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The Christmas holidays are over and all that remains is the feeling of overindulgence. We’ve enjoyed plenty of rich meals at Christmas and sipped on free-flowing champagne on New Year’s Eve. Now our bodies are in dire need of an internal reboot. If you find yourself feeling sluggish, haggard, or bloated, chances are you need a detox. Simply put, a detox is a way of giving your body a chance to recuperate and remove toxins accrued from eating high amounts of sweet and highly processed foods. These toxins are causing the dreaded feelings of bloating, exhaustion, and dehydration. A detox can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. The length of the detox can also be as long as you want it to be. Instead of going on a crash diet or pushing yourself beyond your limits at the gym, consider these three methods to safely rebalance your body and start the New Year on a healthy note.
Load Up on the Fruits and Vegetables
Yes, you’ve most likely consumed fresh produce during your holiday festivities. However, those vegetables were either roasted, mashed, sautéed, or smothered in a fatty salad dressing. Including a variety of raw vegetables and fruit into your detox regime is necessary in replenishing the essential vitamins and nutrients that your body as well as increasing your energy levels. Aim for 7-12 servings of vegetables and fruits per day and make them the bulk of all of your meals. Celery, cucumber, and kale are great options for restoring nutrients and normalizing blood sugar levels while grapes and coconut water contains high amounts of potassium for maintaining normal kidney function.
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Water Water Everywhere
Hydration is one the easiest as well as the hardest thing for some people but it’s essential in your detox regime. As obvious as this sounds, drinking water helps to flush out toxins and eliminate waste from your body. This alone should motivate you to guzzle down at least 64 ounces of water per day. Don’t like drinking plain water? That’s okay. Freshly squeezed juices and detox teas are very effective in aiding the detox process while adding a pleasant taste to your daily hydration. Dandelion root is often used in detox teas because it acts as a diuretic and flushes out the waste, aids digestion, breaks down fat, and provides countless other benefits for a healthy digestive system.
Exfoliate and Soothe
This particular method is an ancient one and it’s still very effective in naturally drawing out all toxins from your body. The human body expels toxins through the pores on your skin. To help speed up this process, take a bath with one to two cups of Epsom salts to exfoliate the dead skin and draw out the toxins and environmental pollutants (i.e. chemicals from laundry detergent and air pollution) from the body. Epsom salts contain high levels of sulphates that helps stimulate the pancreas and magnesium to combat hypertension and relieve migraines. A bath with Epsom salts once per week for a half hour is all that you need for your detox regime. Besides, who could turn down an opportunity to soak and unwind in a warm bath!
Kick Start to a Healthy New Year
A detox plan is one of the best ways to recover from the post-holiday overindulgence and setting body on a good start to the New Year. Consult your doctor prior to making any drastic changes to your diet. One final thing to remember is to keep it short-term, around three to seven days. While it’s great to give your body a thorough cleaning, keeping up with a long-term detox can have serious side effects, such as cramping. Ultimately, this process is about getting rid of the bad and “unwanted” in the body so you can make room for healthier lifestyle habits, even if it is only for the short term. Adopting one or all of these methods will have you feeling pampered and balanced in no time!
