We’re coming into the holiday season and many people use the New Year as a starting point to ‘refresh’ their health and habits. Using some type of detoxing method is pretty common this time of year. What should, and should we NOT do?
What does it mean to ‘detox’ in the first place? The dictionary definition of detoxing is: “to stop taking unhealthy or harmful foods, drinks, and other substances into your body for a period of time, in order to improve your health” Clearing the body of our ‘negative’ habits can help lay the way for more beneficial habit building in the future.
Some of the basic DO’s of Detoxing:
1. Set your goals first. Why are you detoxing? Do you feel sluggish? Is your sleep pattern off? Are you fatigued, bloated, uncomfortable? Are you looking to release weight, tone up or just boost your overall health? Feeling addicted to certain types of foods? Knowing what your goals are makes you more likely to achieve them.
2. Know where you normally struggle when implementing a new plan. Is it time management? The cost of the program? Is it the ease / accessibility of it? Do you need extreme changes or are you better off building on smaller changes? Identifying these areas allows you to better plan for them.
3. Get adequate sleep. An often overlooked component of being healthy is quality sleep. Make sure you’re reducing your screen/blue light time a few hours before bedtime to ensure your body is able to get the rest it needs.
4. Hydration - drinking enough CLEAN water throughout the day, adding in about a quart of Alkaline water, will help bring back homeostasis within the body.
5. Reduce your sugar intake. Especially artificial sweeteners. Our body reacts to sugar as it reacts to cocaine. Refined sugar has ZERO nutritional value and actually utilizes important resources to be managed in the body. Resources that could be used for better jobs.
6. Choose your supplementation wisely. Not all supplements are created equally. Choose products that are highly rated, with limited fillers and sugars.
Definitely DON’T:
1. Take on too many new habits at once. It takes time to build new habits. Layering them one after the other leads to more successful changes than attempting all of them at once.
2. Beat yourself up. You are human and you made decisions that seemed right (or tasted good) in the moment. Give yourself space and grace. Space and grace to change, evolve and make better choices.
3. Begin a program before knowing what you’re getting into. Make a list of the options you have, the pros & cons and see if you’ll be able to commit to it.
4. Choose something too intense. Winter and Summer are better for milder detoxing/cleanses and Fall/Spring are more suited for deeper changes.
5. Stress about it. Make a choice and then work with it. Know that you can make amendments as you go along.
6. Give up. You can do it. You are worth it.
The New Year is a great time to reset your health program. How can we help?
Gloria Jensenius
Natural Scientist
248.833.8500
www.harmonyhealingllc.com
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