Just after my daughter, our second child was born my health was bottoming out and I was feeling very tired and lethargic all the time. I’d spent a lot of time with doctors and consultants, and every time I was told the same thing - you’re fine it must be stress.
I finally went to see an alternative health therapist one day who recommended I should look into doing a detox, and put some effort into learning how to detox the body and eliminate the build up of toxins in my body. 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 advocate healthy detox diets and recommend starting with the week detox so avidly.
She also hinted to me to try a simple detox foot pads. I have a foot spa two or three times a week now, if I have the time, but if you don’t have one of those, those foot detox pads can work just as well - 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.
Lots of water and herbal teas
One of the most important things you need to is drink lots of water while you are following a detox diet because the water will help your body excrete toxins from your system. Drinking plenty of water also has other health benefits like promoting regular bowel movements, improves concentration, and improves your complexion. Your goal should be to drink about 8 glasses (or 2 liters) of water each day, and a good bit more in hot weather or on your exercise days.
As a rough guide, for every hour that your exercise each day, drink an extra 2 glasses of water. Choose still mineral water, or tap water that has been filtered, or boiled and then cooled. Try to store your water at room temperature rather than in the fridge. If you don’t always fancy water, herbal teas - loose leaf is better than tea bags as it hasn’t been processed as much. Green tea, horsetail, camomile and roibosch (or redbush) are particularly good as their essential oils help the detox process. Roibosch (Redbush) tea has extra punch as it is rich in antioxidants.
That Seems Like A Lot of Water
It’s actually quite easy to drink that much water when you know how. Prepare a glass with a little root ginger or some fresh lemon juice instead of (or as well as) your morning coffee - this is a great way to activate your metabolism and bowel then have more water whenever you take a coffee break.
Aim to have a glass whenever you eat, if you make tea of coffee during the day drink water as well, another during the evening and perhaps a final glass of water last thing at night. As I mentioned above, you can replace some glasses of water with herbal teas.
Fresher Food Is More Nutritious
You should be looking to buy your food in as fresh a condition as possible and eating most of your fruit and vegetables raw, for example as snacks, crudites, salads, and juices. Raw fruits and veg are still full of all their natural enzymes, vitamins and minerals. If food is kept too long, or if it has been cooked or processed in any way, it kills the natural enzymes.
Buy locally grown produce if you can, ideally from farm shops and local markets- imported produce is usually harvested under ripe (so it will be short of it’s full vitamin and mineral supply) and will have a longer time to lose nutrients on it’s trip to the supermarkets.
Is Organic Better
Buying organic produce where possible is better for your health but not totally necessary, unless you can afford it, but a little organic produce will go a long way to getting you started.
It’s not a major problem if you can’t get hold of any organic produce. Just eating plenty of fresh fruits and veg is more important, whether they are organic or not, than skimp on quantities. However, there are some good reasons for eating organic food on a healthy detox diet.
Artificial fertilizers and pesticides are banned from production of organic foods, so they have very little or no potentially toxic man made chemicals. Although it’s a controversial area, there is mounting evidence that the cumulative impact of pesticide residues can cause long term health problems.
By comparison, organic foods are processed much less than non-organic. That means they contain no hydrogenated fats, artificial additives, preservatives or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Certain organic foods taste better and have more flavor.
