HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! I hope 2012 will be a great year for you all. I recently was thinking about how I like to start a new year and the first thing that came to mind was ‘a fresh start’. So I looked around the areas of my life that I wanted to start a fresh and funnily enough, my desk is the first thing that came to mind….somewhat boring I know, but you see I admit I am not very good at keeping my desk tidy! Maybe it’s because I overload it with too many ‘things’ that build up over time, which inevitably impacts on my ability to work as efficiently……..which got me thinking……. my desk overload issue is like many people’s ‘body overload’ issue in that they over load their system with too many toxin laden foods, eat faster than what their digestive system can handle, lather their skin with supposed beauty products that the pretty lady on the advertisement told them to, all whilst guzzling too much coffee, alcohol and sugar! It’s enough to make you feel overloaded just reading about it!
But for those of you who are watching what you eat, are using organic natural skin products such as Kora and go easy on the coffee and alcohol, what you may not realise is that much of your toxicity could be generating from within.
Let me ask you this……do you regularly experience bloating, flatulence, fatigue after meals, constipation or lose bowels? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then chances are you are struggling to digest your food effectively, which in turn accumulates within the intestine and literally rots over time – aka the bloating and flatulence. This nicely accumulated mass of undigested food can then clog the passage for waste to be eliminated. These issues are the underlying cause for some of the most common ailments people complain of, including fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, Candida /thrush, bad skin and breath, PMT, poor cognitive function – including grumpy moods, (better known as ‘sh*# on liver) and poor immune defences.
But it’s not just our intestines that become over loaded when we accumulate too much ‘junk’, but also the liver, as it will have to up the ante to process these internal toxins, let alone any external toxins you may be throwing down your throat, slopping on your skin or breathing up your nostrils!
So Where do all these toxins come from and why do we need to detox?
It’s a sad phenomenon that comes with living in a modern day society, where we can no longer rely on our body’s natural ability to process the excess toxins we expose ourselves to. In the past we simply did not eat the rubbish that so many of us throw down our gob today. Coffee, artificial additives in processed foods – that resemble anything but their natural form, artificial sweeteners used in ‘diet products’ - we presume will make us skinny, but in reality killed the rats in the clinical testing, genetically modified foods that have turned many of us into a walking contraceptive pill – aka the soy bean – used as a cheap ingredient in a stack of processed foods and that most addictive of substances…… sugar, more addictive than nicotine and heroin they say. Sugar really is the root of so much evil when it comes to our health. So one of the main aims of undertaking a detox, should be to wean off your sugar addiction and nicotine while you’re at it, if you smoke.
Aside from the toxins in the food we eat and those generated internally from poor digestion, there is also the environmental toxins that did not exist once upon a time. I’m talking about pollutants that get into our water ways (worst of all plastic bottled water – hello BPA!) and food, chemicals found in so many common house hold and cosmetic products and so the list goes on. So if all this has not motivated you into doing a detox, then how about the cellulite factor? Toxins bind to fat and appear as that most attractive of female injustices – cellulite! Sure there may be the genetic and hormonal elements to developing cellulite, but these factors are underpinned by excess toxicity and when we mobilize fat through a detox, we also mobilize cellulite, Yeeeha!
So when you wake up in the morning feeling like a lead balloon is tying you to the bed or find yourself firmly clenching your buttocks all too regularly following a meal, for fear of killing those around you with a leaking gas, you’ve inherited the nick name “cranky pants” from your friends and family, or your having to apply foundation like paint to cover up those blotches and dark circles under your eyes, you know it’s time to give your long suffering body a flush and I’m not referring to using a hose! No I’m talking about an effective detox. I say effective because not all detox’s were created equal.
What Should An Effective Detox Program Do?
An effective detox will act like a re-set button for the function of every cell in your body, because of its ability to alkalize your system. When your body is more alkaline than acidic, it functions better, your blood circulates more easily, carrying essential nutrients to your cells, you digest and absorb food more effectively, your immune defenses are stronger, your mind is clearer, your sleep deeper and you will feel happier, not to mention look healthier – thanks to those sparkly white eyes and clear complexion. Yep there is a lot to be said for doing a detox IF you do it the right way!
The other thing you may not realize is that a proper detox is the best way to stimulate your metabolic rate, not only because the right detox program should teach you how to adopt healthy eating habits and break bad ones, but also because your newly functioning liver and bowel will have a direct impact on the function of all your hormones and the absorption of nutrients, essential for a healthy thyroid. Ideally we want to be having 2 – 3 bowel movements a day, so when our bowel function becomes sluggish, so too does our metabolic rate. Imagine if you stopped taking out the garbage in your home at the rate that you were generating it? Your home would pretty quickly become uninhabitable and impact on your ability to function properly. So the same goes for our body and yet so many people I have treated over the years don’t have regular bowel movements, or worse still they think they do because going every second day or worse, is all they have ever known!
Aside from stimulating our digestive system to clear out all the accumulated toxins and undigested food and re-gig our eating habits, an effective detox program should also include killing off any parasites or bacteria that may have decided to take up residence in your intestine. These slippery little suckers will end up gobbling up a good chunk of your good bacteria – better known as probiotics – which act a little like our very own built in army. I’ve mentioned before that there are trillions and trillions of these guys residing inside our intestine – more than there are cells in the entire body, so the long and short of it is, they have a pretty powerful role to play in influencing the function of every cell. Keeping your pro biotic colonies nicely topped up is one of the best things you can do for your overall health and digestive function, but remember, supplementing with a quality pro biotic is the last step in undertaking an effective detox.
So what are you waiting for?! Get to it and give your body that clean out it deserves. If nothing else you will feel like you have been born again – after the odd day where your body may stage a mild protest by way informing you just how much garbage you have carelessly been tossing into it, with the odd headache and cranky day. BUT never fear, these are just symptoms experienced when you start stirring up the muddy sediment that lies deep within, better out than in I say!
So give the gift of detox to your body this new year and your body will love you for it!
For more information on detoxing the healthy way, visit my website www.sallyjoseph.com.au or check out my booklet Begin A Healthy Life In 28 Days
Til my next post , stay healthy and feel good everyday
Sally x
© All Rights Reserved Sally Joseph 2011
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