Detox......can anyone recommend a tried & trusted plan?

[TheRealMrsJohnSimm]

Am looking to do a detox but would like to follow a set plan rather than just eating fruit/drinking water/fruit tea etc for a few days/week.

Any recommendations?

Sorry to disappoint you, but all the medical evidence says that detoxing as you describe it is bad for the body- we are not meant to exist on protein-free diets even for a few days- you will lose mainly water and some muscle mass.

There is no evidence hat the body needs to detox- it can regulate itself aslong as you eat sensibly.

I'd suggest you try half-measures such as:
Cut out tea coffee and alcohol
Cut out junk food- eg refined white flour
Increase fruit and veg
Replace one main meal with a veggie option as long as it comtains some protein from pulses , nuts or low fat dairy.
Limit red meat to the odd treat- maybe one every 2 weeks
Drink plenty of water and herbal teas
Take daily exercise.

Thanks VEM. That's exactly the kind of basic plan I was looking for......there is no way I can exist on fruit & veg and still have energy for running around after DCs . Plus I am very aware of the need for consuming all the right nutrients from real food (as opposed to constant stream of supplements).

Am now trawling through pages on essential protein/carb/veggie intake in order that I can make a start

just to say that I 'survived' on a 2 week juice (fruit & veg) detox + 3 x colonics.

I felt fantastic & interestingly I lost only a couple of pounds.

If you're going to do half measures, cut the meat out completely - red meat is very hard on the body.

Go to your library, have a look at the health section & pick a few books. Carol Vordemans & Gillian Mckeith's are good with recipes which you can easily use within the family.

VEM - I'm interested in your comment about not necessary to detox...what't that based on ?

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I did a "detox" of the eating really healthily and not having tea and coffee or alcohol or sugary crap variety years ago - it was fantastic and gave me loads of energy. We also gave up the TV for the week too, which I'm sure made a big difference. It meant that we got a lot more sleep and we didn't get suckered in to "just one more programme".

I had a "detox" plan that I got free from a magazine a few years ago. It was 4 weeks long and basically you cut out all caffeine and sugar, cut down on meat/dairy and all carbs had to be wholegrain (whole wheat pasta, brown rice, etc).

Think it was something like

Week 1: cut out caffeine and sugar. Can still eat lean red meat, white meat, all fish, all fruit and veg, all pulses, low fat dairy, eggs, tofu, whole grain carbs.

Week 2: as week 1, but cut out all meat and eggs

Week 3: as week 2, but cut out all fish and dairy (so basically vegan this week)

Week 4: reintroduce lean white meat, all fish, low fat dairy

Eat 5 times per day - breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, but watch portion size, particularly carbs.

The first time I did it I lost 7lbs and the weight did stay off.

SweetEm, what about eggs? do you reintroduce them at some point (I know it sounds very painful but YNWIM).

Christina, what type of exercice do you do 5 times a week for 30 mn? I have just started running again once a week, it takes me about 20mn the idea is to get eventually to 3 times a week a 5k run. I do walk an lot as iI do not drive but could do with more ideas. I am not keen on swimming or joining a gym, what else is there?

I have just done the Jason Vale super juice detox for 7 days and it was brilliant. I can't remember all the details as I need to read the book again but you can get all you need from a wide range of fruit and veg. It's only for a week anyway.
Protein comes in avocados, broccoli, spinach.You can also add in some sardines to a salad on this detox plus have yoghurt.

Knocking out carbs in the form of potatoes, white bread, pasta and white rice seems to work for me.

ideally yes, we wouldn't need to detox, however, because of all the chemicals, pestisides, hormones via food chains, our bodies do get overload.

Our bodies may adapt & they may not.

My 'holiday' was a fantastic experience, not sure I'd do it again there, or for 2 weeks. It's certainly a talking point.

I would be careful of going into 5 days a week excercise - unless you are already exercising regularly, try building it gradually. If you are serious about doing a 'detox' - to whatever level you are comfortable, then excercises like yoga/pilates & swimming are better.

Whilst none of us know what your lifestyle is like (ie smoke, what you eat, what products you use), you will need to take it easy & help your body to recover/refresh itself. I'll post the name of the detox book I have, which is very detailed. I followed it for a couple of weeks (my version!) & was swinging from the trees.

If you actually do it, agree it's important to maintain the changes, so don't try to do something that is too radical. One of the hardest for me is giving up caffiene. Ideally I would have just one cup a day.

The juicing sounds interesting - although I don't think I could do it in cold weather.

Ref colonics, each to their own, but it's a good start to a detox - especially if you taken antibotics/ad's.
If you do have them or at least one, then you'll need to have a good probiotic - in a non-dairy form & something that you need to refrigerate.

Let us know how you get on !

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I have never tried yoga, will give it some thought. thanks for link christina.

Re my post above - after week 4 you can introduce anything back into your diet (eggs/red meat/sugar/coffee/etc). But, according to the plan, all things not included in week 4 should be eaten in moderation from now on.

Easier said than done - I re-toxed pretty quickly from what I remember!

Thanks everyone.

I generally have a very good basic diet - mostly organic (especially meat) - but I do tend to eat crap and drink wine through boredom and my system is overloaded. It is showing through my skin (spotty and congested and major cellulite thighs.....despite being a size 8/10) and also my mood. I have terrible PMS and so I am hoping that cleansing my system will help with these things.

I am recovering from a nasty viral infection at the moment so have decided to just cut the junk for a week, reduce meat consumption and start taking Milk Thistle (for liver support). Basically following Gillian McKeith's 7 day starter plan - which from what I can see is a sensible and basic healthy eating approach rather than a fad diet. Hopefully by next week I will be over the infection and I will do a 24 hour juicing detox to give my system a "final rinse" as it were!

A reply to the query about why not detox- well as christina said,, many scientific studies have shown there is no need.

Maybe you need to ask what you are trying to achieve? what "toxins" are you imagining there??

If your body was full of toxins, you would be ill. All these diets do is cause rapid weight loss from lack of calories, and maybe make you feel a bit better becuase of thehigh vitamin and mineral content from the fruit and vegs, but youwould needmore than a week's intake to make you feel any different.

maplelecanplait - sorry to contradict but vegetables like broccoli and spinach, and avocados do not contain protein.

Sorry, but these diets are just plain silly - there is no scientific research behind them.

Also, colonic irrigation is a money making practise- your colon is clean if you are not constipated. If you are constipated, the eat more fruit and veg, drink more water, and get exercising as your body needs this to make the intestines work properly. Lack of exercise is one of the main reasons for sluggish bowels.

If you want to feel good, then eat healthily long-term, and exercise regularly. I walk 3.5 iles 4-5 times a week- over hills- and do resistance exercises with weights etc at home 3x a week if I remember!

Ther is simply no point in detoxing- whatever that means!!!!

Detoxing makes no sense. If you're a drug addict you come off drugs and then ideally never touch them again, right? So why do we detox and then retox?

The best thing is to slowly adapt your diet so that you eat more healthily all the time.

But that is exactly what I am trying to do!! To address my eating habits so that I can eat more healthily for most of the time.

VEM: you seem to think that I will do this for a week and return to usual habits. Not the case. I am simply trying to give myself an initial plan to focus on. We all need something of a kick start every now and then .

There is a point to detoxing. I am a complementary therapist and I understand the pressure that the liver is subjected to not only by food choices but by mood and stress. I have no intention of re-toxing. Nor do I have any illusions about the sustainability of so called "faddy diets". I have never dieted in my life and don't expect to start now! The liver does need help in regenerating itself and functioning effectively. Exercise and rest has as much a role as diet. Without approaching a problem holistically you run the risk of treating only symptoms and not the cause.

It is about making a healthy lifestyle choice. As I said, my basic diet is extremely good - I just need a little distraction in getting myself weaned off some of the crap I eat through sheer boredom.

IMO, my body is not in a "well" state. Aside from the vile bug I have at the moment, my cycle is all to pot, my hormones are all over the place, my sleep and stress levels are not good and I suffer with headaches. I believe that the toxins (alchohol, caffeine, general snack crap) that I have put into my body have a role in that. Without question. Clearly its not the be-all and end-all but its niaive to say it has no role.

I think you went wrong with your use of the word 'detox'. In common parlance it does mean what we've assumed you mean - it refers to a short-term burst to cleanse the system. So if that's not what you meant you didn't make that clear.

I still stand by my earlier comment that a detox (in this sense of the word) is pointless.

That said, I totally see where you're coming from now, and funnily enough have made a similar decision - just this morning (Tuesday, that is). So I ate heaps of fruit and veg, drank loads of water and had a lovely vegan meal with lentils for dinner. I then scoffed choccies afterwards (d'oh!).

If you stick to a long-term approach to healthy food, gradually introducing more fruit and veg, beans and pulses, and also cut down on processed foods, you should find that after a few weeks your body starts to crave more of the healthy stuff. Your body (and mind) will crave whatever you give it.

As for your bugs (ditto here - plus a host of other things), why are you (am I?) still up?! You (I) should be letting your body rest! Get thee to bed! I'm heading there right now!

Good luck.

Agree with MMH

• what you are describing is not really "de tox".

Maybe what you could be doing is looking at behavioural changing stategies, rather than "detoxing".

If you are eating rubbish out of boredom or emotional issues, then you need to address those. Why have you got that space in your life- and how can you fill it, in a way other by eating?

You could try to break the pattern of eating rubbish by having some distraction behaviours- walking out of the room, cleaning your teeth, counting to 10 before you eat, etc etc.

The liver can get overloaded if you consume a lot of alcohol, or fatty foods, but otherwise it can look after itself very well.

My own feeling is that in order to set oyurself on the right path, you don't need to detox,but you need to make small changes that you can stick to- make a list of what your "weaknesses" are and then target one a day or a week- such as no sugar from refined foods, cutting out tea or coffee for water or herbal teas,no snacking on biscuits etc, or adding in 2 pieces of fruit a day. By making small changes you are more liekly to stick to them, as it is like coming off something slowly, rather than going cold-turkey!

You sound as if you have a healthy diet anyway- maybe you just need to tweek it a bit over a couple of weeks?

Good advice, VEM. Another thing to consider is that often the gut needs healing - you can do this in several ways. One tried and trusted method is to drink 1 serving of high-quality aloe vera juice first thing in the morning, then don't consume anything for about 20-30 mins so that you let it do its stuff. It will enable your gut to process foods more effectively, which in turn assists the liver as the next port of call in processing toxins.