Successful detox: Do’s and don’ts!
Detox cure… what’s it all about? It’s almost the end of one year, and the beginning of a whole new one! While many of you are busy preparing for family celebrations, or tallying up the year’s bills, or…, some (and especially some!) are engaged in a completely different activity: resolutions!
It’s the perfect time to take stock and take a long, hard look at your physical condition. We end the year with a body that we don’t necessarily like and that we would have liked to improve. We’ve tried everything, or almost everything, to lose those unwanted kilos, to erase those traces of cellulite, to flatten that rebellious belly. Nothing seems to work! What doesn’t? It seems that any slimming cure needs to be well prepared, by preparing our bodies for the change! A detox is the ideal way to restore your body’s good health before embarking on your transformation.
Detox: fad or necessity?
A detox cure involves a thorough cleansing of the digestive system, especially the large intestine. As we age, we will have consumed tons of food, which is then transformed by our body to extract its benefits and expel its waste products. Unfortunately, not all waste products leave the body, and sometimes their accumulation on the inner walls of our intestines can cause discomfort that we’re not even aware of.
As a result, a pot belly has become commonplace, and many people don’t see it as the result of a malfunctioning body. The body should be seen as a vehicle that needs to be well maintained, oiled and purged – in short, kept as healthy as possible. Fat accumulated in various parts of the body generally reflects a poor metabolism, slowed down and altered by certain problems that can be resolved with a detox cure.
Is it a fad? I’d say YES, if the person doing it doesn’t really need it! A detox cure is more than necessary for anyone wishing to “reset” their body.
A detox cure is never intended to make you lose weight! The main objective of a detox cure is to encourage the elimination of toxins from the body, in order to regain energy and vitality.
When is a detox cure necessary?
Feeling tired, aching all over? Are you in a bad mood, or even depressed? Are your joints aching? You’re simply sick! We’re talking here about a type of illness we’ve caught as a result of our now sedentary lifestyle: we work a lot, sleep little and badly, and are stressed all the time.
Our ancestors ate organic food: vegetables, fruit, plants, roots, meat in its natural state… and they were always on the move, hunting, cultivating, gathering and even fighting! Our food today is processed. Wheat, rice and sugar are now refined and have lost their most important active ingredients. Meat is stuffed with antibiotics and steroids, and is genetically modified. Beverages contain chemical products (colorants, additives, preservatives, etc.) that are not necessarily friendly to our bodies!
Toxins are everywhere, and they’re already in our bodies: let’s get rid of them!
A detox cure can last from 1 to 3 weeks. It’s advisable to schedule one at least once a year. Promising results have been reported in people who take 2 cures a year.
A successful detox: how to go about it?
Not just any old way! Many people make the mistake of following detox cures with dangerous effects. It’s not a question of depriving yourself of food and assaulting your body with products worthy of being detergents!
Most detox cures currently available target either the liver or the colon. It’s well known that these two parts of the body are subject to a great deal of pollution due to all the food we’ve been eating for years now. However, many specialists believe that targeting just these two areas represents a risk to overall health. We need to think of the body as a whole, which is why we shouldn’t hesitate to seek help from specialists: dieticians, naturopaths, phytotherapists…
In fact, it’s hard to find a typical detox cure recipe that works. I think the most logical thing to do would be to observe the healthy basics of a cure, as far as possible.
Tips for a successful detox cure
In what follows, I’ll try to list the most interesting guidelines I’ve found on most serious health and wellness sites and forums. As agreed, there are no magic recipes!
Water
There’s no need to keep reminding people: a well-hydrated body is a body that’s in good shape. Here again, opinions differ! While some specialists recommend drinking at least 1.5 liters of water a day, others say that a normal glass of water every 3-4 hours is sufficient. The water content of other foods should also be taken into account. In any case, for my part, I prefer to say that you shouldn’t forget to quench your thirst whenever you need to!
Water and lemon
Everyone seems to agree that a glass of lukewarm water with half a squeezed lemon in the morning is a good start to a detox day. Lemon, contrary to what you might think because of its acidic taste, is actually an alkalizing food. This means that it restores the body’s pH level, which helps to lower the body’s acidity levels.
Cravings are fine…
…but not with sweets! Choose fruit instead of other unhealthy foods. An apple seems the most interesting fruit to munch on when you’re feeling peckish, and it’s easy to hide in your belongings. A banana is a good source of healthy sugar, potassium and magnesium too. However, you need to keep cravings to a minimum, so as not to make them a bad habit, because even if a food is healthy, you mustn’t overdo it. The aim is to stabilize blood sugar levels, not to overindulge!
Vegetables as main courses
A green salad is a great way to start lunch or dinner. It contains enzymes useful for digestion, which the body is accustomed to seeking from its own resources. If you can supply your body’s need for vitamins and enzymes from external sources, it will always be better off. Leafy vegetables in particular are known for their high vitamin, mineral and chlorophyll content.
Avoid these foods at all costs…
Candies and other sweets: they contain artificial sweeteners and other artificial colorings that are a real headache for our liver, which has to process and filter them.
Margarine and foods prepared with hydrogenated fats or trans fats: these toxic, unnatural foods harm the body’s detoxification organs and require enormous amounts of energy to digest.
Artificially farmed red meat: this meat is altered by antibiotics and other chemical treatments. Choose lean organic meat, poultry or wild fish in small quantities.
Exercise, always exercise…
Make sure you get a minimum amount of exercise during the day. A minimum of twenty minutes of vigorous activity will activate your blood circulation, improve your lymphatic flow and increase your energy. Your lymphatic system is like a street-cleaning system in your body: it constantly sweeps up toxins and flushes them out of all your tissues. This system relies essentially on exercise and deep breathing to get around. Exercise will also allow you to sweat: we don’t need to remind you of the importance of this.
Find out how to prepare healthy recipes.
How about it?
As you can see, a detox cure isn’t exactly rocket science! As long as you understand what it is and try to do just what’s needed, such a body update can only be beneficial. It’s important to remember that this is not an automatic solution to weight loss. A detox will help prepare your body for any future weight loss process.
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