What does it mean to detox? Detoxing means to cleanse the body, to help prevent any inflammatory toxins from damaging your body or causing any chronic diseases. Detoxing is very powerful to reset your body’s vital organs, such as your gut, kidneys, liver, heart, and your brain. In this article we will be diving deep into the power of the detox and how it can help you prevent illness and help maintain your overall health and wellbeing.
How can a detox heal you?
The way a detox works is by eliminating the following foods for 2 weeks from your food intake;
- Gluten
- Soy
- Dairy
- Processed foods/ Fast food
- Coffee
Why do you eliminate these foods? All of these foods contain inflammatory chemicals, foreign substances, added sugars, & preservatives. So these different unhealthy chemicals can lead to inflammation in multiple areas across your body, causing the following;
- Weight gain
- Gas/bloating
- Fatigue
- Constipation
- Skin rashes
- Brain fog
By detoxing or fasting from those foods your body begins to heal itself. Why is this important? Because our bodies are designed to “fast”, or abstain from food, every so often. If you think about our ancestors, they would fast for days looking for food. Does that mean we should fast all the time? Of course not, but there are ways to apply some of our ancestor’s habits into our lives today to make sure we live long healthy happy lives.
Detoxing can aid in your longevity
Think of a detox as a total body reset; like an oil change in your car. Every few months you have to change the oil to make sure the car continues to run efficiently. Same principle applies to our body- every few months it’s important to cleanse the body to make sure it lasts a long time.
When do you know that you need to detox?
How do I know that I need a detox? Ask the following questions;
“Do you feel bloated often”?
“Do you get fatigued throughout the day”?
“Do you have extra body weight you can’t get rid of”?
“You seem to struggle with concentration”?
“Do you have aches and pains that you can’t explain”?
If you answered yes to any of the following questions, then you might just need to detox to help eliminate these symptoms and then take steps towards preventing those symptoms from ever coming back.
Where do I Start? What foods do I eat?
You begin with eliminating the foods described above in the “How can a detox heal you?” section. With that you begin to implement the following foods into your diet to help speed up and even make the process more beneficial.
1. Colorful vegetables and fruits: They are full of polyphenols, which help alleviate any inflammation and also are full of antioxidants and wide range of vitamins and minerals
a. Colorful peppers (yellow, green, orange, red)
b. Berries (black, blue, strawberries and raspberries)
c. Root vegetables (Beets, carrots)
i. These root vegetables aid in cleansing your Liver, colon, and kidneys to help rid of any inflammation or toxins.
d. Cruciferous vegetables (kale, broccoli, arugula, Brussel sprouts, collard greens, Swiss chard)
i. These vegetables are full of your prebiotics that help strengthen and heal the gut.
e. Citrus fruit (grapefruit, lemons, oranges)
i. These fruits are full of vitamin C and also the acidity of these fruits will help with cleansing the gut and resetting your metabolism.
Bone broths: (Organic low sodium)
1. Bone broths are full of all natural collagen which is great for your gut and also for your thyroid and for proper hormone production.
The proper spices: (organic)
2. The following spices are great for getting rid of inflammatory blood markers and helping strengthen your immune system and also add different minerals to your diet that your body needs.
a. Turmeric
b. Curcumin
c. Ginger
d. Coriander
e. Pink Himalayan salt
How you cook your meals is very important!
You can consume all of the vegetables in the world, but if not prepared properly they can’t give you all the benefits they have within them. So how do you prepare these vegetables?
1. Use the proper cooking oils- when cooking your vegetables or any food in fact, we just usually use the normal Olive oil, butter, or vegetable oil. When those are not designed to be used for cooking at high temperature, use the following cooking oils for their designed purposes:
a. Cold pressed Olive oil: great as a topping on your salads or to finish off a dish on a low heat. If olive oil gets too hot it can become cancerous to the body.
b. Avocado oil: amazing all the way around for high heat cooking, baking, & sautéing. Avocado oil is designed to cook foods at high temps, so this is a staple in my kitchen and I highly recommend this oil for all of your cooking.
c. Coconut oil: full of nutrients and gives your food some great flavor. I recommend this cooking oil up there with avocado because of it’s heat resistance and flavor boosting abilities. This is also a staple in my kitchen when I want to switch things up.
Caffeine is the enemy to your detox!
Caffeine has its benefits, but it can do more harm than good if abused. Drinking one cup of organic mold and toxin free coffee is amazing for your colon, your adrenal glands and also a great energy boost. The problem is when you begin to use coffee or caffeine as a crutch to our daily fatigue. So detoxing from coffee is crucial for you to have success in the detox. Now you won’t be eliminating coffee for good, just replacing it with water and the following teas if you like to drink a great herbal tea.
1. Green tea (great coffee replacement)
2. Dandelion tea
3. Turmeric ginger tea
4. Nettle tea
Quality sleep is crucial
When you think about detoxing, generally food is the only thing that comes to mind, but sleep is a huge part of detoxing your body. When we are sleeping our body is generally working the hardest. So getting quality sleep is a huge part of this detox. How much sleep do you need? It is recommended to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night, but just because you get that much sleep doesn’t mean you are getting quality sleep. So how do you get quality sleep?
1. Set up a bed time routine: we as humans are creatures of habit, so by having a bed time routine you can go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time.
2. Get completely relaxed before bed: shut devices down (TV, mobile devices, etc.) 1-2 hours before bed time to get completely relaxed before bed. Substitute those with, stretching, reading, taking a hot Epson salt bath, playing a calming instrument or music. Meditation is a great way to get relaxed before bed.
3. Sleep cold: this is very important for getting great sleep. Setting your thermostat at 65 degrees will keep your body in a relaxed cool state which is very important for deep restorative sleep.
4. Sleep in the dark: sleeping in a dark room is important for your brain to stay turned off, because any kind of light can keep your mind on. So it’s important to turn off all light, tvs, phones, anything that produces a light. It’s a good idea to invest in some blackout shades to help with getting rid of any extra light.
This just scratches the surface of sleep but this a great place to start for getting really great and restful sleep, especially during a detox to make sure your body is recovering completely.
Summary
Detoxing has so many long lasting benefits such as better awareness of what foods are good and bad for you, resetting your metabolism and your other vital organs such as your gut, brain, liver, and kidneys. This in turn can help slow the aging process. Now you know when to get started and what you need to get to get started. If you want to have guidance from me on your detox journey and have exclusive content gifted to you signup today for a health consultation.
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