7 Tips for Pulling Off a Healthy, Effective Detox

1. Get Your Goals Straight

  Never start a detox as a quick fix. Unfortunately, many detoxes are advertised as an unbelievably fast way to drop twenty pounds or get an impossibly flat stomach. These detoxes almost never actually yield the results they promise, dragging you through hunger and discomfort only to get discouragement in return. If the results a detox claims seems too good to be true, they probably are. Your primary goal before you start a detox should be improving your health. If the only thing you want to get out of your detox is weight loss, you’re in it for the wrong reasons and are likely just setting yourself up for disappointment. Think of a detox as a gentle way to restore your health from the inside out, not as a quick-fix weight loss scheme.

2. Beware of Cleanses

  Although many people use the two terms interchangeably, detoxes and cleanses are not the same thing. Cleanses are meant to go a step further than detoxes. Rather than only eliminating unhealthy foods from your diet, they aim to strip your diet and add in an abundance of nutrient-rich foods. While this basic description of a cleanse sounds like the recipe for the ultimate healthy diet, cleanses can actually be very dangerous. Many extreme cleanses involve cutting everything out of your diet except for one or two super healthy foods, like wheatgrass juice. Your body is not built to sustain itself on wheatgrass juice for an extended period of time, and these extreme cleanses often cause more harm than good under the guise of improving health.

3. Keep it Natural

  Processed foods rich in artificial ingredients are a major source of toxin build-up in your body. Cutting processed food out of your diet and choosing to eat only whole, natural foods instead is a quick and effective way to flush harmful toxins out of your body. Eating natural also reduces fatigue, aids digestion, and can reduce allergy symptoms in many cases. Filling your diet with natural foods doesn’t have to be as hard as it seems. Avoid fast-food restaurants and pre-packaged or frozen meals from the grocery store as much as possible. Instead, opt to create your own meals from raw, whole ingredients like meat, nuts, and fresh fruits and vegetables.

4. Restrict Your Restrictions

  Detoxes have become somewhat synonymous with restrictions. Many people think that cutting out ninety percent of their regular diet and suffering through hunger and cravings for a week is the best way to conduct an effective detox. In reality, putting extreme restrictions on your diet only confuses your body and leads to irritability, slowed metabolism, and other negative side effects. Only completely cut things out of your diet if they are acutely unhealthy for you. Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and fast food all make this list. On the other hand, don’t remove all bread from your diet just because you want to minimize your carb intake. For anything other than extremely unhealthy or dangerous substances like those listed above, stick to reduction instead of restriction.

5. Drink Water

  Water detoxes are one of the easiest, least dangerous, and oftentimes most effective types of detoxes. Most people don’t drink nearly as much water as they should on a daily basis. Simply drinking more water every day can increase your energy levels, clear up your skin, flush toxins out of your body, boost your immune system, and more. Upping your H2O intake so that you’re drinking the recommended daily amount (about eight cups or more depending on your size and activity level) can have a transformative positive effect on your health. Plus, unlike many other detoxes that are only supposed to last a week or less, the water detox is sustainable and can continue improving your health indefinitely.

6. Move Your Body

  Exercising is a great way to detox your entire body from the inside out without making any changes to your diet at all. Cardio increases your heart rate and blood flow, which improves your circulation, aids digestion, and increases your energy levels. There is no need for you to sprint a mile or engage in any type of extremely rigorous physical activity to get the detoxifying benefits of exercise. Just make sure you sweat and keep your heart rate elevated for at least thirty minutes every day.

7. Detox Your Mind

  Some of the best, most transformative detoxes don’t involve changing your diet or your exercise patterns at all. Mind detoxes refer to a commitment to cut negative thought patterns and behaviors out of your life to make room for more happiness and positivity. Common mind detox practices include keeping a gratitude journal, practicing meditative breathing, actively reducing daily stress, etc. etc. If you think that many of the symptoms you want to get rid of are based in emotion rather than physical ailments, a mind detox might be just what you need. When it comes to detoxes, always choose gentle over severe. While hard-core detoxes might be tempting when you want a quick fix, they do more harm to your body than good in the long run. Stick with less severe detoxes that introduce healthy habits into your life without putting you through a period of starvation or withdrawals.