Elimination + Why It Matters
When I say “cleansing foods” or “detoxifying foods,” I am really talking about foods that greatly help remove excess toxins and built up sludge through elimination (bowel movements).
Why it matters?
The piling up of toxins, heavy metals, pollution, and all the food/drugs/alcohol we are not meant to consume gets built up in our body. Too much leads to blockages and health symptoms over time. Even if we seem healthy, it’s usually a matter of time before symptoms arise. Or maybe we get lucky and don’t have health symptoms in the traditional sense, but are living with a lack of energy, happiness, and overall vitality for life. You know those people that are always irritable and reactive? They could use a lifestyle change and some cleansing. They are backed up and filled with toxicity throughout, mind included.
What each of our liver and colon looks like varies greatly depending on our age, our lifestyle, our past lifestyle, what we born into this world with, our environment, and the diet we eat.
Cleansing and detoxifying in a safe manner.
An abundance of cleansing foods, like fresh fruit, leafy greens and juices, help dig up and move around the gunk that’s been built up for years and continues to enter our bodies. It’s all the more reason we want to include a large amount of them into our diet. However, this does not mean we should do a complete 360 or even 180 with our diet overnight and solely have raw fruits and veggies. We don’t want a big amount of toxins and sludge uprooted too fast. This can be unsafe, make us sick, and can cause a host of issues.
If we are cleansing too quickly and not eliminating properly, we run into problems. It’s why many that go from a typical SAD to a raw food or mostly raw food diet overnight feel sick or have even more health symptoms. They often end up going right back to their previous lifestyle since now they think its the fruit and vegetables’ fault. We cannot just uproot all the crap and expect our body to eliminate it at once. I wish. Unfortunately it does not work like that.
Cleansing our bodies slow and steady over time with additional foods, including cooked if we choose, is not only more gentle on our body and more comfortable, it’s also more effective and doable. There is a small percentage that feel sustained and happy on raw food alone – especially if we don’t live in the tropics. It’s a whole lifestyle and one we want to enjoy as well. At least I do! It’s not a quick fix-it thing to lose weight, get a flatter stomach, or rid our health symptoms instantly. It doesn’t work like that. Slow and steady wins the race here.
A tidbit off my mention of a typical SAD (Standard American Diet).
A typical Standard American Diet includes foods that don’t stir up the toxic sludge. There is very little fresh fruits and greens in comparison to the rest of the diet. It’s also why many may feel good for a long time; nothing is getting moved around in there and uprooted. Their daily bowel movements are solely coming from their food from a few days ago (roughly), and they feel just fine. However, remember with time, sludge builds, blockages happen, and generally more health symptoms arise. So that is not the answer either. Also, there is not enough life giving living foods that bring forth energy in the SAD. Just because someone may live a long life on a SAD, does not mean they have not suffered a good amount in both or either their body and mind.
Proper Elimination = Freed Up Energy
When we eliminate more toxins from our body we free up energy in our body and in our minds. It may sound a little out there, but this expands our world. The more energy we have, the more aligned and happier we feel.
Things that make it easier for me to eliminate and detoxify:
- Drinking plenty of hydrating fluids each day.
- Eating plenty of fresh fruit.
- Vitamin C helps move toxins out – Beside food, I supplement with this one currently.
- Eating plenty of leafy greens and vegetables. HIGH FIBER DIET!
- Juicing. I use the Nama J2 Juicer – code RIANE55 saves $55.
- SWEATING.
- Sauna’s – I have this infrared sauna blanket. Code HERHEALTHYSTYLE15 saves a good chunk.
- Castor Oil Liver Pack – I wear this most nights!
- Dry brushing the body. I use this dry brush. – code herhealthystyle10 saves 10%
- Lymphatic massage or tool.
- Deep breathing. I am so not good at this one…always a work in progress.
- Rebounding – I jump on this rebounder for 10-15 minutes many days a week.
- Safely done cleanses are extremely helpful for pulling up years of old built up sludge, especially if done fairly often for awhile. – I talk more on it at the bottom of this post. Juice cleanses are another option too! If I knew more about juicing when I was healing, I may have went that route!
- Magnesium + Epsom Salt Baths – I have a post on magnesium here.
- Gravity Colonics at a reputable place on occasion. The cleaner our diet, the better they can benefit us. Colonics are a highly debatable topic in the wellness world, but I believe with the right diet and properly done, they can be beneficial! Just like everything I share, take what resonates with you and leave what does not.
- Eating light to heavy within the day and at meals in the order of which foods digest the quickest. For example fruit first on an empty stomach (although fruits & greens pair well), then salad, then cooked food. Having something raw and alkaline like a salad before or with cooked foods help with digestion & elimination as well. Although I’m not strict with this like I was 10+ years ago, I follow it more days than not. More so to free up energy during the day since digestion takes energy and eating light to heavy frees it up. It’s also usually more natural for us to want lighter foods during the day and heavier at night. If I want fruit at night, I just make sure I’m not eating it immediately after a heavy meal so I don’t feel uncomfortable/indigestion.
I hope you gained a little bit of insight with this and took away the things that resonate with you. As always, I’m not a healthy professional, but rather have lots of life experience. Always do your own research and what feels right for you. Thank you so much for joining me here! Xx Riane @herhealthystyle
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