Are you feeling overwhelmed, not sure where to begin with the start of a New Year?
Take a pause…take a deep breath…relax. Take inventory and know that you don’t have to do it all at once. Make small, doable, sustainable changes to support your health and wellbeing journey.
Take detoxification for example. It isn’t something we do to the body. It’s a complex process that your body is designed to do every hour of every day. There are certainly many detox plans available and they can support and feed our body’s natural detox process. For your detox to be supportive, and most successful, there are several factors to consider before embarking on your plan.
One of those factors is making sure all the pathways of elimination are open and functioning properly so you are not “retoxing” whilst “detoxing”.
Here are the pathways to consider…
1. Lungs: Have you ever tried holding your breath? It’s a limited amount of time before you need to exhale carbon dioxide from your body. We are constantly inhaling and exhaling toxins. Strengthen your lungs with activities like deep breathing exercises, breathing fresh air, or yoga. Foods that support lung health include: fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains, as well as foods, like fish, that are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
2. Kidneys: Your urinary tract. The kidneys are powerful chemical factories that perform the following functions: remove waste products from the body, remove drugs from the body, balance the body’s fluids, release hormones that regulate blood pressure, produce an active form of vitamin D that promotes strong, healthy bones, and control the production of red blood cells. One important way to support good kidney function is with plenty of water. Stay hydrated.
3. Liver: Every day your liver helps your body by providing it with energy, fighting off infections and toxins, helping clot the blood, regulating hormones and much, much more. To give you an idea of the liver’s critical roles, here is a partial list of its functions: Cleanses blood, regulates the supply of body fuel, manufactures many essential body proteins, regulates the balance of many hormones, regulates body cholesterol, regulates the supply of essential vitamins and minerals such as iron and copper. Produces bile which eliminates toxic substances from the body and aids digestion. Support the liver with good hydration, reduce stress, eat whole foods, and get plenty of quality rest.
4. Bowel: Colon and intestines. Staying regular is extremely important for staying healthy. It plays a major role in how you feel (physically and emotionally) while removing waste from your body. A healthy colon removes toxic residue out of the body and an unhealthy liver actually produces its own toxins. Drinking adequate amounts of water, staying hydrated and eating enough fiber- rich foods such as bran, beans, berries, whole grains, deep green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds, squash, Brassica vegetables, potatoes, fruit – basically eating whole foods! Reducing or eliminating refined/processed foods.
5. Skin: Your skin is the largest organ in your body. It releases about 2lbs of toxins per day. A few ways to keep your skin healthy include exercise (sweat), sauna, dry brushing, hydration, eating whole foods and manage stress.
6. Mind: The average person has over 30,000 thoughts a day. When you have a toxic thought, you release toxic chemicals into your body. Ways to release negative thoughts/energy: Take a media break. Take a movie break. Take a social media break. Take a screen break. Take a walk in nature. Sit in quiet solitude. Meditate. Be still. Journal. Be here now!
Bottom-line, be kind and compassionate with yourself. Take a pause. One way to nourish and nurture yourself is with amazing, nutrient-dense, tasty, warming soups. Soups are great any time of day. See my January 11, 2016 Facebook post on why I love soups so much. Also checkout my website for some ideas: https://www.kerrymcclure.com/source-information/
Eat well. Sleep well. Stress well. Move well.
Resources:
Lungs: http://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseas…/how-lungs-work/…
Kidneys: https://www.kidney.org/kidneydisease/howkidneyswrk
Liver: https://www.google.com/webhp…
Bowels: http://articles.mercola.com/…/bowel-movements-segmentation.…
Skin: http://www.mayoclinic.org/…/adult-health/in-depth/skin-care…
Mind: http://drleaf.com/about/toxic-thoughts/
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