So often we meet the New Year by resolving to lose weight. We all want to be thin and beautiful. But beauty shines from the inside out. The cleaner your vessel, the less you have to worry about dieting and aging. Learning how to detox your body while adopting a clean diet that’s mostly organic, plant-based, and chemical-free allows extra body weight to simply fall away. You’ll be glowing throughout 2014.
7 Tips on How to Detox Your Body in 2014
1. Start your day with meditation: Start your day by detoxing your mind through meditation. Consider a guided meditation at AudioDharma.com or listening to meditations by Jack Kornfield. It doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment. Start off with a few minutes a day and add time as you feel comfortable. Sit up on a pillow so the knees fall below the hips, close the eyes, elongate the spine, and begin to follow your breath. When your mind wanders (and it will) go back to following your breath.
2. Add in a sunrise yoga session: Not sure how to detox your body? Consider a morning yoga session. Head to a local studio or checkout a yoga podcast.
3. Switch to reverse osmosis water: Buying bottled water is often a waste of time because it’s less regulated than tap water. What’s more, plastic water bottles are a huge drain on the planet. But filtered water like reverse osmosis can be a good option because it removes most contaminants from water including chlorine, VOCs, endocrine disruptors, pesticides, and other chemicals.
4. Add in a green juice: Green juice can provide a lot of nutrient bang for your buck. Juices contain organic hydration, nutrients, vitamins, and enzymes and since pulp is removed, your body expends less energy in digestion. (Here’s a great green juice recipe.)
Read more about the benefits of juicing
5. Add in cruciferous vegetables: They include kale, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. And while they’re not as glamorous as the goji berries and chia seeds of the world, they’re still amped up with nutrient density. Cruciferous vegetables may help prevent cancer. Their phytonutrients lower cholesterol and are an excellent source of vitamin C. Add them to your diet in 2014 in smoothies, salads, stir fries, and casseroles.
6. Reduce caffeine consumption: You don’t have to cut out caffeine completely but reduce it if you’re too dependent. A cappuccino in the morning made with organic milk can be a welcomed treat, but four cups of coffee is overkill. Make sure that if you enjoy a morning caffeinated beverage you rehydrate afterwards.
Read more about kicking the caffeine habit
7. Go plant-based: While you don’t have to go vegetarian, make plants the largest portion of your diet. Enjoy meat once a day at most instead of eating it with every meal. When you do eat meat, choose organic, high quality cuts free of hormones, antibiotics, and pesticide-laden feed.
Image: breville