Leading up to the birth of our second child I had reached a stage where I was feeling completely out of it virtually all the time. I’d had several visits with my doctor, but the answer was always the same - nothing medically wrong.
Over dinner one evening a herbalist friend of mine intimated that I needed to detox my body, and put some effort into learning how to detox the body and how my eating habits may be affecting my health. It seemed a lot of people had a lot of good things to say about it, so took it upon myself to learn as much about the process as possible, and get to grips with what is really involved and why the natural health industry recommend regular detox dieting and suggest getting started with the 7 day detox so avidly.
She also hinted to me to try a simple foot detox. I now treat myself to a foot massage at least once a week, but if you don’t have one of those, the foot detox patches can do just as good a job - but doing it this way you miss out on the relaxing foot massage at the same time
So here’s my top tips about how to detox your body.
Herbal teas and water and plenty of both
One of the most important things you need to is drink lots of water while you are following a detox diet as it helps to eliminate water-soluble toxins from your body. Drinking plenty of water also has other health benefits like promoting regular bowel movements, reduce bloating, and hydrates your skin which improves your skin tone. On a normal day try to drink about 2 liters of water, and a good bit more in hot weather or on your exercise days.
As a guideline, for every hour that your exercise each day, drink an extra 2 glasses of water. The healthiest type of water is filtered tap water. Try to store your water at room temperature rather than in the fridge. Herbal teas are a great alternative in helping your reach your daily quote - preferably loose leaf rather than tea bags. Dandelion root, yarrow, roibosch and green tea are particularly good as their hidden ingredients help boost the detox process. Green tea and redbush has extra punch as it is a rich source of natural antioxidants.
How Can I Possibly Drink So Much?
That may seem like a lot of water to drink but it’s a lot easier than it first looks. You can have your first glass with some fresh lime or lemon juice as soon as you get up - it’s the perfect way to start up your metabolism and bowel then try to drink another glass each time you take a break from your work.
Have a glass before each meal, have a couple of herbal teas during the day, another during the evening and a final glass before you retire to bed for the night. Feel free to substitute some water with herbal teas.
Eat Foods As Close To Their Natural State As Possible
You should be looking to buy your food in as fresh a condition as possible and juice or blend them for maximum benefit or just eat them raw, in salads or as snacks or appetizers. When raw, food still has all its enzymes and nutrients intact. Once food has been kept too long, or when it is cooked or preserved, its nutritional value plummets.
If at all possible buy from local farms or producers, ideally at farms and markets in your area. Food from other countries is generally harvested before it is ripe (before it’s built up its full nutritional value) and will have lost much of its nutritional value during its journey to your supermarket.
Organic Produce Is Better and Healthier
Buying organic produce where possible is better for your health but not totally necessary, as organic produce is normally higher priced than non organic equivalents, but if you can afford to stretch to buying a few organic products it will be a great help.
If you can’t buy many organic foods, don’t worry. All you need to worry about is eating enough fresh foods, whether they are organic or not, than skimp on quantities. However, there are some good reasons for having as much as possible of organic produce on a healthy detox diet.
Organic foods are produced without the use of artificial pesticides and fertilizers, so they have very little or no potentially toxic man made chemicals. The practice of organic farming is very contentious due to the fact that there is mounting evidence that the build up of toxins from man made chemicals and bug sprays are linked to some of the serious health conditions of today.
Organic foods undergo minimal processing. Ultimately this means organic foods not genetically modified and are free from hydrogenated fats and artificial additives. And you may notice that organic foods also taste better and have much deeper flavors.
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