Yes, I know that’s an oxymoron, but there is another important step to getting healthy
and losing weight. The third step is what holds a lot of people back from achieving real
changes. We need to eliminate the toxins from our bodies. Sounds simple right? You
may ask, “Isn’t that why I am exercising and changing my diet? To eliminate those
toxins from my body?” Yes.
It’s important to consider how the process works. Remember why we tend to yo-yo
around on conventional diets? Our body doesn’t trust us. It thinks that we are going to
starve it again (in the sense of a calorie restricted diet) and so puts on as much weight
as it can to prepare for the next diet you try. See, when you change your diet and start
giving your body what it truly wants nutritionally, that’s when it can finally start to get
comfortable. Your body starts to trust that you will continue to give it the nutrients it
needs to operate. This doesn’t necessarily happen overnight, but it can fairly quickly.
When this happens we need to guard that trust with our lives. Our ability to get and stay
healthy depends on our body’s ability to trust us. Seriously. However, be prepared for
what will happen if you are unhealthy, malnourished, overweight or all the above.
TOXINS. We throw that word around so much in our society that it becomes
comfortable. Well, get ready to get uncomfortable. When our bodies detoxify, it can be
very uncomfortable. Keep in mind this is a good thing in the long run. When asked:
Would you rather have toxins in your body or out? What is your response?
How and why does the detox work though? Your body has been craving more nutrients
your whole life. When you start to feed it those on a consistent basis, it will start to get
rid of some of that excessive weight. Just like the metaphor about getting another job
for more money. If you get a raise at your first job, then you may not need that third job
for the extra money. If you do really well and get a promotion and another raise, then
you may not need job number two anymore either. Get it? If nutrients are money and
eating is your job, the more nutrients/money you have, the less you need to eat/work. If
you start giving your body more nutrients, it can start dropping that extra weight. It
generally increases your metabolism to burn the fat away, or actually just releases the
fat altogether and you poop it out.
Back to toxins. Fatty tissue is where most of the toxins in your body are stored. Your
body doesn’t use fat as much because it runs on carbohydrates and so fat cells are the
perfect place to store the excess toxins. When you start eating better food and
exercising more, now your body wants to access those fat stores either for energy or to
eliminate them. Well, this releases those toxins back into your blood. When this is
happening on a large scale all over your body, you will feel sick. Also, you may get
headaches, feel nauseous, get acne (or acne may get worse if you already have it),
metallic taste in the mouth (from eliminating toxic heavy metal stores), body odor and
more! Oh yes, it will be fun. Just remember to ask yourself the question: Would I rather
have toxins inside me our out?
Clean blood and a healthy liver. These are the two most important things to getting
healthy, losing weight and living a long life that is free of sickness and disease. With the
traditional Western diet, these two organs are literally put through the ringer. We
overwork them to the point of exhaustion cleaning out chemicals from our food,
processing excess hormones and too many animal proteins. When the liver and
kidneys are over-worked, the excess load of toxic chemicals and heavy metals in our
blood are stored in our fat and other fatty tissues (ironically, like the kidneys and liver).
Detoxifying is your body trying to finally rid itself of these foreign substances. The only
way to do this is put them in your blood stream to get them out. So be ready. Everyone
is different so don’t anticipate exactly what will happen, just know that when it does, it is
for the best.
LOTS OF WATER
When it comes to moving toxins out of your body, drinking a ton of water is essential.
You need to encourage the flushing out of excess from your blood and digestive system.
Besides that, chronic dehydration is a common problem in our population. It leads to
getting sick more often, premature aging signs like wrinkles, cells being malnourished
and many other issues. Remember that our bodies are 3/4 water by weight. That’s a
lot of water. Having an ample hydration level in our bodies means that our cells can
flush out the bad stuff and bring in new fluid. Familiar with the phrase: “Shit, shower
and shave?” It refers to someone getting clean. Clean out the insides, and clean off
the outside. Drinking more water allows our cells to do just that; flush out that bad stuff
and clean up while taking in some new nutrients.
At the gym after working out I love going in the sauna or steam room to force sweat.
Making your body sweat pushes toxins out of your cells (because they are carried out in
the sweat). Drinking a lot of water afterwards re-hydrates those cells and you literally
feel like you’ve had a shower inside your body. If your gym has a sauna or steam room,
I highly recommend that you take advantage of it. Stay in as long as it feels safe. You
will heat up and that’s a good thing but don’t spend more than 15 minutes in there.
Forcing your body to sweat and cool down is also really good for burning calories. It is
an energy intense process to cool down when you’ve heated up. Make sure you drink
plenty of water after though. You’d be surprised how much water you lose through
sweat. I personally drink about two liters of water if I spend 10-15 minutes in either the
steam room or sauna.
With all this talk about hydration, it’s important to understand that your body wants fresh
and pure water for this process. Sodas and juices do not hydrate you. If you think that
you’re getting plenty of water throughout the day because you drink coffee, juice, soda
or something like crystal light you’re gravely mistaken. With the WWD we are going to
focus on drinking plenty of fresh water, juice from freshly pressed fruits and veggies and
nutrient dense teas. These will help hydrate you and flush toxins out of your body.
Pasteurized fruit juices have been boiled and so their beneficial enzymes have been
killed. Sometimes fruit juices will even add extra sugar, or if they are from concentrate
they have more sugar anyway. Sodas have so much sugar in them they are not good
for your health. I don’t think I need to explain how an extra 150 calories per soda is
counter-productive.
Diet sodas and drinks like crystal light are not the answer either because they contain
many chemicals including artificial sweeteners. They are poisons to your body. All
these drinks dehydrate you even more because they force your body to draw water from
cells to try and flush out the toxins and excess sugars. This puts a toxic load on your
liver and kidneys once again. If your body is craving these other drinks, it’s because
you’re addicted to the chemicals in them. It may not be easy to give them up and you
may feel like you need a “sweet” drink but trust me, your tastes will change as you get
healthier.
How to hydrate with this diet and get maximum health benefits at the same time: First
of all let me make a point about drinking water throughout the day. Drink lots of water in
between meals, NOT with meals. Your body produces hydrochloric acid to break down
your food at mealtime. When you drink water with your meal, it dilutes this acid and so
your food doesn’t digest properly. If it doesn’t digest properly, you don’t get the
nutrients, and by now you know this causes you to overeat throughout the day. Stop
drinking water about 20-30 minutes before you eat, and don’t drink any for about 45
minutes after you eat. A (small) sip is fine to help you wash out your mouth but a
glassful is too much.
OK, we’ve discussed that your body heating up when it’s cold and cooling down when
it’s hot are both calorie-intense processes. So we are going to use this knowledge
along with hydrating in the WWD for detoxifying and burning calories. Drinking cold
water throughout the day lowers your core body temperature. This causes your body to
react by heating up. Also, drinking hot teas will help your body to sweat (in small
amounts) expelling toxins through the skin. Drinking healthy teas can help put nutrients
into your body that you need and keep you alert and focused at work during the day.
Waiting that 45 minutes or so after you eat and then drinking warm or hot teas can aid in
digestion. Animal fats are solid and tough for your body to break down so drinking a
warm liquid aids in this process. I actually recommend that you not eat meat at all for
the most optimal results, BUT I understand that cutting down and cutting out animal
products is a process and not for everyone to quit cold turkey (pun partially intended).
So with the WWD I will give you the best chance to be the healthiest you can be given
your circumstances.
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu