The Best Way to Detox

In order to keep going after our dreams, we need to maintain our physical, mental, and emotional energy! And if you’ve been feeling sluggish in any of those areas, then this post is for you. I know that at one time or another, most women have been tempted to find the best way to detox as a way to boost their energy… and they come away with some strange detox diet that doesn’t sound healthy (it isn’t), or a “cleansing tea” that leaves them feeling physically depleted and gross. 

The best way to detox or cleanse in order to boost your energy isn’t about embracing a fad. Rather, I’m talking about cleaning up your body, mind, and environment so you can feel your best and take action every day toward your big dreams. And that sure feels a lot better than drinking cayenne pepper and lemon juice all week!

Your Body Detoxes Itself

Despite what supplement companies and paid celebrity endorsements may tell you, we don’t need to focus on eliminating toxins that are built up in our bodies. This is because your body already has a complex and amazing built-in detox system. Your skin, lungs, kidneys, colon, and liver work in tandem to process and eliminate things we don’t need in our bodies. And if something in that system isn’t working, it’s time to see the doctor. 

Still, it’s possible that high levels of toxins in the foods you eat, products you use on your body, or chemicals in your environment can overload your detox system, causing a lot of stress within. 

It can get to the point where your body can’t keep up with eliminating them as fast as you absorb them, and they start to build up in your body. Since we can’t actually SEE toxins, here’s a statistic that can make it real: the average newborn baby has 287 known toxins in their umbilical cord blood. 

This includes 180 that cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 that are toxic to the brain/nervous system, and 208 that are linked with birth defects or development problems in animal research. Now that is a toxic load! 

So if our bodies can detox themselves, but can fall behind in the process due to the sheer amount of toxins, what can we do? Alleviating the stress within our bodies will certainly lead to benefits like increased energy!

Focus on Your Input

Instead of focusing on cleaning out toxins from your body, a better approach is to avoid them in the first place! This will let your body do what it is made to do, and you will be “detoxing” your input before it even hits your system. 

You can do this by focusing on cleaning up your diet, your personal and cleaning products, your home, and even the information you feed your brain. 

When you upgrade the quality of what you feed your body and what you surround it with, you will reduce your overall toxic load. I have a ton of information about this in my Clean It Up Challenge Guide.

Simple Ideas to Try:

• Choose foods with fewer pesticides, antibiotics, contaminants, etc.
• Use personal care products with fewer known toxins
• Stay away from plastic containers and water bottles
• Use more green home care products

With a little intention, you can lower the number of toxins you’re exposed to in the first place; a much more proactive approach to your wellness.

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A Challenge

One of the best things you can do to help your body’s detox system do its job is to DRINK WATER! (From a BPA-free container, or course.) This helps your system flush out all those unwanted waste products. I want to challenge you to increase the amount of water you are drinking this week. 

​Exactly how much water you need every day depends on (among other things) how active you are, any health issues you may have, and your size. But as a general rule, women need about 9 cups (2.1 litres) and men about 12½ cups (3 litres) a day.

I bring a quart jar of water to my desk every morning and try to drink at least one and a half jars throughout my work day. It’s become such a habit that I don’t even think about it anymore. I know someone else who leaves their water bottle in the bathroom. Every time they have to go, they also drink one cup of water. Drinking more water makes them have to go more often, which means they drink more water! 

Remember, it’s not the big things we do once in a while, but the small things we do CONSISTENTLY that bring results. What little habits can you tweak to detox your life this week?