Keeping your body in shape through proper eating. If you’re feeling sluggish, or you think you’re always full and the food has settled in your stomach, undigested. If you think you’re fat and need to lose weight. And if you think that you’ve ingested more than the allowed preservatives and additives into your body and your liver’s starting to show symptoms of abuse, then it’s time for you to go on a Detox program.
Detox or detoxification is the process of neutralizing or eliminating toxins from the body. Detox plans may be in different forms and ways, from regular exercise to body scrubs and spa massages, to yoga and meditation. But the simplest and the most common perhaps is to go on a detox diet.
A detox diet is a program that minimizes the chemicals ingested into the body by going for organic food. It highlights food like vitamins and antioxidants that the body needs for detoxification. It also involves taking in of food that will aid in the elimination of toxins like high fiber food and water. It generally suggests a high intake of fresh vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and lots of fluids, while cutting down on caffeine, alcohol, yeast and sugars.
So why go for a detox diet?
If you’re a regular fast food chain eater, you’ve probably ingested many fat-soluble chemicals contained in the French fries, cheeseburgers, twisters and soft drinks you’ve consumed. An ‘overload’ of these chemicals in the body can lead to illness and conditions like liver malfunction, kidney problems, hormonal imbalance, nutritional deficiencies and inefficient metabolism. And the most common symptoms of these illnesses are the usual fatigue, poor skin and low tolerance to pain.
By going on a detox diet, people would have improved energy, clearer and fairer skin, a regular bowel movement, improved metabolism and digestion, increased concentration. Generally, it spells wellness and a better well-being.
A word of caution
Though anyone is allowed to take on a detox diet, pregnant women or those who are nursing are cautioned not to go on such plans as they need the necessary nutrient for nursing. And unless recommended by a doctor, people with anemia, eating disorders, heart disease, low immunity, low blood pressure, ulcers, cancer, the underweight or those suffering from alcohol or drug dependency should try on a detox diet. Furthermore, such detox diet programs should be properly planned with the doctor and a nutritionist.
Other Things You Need to Know
Side effects may occur within the first few days of starting the detox diet. There’s headache and a general feeling of weakness as the body is adjusting to the change in food intake. So it is recommended to start your diet plan gradually or on Fridays when you won’t be doing much physical activity or requiring much energy. Others may experience diarrhea as the body eliminates the toxins, so take care not to be dehydrated. Drink plenty of water.
Take note that such detox diet programs should not be done for a long time. They are normally recommended to be done at least one to two times a year, and should be done during the warm months.
If you’re thinking of getting started, make sure you consult a doctor or a nutritionist. Read up on detox diets and seek advice from the experts. Remember: Too much is bad. After all, you’re doing it to improve your health, not ruin it!
Body Detox the Easy Way: A Natural Diet
You may wonder sometimes why your body seems to be heavy and you feel lazy to move, yet you are not sick. You are more than willing to be energetic but your body is not just up to it. To address the problem, you resort to eating a lot, gulp up cups of coffee and smoke, thinking that you will be lively after. For a while, you feel good and going. Unknowingly though, you are accumulating toxins in your body. With this scenario happening more and more, you might need to detoxify.
With our ever-dynamic world today, we want our bodies to be constantly active so we can move along with the fast paced lifestyles. Hence, we resort to body stimulants such as coffee, cigarettes, diet pills, drugs and a lot more thinking that they will help the body to stay up all the time, but they do otherwise. These stimulants cause immediate loss of energy and emotional symptoms such as headaches, sickness and depression. They are also considered as toxins in the body.
What are toxins? Toxins are agents that are able to cause body harm. There are two kinds of toxins, the Exogenous or external toxins and Endogenous or internal toxins. The Exogenous toxins come from external sources such as car fumes, tobacco smoke, drugs, factory pollution, etc. On the other hand, the Enogenous toxins come from viral or bacterial infection. Due to metabolism, the body creates its own toxin called Autogenous toxins.
These harmful substances are eliminated in the body in a process called detoxification. Detoxification is the removal of stored toxic products from the bowel, the blood, liver, and kidneys including the great amount of toxic substances stored in body fat to cure chronic diseases such as cancer. The easiest way to detoxify the body is the body detox through a natural diet. To detoxify the body naturally is a change in the diet from a poor to a healthy one. A healthy diet includes raw food diet, specifically, fruits and vegetables.
Naturally, the body detoxifies itself all day. The peak of detoxification occurs when the body is rested during sleep until noon. This is a way for the body to eliminate the toxins acquired from pollution, stimulants and nutrients.
For the ever busy people, you can substitute your stimulants with natural diet to acquire a healthy and active body. Most common stimulants taken by people are refined white sugar, coffee, diet pills, cigarettes and red meat.
Sugar has a stimulating effect. Hence, we feel invigorated when we drink colas. What we do not know, refined white sugar has detrimental effects on the body. Examples of products containing refined white sugar are cola and ketchup. It is advised to cut down on it by using brown sugars like cane sugar which is natural. Fruit juices also give the same kick as to refined white sugar.
Late night workers resort to drinking coffee to keep them awake. As natural substitute to coffee with a detoxifying effect is Japanese or Chinese green tea. The Japanese or Chinese green tea gives the same kick because it also contains caffeine but it does not contain substances that are irritating to the stomach.
Diet pills are also stimulants for the body to be kept alive. This may be observed among athletes specially, during time for competitions because they give more energy. They are being taken albeit the toxic effect in the body. In lieu of this, athletes must take fruits instead due to their natural detoxifying effects.
For cigarette smokers who think smoking stimulates their mind to think, they must think twice for smoking causes cancer. If they take carrots, they will experience the same effect in a more natural way.
For red meat lovers who really feel good and strong after feasting on said food, they better think about cutting on it. Fish is a better substitute.
Now, we understand why our parents keep on reminding us to eat fruits and vegetables. They give us energy in more natural ways plus they keep us fit and healthy.
Home Body-Detox Programs for Losing Weight
Having a great body is probably what all people are trying to achieve, and this includes the fat and thin people. Struggling to lose or to gain weight can oftentimes be very frustrating. It seems that no matter what you do, you can’t get things right. You still find difficulty in achieving the perfect body and the right weight.
Since our birth up to the present, our body has accumulated many toxin build ups. Some of the chemicals from all the foods and beverages that you’ve taken in your entire lifetime will build up because the body can’t handle the detoxification process alone.
Have you heard of detox programs? Many people are into this kind of programs because they claim that they have finally found the solution to their unhealthy way of life.
When you say unhealthy, it means that you are doing things which are somewhat harmful to your body, and even to other people. A typical example is cigarette smoking and drinking alcohol. Cigarette and alcohol have many harmful chemicals that are considered toxins once they entered a person’s body.
Through a detox program, you can expect to gain higher energy levels, relieve symptoms of asthma/diabetes, and slow down your aging process. But the very main reason why many people are into detox programs is to lose weight.
The detox program can also aid your body’s natural detox process. Since almost any person has some sort of ‘bad’ eating habit, not to mention their ‘other’ unhealthy ways of life, the body can’t cope up with all the toxins that need to be removed causing an imbalance in the body.
Detox programs can be done at home. There are home body-detox programs which can be easily followed, for a period of two weeks or more. These programs are focused in helping you lose weight, enhance circulation, increase body elimination, colon cleansing, detox diet, and provide nutrients for the liver. If you still don’t know yet, the liver is the main organ of the body which is responsible for the detoxification process. So you really need to protect and support this body organ.
People who have undergone this type of home body-detox programs say that they were able to lose weight much more quickly than other weight-loss products. Aside from that, they noticed that they now have clearer skin, improved digestion, improved energy, normal bowel movements, etc.
Home body-detox programs also teach you what foods are right for the body. Fresh vegetables and fruits are great for almost any weight loss program, most especially with a home detox. You can eat broccoli, onions, and sprouts, green and red veggies.
Virgin oils, lemon water, rice milk, wheat products, and non-caffeinated drinks (like tea) are also good for a home detox program. Drinking at least eight glasses of water everyday is also advisable.
A good home body-detox program will help a person restore his/her body’s balance, and efficiently removes all toxin build ups. But this doesn’t mean though that you will no longer be able to get toxins into your system. If you continue with your unhealthy lifestyle, over time you will again build up toxins in your body.
Start by slowly changing your lifestyle now. There are many resources which you can make use to aid you in changing little by little. This might take a long time, but your body will thank you for your efforts to change to a healthy way of life.
