 Don't lose heart as you survey those extra kilos after the festive fun has finished for another year! Doing it right for just one week can be all the cleansing you need, says naturopath Jeremy Hill.
Now
that the plethora of obligatory Christmas parties, New
Year parties and the 'Let's Soak up the Good Weather'
parties have wound down, we all have a chance to rest
and take stock. You along with so many others, may find
yourself feeling a little frayed at the edges, not to
mention a bit bloated in the middle and a tad foggy
in the head. The combination of too much rich food and
too many drinks, along with a swathe of late nights,
may have left you feeling in need of a good clean out
and desperate for a battery recharge.
By this time of the season many people are starting to
look despairingly at their expanding waistlines and partied-out
features, all the while resolutely declaring to themselves
that they know what to do and are committed to doing it
- in time for next summer.
Well, the good news is that summer has really only just
started and with just a little effort you can significantly
improve both your health and fitness, give your body a
good clean out and recharge, all within a week if you
really try. All this, without having to follow one of
my usual full-on detox approaches! So here are some pretty
good and easy basic rules that will have you feeling a
whole lot better in no time at all.
SLEEP TIGHT
The first thing you need to do to give your energy a serious
boost is an obvious, but often overlooked, factor in most
good cleanses. To get a great start to each day start
by going to bed early the night before. The simple act
of getting to bed early for a whole week, plays a huge
role in allowing your body to rest and recover effectively.
Make sure that your bedroom has as little noise and light
to disturb you as possible. Even the numbered LED glowing
from your digital clock in the corner of your room can
be enough to disturb your slumber. The subtle glow can
penetrate the thin layers of your eyelids and reduce the
production of one of your major sleep-inducing hormones,
melatonin.
Deep sleep is when the body does a lot of its "patching
up" work. Just as poor quality food can insidiously
affect your health, so can poor quality sleep. In fact,
without sleep, we can die more quickly than we would without
food.
SWEAT IT OUT
Exercise is a terrific way to help improve your clearance
of toxins and metabolic waste from the body, mobilising
your congested lymphatic system that may have resulted
from overworked excretory systems. Exercise is also great
for improving all aspects of cognitive functioning including
both short and long-term memory, as well as honing your
problem solving ability and reducing stress levels.
For the whole week, do a whole hour of exercise each day.
If walking is all you can manage, that's fine. The simple
act of walking for an hour a day can have a huge impact
upon your overall wellbeing
LET FOOD BE YOUR MEDICINE
Next, make a reality of that old chestnut by starting
your cooking from scratch. Spend the whole week eating
three lovingly prepared home cooked meals a day, all made
from wholesome ingredients. The over-processing of many
of our foods has been done to make eating easier and tastier,
but a side effect appears to be widespread deficiencies
in vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, fibre and
antioxidants.
Some particularly health-giving vegetables to eat while
cleansing include beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts
and globe artichoke, as these all enhance liver function
while adding valuable fibre.
The reality, though, is that all vegetables have something
different to offer, each with a unique mix of phytochemicals
and, as such, variety is the key to getting the most benefit
out of your veg. Aim to eat a minimum of four cups of
fresh vegetables and salad plus two to four serves of
fresh fruit each day for the whole week. Try having a
big salad with lunch each day, plus snacking on veggie
pieces and hummus dip through the day as a terrific way
to improve your vegetable consumption.
SPICE THINGS UP
Simple common culinary herbs such as garlic, turmeric
and ginger make tasty additions to a stir fry. They also
offer numerous benefits to those who are wishing to spruik
up their body's ability to flush out some toxins, boost
immunity and ameliorate some aches and pains. And so,
the humble stir fry becomes a powerful medicinal tool.
Cook up a fresh stir fry each day throughout your cleansing
week, with loads of fresh and colourful veggies, a little
lamb, beef, chicken or tofu and a little rice on the side
for a simple to prepare, easy to digest and highly nutritious
dinner.
BECOME A MINIMALIST
Hari Hachi Bu is a Japanese expression which essentially
means to eat only until you are 80 percent full. While
applying this eating approach over the long term has been
credited, at least in part, with extending the lifespans
of the very long lived Okinawan Japanese, even short term
dietary restrictions help by reducing the stress upon
an overburdened digestive system.
BULK UP
You can help move toxins from your body by giving your
digestive system a bit of a fibrous nudge. Once the liver
does its thing to make toxins less toxic, it passes them
on to the gallbladder, where the bile assists them into
the bowels. Without a good rate of bowel transit and plenty
of fibre to bind to the toxins, there remains a real potential
risk of re-absorbing them back into your body.
The bowels for most people are often a pretty toxic place,
compromised by the fermentation and putrefaction of foods,
along with various yeast, bacterial and parasitic infections.
Encouraging the movement of that sort of stuff out of
the body has to make you feel better, right?
For a high fibre start to the day, try mixing a bowl of
rolled oats with some natural yoghurt, a handful of almonds,
sunflower and pumpkin seeds, a big spoonful of psyllium
and a scoop of blueberries.
DRINK YOUR FILL
Proper hydration is absolutely necessary to help flush
out toxins and to plump up your cells, and drinking two
litres of water a day is considered the best way to attain
this.
But, green tea also can be a great asset to achieving
your cleansing and revitalising goals for the week. In
Japan and China, green tea has been used in ceremony and
as a medicinal tonic for over a thousand years. Science
has borne out the empirical view of green tea's health-giving
attributes, proving that it is indeed a drink with preventative
and treatment properties for many illnesses. As well as
improving circulatory health by lowering blood pressure,
blood sugar and cholesterol levels and strengthening blood
vessel walls, green tea also boosts immunity and kills
bacteria and viruses, while enhancing beneficial bowel
flora populations. It has been shown to reduce the incidence
of tumours and suppress the growth of existing tumours,
as well as assisting the liver's ability to clear toxins
such as heavy metals from the body. Add to this the powerful
rejuvenating antioxidant capabilities of green tea and
this wonderful beverage becomes not just an essential
part of your recovery week, but a part of your ongoing
daily health management routine.
CHILL OUT
While you are in the process of getting a healthier body,
it is worth realising the role that a positive and relaxed
mindset plays in achieving optimal health.
Most health problems that people suffer these days appear
to have a cause rooted in, or a strong link to, unhelpful
thought patterns and mental stress. Daily meditation is
one of the most profound ways in which you can improve
your health. But if you can't see yourself becoming a
regular meditator, simply set the goal of doing it for
10 minutes a day throughout your cleansing week. Purchase
a meditation, hypnosis or relaxation CD if you need a
little extra help. You'll be glad you made the effort.
You can't bring yourself to good health purely through
meditation and relaxation, but the act of putting your
thoughts on hold for a while each day can actually have
profound effects upon both mental and physical wellbeing.
MASSAGE
Treat yourself to the most delightful part of the week
by having an appointment with a massage therapist. Massage
helps improve the cleansing ability of your skin, circulation
and lymphatics and definitely helps you relax. Just make
sure that you drink plenty of water and green tea through
the day to flush out all of the rubbish that gets mobilised
from your tissues.
FLOSS
It might seem like a strange link to make initially, but
poor dental hygiene can seriously affect your health.
Allowing the development of infections between your teeth
and gums can cause a wide array of health problems and
the simple act of flossing daily can reduce your risk
of cardiovascular disease, poor blood sugar control, low
immunity and inflammatory joint disorders, not to mention
the halitosis!
PLAN AHEAD
Once you have had this regenerating week of clean living,
lowering your load of chemicals and diminishing your spare
tyre, have a look at the new cleaner, leaner and more
vital you - and commit to continuing to optimise your
health with some of the easy new habits you've just completed.
Set your health goals for next summer. Write them down,
plan how you intend to achieve them and good luck.
Good Health, Jeremy Hill
|
