern pharmaceutical medicine: large drug companies seeking to patent and market nonnatural products typically conduct numerous studies in an effort to prove their effectiveness, while natural substances, which can’t legally be patented, often get ignored. As a result, the number of studies on natural remedies may seem small by comparison—prompting misleading claims that there’s relatively little evidence to prove their effectiveness. With a few sound bites, public-relations firms hired by pharmaceutical giants can discredit natural remedies that, in some cases, have stood the test of time, were held in trust by your ancestors, and have been passed down to you over many generations.

Your Great Sex Detox Dietary Cleanse

Once you’ve cleaned up as many health-and sex-negating chemicals as you can in your home environment, you’re ready to begin cleansing your body. The dietary cleanse that is part of the Great Sex Detox is a three-week plan, and to optimize its benefits, you should adhere to all of the recommendations outlined in the remainder of the chapter for the full 21 days. After you’ve completed this dietary cleanse, its benefits—along with all the others you experience from the Great Sex Detox—will be ongoing. The dietary cleanse is essentially a way to jump-start your body’s detoxification systems; once they’re revved up, they’ll continue working optimally if you keep eating well and exercising. (And after the cleanse, you can continue to include “magic” smoothies, as described in this section, in your diet indefinitely.)

The Great Sex Detox dietary cleanse is specifically designed to enhance your overall health and sexual well-being by ridding toxic pollutants from your tissues, and it has many other benefits as well. It’s hypoallergenic (it protects you from most common allergens), and provides you with lots of healthy fiber from nutritious vegetables, salads, and smoothies. You may notice that all of this fiber improves the regularity of your bowel movements. This can benefit your hormonal health, which in turn can further enhance your overall energy, vitality, and libido.

Here’s an overview of your dietary cleanse, and what you need to do in order to get the best results from it:

—
Limit your grain intake to five foods.
Consume rice, quinoa, amaranth, tapioca, and buckwheat. These grains are free of gluten, a common allergen, and abstaining from other grains relieves you of potential allergic symptoms that can hinder your health and libido. You can eat whatever quantity of grains you want, as long as you restrict the grain portion of your diet to these five.

—
Eat lots of vegetables.
On as many days as possible, enjoy a large salad, including several different-colored vegetables—for example, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce. Also eat, on as many days as you can, a half cup of broccoli sprouts and at least two cruciferous vegetables (identified earlier in this chapter as one of your super-libido foods).

—
Consume oils that support your health and sexuality.
These include flax, olive, and fish oil; also eat nuts and seeds that contain beneficial oils, as well as avocados. If you cook with oil, use olive, canola, macadamia-nut, or coconut oil.

—
Avoid dairy and egg products.
Cows and other animals remove toxins from their bodies, in part, by excreting milk, so when you consume dairy products, you may expose yourself to increased toxins that can hamper your health and libido. Dairy products can also be particularly high in allergens, and many people have low-grade allergies to dairy or eggs without realizing it. Eliminating them during your dietary cleanse gives your digestive system a break from potentially unhealthful, unsexy symptoms.

—
Limit your protein sources to certain healthy foods.
Meet your protein needs by consuming only organic skinless lean chicken or turkey; wild salmon (avoid farm-raised); kidney, garbanzo, navy, or pinto beans (exclude soybeans, another common allergen); and lentils, peas, seeds, and nuts (but avoid peanuts and peanut butter).

—
Eat until you’re full, but don’t overeat.
You shouldn’t be excessively hungry, or overly full, during your dietary cleanse. To keep your blood sugar even—which, as you’ve seen, helps regulate your energy and libido—eat three meals a day, and two daily snacks if you like.

—
Enjoy “magic” smoothies daily.
Your magic smoothie, which includes some of your super-libido foods, consists of fruits, vegetables, and other ingredients. Blend as many of the following as you can in each of your smoothies. Since chia seeds can thicken your smoothie, you might want to add extra water, or blend them in last.

M
AGIC
S
MOOTHIE
R
ECIPE

—Minimize your fruit intake.
Limit your daily fruit consumption to two cups, or two pieces, of low-glycemic fruit, which includes apples, pears, cherries, apricots, plums, peaches, oranges, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. As pointed out earlier in this chapter, some fruits are super-libido foods, but at the same time excessive intake of fruit sugar can disrupt your blood-sugar level, which is detrimental to your health and sexual energy.

—
Add lemon juice to your water.
Lemon juice supports your dietary cleanse by promoting the health of your liver, your body’s master cleansing organ. Squeeze the juice from a quarter of a medium-size lemon into 12 ounces of water, and sip during the day. Doing this two to three times daily will also help ensure that you’re getting plenty of water, which supports all your body’s tissues, including your sex organs. (If you have a history of heartburn, you may need to refrain from using lemon in your water.)

If you faithfully follow these dietary guidelines during your three-week dietary cleanse, you’re likely to be extremely pleased with the results and the potential rejuvenating effects on your health and sexual energy. For a day-by-day outline of the meal and supplement portions of your cleanse, see
Appendix D
.

Supplements to Enhance Your Great Sex Detox Dietary Cleanse

While you’re cleansing your body with your dietary choices, you need to take the right supplements to maximize your ability to eliminate undesirable elements that can encumber your health and libido. The supplements you’ll take each day during your 21-day dietary cleanse (some of these can be found in
Appendix C
), along with an overview of how they can help detoxify your tissues and give you other benefits, are listed here. You can discontinue taking some of these supplements after the 21 days, but you should continue with the antioxidant formula, multivitamin, and flax oil indefinitely.

—
Liver lipotropic formula.
This formula consists of herbs and nutrients to help your liver more effectively break down toxins, which assists in their removal from your body. Take two capsules of liver lipotropic formula (see
Appendix C
) twice daily during your 21-day cleanse. You probably won’t want to add this to your smoothies because of the taste.

—
Chlorella.
A type of green algae that emerged on Earth billions of years ago, chlorella is a rich source of chlorophyll consisting of 50 percent proteins, 23 percent carbohydrates, 12 percent healthy fats, the antioxidant beta-carotene, and numerous vitamins and minerals. Chlorella is important in your dietary cleanse because it can assist in the removal of unhealthy, unsexy toxins from your body—including environmental chemicals such as dioxin and heavy metals like mercury and lead—and render some harmless. It can also improve your digestion, support the health of your intestinal environment, enhance the growth of friendly bacteria in your digestive system, and boost your immunity. As an added bonus, it helps freshen your breath. Take two 300 mg chlorella pills (see
Appendix C
) twice daily with water, or add them to your smoothies, during your 21-day cleanse.

—
Antioxidant formula.
Make sure that you keep taking your antioxidants, as outlined previously in this chapter, during your dietary cleanse. This aids your liver in breaking down toxins so it is easier for your body to eliminate them. To use the antioxidant formula in
Appendix C
, take two capsules daily during your cleanse. (You can blend them into your smoothies if you like.)

—
Multivitamin.
Continuing to take your daily multivitamin, as described earlier in this chapter, is an important part of your dietary cleanse because it gives your body the nutrition it needs to help eliminate toxins that can obstruct your health and libido. There’s no telling how many toxic chemicals and pollutants you’ve been exposed to, so you want to be sure you’re getting this baseline of nutrients. If you opt to take the multivitamin in
Appendix C
, consume two tablets twice daily with food during your cleanse. (You can also blend these into your smoothies.)

—
Flax oil.
As you’ve discovered, flax is a super-libido food rich in friendly omega-3 fats, and flax oil gives you many health benefits. It helps with your dietary cleanse by promoting your body’s ability to remove toxins from every cell in your body. Be sure that you’re getting one tablespoon of flax oil every day of your cleanse. You can mix it into salad dressings, pour it over vegetable dishes, or add it to smoothies. You can also take it in capsule form, if you don’t mind taking enough capsules to equal a tablespoon.

—
Friendly bacteria.
Friendly bacteria support your dietary cleanse and promote your health and sexuality in many ways. These supplements encourage the growth of other beneficial bacteria in your intestinal walls, help protect your intestines from pathogens like parasites, help break down compounds that could initiate cancer, and assist your body in making nutrients. Take at least a billion organisms of the friendly bacteria in
Appendix C
once a day with water, or added to your smoothies, during your cleanse.

—
Antibug herbs.
You may have any number of microscopic “bugs,” including hidden parasites, bacteria, and yeast, inhabiting your intestines, especially if you experience chronic gas and bloating. These bugs can have many effects that thwart your health and limit your sexual energy, and their number is related to the overall toxicity of your body; they essentially exert harmful effects and reduce your body’s effectiveness in dealing with your cumulative toxic burden. Antibug herbs support your dietary cleanse by rearranging your gut flora to give you a healthier intestinal wall. They also strengthen your immune system, help liberate your libido from undesirable symptoms, and can assist in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.

For the duration of your dietary cleanse, take either of the following (available at many health-food stores) three times a day with food: one 900 mg garlic pill containing 5,000 mcg of allicin, or one berberine pill (a standardized extract containing 200 mg per pill). Berberine shouldn’t be used during pregnancy or lactation.

It’s important to adhere to these guidelines regarding your supplement regimen during your three-week dietary cleanse. (Again, refer to the outline in
Appendix D
for a day-by-day breakdown of the meal and supplement portions of your cleanse.)