“Had too much of a good thing? Feeling out of balance, a bit heavy or puffy? Then it’s time to get clean.”
It happens every year at this time – immediately post-holiday, I start thinking about detoxing my body. After all of the candy/cookies/appetizers/wine-cocktail-beer-wine I’ve consumed in the past month, the general idea of doing a detox regimen seems appealing.
It’s the doing that’s the hard part.
Last year at this time, I’d also toyed with the idea of doing a detox plan, when I first read about the Clean program that Gwyneth Paltrow is such a big fan of. It sounded great until I saw all of the foods that must be eliminated and the juicing to be done. In the end, I just cut out most sugar and caffeine, sticking with it for about 3 weeks before I caved in to the siren call of chocolate.
This week I’ve been reading “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Detoxing Your Body“. It’s quite depressing stuff, really, when you see it laid out in black and white everything that you’re exposed to on a daily basis – pesticides, herbicides, endocrine disruptors, genetically modified organisms, food additives and preservatives, bovine growth hormone…you’d rather not think about any of this.
It’s amazing that the human body can withstand this constant assault. You have to wonder if the rise in food intolerance, general allergies, asthma and cancers are largely related to these environmental factors.
But how far are you willing to go to eradicate these risks from your life? Will you give up wheat products? All forms of flour products? All dairy products? Pasteurized fruit juice? All nuts and nut butters? Iodized salt? Unfermented soy products? Sugar? Caffeine? Alcohol?
Soy, wheat and/or sugar seem to be in just about everything these days.
Are you willing to forgo white bread, rice and pasta? Filter not only the water that you drink but also that which you use for cooking? Do all of your own juicing? Research new recipes to incorporate whole grains you’ve never cooked before?
And how can you do all of this while still functioning in the world? Especially when you’re living with others, and you can’t expect them to go along with the new eating plan. You need energy and you need to be able to function throughout the day, how do you get through a fast?
It still seems overwhelming this year. I’ve cut out most sugar and all caffeine this week and am draaaaagggging, as I sip my detox tea.
How about you? Have you ever done a detox? What was your experience? Was it worth doing?
