Diy cleanse for weight loss come in handy when you need to remove toxins and fats from your body. The two things that cause people to gain weight are eating more than they burn and toxic build up in their bodies. Maybe you had your gall bladder removed years ago, which means you’re not able to absorb certain nutrients as well as you should. Your body doesn’t want to carry too much fat so it stays wherever it’s most convenient.
What is a Detox anyway?
Let’s start with the understanding of what a cleanse or detox can do for you. According to Wikipedia, a detox is “a process, real or perceived, of removing toxins from the body.” A cleanse means to “rid of impurities.” They sound very similar, so we will use the terms interchangeably here.
The basic premise of a detox is to allow the body rest and restoration from the toxic buildup it endures daily. This can be due to the food we eat, lack of sleep, stress, unknown food allergens, environmental toxins, and nutrient deficiency.
Cleanses can offer restoration of body systems such as the digestive system, the liver, and the adrenals. The blood and bowels can be cleaned of impurities. The immune system and internal inflammation can be reduced by removing the usual suspects such as sugar, gluten, dairy, and caffeine.
Depending on the level of detox you would like to try, you may be enlisting on a juicing-only regimen, fasting, or a whole food diet. Some help the body along with herbal supplements, natural laxatives, and colonics. There is a wide variety of options along with their various price points.
Results may vary depending on level of commitment and the internal environment of a person. You will learn something new about your body and how best to take care of it. Weight loss is a welcome bonus to the purge of the toxic load we have absorbed from our surroundings.
Steps for a Cleanse on the Cheap
1. Drink a cup of hot water with juice of ½ a lemon every morning. This helps to stimulate the liver.
2. Load yourself up on water! At least half your weight in ounces. Add another 8 ounces for every caffeinated beverage you consume. This helps to flush the kidneys.
3. Decrease the amount of caffeine you ingest (preferably none). Drink green tea if you need it, herbal tea, or a coffee substitute like Teechino or Dandy Blend (Amazon). Taking out stimulants helps to restore the adrenals.
4. Take supplements: Probiotics are a must for healthy gut flora, in addition to a quality Fish Oil such as Cod Liver Oil, Vitamin D3, and a whole food supplement.
5. Drink apple cider vinegar: 1 tablespoon in water before a meal (start with one meal, possibly work up to two). This helps to optimize your absorption of Vitamin B12 and Iron from your stomach by increasing your stomach acid. Most of us actually LACK stomach acid.
6. Eat high quality REAL foods that are easily digested and seasonal. If you’d rather do a juice cleanse, use organic vegetables.
7. Engage in some light exercise such as walking. When you do a cleanse you need to be easy on yourself, so skip the vigorous workouts and just take a yoga class or go for a walk.
8. Start a journal. Write out thoughts and feelings that may be stored in your body. Negative emotions, stress, and daily troubles have a huge impact on the way our body assimilates nutrients.
9. Create a relaxing ritual. Take a bath at night, sip some herbal tea while the kids are in quiet time, meditate, or pray to slow you down.
10. Get to bed earlier than usual and aim for at least 8 hours of sleep per night. Best to be in bed no later than 10 pm. This is when the body starts to repair itself.
As you can see, it is possible to do this on your own, however you may want to consider working with a professional for your first try at a cleanse. I especially recommend starting with a real food cleanse versus a juicing or fasting detox for any busy mother. We need to slow down, but we also need to have enough energy to go on with caring for our kids, our home, and our day-to-day duties.
Ways to Rejuvenate Your Body
Reduce your intake of sugar and processed foods
People often attribute sugar and processed foods to many of today’s public health crises
Research links high consumption of sugary and highly processed foods to obesity and other chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes
These diseases hinder your body’s ability to naturally detoxify by harming organs that play an important role, such as your liver and kidneys.
For example, high consumption of sugary beverages can cause fatty liver, a condition that negatively impacts liver function
You can keep your body’s detoxification system healthy by consuming less junk food.
You can limit junk food by leaving it on the store shelf. Not having it in your kitchen takes away the temptation altogether.
Replacing junk food with healthier choices like fruits and vegetables is also a healthy way to reduce consumption.
SUMMARY
Excess junk food consumption is linked to chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes. These conditions can cause harm to organs important to detoxifying, such as your liver and kidneys.
Eat antioxidant-rich foods
Antioxidants protect your cells against damage caused by molecules called free radicals. Oxidative stress is a condition that results from the excessive production of free radicals.
Your body naturally produces these molecules for cellular processes, such as digestion. However, alcohol, tobacco smoke, a low nutrient diet, and exposure to pollutants can produce excessive free radicals
These molecules cause damage to a range of cells. Research suggests that free radical damage plays a role in conditions such as dementia, heart disease, liver disease, asthma, and certain types of cancer
Eating a diet rich in antioxidants can help your body counter oxidative stress caused by excess free radicals and other toxins that increase your disease risk.
Focus on getting antioxidants from food and not supplements, which may, in fact, increase your risk of certain diseases when taken in large amounts
Examples of antioxidants include vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin.
Berries, fruits, nuts, cocoa, vegetables, spices, and beverages like coffee and green tea have some of the highest amounts of antioxidants
SUMMARY
Consuming a diet rich in antioxidants helps your body reduce damage caused by free radicals and may lower your risk of diseases that can impact detoxification.
Eat foods high in prebiotics
Gut health is important for keeping your detoxification system healthy. Your intestinal cells have a detoxification and excretion system that protects your gut and body from harmful toxins, such as chemicals
Good gut health starts with prebiotics, a type of fiber that feeds the good bacteria in your gut called probiotics. With prebiotics, your good bacteria can produce nutrients called short-chain fatty acids that are beneficial for health
Antibiotic use, poor dental hygiene, and diet quality can all alter the bacterial balance in your gut
Consequently, this unhealthy shift in bacteria can weaken your immune and detoxification systems and increase your risk of disease and inflammation
Eating foods rich in prebiotics can keep your immune and detoxification systems healthy. Good food sources of prebiotics include tomatoes, artichokes, bananas, asparagus, onions, garlic, and oats
SUMMARY
Eating a diet rich in prebiotics keeps your digestive system healthy, which is important for proper detoxification and immune health.
Decrease your salt intake
For some people, detoxing is a means of eliminating excess water.
Consuming too much salt can cause your body to retain excess fluid, especially if you have a condition that affects your kidneys or liver — or if you don’t drink enough water.
This excess fluid buildup can cause bloating and make clothing uncomfortable. If you consume too much salt, you can detox yourself of the extra water weight.
While it may sound counterintuitive, increasing your water intake is one of the best ways to eliminate excess water weight from consuming too much salt.
That’s because when you consume too much salt and not enough water, your body releases an antidiuretic hormone that prevents you from urinating and therefore, detoxifying
By increasing your water intake, your body reduces the secretion of the antidiuretic hormone and increases urination, eliminating more water and waste products
Increasing your intake of potassium-rich foods — which counterbalance some of sodium’s effects — also helps. Foods rich in potassium include potatoes, squash, kidney beans, bananas, and spinach
SUMMARY
Consuming too much salt can increase water retention. You can eliminate excess water — and waste — by increasing your intake of water and potassium-rich foods.
Stay active
Regular exercise — regardless of body weight — is associated with a longer life and a reduced risk of many conditions and diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain cancers
While there are several mechanisms behind the health benefits of exercise, reduced inflammation is a key point
While some inflammation is necessary for recovering from infection or healing wounds, too much of it weakens your body’s systems and promotes disease.
By reducing inflammation, exercise can help your body’s systems — including its detoxification system — function properly and protect against disease.
You should aim to do at least 150–300 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercise — such as brisk walking — or 75–150 minutes a week of vigorous intensity physical activity — such as running
Other helpful detox tips
Although no current evidence supports the use of detox diets for removing toxins from your body, certain dietary changes and lifestyle practices may help reduce toxin load and support your body’s detoxification system.
- Eat sulfur-containing foods. Foods high in sulfur, such as onions, broccoli, and garlic, enhance the excretion of heavy metals like cadmium (58Trusted Source).
- Try out chlorella. Chlorella is a type of algae that has many nutritional benefits and may enhance the elimination of toxins like heavy metals, according to animal studies (59Trusted Source).
- Flavor dishes with cilantro. Cilantro enhances the excretion of certain toxins, such as heavy metals like lead and chemicals, including phthalates and insecticides (60Trusted Source, 61Trusted Source).
- Support glutathione. Eating sulfur-rich foods like eggs, broccoli, and garlic helps enhance the function of glutathione, a major antioxidant produced by your body that is heavily involved in detoxification (62Trusted Source).
- Switch to natural cleaning products. Choosing natural cleaning products like vinegar and baking soda over commercial cleaning agents can reduce your exposure to potentially toxic chemicals (63Trusted Source).
- Choose natural body care. Using natural deodorants, makeups, moisturizers, shampoos, and other personal care products can also reduce your exposure to chemicals.
While promising, many of these effects are only evident in animal studies. Therefore, studies in humans are needed to confirm these findings.
Cleanse Your Body Naturally With Food
A healthy diet is the most important way to detoxify. First, remove foods that interfere with detoxification or make you more toxic. Among them include fructose, which is found in soda (as high-fructose corn syrup or HFCS) but also in fruit juices and commercial juice cleanses.
Research shows this simple sugar can become a key contributor to chronic diseases including obesity. Fructose ramps up problems including chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, which both contribute to obesity.
A natural cleanse also involves avoiding trans fats and damaged fats. These fats are in processed foods with “partially hydrogenated” in the ingredients — even if the front label says “low in fat.” Scrambled eggs on the buffet table are an example of damaged fats, where the fat has become oxidized — skip them.
Food sensitivities can also stall weight loss and exacerbate toxicity by making your gut more permeable and allowing toxins to enter the bloodstream. Gluten, dairy, soy, and corn are among the common food sensitivities. When considering detoxification, try eliminating these foods for 3 to 4 weeks.
“Using a focus on food to support the highly complex processes of detoxification and biotransformation is the wise approach,” says John Cline, MD. “If an apple contains at least 700 different phytochemicals, it is better to eat the apple as one of a variety of foods than to try to replicate its benefits with single nutritional supplements.”
This is the goal of both the Core and Advanced plans by Maxliving. Incorporating whole healthy foods, while minimizing sensitivities.
The Best Foods for Natural Detoxification
Fats and Oils
Natural fats and oils like extra virgin olive oil and organic coconut oil provide energy for the detox and biotransformation processes.
Nuts and Seeds
Try almonds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, and flax seeds for a healthy snack. Nuts and seeds are excellent sources of fiber that assists in proper excretion and elimination.
Proteins
Protein is crucial for the proper function of the two major detoxification pathways inside the liver cells — called the Phase 1 and Phase 2 detoxification pathways. Opt for organic grass-fed beef and wild-caught seafood.
Legumes
Beans, lentils, and other legumes are a good source of soluble and insoluble fiber as well as a variety of amino acid precursors.
Fruits
Fruits contain a wide variety of phytonutrients, such as beta-carotene, lutein, and anthocyanins that have protective antioxidant properties. They are also a good source of soluble and insoluble fiber and are high in water content.
Vegetables
Among their nutrients, non-starchy vegetables provide a wide variety of phytochemicals and fiber.
Essentially, a body-cleanse diet includes plenty of nutrient-dense, lower-sugar, high-fiber plant foods along with excellent sources of protein and healthy dietary fat. It would eliminate most processed foods including inflammatory fats and instead focus on whole, unprocessed, real foods.
Whenever possible, choose organic plant foods. The Environmental Working Group or EWG estimates conventional produce contains 178 pesticides!
If you can’t choose organic because of cost or availability, check out the EWG’s guide to the most — and least — pesticide-ridden fruits and vegetables, appropriately called the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15.
Food provides nutrients that help your body detoxify, but sometimes providing specific nutrients in therapeutic doses can naturally cleanse your liver and other detoxification organs.
A full range of nutrients to support liver health and aid in detoxification should be customized for a particular person’s needs.
Natural Ways to Support Your Body’s Detox System
In order to support your liver health and your body’s natural detoxification processes, make daily detox a priority to help you get (and stay) lean, healthy, full of energy, while reducing your disease risk.
1. Eat the right foods
Copious studies show whole foods including cruciferous vegetables, berries, garlic, and spices like turmeric can help your body detoxify through various pathways. Paired with protein and quality fat, these whole foods create an optimal food plan to detoxify and lose weight. Go for organic plant foods and the highest-quality animal foods whenever possible. Good eating habits like these are the backbone of our Core and Advanced nutrition plans.
2. Support your gut
Gastrointestinal issues will create or exacerbate a faulty detoxification system. Improving your digestive system requires removing obstacles that create dysbiosis (gut imbalances) and other problems, but also incorporating the right gut-supporting foods and nutrients. Support a healthy gut with naturally produced supplements like those in MaxLiving’s Gut Health Bundle. Talk to your chiropractor or other healthcare professionals if you suspect intestinal permeability (leaky gut) or other digestive problems.
3. Reduce inflammation
Toxicity contributes to inflammation, which leads to a heavier toxic load, stalling fat loss in the bargain. An anti-inflammatory diet includes wild-caught seafood, plant foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids including flaxseed and chia seeds, lots of non-starchy vegetables, and spices including turmeric. Work with your chiropractor or other healthcare professionals to incorporate anti-inflammatory nutrients including fish oil, krill oil, resveratrol, and curcumin into your diet.
4. Support your immune system
At a minimum, ensure you eat well, get good sleep, manage stress levels, practice good hygiene like washing your hands regularly, and get the right nutrients that support optimal immunity. Try our Immune Boost Bundle to manage your immune health naturally.
5. Supplement your natural detoxification
While your cells constantly detoxify, consider doing a more formal detox as a spring (or fall) full-body cleanse. These plans, which typically last two to three weeks, include all the essentials to help your liver and other organs optimally detoxify, including protein, nutrients, and a detox-minded eating plan. Our Detox System provides all the nutrient support you need to keep your natural cellular and body detoxification in peak, all in one convenient package.