Hi nspeth - I see you haven't receive any response yet. You and I are in the same boat here. You have covered almost most of the the questions I wanted to ask except for one. Do I have to be on a special diet or should I start a cleansing before starting the Clarkia ? The instruction sheet is somehow vague, it didn't give no suggestions how to make this journey effective. I want to start mine on Sept 1. Hopefully, it will be satisfying.