7-day 'Anytime' Detox

 

I often ask myself why the obsession with New Year detox’s? Come January everywhere you look there seems to be a new ‘sure fire’ way to lose the holiday pounds, cleanse the body and tone the muscles. But using the adage that 'how you treat your body between December and January is not as important as how you treat it between January and December', I like to drop in the odd detox anytime of year – kind of discretely and without all the fuss and interest from friends and family.

The benefits of any detox are two fold;

1. The physical benefit of replacing the bad foods with the good gives your body a chance to catch up on preventative maintenance without fighting whatever you normally feed it with.
2. The psychological benefit can be just as effective and potentially much longer lasting. During the detox you’ll find that you have to think smart and look for alternative recipes. This change in mindset will often go on long after the detox is over.

Actually what you give up is potentially less important than the fact that you’re giving something up at all. It's about thinking outside the box and challenging yourself to give up something you normally eat. For example you may decide to give up dairy for a week; so for the meal that normally has cheese in it you learn to modify the recipe. You may find you like it better than the original and now there's less cheese in your diet - no bad thing right?!

The clue to making it work without too much sacrifice is not to give up too many things, but make them count! We want to feel like it is somewhat hard work but we don’t want to find ourselves wishing the days away…

Some things you may decide to cut out are; processed foods, preservatives, alcohol, meat, dairy, eggs, wheat, gluten, or refined sugar. But don’t feel like you have to give up all of them together. Every little helps and we’re looking for progress not perfection. Replace with more fruit and as much veggies as you can. Experiment with new options you’ve never tried and enjoy…