Detox: Reset Your Body

Have you been feeling funky lately? A little sluggish? There are lots of times we may feel it’s a good idea for a new start for our bodies and ourselves. It’s time to hit the reset button on our health to help that body find homeostasis. Many detoxes are for eating clean and getting the junk out of your body but a detox is really something more.

It’s getting the junk out of your body but it’s also teaching your body how to eat. Making sure you don’t eat the junk that’s out there. The junk is why we feel bad. Are you not sure if it’s time for a detox? You need to be ready. It’s not always easy. Do you want to teach your body to feel good? We have tools to help you support your body during the reset.

Is Your Body Screaming For a Detox?

Are your organs of elimination showing distress? Your liver, intestines, kidneys, lungs and skin will find ways to tell you. Ignoring these signs can be detrimental to your health. Do you need to help get some toxins out of your body? From headaches to hypertension everybody shows stress differently. Here are some of the signs to look for.

• Rashes, pimples, eczema or offensive body odor indicate that the skin is stressed.
• Frequent, painful or urgent urination along with dark or offensive smelling urine indicate stressed kidneys.
• What about your tummy issues? Gas, diarrhea, bloating and constipation are signs of intestinal stress. How’s your poop?
• Congestion, coughs or wheezing indicates the lungs are stressed.

If your organs of elimination are showing stress, your body is working hard. These are signs are your body is screaming for help. It’s time to step away from the processed foods, alcohol and cooking oils. How can you help your body? Help your body do what it was meant to do.

Your body is constantly detoxing- that’s what it does. We are surrounded by toxins every day! It’s more making sure you are doing the right things to detox correctly and removing triggers of inflammation. It’s important to make sure you have enough nutrients to support those detoxification pathways.

Is Your Body Ready For Detox?

Get Your Allergies Tested

This is a big thing- Get your food allergies checked and make sure your GI is healed before starting a detox. Food allergies cause a lot of inflammation in your gut and lead to leaky gut. When you force a detox hard, during those first days you’re drawing toxins that may be stuck in the fat tissues or other organs. If you try to pull those out too soon, without your GI being properly healed, all that stuff can actually leak back in the system and make you really sick.

Give Your GI Time to Heal

It takes time for the body to heal. Removing those triggers is #1 and then rebuilding that GI is critical for a successful detox.

So, you want to make sure you are pooping- well. If you’re pooping good- you’re ready for your detox.

A detox is hard. You can feel kind of crappy. You might be super tired, bad brain foggy and/or just feel bad- which is a good thing because that’s the stuff leaving the body. It can be tough though, that’s why it’s important to set yourself up for success. A detox is best with the guidance of a health professional. We do have some tips everyone should follow to be successful at their detox.

Support Your Body During Detox

Be Prepared

Go to the grocery store to buy some fruits and vegetables….and more fruits and vegetables plus a few more fruits and vegetables. Oh, and also buy some quinoa! For those who like to cook it’s easier, but for a lot of people it can be difficult. If you open up that refrigerator and you can’t find something that is on your detox list, it’s going to be a lot harder. Being prepared is key to starting and finishing a detox successfully.

Have an Accountability Partner

Find a buddy or a loved one that needs to reset too. Someone to keep you honest. It’s funny, but knowing you have to be there to keep someone else on track, keeps you on track too. You can’t keep someone else accountable unless you are accountable yourself. It’s also always better to go through with a friend, share ideas and support each other.

Schisandra

Schisandra is a medicinal berry containing phenols and lignans. It has multiple healing properties including boosting liver function, boosting energy, supporting cellular health and providing antioxidant activity.

Milk Thistle

Milk thistle is a natural herb with powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It is able to promote healthy digestive function by helping with enzyme formation, increasing bile production, decreasing inflammation and soothing mucous membranes throughout the body. This herb aids the elimination of toxins from the liver and supports healthy skin.

Turmeric

Is a great anti-inflammatory. With the toxins floating through your system on their way out, you are going to feel a little crappy. The detox can cause some inflammation and turmeric can bring that down. Turmeric provides anti-oxidant activity. Among it’s great qualities it also promotes the body’s normal, protective response to environmental stress.

Light Exercise

Find some light exercise- Nothing too strenuous. Your body is going through enough crap as it is right now. Light walking is a good choice and nothing exerting a lot of energy. You are going to be tired already from the detox.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants are good for getting rid of free radicals in the body. Free radicals are toxins. Some of the things we eat have toxins and the antioxidants bind those up to get them out of the body.

Glutathione is one of the biggest antioxidants and it’s huge in helping the liver pass toxins through the body.

Vitamin C is another great antioxidant. It helps cleanse the liver and it boosts your immune system.

Drink Plenty of Water

Drink 1-2 cups per hour to help your kidneys flush out the toxins.

Massage Therapy

Do you need a reason to get a massage? It will help move toxins out of your muscles and tissues by moving them to the lymphatic system (your body’s garbage disposal system) and then to the kidneys. Be sure to drink plenty of water after a massage!

Other ways to treat yourself while pulling toxins is a nice sauna or even just a hot shower. Foot baths are another great idea. Your feet are very porous and a way of pulling junk out of the body.

Enemas

Doing an enema can cleanse the colon. You want to make sure everything is clean and zipping on through.

Breathing Exercises

Exhalations are detoxifying. Do breathing exercises 2-3 times per day. Inhale through your nose, into your abdomen (not your upper chest), for a count of 4. Hold for a count of 7. Exhale slowly, through your mouth for a count of 8. Repeat for a total of 4 cycles.

Your Most Important Tool

Your most important tool is your attitude! Positivity will go a long way in making your detox successful. How are you going to feel about trying new foods and cleaning out your body? Are you going to bring optimism to your new routines or is it going to be a chore? You are the one who will make the most impact on your success because it won’t all be easy, but it will be worth it!

Your Reset, Your Detox

Having the tools to set yourself up for detox success is important. You are going to feel crappy at times. But then afterwards- I honestly can say you will feel great and you will feel better.

You will find you are just doing these simple things to feel better. You are in control of how you feel. Once you know that it makes you feel good and if you start to go back to those old ways you think, wait that doesn’t feel good. How do I get to back to feeling good? Resetting gets easier because you know how to make your body feel good.

By Dr. Mitch Sutton

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