The Fabulous Fall Detox
6 Ways to Revive Your Health and Get Back into Life!
By Joel Thuna
What a year it has been. 2020 will go down as the weirdest time anyone who went through it will remember. The Spring/Summer lockdown kept us indoors and led many people to take their first shots at cooking and baking. This combined with the stress of the lockdown and the economy led many of us to forget our healthy diet and exercise goals and instead reach for comfort and junk foods. This is bad news as the summer is the time when most of us eat better (abundant fresh fruit and vegetables) and exercise more so we are healthier and thinner than during long cold winters.
Early fall is the ideal time to reset, start anew and get back on track. The first step is to detoxify and get that accumulated junk out of us. Truth be told, your body is constantly detoxing, so to say you’re “cleansing” is always true. Your goal should be to support your body’s natural processes with a few additional tactics. Luckily for you, some minor changes in your daily routine when taken together can have a profound effect on your body putting you on the right track again.
- Hydrate:
Drink, drink and drink some more. Drinking water consistently throughout your entire day will allow your body to have the fluids it needs to flush out toxins. Experts at The Mayo Clinic recommend at least nine cups for women (72 ounces) and 11 cups for men (88 ounces). Those are base levels. If you work out, have caffeine (coffee, tea or chocolate) and enjoy the heat or sunshine you need to drink even more. You will also be fond of water’s other benefits – weight loss, fatigue relief, kidney health, headache prevention, clearer softer skin and improved digestion.
- Chlorophyll
Keep bottles of liquid chlorophyll handy. The dark green pigment (remember the grade school section on photosynthesis) is a wonderful gentle detox aid. Just a tablespoon in your water or other drink a couple times a day and you’re on your way. It’s made even easier that you can find taste-free ones in addition to flavoured chlorophylls including mint and chocolate. Chlorophyll works by helping your body to detoxify multiple toxins including heavy metals as well as being the only way to detoxify the common class of toxins found on fruits, vegetables and grains called aflatoxins. Chlorophyll also helps increase energy, control hunger and cravings, reduce all types of body odours, improve breathing and combat candida. It’s also an extremely potent antioxidant that promotes internal healing as well as topical wound healing.
- Sleep Well
Usually stress and quality of sleep are inversely related. That’s unfortunate since almost all of us have had a very stressful spring and summer. Generally speaking, adults need between 7 and 9 hours of quality sleep each night. The amount of sleep you need goes up if you’ve missed sleep in previous days. If you don’t have enough, you’ll have a “sleep debt,” which is much like being overdrawn at a bank. Eventually, your body will demand that you start to repay the debt. You may be drowsy, energy deprived or possibly forgetful until you top up. It’s not true that you can adapt to getting less sleep than you need. You may adapt to a schedule that keeps you from getting enough sleep, but your judgment, reaction time, and other functions will still be off and will most likely deteriorate until you start to top up your sleep.
Do your best to focus on quality sleep. Invest in an eye mask or dark curtains to stop letting light hamper (or wake you from) sleep. When you sleep you are giving your body time to relax, wind down and repair you. Keep your room free of things preventing sleep (cell phone, tv, video games, etc). Other benefits of good sleep include regulating hormones, curbing appetite, lessening inflammation and stress, lowering depression, spurring creativity, and improving memory and overall outlook on life.
- Eat Clean
Keep what you put in your body clean. By eating clean you will reduce the stress on your digestive system enabling it to function better. You accomplish this by eliminating toxins from foods and hard to digest foods.
Eliminate the hard to digest foods; meat, poultry & dairy. Ditch empty calories; breads, white grains (flours and rice), and sugars. Avoid anything artificial (colours, flavours, preservatives, sweeteners). Instead choose a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes. Try eating as much as you can uncooked or lightly cooked as raw foods are higher in nutrients. Try eating multiple small mini meals rather than 2 or 3 big meals, as it’s easier on your body and won’t spike blood sugar levels.
If this is your first time, try clean eating for a weekend (2 days) and see how you feel; you may like it enough to try longer. If you are an old hat at clean eating then you know how good it makes you feel.
- Digest Better
Drinking the water, having the chlorophyll and eating clean will all help to improve your digestion and elimination. To take your digestion up a couple more notches try adding the digestion triple play; soluble fiber, probiotics and enzymes.
Soluble fiber is the form of fiber that helps to remove toxins and helps control blood sugar and cholesterol. By eating clean you will get some soluble fiber but not enough. You can take a soluble fiber supplement like Fiberrific. The advantage is that it is easy to use (mix in any liquid or soft food) and it won’t change your food’s taste or texture. Aim to get at least 25-35 grams of fiber each day.
Probiotics are active bacteria that help to improve your digestion and immunity. There are literally thousands of species of probiotic bacteria each with varying degrees of cleanliness and effectiveness. To ensure you are getting the cleanest most effective probiotics, insist on probiotic products that are certified organic and have the USDA organic logo on the label.
Enzymes are often overlooked health supplements. They play a vital role in your overall health. Enzymes help break down the foods you eat. These specialized proteins speed up the chemical reactions that split your foods into the base nutrients your digestive tract can absorb and your body can use. To ensure your enzymes are clean insist on a broad acting vegan enzyme blend. For maximum effect you can use a soluble fiber supplement with an added vegan broad enzyme blend.
- Become a teetotaller
Enjoy a good tea. Drinking digestive teas is a tradition that goes back thousands of years in many cultures. The right teas can be both tasty and effective at improving your health. One of my favourite digestive teas is the simple combination of fenugreek and ginger. It can be used as a hot tea (on cool days) and as an iced tea (on hot days). Just boil water, take off the heat, add chopped ginger and crushed fenugreek seeds, cover and steep. Enjoy! If you want a little different flavour, add some fresh mint leaves.
Joel Thuna, MH, is a master herbalist with over 30 years of experience.
