Guest Post By: Elaine Brisebois
Tips for Living the Detox Lifestyle
If you’re reading this now the concept of detoxification and cleansing is likely not a new one for you. Perhaps you’ve followed a detox diet in the past or even completed a short-term juice cleanse. Maybe you felt great afterwards but then soon returned to your regular ways of consuming only to see certain nagging symptoms reappear, weight creep back and your energy deflate.
The truth is, if you REALLY want to experience real and lasting results then doing a “detox diet” for a few short days or weeks out of the year isn’t going to cut it if you’re only reverting back to your unhealthy ways of living and consuming. Our modern world is becoming more acidic than ever and we are exposed to toxic substances through much of what we interface with on a daily basis – via the food we ingest, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the personal care products we choose to slather on our skin. Of course we can make every best effort to try and offset the ill- effects by ensuring that we eat mostly clean and natural foods, use non-toxic products, manage stress, and get enough sleep each night.
It’s really important to understand that true detoxification only occurs when the waste matter actually LEAVES the body. This crucial step is often overlooked by many people who believe that a “detox” means only changing one’s diet or eliminating certain foods for a set period of time. If you’re “waking up” waste matter but not eliminating it out of the body then technically you are just reshuffling things around. And this is assuming that the diet is even effective enough to actually “awaken” any deep impacted waste in the first place!
If you’re interested in a lifestyle (a very pleasurable one I might add) that will naturally support your body’s ability to detoxify each and every single day then please read on. Many of these tips when implemented correctly will transform your body on so many levels and help shed the waste that is standing between you and your true potential for radiant health.
1) Juice – each and every day and always on an empty stomach to maximize the healing properties. Make it predominantly vegetable based adding a tiny bit of fruit to sweeten only if you really need it. To experience the benefits of a “mini-fast” try juicing until lunch (or dinner) a few or more days per week. The hydrating alkalinity of the juices literally magnetizes acidic waste-matter up and out of the cells and “tees it up” for removal out of the body.
2) Don’t eat by the clock. Eat only when you’re truly hungry. If you wake up in the morning don’t choke down a meal just because you think “its breakfast time”. Eating before the body is ready only burdens the digestive system. Listen to your body and only eat when there’s a call for food. You can always make a smoothie or pack some fruit to take out the door with you if you are worried about hunger striking during your commute to work.
3) Think vegetable-centric. Regardless if you are a vegan or an omnivore make vegetables the star performers of your meals. Fresh vegetables (and fruits) are the most alkalizing and health generating foods and best support detoxification. Aim to make a large raw salad with loads of veggies the focal point of at least one of your daily meals.
4) Be Yeast-Conscious. Although fruit is literally the cleanest and highest vibration food known to man, this is only the case when it goes into a clean celled body. Due to factors of our modern world yeast overgrowth in the body is pretty much becoming epidemic and can manifest in any number of symptoms such as bloating, constipation, eczema, food sensitivities and so forth.
Since all sugars feed yeast unfortunately, if you suspect it’s an issue for you, you’ll need to greatly limit even the healthiest ones like fruit – at least until your body becomes cleaner. Now’s the time to make friends with stevia – a natural plant extract that will go a long way for dressing up salads, sweetening beverages, and making sugar-free treats!
A good quality probiotic supplement along with probiotic-rich foods such as raw sauerkraut, kimchi, and kefir made from young coconut water or goat’s milk can be used to help restore intestinal balance. Anti-fungals like raw garlic, oil of oregano and caprylic acid can help fight the yeast.
Note from Joy: Thanks for the wonderful informative post Elaine! I know what I will be doing when I get back from vacation — juice, juice, juice! Remember to check back in a few days for Elaine’s Part 2 of detoxification tips. And if you want to learn about Social Detoxing, then check out this guest post: http://hain-celestial.ca/en/Blogs/WellnessAndBalance/2012/April/SocialDetox
Share with us YOUR fave way to detox?
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Juicing sounds like a good idea, but I have to be honest, that photo of green slime does NOT look appealing…
Thank you for being someone that finally mentions that getting rid of toxins shouldn’t just be some 5-day, rich lady fad where you starve yourself, then fill your body with acidy lemon juice and harsh things, (which sounds like just torturing your body more than helping it) but instead should be a long term, if not life long, less extreme and more natural change
I keep researching the whole “DETOX” concept & my friend mocks and debunks it due to the fact you only ever see/hear about these crazy methods that are for some reason temporary, wherein you go back to eating whatever crap you were eating before, totaly cancelling out everything you did, and during just sounds really BAD for your body- unnatural…
Im not overweight, but have eczema, depression and other issues that are all probably affected by the same junk; it makes sens to work with nature instead of against it., Thank you!