Do you long for a little relief after the holidays? Detox and relief days bring us back into balance. They provide balance, give us energy and are basically nothing more than a Spring cleaning for body, mind and soul.
Detoxen does not have to accompany under any circumstances with a radical change of your eating habits. Also you don’t have to book several days in a fancy detox hotel, or give up solid food for one week. Have you ever heard of interval fasting ? Interval fasting is also called Detox 2.0, because according to the latest scientific findings, our body has a natural self detoxification mechanism. Interval fasting is about stimulating our body’s own cleansing system so that our body can rid itself of harmful substances and discharge them.
This process, also called autophagy can be easily integrated into everyday life at home at any time and is supported by regular interval fasting. If you long for relief and would like to treat your body to a little cell renewal, then you can use these detox days wonderfully to stimulate your self detoxification mechanism in a natural way. Through my supportive detox-tips, even greater success can be achieved. How to, you will find out in the following.
Here are my simple and effective tips for your detox home program.
Intervall fasting
No worries. Contrary to a classic fasting cure interval fasting is not about the complete renunciation of food. I don’t agree with that, especially as it is difficult to integrate into everyday life and doesn’t lead to the desired success in the long run.
Interval fasting is about incorporating longer (up to 16-hour) breaks from eating during the day. There are different approaches to this. The most common, however, is the 16:8-methode where you eat within 8 hours and the remaining 16 hours are fasting.
What’s behind it?
Longer breaks between meals stimulate our cells to “declutter” (self-decontamination mechanism / autophagy). During this phase, they fall back on their own reserves, such as stored fat, and use it to generate energy. This reduces both body fat and the fat in our organs, which in turn can protect against various diseases such as dementia or metabolic diseases. Although not all findings have been conclusively researched yet, regular interval fasting is said to have extremely positive effects on our well-being and health.
This is how you integrate interval fasting into your everyday life.
Since our body is busy at night as well as with different digestive, degradation and detoxification processes, the sleep or night time is ideal to incorporate these into the fasting period. Basically, this only gives your body a somewhat longer break from eating than usual.
An example day
For example, if you start fasting at 18:00, you should not eat your first meal until after 10:00 the next morning.
The advantage? Unlike other fasting methods, interval fasting doesn’t depend on how many calories you eat during mealtimes. Be careful, however, to avoid sweets, processed foods and white flour products, as they irritate blood sugar levels and lead to attacks of cravings. Also, don’t overdo it in calories. If you follow my Clean Eating recipes and make your meals from a healthy mix of complex carbohydrates, lean protein sources, fresh vegetables and fruits, you’re on the safe side.
An interval fasting day after 16-8 hours could look like this:
7.00 o’clock Get up drinking 1-2 glasses of lemon water.
8.30 o’clock First cup of coffee or tea.
10.00 o’clock Balanced Breakfast
13.00 o’clock Balanced and satiating lunchtime meal
14.00 o’clock Ginger shot & Lunch-smoothie
15.00 o’clock Afternoon coffee, tea
17.00 o’clock Sports unit (HIIT or strength training) (or in the morning if it suits you better)
18.00 o’clock Dinner with dessert
Additional Detox support-tips
Our body has great self-healing powers and is busy from morning to night breaking down harmful substances. During a detox cure it is a matter of supporting the body in its internal self-cleansing process so that it can free itself from all harmful substances that have been absorbed over time through food or the environment. In order to get rid of harmful substances, our body uses various organs. In addition to interval fasting, there is a special focus during these days on the organs of elimination such as the liver, intestines, kidneys, skin and lungs.
Drink enough
Drinking is the A and O during these days. To support the body in removing harmful substances, you can increase the amount you drink during your detox days. Instead of the usual 1.5 to 2 liters, you can double the amount during a detox cure. Sugar-containing drinks such as lemonade and cola as well as alcohol are of course taboo.
In the morning after getting up I recommend 1-2 glasses warm Ginger, lemon water or a glass of apple vinegar to drink. This stimulates the metabolic processes, the digestive system and kidney activity and suggests to the organs kidneys and intestines to start detoxification and excretion work.
Lemon-water
Zutaten
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp honey
- 200 ml tepid water
Anleitung
- Squeeze out the lemon juice and mix with the other ingredients. Then drink in small sips.
Between meals you should drink as much liquid as possible. You can drink water, tea or coffee (1-2 cups) without hesitation during this time. Especially black coffee and green tea have appetite inhibiting effects. Also smoothies or juices are great companions at every detox cure.
Watch what’s good for your bowels.
Our intestines belongs to the main rejection-organs of the body. About 40 % of the absorbed harmful substances are broken down via the intestine. In addition, 80 % of our immune system is located in the large intestine. It thus plays an important role for our health. During your detox days, you can naturally support the bowel in its drainage processes by gently “pounding” it and at the same time make an active contribution to the development of a healthy intestinal flora.
Dietary fibre-rich foods stimulate the intestinal activity in a natural way. There are also many foods that have a digestive effect and help to stimulate metabolic processes. For example sauerkraut, plums, artichokes, spinach, citrus fruits…
Make sure you get enough exercise.
Lack of exercise not only causes the intestinal muscles to slacken, it also puts our metabolism on a back burner. The consequences: we feel dull, flabby and listless – almost as if someone had pulled the plug on us. Without movement it becomes difficult to increase the additional fat burning. Exercise is the easiest way to boost our metabolism and get the organism going. In addition, we burn more calories and build muscles, and our basal metabolism increases. On training days our body even consumes up to 25 % more calories, just to ensure the basic physical functions – breathing, digestion, blood circulation.
My tip: Integrate regular HIIT-Training (high intense intervall-training). Those who train regularly in the HIIT-area automatically melt the fat cells even faster – and even hours later in the subsequent rest phases.
Pay attention to your skin.
The largest excretory organ of our body is our skin. Over an area of almost 2 square meters, it contributes a considerable part to the inner body cleansing process every day. Among other things, it transports a multitude of toxins out of the body via our sweat and sebaceous glands. You can actively support this process by moving. The more active we are, the more our body is supplied with blood and the metabolism is activated, which in turn stimulates sweat production and eliminates toxins.
For your Mini-Detox program at home, you can also add the following tips:
- Sweat intensely, through sauna, heat baths, hot compresses.
- Changing showers to promote blood circulation.
- Dry brushes to stimulate blood circulation and repel old skin cells.
- Systematic skin care. Oil massages, peelings or base baths are also suitable for this.
Last but not least…
Enough sleep.
Stress and a hectic everyday life can be metabolic killers and bring him out of balance. Give yourself enough rest. Sufficient sleep has a calming effect on our body and also increases fat burning. During these days, just make sure you get at least 8-10 hours of sleep a day.
So, now I wish you a lot of fun with your detox-home-program. Do you have any questions? Then write me gladly.
