Cleansing Safely

So you know why we need to detox. Next thing to address is how do we do it? 

The answer is: slowly.

You may be tempted to get toxic-free as quickly as possible.  As I mentioned in Cleansing = Detoxing, detoxing quickly overwhelms the body and can be very painful. And it is likely to cause you to relapse back into your former lifestyle-the one that made you want to detox in the first place.  I highly recommend for you to detox gradually. This enables the body to adjust to the toxins being reintroduced into your system in a relatively symptom-free manner. The easiest way to do this is to slowly clean up your diet. Start eating a diet based more on whole foods. Limit or eliminate processed foods, eating out, and the following: caffeine, white (refined) flour, white (refined) sugar, meat, and dairy. Oh and for obvious reasons, alcohol. And I would increase fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, whole grains, and water.

By taking these simple steps, your body will detox at a slower rate. You will usually not experience harsh detox symptoms except maybe if you are a coffee, caffeine or sugar addict. Following a diet that has more whole foods in it lessens the stress on your body and allows it to concentrate on eliminating those toxins. Overhauling the diet and detoxing is not something that can be successfully achieved overnight.  A cleanse can be a perfect tool to jumpstart these changes.  

So start cleaning up your diet to get ready for our cleanse! Look for a post on Monday announcing details of the cleanse, the community support you will have, and how you can sign up!

“Secondary Foods”

Yesterday I wrote about how bioindividuality is a foundation to my health counseling program. When working with my clients, I personalize my 6-month program to fit their specific needs. The other core components of my health philosophy are “primary foods” and “secondary foods,” more new terms for you to learn, but like bioindividuality, very simple concepts. I will focus on secondary foods today and leave you in suspense until next week to learn about primary foods ;)

“Secondary foods” are the foods that make up your diet-what you put in your mouth, chew, swallow and digest. Hippocrates established one of the oldest philosophies around food in ~300 BC. He said, “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” Unfortunately, in the 2,000 some odd years since Hippocrates said that, we have moved light years away from that thought. So much of what we eat today would not even be recognized as food by our grandparents much less Hippocrates. In the past century, we have colored, “enhanced,” sprayed, injected, morphed, mutated, cloned, and modified our food items into things that are still edible, sometimes even very tasty, but unfortunately, not nutritious and oftentimes, not digestible. In turn, our country is now sicker than ever with allergies, obesity, cancer, and other diseases becoming a norm rather than the exception.

I have two ideals regarding secondary foods. First, returning to the concept of bioindividuality, they need to be personalized to your needs. Eat what feels right for you and makes you more energetic and healthier. My diet will not work for you and vice versa. Second, they should mostly be whole foods. That means foods that are as close to their natural state as possible-unprocessed and unrefined. Eating whole foods is something I am very passionate about. Whether your diet goals are weight loss, disease prevention or management, or allergy relief, shifting to a diet that integrates more whole foods will alleviate or solve them. This topic will definitely be drawn out a bit more in this blog. I will speak about what whole foods will alleviate or manage different health issues and easy ways to integrate whole foods into your diets. I’ll leave you with one of my personal favorite quotes around whole foods which is one of Michael Pollan’s Food Commandments, “Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.”

What is your “secondary food” philosophy? How do you feel about your diet? Are you looking to integrate more whole foods into your diet?