There are many reasons to detoxify or cleanse our bodies – mainly to do with health, vitality, and rejuvenation – to clear symptoms, treat disease, make a lifestyle change, and sometimes to begin a weight loss program. Detoxification can be helpful for weight loss, though it is not a primary reduction plan, it is more important as a transition period. However, anyone eating 4,000 calories a day of a fatty, sweet, and poorly balanced diet who begins to eat 2,000-2,500 calories of more wholesome foods will definitely experience detoxification, weight loss, and improved health.
Detoxifying is also important to rest our overloaded organs and allow them to catch up on past work. An effective detox program can increase energy, reduce weight and eliminate subtle and mysterious chronic symptoms of non-optimum health.
When is the best time/season to Detox? Choosing a good time to begin a detoxification program can sometimes be a challenge. It is important to incorporate nature’s cycles with our own cycles. At certain times of the year you may notice regular periods of congestion, and may reduce or prevent these by beginning a detoxification program. A period of congestion may include the start of a cold, at which time exercising, sweating, saunas or steam, drinking lots of fluids, taking vitamin C, and a good night’s sleep, can be a good time to begin the detoxification process.
What changes can I expect?
The effects of the detoxification diet vary from person to person. Making even small changes to your current diet may produce some responses, but more dramatic dietary alterations will produce a much more profound detoxification. Remarkable things can happen when you improve the quality of food you eat and take better care of your body and more specifically, your organs. At this time, more rest and sleep is often needed. It is also imperative to avoid stimulants of any kind, which will abort and defeat the regenerative process. Remember the body isn’t getting weaker. It’s simply using its energies in more important internal work, rather than external work involving muscle movements. With patience and diligence, a person will soon feel more energy than before.
When you stop drinking coffee or chocolate you may begin to experience headaches and a sense of fatigue. Your body begins discarding toxins such as caffeine and theobromine by removing them from the tissues and transporting them through the bloodstream. However, before toxins are eliminated, they register in our consciousness as a headache. These symptoms are part of a healing process that is constructive even though unpleasant at the time.
As time goes on, these symptoms will be milder and pass more quickly, as long as you get more rest and sleep. The body becomes healthier by eliminating waste and toxins. These stored toxins eventually would have brought about illness and disease, thus causing greater pain and suffering.
Finally do not expect to improve your diet, and feel better and better everyday, until you reach perfection. The body is cyclical in nature and your health returns in a series of gradual diminishing cycles.