Let’s face it, Christmas brings joy and happiness and you spend precious time with family and friends, but how stressful for your body is when you change your diet during this festivity?
These 5 easy ways to detoxify your body are the most simple steps to take if you want to get back on your usual diet, to feel healthy and energetic again. The real aim of this detox is not to lose weight or gain muscles or other, for that you need a stronger body and mind work.
Following this detox, you will finally help your body eliminate toxins. Even though your body is designed to eliminate these toxins by different organs – such as the liver, the kidneys and the skin itself – it won’t mind extra conscious help from the outside too.
Detoxify your body in 5 easy ways
1. Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods
When we talk about body detox we mainly think about the food we intake to make this process effective, this is why the quality and nutrition of a specific aliment is so important if you want to detoxify your body after Christmas or any stressful period.
Anti-inflammatory foods are fibre-rich foods like fruit, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, lean protein, and probiotics that aid gut and liver function. The most anti-inflammatory foods are berries, broccoli, tomatoes, turmeric, green tea, mushrooms, avocado and more.
Avoid strictly fried, sugary, processed foods and red meat. Those foods increase the risk of chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Whole foods in general will help your organism to push away faster unwanted toxins and keep you healthy.
2. Get good sleep
We sometimes tend to forget how important is it to have a good sleeping routine. But let’s just think about it: how can you have a healthy body if you don’t have a healthy mind too? That is why to detoxify your body it is important to get back to a good sleeping routine.
Experts advised that adults sleep about seven to nine hours per night. There are for sure things you need to avoid before bedtime so you can have quality sleep, these are: avoiding stimulants before going to bed (caffeine and alcohol), keeping your room cool, quiet and free of technology screens and trying to have standard sleeping hours.
Sufficient rest will help reduce stress and inflammation so your body can function at its best.
3. Get moving
Simple as that, move your body if you want to detoxify from toxins and get back into your healthy life. Why? Because toxins can be eliminated through the skin too, and as we have our bodies covered with skin one of the 5 easy ways to detoxify your body is by sweating.
In this way, your body safely and effectively eliminates heavy metals like nickel, lead, copper, arsenic, and mercury. Regular physical activity also has mental health benefits. Exercise helps you feel less anxious and reduces depression symptoms. So by creating good habits, you can actually modify other bad ones that no longer serve you.
If you can cycle to your job do it, if you can walk to do groceries avoid taking your car for 5 minutes driving. Try to find any excuse to have a daily walk around your neighbourhood, walk on the beach if you can, or go for a hike in a park when you have free time. Stay active your body and mind will only be happy.
4. Stay hydrated
Drinking water is very important, especially if your goal is to detoxify your body after Christmas or a stressful period. The intake of water will help your kidneys flush out toxins, try to drink at least 1.5 liters of water and eat fruits and vegetables that contain a lot of water to help you stay hydrated.
If you want to switch a couple of glasses of water during the day opt for a green tea to improve your blood pressure and cholesterol; or herbal infusion (such as fennel seeds, liquorice, turmeric, dandelion and others). Also, infused water with fruit can be ideal to tempt yourself to drink more try with lemon, cucumber, strawberries, mint, cinnamon, rosemary, apple and so many more. Follow your taste.
5. Eat to please your gut
Last but not least of these 5 easy ways to detoxify your body is definitely keep your gut healthy. Improving your gut health can reduce gastrointestinal issues, it is also key in supporting and regulating body functions and keeping your systems running healthily. Very important is also the connection and the impact on the brain, in fact, a healthy gut promotes and supports good mood and mental wellness.
Always prefer whole foods, particularly fermented foods and fibre-rich foods like vegetables and fruit. Probiotics and prebiotics are both playing their role in your gut – and in your detoxification journey – so consider consuming these foods during this period and integrating them into your diet after the detox.
Some examples of probiotics are fermented foods such as Kombucha, yoghurt, kefir, sour kraut, kimchi and tempeh.
A good amount of prebiotics can be found in these foods: artichokes, garlic, mushrooms, banana, peas, asparagus and much more.
Potential risks and side effects
Most of the detox plans you can find online require drastic changes to your body that are not often good. Because your body can eliminate toxins by itself even when you had a good period of stress, these 5 easy ways to detoxify your body after Christmas are just guidelines to help your body do a better job of eliminating toxins.
This is not a restrictive plan, in fact, these 5 steps to detoxify are easy to follow and mainly good habits to keep with you to have a healthier lifestyle for the rest of your life.
Avoiding refined sugar, meat, alcohol, fried and processed food is not just a good way to eliminate toxins faster is just a good habit to maintain your body and mind in healthy conditions. The same is true for the seven to nine hours of sleep, for the daily walk or workout we might need to include in our routine and for the importance of drinking water every day of our life.
Do you want an extra way to stay healthy? Try meditation, it won’t fix your problems but it will help you be more aware of yourself and your choices.