Spring Clean your Body

It’s time to SPRING into action clear those cobwebs from your head, get rid of excess baggage that you no longer need, and give yourself a fresh new outlook ready to enjoy the warmer weather and life in general!

Do you feel like you have been in hibernation? Are you ready to come out of your shell and wake up to a new way of life? We spring clean our homes periodically, but do you take time to look at yourself and recognize what you need to spring clean in you?

Spring is a great time to take a step back and evaluate how life is treating you, and how you are treating your body. How are you feeling? Are you feeling like you are your best self? Do you feel fit, energetic, and full of zest for life? If you are like many others with a busy lifestyle, you may not have yelled out a resounding “YES” to these questions. That’s ok, it’s just time to spring clean your body, and give back to yourself for a change.

I’m going to mention the “D” word – “Detox” – but don’t let that scare you! I know there is a lot of positive and negative information out there about detox diets. Some people think that you would have to be a health fanatic in order to do a detox. Normal people don’t do that, do they? Well, actually, yes they do. I consider myself pretty normal, and just recently I jumped on the Detox bandwagon and completed a 21 day detox. I was feeling sluggish, definitely not my best self, a little overweight and just not as healthy as I wanted to be. I generally eat a healthy balanced diet, but I wasn’t getting sufficient exercise, and I was finding it hard to “jumpstart” a new regime – I had tried but failed on a few occasions. When I read the book “21 Pounds in 21 Days”, Dr Roni’s insights and strategies resonated with me. The concepts were easy to understand, and I agreed with her philosophy that “healthy is as healthy does” – if you give your body what it needs, your body will give you what you need.

So newly enlightened, and with hope, conviction and a healthy dose of determination, I started on my 21 day quest to changing my life. I won’t tell you that it was easy – it wasn’t. But surprisingly, even though I stopped “eating” and my diet consisted of fresh vegetable juice, supplement “green” drinks, herbal tea, lots of water, and soup for dinner, I found that I wasn’t hungry, and I began to feel better and more energized within a few days. When I started, I wasn’t sure that I would do the full 21 days – there are options to just do a 7 or 14 day detox – however I kept going in order to reach my weight loss goal, and to get the benefits of a full detox. After all, I’ve been saving these toxins up for about 37 years….I figured that I probably needed to give my body the 21 days to get rid of them. By the time week 3 arrived, I won’t deny that I was ready for some real food – I love food, so I did miss certain foods during my diet. The amazing thing is that food tastes so much better to me now – I feel that my taste buds have really woken up as a result of this diet.
While detoxing, it’s important to include some mild exercise to flush the toxins out, and after 21 days of having exercise as part of a daily routine, it’s much easier to continue on that path. In fact, after 21 days of juicing vegetables for a pint of fresh juice daily, and making healthy soups, and then incorporating fruits and salads for the 11 day post-detox transition, it’s much easier to continue that diet. I’ve stocked up on healthy foods at home, shop regularly for fresh fruit and vegetables, and have been “brown bagging” salads for lunch, and after 4 weeks, the 15 pounds I lost on the diet has stayed off.

So, is a detox diet right for you? Ask yourself these questions: would you like to have more energy, have a clear head, clear skin and lose some weight? (For anyone interested in detoxing without weight loss, simply supplement protein shakes during the diet).

Do you have the resolve to complete the detox diet? Jot down what you would like to achieve with a detox. Ask yourself if you are prepared to feel the same way in 6 months, or 1 year, or 5 years. Do you want to continue to live as you to today, or are you ready for a change?

Take a chance on yourself, and give yourself the gift of detox. You will be amazed at the results.

To read more about reasons to detox, and for help, support, and suggested recipes, check out the blog archive.