10 Ways to Detoxify Your Body

 

Feeling sluggish or out of sync? Having skin problems, aches and pains, or digestive problems? Straying from your healthier habits lately? Having trouble kicking off your weight loss? It might be time for a body detox.
Practiced for centuries by many cultures around the world — including ayurvedic and Chinese medicine systems — detoxification is about resting, cleaning and nourishing the body from the inside out. By removing and eliminating toxins, then feeding your body with healthy nutrients, detoxifying can help protect you from disease and renew your ability to maintain optimum health.
"The body has its own natural healing system," says Peter Bennett, N.D., medical director of Helios Clinic in Victoria, B.C., and co-author with Stephen Barrie, N.D. and Sara Faye, of 7-Day Detox Miracle (Prima Health). "Detoxification enhances this system," he explains.

How does detoxification work?

Basically, detoxification means cleaning the blood. It does this mainly by removing impurities from the blood in the liver, where toxins are processed for elimination. The body also eliminates toxins through the kidneys, intestines, lungs, lymph and skin. However, when this system is compromised, impurities aren't properly filtered and every cell in the body is adversely affected.

A detox program can help the body's natural cleaning process by:
1) Resting the organs through fasting;
2) Stimulating the liver to drive toxins from the body;
3) Promoting elimination through the intestines, kidneys and skin;
4) Improving circulation of the blood; and
5) Refueling the body with healthy nutrients.

"Detoxification works because it addresses the needs of individual cells, the smallest units of human life," says Bennett.

How do you know if you need to detoxify?

Bennett suggests that everyone should detox at least once a year. A short detoxifying program or whole body cleanse is generally safe; in fact, scientific studies show that a detox is beneficial for health. However, Bennett cautions against detoxifying for nursing mothers, children, and patients with chronic degenerative diseases, cancer or tuberculosis. Consult your health care practitioner if you have questions about whether detoxing is right for you.

Today, with more toxins in the environment than ever, "it's critical to detox," says Linda Page, N.D., Ph.D., the author of Detoxification (Healthy Healing Publications). Page recommends detoxing for symptoms such as unexplained fatigue, sluggish elimination, irritated skin, allergies or low-grade infections; bags under the eyes; a distended stomach even if the rest of your body is thin; menstrual difficulties; or mental confusion.

Where do you begin?

First, lighten up your toxin load. Eliminate alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, refined sugars and saturated fats, all of which act as toxins in the body and are obstacles to your healing process. Also, minimize use of chemical-based household cleaners and personal health care products (cleansers, shampoos, deodorants and toothpastes), and substitute natural alternatives.

Another deterrent to good health is stress, which triggers your body to release stress hormones into your system. While these hormones can provide the "adrenaline rush" to win a race or meet a deadline, in large amounts they create toxins and slow down detoxification enzymes in the liver. So it's a good idea to detox stressful life situations along with detoxifying your body. Yoga, Qigong and meditation are simple and effective ways to relieve stress by resetting your physical and mental reactions to the inevitable stress life will bring.

Which detox program is best for you?

There are many detoxification programs and detox recipes, depending on your individual needs. Many programs follow a 7-day schedule because, as Bennett explains, "it takes the body some time to clean the blood." His program involves fasting on liquids for two days, followed by a carefully-planned five-day detox diet to allow the digestive system to rest. He also advises supplements, herbs, exercise, and practices such as dry-skin brushing and hydrotherapy to enhance circulation.

Page recommends a 3-7 day juice fast (drinking only fresh fruit and vegetable juices and water) as an effective way to release toxins.
Other popular detoxing programs and natural body cleanses include:
• Cleansing supplement packages, which generally contain fiber, vitamins, herbs and minerals. There are several safe products on the market, with easy-to-follow instructions.
• A routine of drinking only water one day each week — an ancient practice of many cultures.

10 ways to help your body detoxify

After a detoxification program, you can cleanse your body daily through diet, supplements and lifestyle practices.

1. Eat plenty of fiber, including brown rice and organically-grown fresh fruits and vegetables. Beets, radishes, artichokes, cabbage, broccoli, spirulina, chlorella, and seaweed are excellent detoxifying foods.
2. Cleanse and protect the liver by taking herbs such as dandelion root, burdock and milk thistle, and drinking green tea.
3. Take vitamin C, which helps the body produce glutathione, a liver compound that drives away toxins.
4. Drink at least two quarts of water daily.
5. Breathe deeply to allow oxygen to circulate more completely through your system.
6. Transform stress by emphasizing positive emotions.
7. Practice hydrotherapy by taking a very hot shower for five minutes, allowing the water to run on your back. Follow with cold water for 30 seconds. Do this three times, and then get into bed for 30 minutes.
8. Sweat in a sauna so your body can eliminate wastes through perspiration.
9. Dry-brush your skin or try detox foot spas/foot baths to remove toxins through your pores. Special brushes are available at natural products stores.
10. What is the most important way to detoxify? "Exercise," says Bennett. "Yoga or jump-roping are good. One hour every day." Also try Qigong, a martial-arts based exercise system that includes exercises specifically for detoxifying or cleansing, as well as many other exercises with specific health benefits.

© Text: life.gaiam.com  

Eat Right for Your Metabolism Type

Not only is food powerful medicine that can heal the body, it can also accelerate your metabolism. But here’s the key: The food you choose must be dictated by your own unique metabolism. Groundbreaking research shows that just as you’re born with a specific blood or body type, you’re also blessed with a specific metabolic type. This means the same foods that keep you looking trim and beautiful could make someone else gain weight and look puffy or tired.

There are three general metabolic types – A, B, and C – listed below. Each requires a unique meal breakdown based on different amounts of protein, fats and carbs. Of course, all of these general meal breakdowns should include an array of colorful fruits and vegetables.

Metabolic Type A

If you’re a Type A, you love salty food, such as potato chips, and are also prone to anxiety. What you probably don’t realize is that frequent bouts of anxiety may actually be caused by your body’s reaction to eating salty or fatty foods. As a Type A, you also have a strong appetite, experience fatigue often, are talkative, and possess an outgoing personality.

• Strong appetite
• Crave fatty, salty foods
• Fatigue and anxiety
• Talkative, outgoing

How to Eat:
If you’re type A, you burn proteins and fats much more efficiently than you burn carbs. The salty, fatty food cravings you experience stem from your body’s need  for protein. At mealtime, your plate should be comprised mainly of protein and breakdown as following:

• 50% protein
• 30% fats
• 20% carbohydrates

Choose lean cuts of protein that are dark in color such as beef, dark meat chicken or turkey, and fish such as tuna or salmon. These dark-colored foods are high in purine, a substance in the body that protects and nourishes blood vessels.

Go for dairy that contains fat. That’s right! Type A’s should eat whole-fat cheese, cream, 2% milk and eggs. These items are better for you than low- or no-fat dairy products loaded with sugar. Remember, full fats are not hydrogenated or trans fats found in processed foods such as chips and cookies. Those nasty items are to be avoided no matter what your metabolic type.

Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, but steer clear of too many refined and starchy ones. These are sugar-laden and will actually add to your anxiety. Instead of white potatoes or white bread, reach for whole grains such as oatmeal and whole-wheat pasta.

Metabolic Type B

If you’re a Type B, you have a strong penchant for sweets – candy, ice cream, cookies, cake, you name it. Your body is actually crying out for healthy carbs, but you’re craving sugar instead. As a Type B, you also possess a relatively weak appetite, are sensitive, driven, organized, sometimes stressed, have a caffeine dependency, and may also struggle with your weight.

• Weak appetite
• Crave sweets
• Sensitive
• Ambitious, organized, stressed
• Dependent on caffeine
• Struggle with weight

How to Eat:
If you’re Type B, you do best on a low-fat, relatively low-protein diet that includes mainly good carbs, plenty of fruits and vegetables, and whole grains. Your mealtime plate should contain:

• 70% carbs
• 20% protein
• 10% fats

Hurrah for Type B’s! You get to eat mainly carb-based meals. However, you must eat whole grains: barley, brown rice, and whole wheat bread etc.
Be aware that you need low-protein as opposed to no-protein. Choose low-purine proteins that are light and lean: white-meat poultry, white fish, such as cod or flounder, and plant-based proteins including lentils and chickpeas.

Eat low-fat forms of dairy such as cheese, yogurt and milk.

To reduce your dependency on caffeine, start by cutting down on coffee or black tea, and substitute with green tea.

Metabolic Type C
 
If you are unable to determine whether you’re are a Type A or B and like both sweet and salty foods equally, you’re probably a Type C. Type C’s are mixed types who have fluctuating appetites, can experience fatigue, anxiety and nervousness, may suffer aches and pains, and have little trouble with weight control.

• Fluctuating/unpredictable appetite
• Crave sweet and salty foods
• Fatigue
• Anxious, nervous
• May suffer aches and pains
• Little trouble with weight control

How to Eat:
Type C’s have the ability to metabolize proteins, fats and carbs equally, which is why you crave both salty and sweet foods. Your mealtime plate should be divided into thirds:

• 33% protein
• 33% fats
• 33% carbs

As a Type C, you’re allowed to put the most fats on your plate. Choose a mixture of low- and full-fat foods such as low-fat cheese, yogurt, olive oil, etc.
Mix and match dark and light proteins as well: light and dark meat poultry, beef, salmon, cod, kidney beans, soy, etc.

The last portion of your plate should contain good carbs, including various whole grains and healthy starchy vegetables: 100% whole-wheat breads and cereals, sweet potatoes, bananas, etc.

Text: © doctoroz.com

After Diet: The Essential Method of Food Portions

Although it is true that to lose weight you must reduce your daily calorie intake, but it is not necessarily to give up delicious food. To maintain the results accomplished after a diet period, is necessary to consider a control on size and number of food portions.
The Essential Method of Food Portions applies to any food style and allows you to continue losing weight without going on constantly on a specific diet. Although, is necessary always to check that the daily diet meets the universal-basic nutritional requirements; a small readjustment on portions size can produce surprising results to maintain a slim body.
Before anything else, is necessary to remember that a healthy and balanced diet should contain all the essential nutrients for our body; carbohydrates (cereals, fruits and vegetables), protein (meat, eggs, milk, lentils, beans, dried fruit and soy grains), fats (meat , milk and eggs), vitamins and minerals (fruits, vegetables, cereals), fiber (cereals, fruits, green vegetables) , and water. Only then, the body receives all the ingredients that allow you to preserve an optimal health condition.

To know the recommendable daily intake percentages of the different foods, you must consider the following table:
Whole-grain cereals, bread and pasta: 35% of the daily diet.
Fruits and vegetables: 35% of the daily diet.
Meat, lentils, beans, whole- grains and nuts: 12% of the daily diet.
Dairy products and eggs: 12% of the daily diet.
Fat and sugar: 6% of the daily diet.
Water: at least 2 liters per day.

How to apply the Essential Method of Food Portions?

In general, if you are overweight you should simply reduce the amount and portion sizes intake regularly. For example, if you eat three slices of pizza, cut them down at two. Two portions of ice cream reduce it at one. A glass of beer reduces it at half a glass. A big portion of cake, reduce it to a smaller portion. A hamburger with fries and soda, eliminate fries and soda. Two portions of pasta with sauce and cheese, reduce consume at just one portion with less sauce.

The portions reduction process should be gradual to avoid hunger pangs.  For that reason, the ideal would be to increase the number of meals per day, in the form of mini-meals or snacks, in that way, the binge eating can be controlled, and the consume of fewer portions can be sustained over time. Eat fewer amounts of food helps to reduce calories and consequently lose pounds. The limit is always to be satisfied.

Eliminating your extra pounds will make you feel lighter; in addition, the body will require less energy (calories) to keep fit. Have an impact in the overweight vicious circle does not happen overnight, that is why refrain from tasty food  generate anxiety and lack of willpower. The Essential Method of Food Portions is not suggesting that you must eliminate foods from your daily diet; it just proposes a gradual reduction of intake food to accomplish a healthy balance. If you combine this Method with the learned concept after following the Initiation Diet, you never will need again to worry about having a healthy slim body.

Why fad diets fail?

The famous strict diets or miscalled "low calories" are base on the idea that the fewer calories consume, the mayor amount of weight lose. However, promise magical results in a brief time disappear over a long period. This reality, which repeats in each new fad diet, has a rational explanation that reveals why the effects cannot be keeping. Even more, the limited and low consume of calories (energy throughout food) in the long term can mean a body great effort causing a variety of negative health consequences.

The drastic reduction of food intake and lack of essential nutrients explains why people whom follow strict diets end up starving, dehydrate, with overweight and an awful nutrition. To top it all, these diets produce an obsessive behavior associated with continuous weight control and calorie consumed and they generate compulsive behaviors related to food. You cannot do a lifetime record of what food and calories you must take. Therefore, people end up hating the scale, because this innocent device evidences a reality that contradicts the false promise of a diet.

The initial weight that you can lose with some of the fad diets is the result of a significant fluids loss. Without a proper medical supervision, this process can represent a danger to the body, causing disorders associated with body dehydration. In addition, strict diets can generate a significant weight reduction and fat levels loss, but at the same time may cause a loss of muscle mass and body energy. The body immediately detects that the food intake has been reduce and starts to function in inanition or alert condition, doing everything possible to conserve the reserves of energy that it has. This means that the less you eat in a long term, the less ability to burn energy your body will has, which is why you always will maintain your body weight without variation, no matter how little you eat.

“The drastic reduction of food intake and lack of essential nutrients explains why people whom follow strict diets end up starving, dehydrate, with overweight and an awful nutrition.”

What is an Initiation Diet?

To lose weight and do not get fat again, is essential to learn how to cook and eat healthily. If not enough for you to follow a fad diet for a period, you must change or modify the eating habits forever. Only then, you can keep a slim body over time and definitely avoid the undesirable extra pounds. In addition, the habit of exercise and healthy living directly influence to maintain a healthy slim body.
Precisely the "habits changes" are the base of an "Initiation Diet". Unlike a typical diet (known as strict diets or low fat), the initiation diet proposes to adopt a healthy and balanced eating behaviors over a lifetime. This is why more than a diet, it is a general guideline for you to eat without worrying about being overweight. In addition, with this new "lifestyle" you can achieve the ideal body weight without starving or putting in jeopardy your body, as most strict diets do.
The main benefit of a diet associated directly with “habits change” it is that is very healthy and provides a number of dietary advices we should all learn, even those whom do not wish or need to lose weight.

On the other hand, is necessary to increase certain foods consume, limit others and put aside those who will damage the body. At the same time, preparing meals in a certain way is the key to make food healthy without losing flavor.  Although in the beginning all these rules should be follow during the lose weight process but later, you must extend them throughout life, because you can eat varied, rich and without gaining grams. The difference is that at the beginning, you learn the habit of healthy eating, and later you just need to maintain it, but without giving up the pleasure of eat.
I have developed and adopted the "Initiation Diet" concept as a specialist in the area of wellness to synthesize the notion of healthy eating and nutrition throughout the content that I have published in this mini eBook. It is the result of a deep and reliable investigation for more than 20 years. At the next pages, you will find a different vision about diets and lose weight. The idea is that a real weight loss diet consists in a habits change for a lifetime, and not in momentary restrictions that later you give up. In addition, you do not stop eating with an initiation diet; you just have to do it with a more balanced strategy. The favorable result of people who have changed their eating habits has demonstrated the effectiveness of the initiation diets, especially because the new habits have given them a lifetime of health and wholeness with an ideal body weight. Now you do not need to count calories, stop eating delicious food or monitor every snack you consume. The success in finding the ideal weight is to follow only simple and healthy habits that will not modify your current lifestyle. Otherwise, you are fooling yourself and losing weight will be just an illusion. This explains why more and more people have many weight problems.

“The main benefit of a diet associated directly with "habit change" it is that is very healthy and provides a number of dietary advices we should all learn, even those whom do not wish or need to lose weight. On the other hand, is necessary to increase the certain foods consume, limit others and put aside those who will damage the body.”