You know those times in your life when you’ve partied a bit hard? Maybe you’ve been working long hours and eating crap? You feel exhausted, lethargic yet anxious and frankly not on top of your game. It’s times like these that you need to Detox. There are a plethora of Detoxes to chose from, lasting from one day up to three months. But before you go launching into the first brand you come across be warned, choosing the program can mean the difference between having a Detox that rocks or having Detox Disaster.
NOTE: I am launching a detox in January. If you would like to know more, email me here for more information.
The Benefits of a Detox
Besides the usual benefits of increased energy, clear eyes, skin and regulated moods, Detoxing has many other benefits:
- Improves our Immune Function
- Reduce the amount of toxins and pollution into our body to lessen the burden against the detoxification organs
- Promote healthy eating, nutrition and supplementation to help our body effectively clear the toxins
- Scavenge free radicals and eliminate toxins
- Strengthen body’s fight against cancer cells and generate healthy cells in our body
- Cleanse mucous, congestion, fermentation, inflammation in our digestive tract
- Purify our blood
- Reform our lifestyle addictions for sugar, salt, high glycaemic carbohydrates, alcohol, junk foods, nicotine, etc
Things to be Aware Of
Consult our Doctor if you are:
- Under 18yo
- Pregnant or breast feeding
- Sick or highly stressed
- Have diabetes
Some Popular Detoxes
Lemon Detox Diet: Lasting from 1 – 7 days this detox is a liquid diet whereby all meals are replaced with a lemon, Madal Bal Syrup, and Cayenne Pepper drink. They have spent a lot of money marketing this product but I question it’s effectiveness.
Martha’s Vineyard Diet Detox: This is a 21 day Detox that also replaces all meals with either fruit or vegetable juices, protein shakes or herbal teas. No solid food is recommended. Colonics, massages and other supplements sold by the company are encouraged.
The Fruit Flush: A three day Detox. However it is encouraged to do it once per week for twelve weeks. The first day Detoxers have a special protein shake every two hours. On the following two days they have 100cal of fruit every two hours in addition to a salad for lunch and protein shake for dinner.
The Detox I like to Follow
I do not advocate liquid diets which rules out three of the above four detoxes. I also feel that the best Detoxes are one’s that you can adapt into your life even when the Detox is over. Therefore I do a fourteen day Detox using Detox Recipes written by Nicola Graimes Combined with a Metagenics supplement. I have done this Detox over five times myself and put hundreds of clients on it with great health results as well as weight loss (the best being 11kg/24lb loss in 14 days).
How It Works
Day one: Fast day. One type of fruit or vegetable is to be eaten and only water drunk
Day two – seven: Every morning you take your s detox supplement mixed with water. Follow the diet plan and recipes using the best fruits, vegetables and superfoods. Please be aware that the following foods are not allowed and the only drinks allowed are water and decaffeinated herbal teas:
- No caffeine
- No alcohol
- No meat
- No dairy
- No added sugar
- No wheat (bread pasta etc)
- Nothing processed
- Basically it’s fruits and vegetables for the week and not much else
Day eight – fourteen: Same as above but introduce yoghurt and starchy vegetables such as potato
Lifestyle Factors to Accelerate the Detox
Epsom Salt baths: One of the fastest ways to absorb Magnesium is through the skin, so an Magnesium Sulphate (aka Epsom salts) is a relaxing, effective way to improve your magnesium levels.
Dry Skin Brushing: For those of you struggling with cellulite or dull skin, dry skin brushing stimulates blood circulation to the surface of the skin which not only clears out toxins that are stored in subcutaneous tissue, but it also stimulates your endocrine system which is crucial for detoxing.
Herbal Tea’s: As good as Green Tea is, it contains caffeine so avoid it during this Detox. My favourite Detox teas are Rooibos, Roasted dandelion, chamomile, peppermint and Ginger tea. There are many to choose from so try a few and use them to curb your appetite.
Gentle Exercise: Being a fitness nut I know how hard it is to hear the dreaded ‘R’ word – Rest. But throughout this Detox it is what I recommend, or at least slowing right down. You will be eating less food than normal and the aim is to keep stress on the body to a minimum so adjust your routine to match how you are feeling. If you are feeling energetic and strong then partaking in a class such as Body Pump, Yoga, Pilates, or Body Balance is fine. If you are feeling weak, then some gentle walks and stretches at home will suffice. Try to do something gentle for 20-30 minutes every day.
Mediation: To distress the mind and feel emotionally centred You may want to meditate. If you don’t know where to begin I suggest downloading some meditation podcasts. My favourite is Meditation Oasis in iTunes. You can watch my video blog about it.
Choosing The Best Time to Detox
In an ideal world, you would take time off work and do your Detox in a relaxed state. That isn’t always possible so make sure you choose a time when you can do the following:
- Get 8 hrs sleep every night
- Make some time for meal preparation and food shopping
- Make some time for gentle exercise and meditation
- Cancel as many social engagements as possible and buy a good book
- Be prepared to feel lethargic in the first few days
- If you can tie your Detox in with some self reflection activities such as Goal Setting, you will feel even more invigorated by the end of your Detox.
NOTE: If you would like to know more about my detox. launching in January email me here for more information.
Recent Comments