Not feeling quite up to par? How are your energy levels lately? Want to lose a little weight? Is your skin not cooperating? Perhaps it’s time for a body cleansing detox…
You’d be surprised by how much a simple cleansing diet can help when it comes to boosting overall health and wellness, improving energy levels and managing your weight. Take a look at some of the benefits people experience after a detox:
- reduce digestive problems
- help you with fatigue
- boost your energy
- speed up elimination
- get rid of allergies
- clear your head
- fix your menstrual problems
- get rid of infection faster
How can a detox regimen do all this? Simple: cleansing your body of toxins means your body will function better. Each and every one of the problems mentioned above is a result of your body not functioning at 100% capacity. Fix the body and you improve all the things your body does for you.
Take Care of Your Body, and It Will Take Care of You
You know the expression “it takes a village”? It means there are many people involved in the raising of a child, from parents to relatives to teachers to friends to the society at large. It’s a complex network of factors that get the job done. Well, the same goes for your body – but even more so. Your body is a very complex network of organs, nerves, muscles, the brain and much more. We don’t even know the extent of what’s involved in keeping a body totally healthy and disease-free. Scientists have been studying human health for centuries and there’s still so much we don’t know. It’s just that complex.
When you perform a detox on your body, you’re helping yourself in ways you don’t even know!
What we do know is that if you keep your body as healthy as possible, everything seems to run more smoothly. Not only that, but a healthy body seems to ward off disease and heal faster, too. Anyone can feel the benefits from a body detoxification, according to Linda Page, ND, PhD. (source: WebMd: “Detox Diets: Cleansing the Body“).
7 Ways to Do Your Own Detox Program, Every Day
- Cut out sugar. When you eat more sugar, you’re requiring your body to produce more insulin. That can wear you out, and your pancreas, too. Eventually it can lead to fatigue, diabetes, cancer and weight gain.
- Eat lots of fibre. Fibre brushes through your system, particularly your colon, grabbing onto fats and other things you don’t want, and pushes them out for you. Fibre is found in foods like whole wheat, brown rice, vegetables, and fruit.
- Drink lots of water. Drink at least 2 quarts each day; it’s a natural “flushing” – literally!
- Take a sauna. Toxins are removed in all sorts of ways, and one of them is through your skin. When you sweat in a sauna, you are removing toxins through the skin.
- Exercise. This keeps everything running at peak levels. Besides obvious health benefits, exercise also keeps your intestinal functions moving right along properly. It improves your circulation, especially in your blood system. We know that’s important for detox.
- Protect your liver. Certain supplements cleanse your liver – the body’s main defence against ingested toxins. Green tea does this, as well as dandelion root and milk thistle.
- Exfoliate. Again, here you’re concentrating on toxins that get released through the skin. Skin brushing is great for you, and will refresh your circulation, too. You can get a special skin brush at a natural product store. You can also ask for a special detox foot bath at a spa.
Why Does This Work? What Detox Means
Cleansing the body means you’re eating and drinking only things that clean out your system, and as the toxins are pushed out, your body is totally cleansed. There are many different ways to detox, but the concept is the same no matter what: you’re putting only cleansing ingredients into your body for a long enough period that your body totally rids itself of all the toxins it can. Usually you’re drinking juice, among other things.
What you’re doing is aiding your body’s own natural detox system. Yes, many people don’t even realize that their bodies are continuously cleansing and performing detox techniques each and every day already. Mainly, natural detox is a function of the following three organs:
- The Kidneys. The kidneys are detoxing all day long – it’s their job! In fact, the main function of the kidneys is to filter toxins from your blood and push the toxins out in the form of urine. You won’t believe it, but kidneys filter 120 to 150 quarts of blood every day!* (source: US department of Health & Human Services website “The Kidneys and How They Work“)
- The Liver. The liver filters out toxins from your food, preventing them from entering your blood stream.
- The Colon. The colon flushes out toxins, so you want to keep the good bacteria in there nice and healthy.
Detox is Not Starvation!
While you are cleansing, it’s important not to starve yourself. The body needs nutrients, so whether you get them from food or a supplement while detoxing, it’s very important that you continue to feed your body certain vitamins, minerals and fibre that it needs.
There are, of course, extremists who use a “water only” detox program but this is not recommended by doctors. Drinking nothing but water for several days and eating nothing puts the body in a state of crisis that’s not totally necessary for cleansing.
Detox Can be a Way of Life, Not Just a Weekend
Maybe consuming only juice for an entire weekend isn’t your way to spend your precious days off? The good news is there are ways to incorporate the detox method into your everyday life. The seven things mentioned above are great ways to incorporate a daily detox. They are things you can do every day that will help rid your body of toxins and keep your body running in tip top shape.