Just after my daughter, our second child was born I was very low and rundown and feeling lethargic and numb pretty much all the time. I’d seen my doctor several times, and on each occasion I was informed that they couldn’t find any problems.

I finally went to see an alternative health therapist one day who intimated that I should look into doing a detox, and generally learning about how to detox with a view to changing my eating habits. It sounded like a good idea, so figured it was a worthy investment of my time to at least check it out, and why so many alternative and complementary health practitioners recommend detox diets and suggest getting started with the week detox so avidly.

She also hinted to me to try a simple detox foot patch. I now treat myself to a foot massage at least once a week, if you don’t want to invest in a foot spa, those detox pads can do just as good a job - although your don’t get the relaxing foot massage at the same time

So here’s my top tips about how to detox your body.

Herbal teas and water and plenty of both

Making sure you take in plenty of fluids is very important while you are following a detox diet because it will help purge excessive toxins from your body. Drinking plenty of water also has other health benefits like promoting regular bowel movements, stops water retention (believe it or not), and hydrates your skin which improves your skin tone. You should aim for about 2 to 3 liters a day, and a good bit more in hot weather or on your exercise days.

As a rough guide, increase your water intake by about half a liter for each hour of exercise. Choose still mineral water, or tap water that has been filtered, or boiled and then cooled. Ideally drink water that is at room temperature. If the thought of drinking that much water is overbearing, try herbal teas as well - loose leaf tea is the better option if it’s available. Green tea, horsetail, camomile and roibosch (or redbush) are especially great in a detox as their additional properties help boost the detox process. Roibosch and green tea has extra punch as it is very high in OPC antioxidants.

How Can I Possibly Drink So Much?

Fitting in 6 to 8 glasses of liquid a day isn’t difficult once you get into the habit. Have a glass of water with a little freshly squeezed lemon juice or root ginger when you rise - it’s the perfect way to start up your metabolism and bowel - then aim to drink little and often throughout the day.

Aim to have a glass whenever you eat, have a couple of herbal teas during the day, another glass when you get home from work and one more glass when you’re getting ready for bed. Don’t be afraid to “spice up” the water with a little lemon juice.

Eat Foods As Close To Their Natural State As Possible

Try buying farm fresh food and juice or blend them for maximum benefit or just eat them raw, in salads or as snacks or appetizers. Raw fruits and veg are still full of all their natural enzymes, vitamins and minerals. If food is kept too long, or if it has been cooked or processed in any way, its nutritional value plummets.

If at all possible buy from local farms or producers, ideally from farm shops and local markets. Food from other countries is generally harvested before it is ripe (so it will be short of it’s full vitamin and mineral supply) and will have a longer time to lose nutrients on it’s trip to the supermarkets.

Choose Organic Food Where Possible

Buying organic produce where possible is better for your health but not totally necessary, especially as the cost can be very high, but if you can afford to stretch to buying a few organic products it will be a great help.

It’s not a major problem if you can’t get hold of any organic produce. All you need to worry about is eating enough fresh foods regardless of them being organic or not, rather than not get enough of them. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of health benefits to going organic on a healthy detox diet.

The use of artificial chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers are not allowed when growing organic foods, so they have very little or no potentially toxic man made chemicals. It’s also a very controversial subject as there is mounting evidence that the cumulative impact of these pesticides are linked to some of the serious health conditions of today.

Organic foods are subject to a lot less processing. That means they contain no hydrogenated fats, artificial additives, preservatives or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The taste and flavor of organic food is usually much better as well.

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