My Health Secret? Worry Less and…

It’s becoming increasingly impossible to avoid toxins in our daily life. I’m sorry to burst your health bubble, but even if you eat the healthiest food in the world and use all natural products, you’re still taking in toxins on a daily basis. The amount of toxicity in our air and water supply is astounding and so discouraging. Did you know that over 70,000 chemicals have been introduced to our atmosphere since 1970? Aside from contaminated water, severely polluted air, and junk food, you can find plenty of toxic chemicals in food packaging, clothing, furniture, personal care products, cleaning products, pharmaceuticals, and so much more. That doesn’t even include toxic exposure that we get from cell phones, microwaves, television, computers, and who knows what else?!?

I don’t say these things to scare you, just to wake you up to the fact that we cannot avoid them. It’s part of our current society. We can do our best to change policy, fight the establishment, eat organic, and ultimately stay pure, but in the mean time…. what do we do? DETOX. Get that s**t out of your body, stat! Keep the “juice” flowing. Most of us are so backed up with these toxins that they just build up and create a wide variety of long-standing health conditions, which can ultimately result in death.

Although, I do recommend that you continue to do your best to stay “pure,” remember that you can only do your best. There is no such thing even close to perfect, and stress only worsens any health condition. The stress hormone (cortisol) has been proven to contribute to mental health issues (anxiety, insomnia, memory/focus problems, and depression), digestive issues, heart conditions, weight gain, acne, and more. So… DON’T WORRY, JUST DETOX! Here’s how:

We all know how important water is for us, however very few of us actually drink enough. It’s imperative to drink LOTS of water for so many reasons, one being detoxification. I like to think of it like this: Our bodies are almost all water, right? Toxins are the damns in the  “river.” We need to keep feeding our body the water it needs to stay in flow. So, let it rain!!!

At minimum, you should be drinking half your weight in ounces of water every day. For example, if you weigh 200 lbs, you should be drinking AT LEAST 100 oz. every single day. That’s almost a gallon and a half, so drink up, people! Water quality is very important. I do my best do only drink true spring water or REALLY well filtered water. 

Oh, and skip out on the bottled water, ok? It’s super wasteful and full of harmful chemicals! There are other options! Check out this article about why to avoid plastic water bottles!:

Try eating foods that help detox your body. Even if you can’t quite ditch all the “bad” foods yet, try mixing in ones that will combat your guilty pleasures. High water foods like cucumber, melon, citrus, cabbage and celery are very effective. Dark greens and herbs (even many herbal supplements-just don’t blindly take them) are also extremely cleansing. Here’s a great list of cleansing foods to start mixing in your diet today!

Let’s go back to the idea that your body is like a river. You don’t want still water, that’s where yucky stuff starts to grow, right? So… keep it flowing. Movement is a great way to do this, for a lot of reasons. Sweating is an awesome way to purge toxins from the body. Also aerobic exercise helps expand the capillaries, allowing for much more blood flow and lymphatic movement, which will help escort toxins out your body.

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This one piggy backs on exercise, because they often go hand in hand. Getting outside helps the process of detoxification for a few reasons. One, mentioned above, is sweating in the sun. Even more importantly is the vitamin D3 that you get from the sun. This vitamin is known to kill off bad bacteria, viruses, and fungus! Check out this article on sun as a method of detoxification from Dr. Axe:http://draxe.com/detox

Doing a cleanse is a great way to jump start this process, as long as you remember to keep that momentum going after it’s done! There are so many to choose from… and I know the information can get really confusing. To find the right cleanse for you, take into consideration your digestive health, willpower, body type, energy level, and blood sugar response. The best reset for your body is a true fast. Whether it’s one day or three, fasting has profound effects on your cell re-growth. You can do this while just drinking water, or you can take it up a notch and drink water with lemon, cayenne, and a wee bit of ACV (apple cider vinegar). Another form of fasting would be a “juice fast” You can do this for anywhere between 1 and 7 days, depending on your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. To get the full benefit of this, you must either juice yourself, or purchase LOCALLY so that the products are RAW/UNPASTEURIZED. This means they have a very short shelf life (3 days), so you won’t find these juices on the shelf of your grocery store. If you live here in Naples, try a juice cleanse from my favorite truly raw and organic juice bar, called Juicelation. Below is a link to their website and they DELIVER FOR FREE!

Other options would be to purchase an herbal cleanse from your local health food store. There are many to choose from, and my supplement knowledge is limited, which is why I recommend finding a small health food store in your area that you can really trust and purchase from them. Here in Naples, I go to Food and Thought or Nature’s Garden for my supplements. If you’re going to go this route, I would reccommend combining it with a very clean raw fruit and veggie only diet for the first 3 days, with lots of water of course! You don’t want to cancel out the cleanse by putting heavy foods in while you’re trying to cleanse out. Here’s a fun little quiz to see which kind of cleanse is best for you!

This is going to be very powerful on it’s own, but also in addition to any/all physical cleansing techniques. Burning sage/incense, doing breathing exercises, salt baths, using essential oils, saying mantras, sound healing, using sacred crystals, reiki, and prayer/meditation are all ways to cleanse your body of energetic toxins. Everybody has different views on these types of practices, so just start with whatever resonates with you, and don’t be afraid of feeling a little silly for wanting to try something new! The risk is truly worth the reward. Here’s some more info on spiritual cleansing

Are you ready to start living a cleaner lifestyle? Step one: DETOX! Off we go 🙂