What better time than the new year to talk about a detox and cleanse – cleanse your body, cleanse the air you breathe, cleanse your mind and your thoughts, cleanse your lifestyle. Sounds refreshing, invigoration, exciting! Each component is important to a whole person cleanse, but without cleansing the physical body, none of the others are truly possible.
Cleansing your body is perhaps the easiest of your life’s components to cleanse. We can control the food we buy, the food we eat, and the amount and the timing of our meals. Sounds easy, right? But doing a detox and a cleanse the wrong way can negate the benefits, and taken to the extreme, can actually cause more harm than good. So what’s the best way to cleanse our body?
Why Do You Need To Detox and Cleanse?
Before we start putting food in our body, let’s remind ourselves why it is important to cleanse.
Our bodies consume various amounts of toxic chemicals every day – through the air we breathe, absorption through our skin, and in the food we consume. Toxins come in the form of pesticides, paint fumes, heavy metals, pet dander, parabens, cigarette smoke, fertilizers, herbicides, airborne micro-organisms, mold and mildew. Takes a lot of fun out of just breathing, doesn’t it?
Many of these reside in your body for months, or even years. The issue is your body doesn’t easily eliminate or break down many of these toxins. They get stored in fat tissue and eventually make their way through your bloodstream and can invade your brain, lungs, heart, eyes, stomach, liver, and sexual organs. [1]
Your kidneys, liver, cardiovascular system, and skin all work hard around the clock to process all of the substances – food and toxins – that enter your body. An overburdened system can lead to fatigue, digestion problems, bloating, poor sleep and more. But even if we eat well and avoid toxin-laden environments, we can still help our system cleanse more efficiently.
How To Cleanse Optimally
Left uncleansed over time, serious health issues in our body can arise. Even when we eat a good diet and surround ourselves with a healthy environment, the natural system in your body needs help. What can you do to help your system cleanse optimally?
You know what happens at large department stores and large restaurants from 11pm to 6am when they are closed. Cleaning, and lots of it. Part of it is for the customer experience, and part of it (especially in restaurants) is for health concerns. Imagine if they never shut down, and there was never any time to clean? The stores and restaurants would become dirty, unattractive and unsafe due to wet floors, bacteria and mold on handles, plates and utensils.
It wouldn’t take long before the store would grind to a halt. Think about connecting flights where the cleaning crew has 15 minutes to quickly clean the airplane? Ever find a surprise dirty wadded up Kleenex in the seat pouch in front of you? Okay, you get the point. Good cleansing takes time.
Give Your Liver and Kidneys The Time They Need To Do Their Magic
It is a similar situation in your body. If you ate doughnuts and ice cream every waking moment, and got up at 3am to do some binge eating as well, your system would never have time to fully cleanse itself. Worse, it would struggle to even get back to an equilibrium, resorting to store the excess in fat cells and elsewhere in hopes of getting to it later.
“But what if I eat juices every day and lean proteins and veggies?” you ask. Good for you! But be careful not to eat late into the evening. Giving your liver, kidneys and cardiovascular system time to cleanse, then continue cleansing, is essential for a detox. If you can cease your eating at 7:30pm at the latest, then eat no earlier than 7:30am, you can give your system a full 12 hours to do a deep cleanse.
What Should I Consume For a Healthy Cleanse?
There are thousands of cleanse “diets” out there, many of which are good. Nutrology likes to recommend a healthy and enjoyable approach that is both super clean and rich in taste and fulfillment.
General Guideline
- Beverages. No alcohol, period. Drink only water or unsweetened green tea. You can have the tea warm (not scalding) or cold. For your water, add a bit of freshly squeezed lemon to taste.
- Meal timing. Eat three meals a day with no snacks (giving your body “clean time” to detox and cleanse. If you are struggling for some nourishment, a handful of fresh nuts is a good option. But try to avoid snacks!
- Finish dinner no later than 7:30pm at night. Enjoy some tea or lemon water thereafter, then enjoy breakfast around 7:30am if your schedule allows.
- Divide your weight by 2 to determine your daily intake of ounces of filtered water.
- Eat a source of protein at every meal. Aim for 15-25 grams at breakfast, and at least 30 grams at lunch and again at dinner.
- Take a high quality fish oil supplement daily and a quality daily vitamin (or daily vitamin pack).
Breakfast
Your choice of:
1) One cup cooked steel cut oats (no packaged stuff!). Add 1 tablespoon Chia Seed Powder to oatmeal after cooking.
2) Power Cleanse Smoothie
- 1 Cup Skim Organic Milk or Unsweetened Almond Milk
- 1 Cup Mixed Frozen Berries
- 1 Large Handful Organic Baby Spinach
- 4 Baby Carrots
- 1 Scoop Nutrology Grass Fed-Whey Protein Vanilla
- 1 tablespoon Chia Seed Powder
3) ½ Cup Cottage Cheese and 1 Cup Watermelon
4.) ¾ cup Greek Yogurt with 1 tsp Honey with 1 tablespoon Chia Seed Powder and an orange
Lunch
NOTE: 1 ounce of turkey, chicken, lean red meat or pork contains about 7 grams of protein. A 5 ounce portion contains about 35 grams of protein. When you are eyeballing portions, remember that 3 ounces is about the size of a deck of cards.
1.) 4-6 Ounces Grilled Chicken Breast. ⅓ Cup Brown Rice, 1 Cup Fresh Vegetables
2.) Tuna Salad: 4-6 Ounces Tuna on 3 Cups Baby Organic Spinach with 1 Sliced Apple. Use Balsamic Vinegar or Lemon as a Dressing
3.) Small Whole Wheat Tortilla, ¾ Cup black Beans, ½ Cup Shredded Cheese (if desired), Light Sour Cream and Salsa to taste
4.) 2 Ounces Sliced Buffalo Mozzarella, 2 Whole Tomatoes, Sliced, Balsamic Vinegar, 2 tsp Extra VIrgin Olive Oil, 1 Cup Melon
5.) Chocolate Banana Smoothie:
- 1 Cup Skim Organic Milk or Unsweetened Almond Milk
- ½ Frozen Banana
- 1 Scoop Nutrology Grass Fed Whey Protein Chocolate
- 1 tablespoon Chia Seed Powder
Dinner
1.) 4-6 Ounces Grilled Salmon, ⅓ Cup Brown Rice, 1 Cup Carrots
2.) 4-6 Ounces Lean, Ground, Grass-Fed Beef, ¾ Cup Whole Wheat Spaghetti with ½ Cup Marinara Sauce, 3 Cups Organic Baby Spinach Salad with Cherry Tomatoes, Carrots and Balsamic Dressing
3.) 4-6 Ounces Grilled Chicken, ½ Cup Cooked Wild Rice, 4 Asparagus Spears
4.) 1 Cup Ready-to-Eat Lentils with 1 Ounce Feta Cheese, 1 Tsp Fresh Mint, 2 Tsp Red Wine Vinegar, 1 Tsp Lemon Juice
To provide a more natural energy for your workouts during your cleanse, use one scoop of Beet Natural Pre Workout to 16 ounces of water prior to hitting the gym.
Get your new year started right with a tasty and purposeful cleanse.
To Your Healthy Living!
Always check with your doctor before beginning any new diet or exercise program.