Detox Daily: Make These 5 Changes To Your Routine

This post discusses five simple tweaks you can make to your daily routine that will help your body detoxify, boosting your general health and well-being.

#1: Decide To Make A Change

This may sound obvious, but getting yourself into the right mindset is the single most important thing in beginning a change in lifestyle. Make the decision and make a commitment to yourself that you will improve your habits.

If you already live a relatively healthy lifestyle, these changes will come to you more easily, but taking the first steps towards a healthier lifestyle can still be daunting. Taking things slowly with small, gradual steps in the right direction will make you much more likely to be consistent, and succeed in your goals.

If anything, the stress and guilt that can arise from pressuring yourself to fix negative behaviours can cause more harm than good. You don’t need to force yourself to do anything, and you certainly don’t need to give yourself an ultimatum and change everything at once.

#2: Drink More Water

The benefits of drinking enough water are endless. Most people are aware that two-thirds of the human body is made up of water, and when you also consider that the vast majority of bodily functions require water to run optimally, it really is a no-brainer that we should be consuming adequate fluids.

Here are just some of the reasons for and benefits of drinking water:

• Your kidneys need water to dilute toxins and waste products so that they can be excreted in the urine. If insufficient fluids are present, these toxins can be reabsorbed back into the body.
• Water is calorie-free, so is ideal for people who are attempting to lose weight.
• Water keeps your skin hydrated, reducing wrinkles and dry patches.
• Your joints need to be adequately hydrated to ensure smooth flexion and extension.
• Water helps transport oxygen around your body, meaning you will feel more energetic and alert.

The recommended intake of water varies depending on who you ask, but a general rule is to gauge your hydration level based on the color of your urine. When you pass water, it should be clear or a light straw color. The darker the color, the more dehydrated you are.

#3: Understand The Importance Of Quality Sleep

It’s essential that you allow your mind and body the rest they need.

Quality sleep has been linked to:

• Cancer prevention;
• Weight loss;
• Improved mood;
• Improved memory; and
• Reduced inflammation.

(source: http://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongenergy/tp/healthy_sleep.htm)

While you sleep, your body has more resources available for growth and repair. This means that your body recuperates from the stresses placed upon it in the form of physical exertion, environmental pollutants, and toxic artificial ingredients in food.

Going to sleep just one hour later at night can have a detrimental effect on your mood and performance the following day, and simply “making up for it” by sleeping extra at the weekends will never fully compensate for the cumulative fatigue.

Improving your sleep habits can be incredibly difficult. There are many distractions that may keep us awake, such as television, Internet, and the daily stresses of life that play on our minds. This is where it is useful to form a routine; perhaps going to bed 30-60 minutes earlier than usual and reading a book, or meditating.

By getting into a night-time routine, you will train your mind and body to relax when it is time for bed, and you will find it much easier to drift off to sleep.

#4:  Exercise Regularly

Everybody knows that exercise is beneficial to one’s health.

Benefits of regular exercise include:

• Weight loss;
• Improved mood and reduction of depression;
• Prevention of heart disease and cancer;
• Improved sleep quality; and
• Increased libido and improved sex life.

It is not necessary to jump straight into an intense exercise regimen; simply making an effort to live a more active lifestyle will help you to reap the benefits.

If you need to go somewhere nearby, walk; don’t drive. Instead of going to the cinema, why not try bowling? There are plenty of minor tweaks you can make to reduce sedentary behaviour.

#5: Eat Whole Foods

This goes hand-in-hand with regular exercise. A healthy, balanced diet should typically consist of:

• Grass-fed and pastured animal proteins;
• Leafy greens and fibrous vegetables;
• Fresh fruit; and
• A balance of healthy fats.

When browsing the supermarket, look at the ingredients list of some of the products you pick up. If the list is longer than your arm and half of the ingredients are unpronounceable, you can bet that “food” probably isn’t going to do your body much good.

You may wish to consider a supplement to ensure you are giving your body everything it needs; the Isagenix Cleanse is a great example of a program that helps to nourish your body, and replace missing trace minerals and vitamins that are not present in our nutrient depleted soils. Reviews of Isagenix demonstrate how people love this natural approach to nutritional cleansing.

The topic of nutrition is too complicated a topic to go into extremely in-depth here, but it is absolutely vital that you are aware of what you put into your body.

Conclusion

By reducing the amount of toxins you put into your body, and increasing the amount of quality nutrients and fluids, you will be laying down the foundation for a long and healthy life.

Pressuring yourself into making drastic changes all at once is a recipe for failure, so take your time and go at your own pace. Once you have comfortably adopted a new healthy habit, then you can begin thinking about making another change, and another, until you reach the point when it all becomes second nature and you find yourself with a completely new lifestyle.