Women’s Guide to Detox: Healing and Prevention Tips

Detoxing your life means energizing your life. It’s about removing harmful materials just as much as replenishing with beneficial materials that support your overall health and well-being. It’s about looking within to gain greater awareness around your daily habits in an effort to make more conscious and informed decisions. Before we begin, I’d love to learn a little more about who you are and why you decided to sign up for this resource. Do you have any health issues that you’re currently dealing with?

When we think of “detox,” we think juice detox cleanses and clean eating, but detox is so much more than that! From your laundry detergent to your night cream, from the relationships you have to the tools you cook with, toxins can be found more readily than you might imagine. Unfortunately, we can’t escape all the toxins all the time. The process of detoxification refers not only to eliminating toxic elements from your life but also refers to the incorporation of positive elements. Today’s challenge is to take some time to consider HOW toxic you think your lifestyle is as it stands today. Ask yourself these questions: - Do I read labels before I bring a product into my home or put it on/into my body? - Do I suffer from any digestive related health issues? - Do I suffer from any breathing/respiratory-related health issues? - Do I experience skin sensitivities? - Do I experience high levels of stress? If you answered no to the first question and yes to any of the following questions, it’s quite possible that you’ve been exposing yourself to toxins that are affecting the health of your body.

Eating foods that support your body’s natural ability to detox is a great way to flush out toxins and start feeling better. Let’s take a look at some foods that can help:

Chlorella: These freshwater algae, native to Taiwan and Japan, have tons of phytonutrients, amino acids, chlorophyll, beta-carotene, potassium, biotin, magnesium, and B vitamins. Specifically, chlorella helps your body expel heavy metals like lead, cadmium, mercury, and uranium.

Spirulina: A cousin of chlorella, this type of algae packs so many nutrients that NASA now sends it into space for astronauts to consume to stay healthy.

Ginger: This familiar root stimulates digestion, circulation, and sweating, which are the body’s three main avenues of natural detoxification! Ginger also helps your body maintain digestive enzymes that are important for keeping issues like gas and bloating at bay.

Leafy Greens: Veggies like spinach, kale, moringa leaf, alfalfa, and parsley should be incorporated into as many of your meals as possible. Not only are these greens packed with vitamins and minerals that play a role in the natural detoxification process, but they’re full of fiber, which makes them slow to digest and good for detoxifying your bowels.

Studies have shown that exposure to cleaning products can cause or exacerbate certain health conditions. The California Department of Public Health found that “nearly 10% of all work-related asthma cases are caused by exposure to cleaning products.” While cleaning supplies are essential for protecting our health and keeping our spaces clean, lots of household products contain harmful chemicals that can negatively impact our health. This is because in the United States there is no governance and little regulation of commercial cleaning products. Because they don’t fall into the categories of food, drugs, or cosmetics, ingredient declaration requirements don’t apply. While some companies make the decision to disclose all their ingredients on their product labels, others choose to use blanket terms like “fragrance,” a mixture that may be composed of any of over 3,000 chemicals, including allergens and reproductive toxins. As a consumer, it’s your responsibility to be aware of the ingredients in your household cleaners because those ingredients are exposed to your children, pets, and you!

Stress affects our biology. Plain and simple. You’ve probably heard of the term “fight-or-flight,” which refers to acute stress that the body experiences as a means to prepare for defense or threat. Our body responds with a series of signals sent via hormones and other chemicals. These hormones pass through our body by way of systems that help distribute the hormones accordingly to correct the perceived issue and protect us from such threats, whether perceived or real. These systems and functions, also known as acute stress, are meant to protect us in dangerous circumstances, allowing us to receive an extra boost of adrenaline to run away and protect ourselves. However, over time, our causes for stress have evolved (we’re likely not getting chased by something that will eat us), we’ve grown more distant from activities that relieve stress (like community involvement, physical activity, and connection to nature), and our bodies are paying the price. The cost of daily life (paying bills, getting to work on time, raising kids, etc.) starts to mount up and our bodies are absorbing these costs internally. This type of stress is called chronic stress and can increase your risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and digestive issues. Chronic stress can also lead to depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. It’s clear that stress takes a major toll on our bodies. Today’s challenge is to explore ways that you can help balance stress with effective stress management strategies. Perhaps you’ll try a yoga flow. Maybe you’ll get together with a friend for a chat. Maybe you’ll experiment with meditation.

Whether we realize it or not, the people we surround ourselves with have an enormous effect on our view of the world, and ourselves. Think about it. Have you ever spent a lot of time with someone who was always negative? Did their behavior, in turn, make you feel more negative? Probably! Today’s challenge is to consider the five people you spend most of your time talking to and do a quick evaluation of their personality. Next, consider how those personality traits affect YOU when you’re around them. If you find that the presence of someone in your life causes you stress, sadness, anxiety, or some other negative emotion, you might want to consider distancing yourself from that person.

The connection between stress and gratitude may not be immediately obvious, but it’s certainly there. Our minds are hard-wired to think negatively, but we can train our minds to veer toward optimism if we work at it—it just takes some practice. You probably know a few people who are always able to find the silver lining, see the good in people, and focus on the positive. This ability to focus on the positive of situations—even when the original outcome seems quite negative—is a trait called “emotional resilience.” Those with a higher degree of emotional resilience are better able to handle the stresses that come with daily life in a calm manner. The ability to develop and improve your own emotional resilience can transform your life and your experience of stress. One way to work your emotional resilience muscle is to practice gratitude. Research has shown that people who feel gratitude are happier, report more life satisfaction, and report lower levels of stress overall.