HOW TO DETOX..GENTLY

A detox encompasses many different aspects of our diet and lifestyle, to reduce the burden being places on the body each day, giving the body a chance to repair and renew. Many different symptoms may warrant a detox. These symptoms may include low energy, low mood, increased sensitivities to smells and chemicals, headaches, skin conditions and digestive symptoms.

Below I will take you through the different aspects of a detox, touching on diet, exercise and other ways to help your body gently detox.

FOOD

Removing refined sugar, trans fats, saturated fats and excessive salt are probably the most important part of doing a detox, whether it be a strong detox or gentle detox, keeping your diet nice and simple will allow your body time to heal and repair. You can also go further and restrict dairy, wheat and gluten, fruit, all carbohydrates..the list goes on. The amount of food restriction depends on how strong you want the detox to be. Every detox that you do however should involve cutting out alcohol, coffee and caffeine in general.

So we have covered the foods that you should cut out, now onto the foods you should be eating!!

You should be eating plenty of good fats in order for your body to detox properly. These include foods such as:

Avocado

Fish

Nuts- almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts

Seeds- linseeds and chia seeds

You should also be eating lots of FRESH and COLOURFUL fruit and vegetables. Fruit and veggies are so rich in vitamins that are essential for proper detoxification to occur in the liver.

Making sure you are having plenty of protein as well is essential! Go for lean meats such as kangaroo, fish, chicken. Avoiding processed meats such as minced meats (unless it is a good quality one) sausages, burgers, salami, ham etc. Just keep it simple!

Simple, clean, nutrient rich food is the key for detoxing!

JUICE

Juicing is a great way to get therapeutic benefits from fruit and vegetables. Stay away from pure fruit juices as it is just concentrated sugar. Vegetable juices are a better option, but you can still mix them with a fruit juice to make it palatable if your new to juicing. If you have the option between cold pressed juice and conventional juice always go for the cold pressed, it has the most vitamins and minerals still intact.

The following juices are some of my favourite to use during a detox for their therapeutic benefits!

Beetroot: liver cleanser

Celery: blood cleanser

Lemon: liver cleanser and anti-inflammatory

Grapefruit: liver cleanser

Ginger: Circulation boosting, helping to clear the wastes from the body

ENVIRONMENT

Every day we are surrounded with chemicals. Chemicals are in our food, our food packaging, our cleaning products, our beauty products, virtually all of our toiletries as well as air pollution. When our body is exposed to these chemicals they have to go via the liver, to make them much safer for our bodies to deal with. As you can imagine over time this puts your liver under a lot of stress. If you reduce your exposure to these environmental toxins by replacing your usual products with more natural products such as natural deodorants, mineral make ups, vinegar and bicarb instead of your usual cleaning products.

EXERCISE

Exercise is such a simple and easy way to gently detox! by increasing your heart rate you are getting the blood pumping and moving wastes through the body. By opening up the pores of the skin for sweat to escape it is helping the toxins escape as well. making sure you drink plenty of water when you are detoxing as well is just as important as it will help to flush the kidneys, as well as to replace what you loose during exercise.

Yoga is an excellent exercise when you are detoxing because many of the postures are specific for activating and detoxifying certain organs.

OTHER WAYS TO HELP YOUR BODY DETOX GENTLY

DRY SKIN BRUSHING

This is the practice of activating your bodies lymphatic system (your bodies natural waste removal system) by brushing the surface of your skin with a hard bristled brush. This brushing increases circulation to the surface of the skin, aiding the removal of any toxins and other waste products.

OIL PULLING

An ancient ayurvedic practice of swishing oil around your mouth for around 20 minutes first thing in the morning. It is understood that the toxins are secreted from the salivary glands and are attracted to the fats in the oil, causing them to bind to the oil when its pushed around the mouth. For this reason it is important not to swallow the oil that you use.

MASSAGE

Lymphatic massage in particular is an excellent way to gently detoxify your body. It activates the lymphatic system, stimulating the removal of wastes..all the while you are just enjoying a massage, how good is that!

You've got the basics now for a gentle detox…what are you waiting for?

See you on the other side :)