A great way to start a new year and your commitment to health is to do a detox. It doesn’t have to be too difficult, but can have beneficial effects. These days we all have toxic lifestyles and we can all help ourselves to reduce and remove some toxins from our bodies and lives. A home detox can be done once per month to help keep our body systems clean and healthy. Detoxing also helps with anti-aging. When we abstain from eating cooked food, it gives our body a chance to rest and start to heal its-self.
Your home detox can be done over one day. You will need to let friends and family that you are doing a mini detox and won’t be eating with them for the day. You won’t be available to join any other plans, and you should reserve this day for yourself. Make your preparations as follows.
Food
Choose one fruit that is readily available and buy in bulk, say 5kgs. It should be a fruit that can be eaten whole and provides one serving and it should be a skinned fruit. My favourite are apples. Apples are known as nature’s broom, as they have the ability to “sweep out” the digestive system and are an excellent cleansing food. They scrub clean the inside of your intestines, one of the major organs of elimination. You may also chose pears or oranges (but they should be sweet, not sour). You may eat the fruit as often as you need to, if you feel hungry, but I have set out a timetable below which seems optimal. Wash all fruit first using soap and water, rinse well, and do not remove the skin. You can eat as many pieces of fruit as you want to each time you eat, but try to listen to your body and don’t overload yourself.
Drink
You are going to drink a lot of fluid on your detox day, especially water. Make sure that you have plenty of bottled, good quality mineral water available. Your drinking water should preferably be pH 7.0 (neutral) or higher. You may also drink herbal teas throughout the day. Herbal teas may include licorice, sage, chamomile, peppermint and lemon balm. You should aim to drink two and a half litres of water and a half litre of herbal tea, spread out over the course of the day. Do not drink anything twenty minutes either side of eating your fruit. The aim is to flush out the kidneys and get rid of toxins. Don’t worry if you feel like you are continuously running to the toilet, that’s natural.
Dry Skin Brushing
Make sure you have a brush or mitt for dry skin brushing. When you brush, work from the body’s extremities towards your heart, using a firm motion. Start at your feet, work up the legs, front and back, up the buttocks, then up the back. Now brush up the arms, front and back, sweeping across the shoulders to the heart, and finally up the abdomen. You are pushing blood and lymph towards the heart to get these systems moving and help with the process of eliminating toxins.
Bathing
You will need to buy some salts for a cleansing bath. Epsom salts are best if you can get them, if not, even a good quality sea salt will be of benefit. Half a kilo in a regular sized bath will suffice. The temperature of the water should be slightly hot, so you are gently perspiring. Also add to the water some detoxifying essential oils if you have them. A couple of drops of lavender, a couple of drops of tea-tree and a couple of drops of geranium is a good balance. Place in the water some fragrant flowers, champaka and ylang-ylang are great for relaxing the mind. Light some candles and allow yourself to immerse in the water as much as you can. This is again getting your body systems moving, and has also been shown to promote better sleep. Also have ready a scrub; this can be bought or prepared yourself. You can use oats, salts or sugar, mixed with crushed black pepper, cloves, cinnamon. These spices will heat you up and again help with detox.
Activity
When you do a detox day you may find you are a little low in energy so chose a day when you can mainly take a rest. This day is not only detoxing physically but mentally and emotionally too. Do not switch on the TV today, do not read the newspaper or magazines. Avoid confrontations with friends or family. You may sit quietly in an area of nature, look out at the ricefields, or watch the sea. These views will also help to detox you, especially your mind.
Sweating
Sweating is key to detox. Toxins are removed from the body by three organs of elimination; skin, colon and kidneys. If you have the opportunity to use a heat therapy such as a steam or sauna room, that would be beneficial on this day. If not then take a hot bath as mentioned above, or if you feel up to the exercise, walk until you are sweating.
Clothing
Dress in natural fibre clothes, cotton or linen are best. Non-natural fibres are allergens and irritate the body. Natural fibres are non-irritating and allow the body to breathe and be comfortable.
Now you have completed your preparations, next edition you can read the timetable on how to conduct your detox day. Keep this paper until next edition if you need to remind yourself.
If you have any questions or comments you can write to me at charlieapsin@hotmail.com
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