Do you feel sluggish or in need of a pick me up? If so it could be a good time for a one day detox. Weekend and one day detoxes are great for breaking the cycle of comfort eating and binges that seem to plague people from time to time in spite of good intentions.
In spite of being ridiculed by the medical community as being worthless a one day detox can provide a quick pick me up if you’ve been feeling run down or lethargic and kick start a healthier diet.
Detoxes help to rejuvenate and restore life to your cells, giving you new energy and vitality.
Too much comfort eating to help beat the cold as well as the an excess of alcohol and rich food can strain our digestive system, not to mention the boody’s natural detoxifiers, the liver and kidneys.
Factors such as stress, environmental pollution, man made chemicals and dietary toxins have a detrimental effect on our bodies. Lethargy, tiredness, heaaches and niggling aches and pains are the result.
Long term these toxins pose an increased risk of degenerative diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
The Principles Of Detox
The principle of detox is quite straight forward. If you remove all the toxic ingredients from your diet and replace them with cleansing and restorative foods your body will automatically start to detox and heal.
A detox diet can help rest your digestive system so your body can divert the energy to that it usually puts into digestion to the important job og getting rid of stored toxins.
Now, it’s true that a one day detox is not going to do very much, if anything, in the way of getting rid of toxins but it can pave the way for a longer one once you feel the benefit of it.
To get the most out of your one day or weekend detox you need to replace wheat, animal and dairy products, alcohol, coffee, tea and sugar with more natural alternatives. Just drinking more pure water, fresh fruit and vegetables and their juices will mean less congestion in your digestive system.
Packed with essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids, antioxidants and enzymes fruit and vegetables have great cleansing powers. It’s this ability to supply nutrients that support the detox pathways, cleanse and revitilize that make them a must on any detox program.
While fruits have greater cleasing powers, vegetables are good for repairing and building up the cells and tissues of the body.
So how do you do a one day detox?
- Plan a day but allow at least two weeks before hand to gradually cut down on regular tea, coffee, alcohol and sugar if you normally have a lot. This will help to prevent withdrawal symptoms that you could get if you were to just stop them suddenly. It will help you to stay on a healthier diet after the detox too.
- Just before you plan to do the detox shop for fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains like brown rice, millet or quinoa, seeds and green or herbal tea. Good vegetables to choose include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, peppers, celery, cucumber, carrots, green salad leaves, beets and garlic.
- For fruit choose apples, pears, grapes, blueberries, kiwis and papaya. Go for organic where possible because it is free of potentially toxic pesticide and herbicide residue and contains more nutrients and antioxidants.
- Make sure you have pure water to drink. Tap water is full of substances that you can do without.
- Remove anything you might find tempting from your kitchen cupboards and fridge or move them out of sight. If they are unhealthy just throw them out. Be ruthless!
Detox Day
- On your detox day eat only fresh fruit, vegetables and green leaves. Have them juiced, made into a smoothie, raw, lightly steamed or even stir fried in a little coconut butter.
- Include a bowl of whole grain rice, millet or quinoa with your dinner.
- Snack on a handful of sunflower or pumpkin seeds.
- Drink plenty of pure water, green or herbal teas to help dilute the toxins. If you don’t like drinking plain water try adding fruit or vegetables to make more exciting and flavored detox waters.
A one day detox is as easy as that! Try a 2 day detox next time.
Eat lightly the next day. Start your day with a green smoothie. Have a large raw salad for lunch with a small portion of organic goat’s cheese or a small organic chicken breast. Choose a vegetarian dish of brown rice, steamed vegetables and lentils or chickpeas for dinner.
Try to eat a balanced, healthy and well-varied diet after that. Stay away from sugar, all foods with added sugar, junk food and high fat food.
Discover all the benefits of a modern detox diet with 3 levels to suit your lifestyle and time in my 9 Simple Steps To Slenderness.
I used to eat only meat and it made me sick and often I was hospitalized because of my this diet.But after meeting some nutritionist I understood one thing that if I continue my this diet my days in this world will be very short so I changed my diet .I still eat meat but balancing that eat a lot of vegetables and fruits.And such a day like the detox diet I eat only green things without any sadness because these things are more helpful to our body and makes us feel fit and mind gets young day by day.
Hi James, it was fortunate that you met a nutritionist who was able to get you on the right path back to health. Eating only meat would have made you very acidic as you no doubt now know. It can be trial and error to find out how much in the way of fruit and veg each if us needs to balance the animal protein we eat.
I appreciate that you took the time to leave your comment.
Good health
Sandy