Are you experiencing any hormone imbalance symptoms such as acne, headaches around your cycles, symptoms of estrogen dominance like breast tenderness, or feeling sluggish and moody, or struggle with high or low thyroid symptoms? You might benefit from resetting your body and hormones with a 4 week detox. It’s not all about shakes and diets, but these are holistic approaches that address your environment and some key root causes that could cause the imbalances.
The total load is a total amount of stressors on your system at any one time. Like a glass with yucky water. It takes a certain amount to fill the glass and then, after a certain point, you put more in and it overflows, and symptoms show up.
When our detoxification system is overwhelmed, we start getting symptoms and get sick, but it may be years of accumulation of stress and toxins that gets you to that point. These total load can include:
- Heavy metals like mercury, lead.
- Pesticides and fertilizers
- Food allergies, environmental allergies
- Mold and mold toxins.
- A poor diet like the Standard American diet
- Mental, emotion and spiritual stress like isolation, loneliness, jealousy, anger
- Medications if unnecessary or overdosing. We do need medications sometimes, but it’s important to evaluate our risk versus benefits taking them regularly.
- Internal toxins like bacteria, fungi, yeast, parasites in our gut
- And Hormonal toxins and metabolic toxins that we can’t eliminate efficiently from our system.
Who can benefit from a detox?
If you have been experiencing the symptoms below?
- Low mood
- Low energy
- Brain fog
- Mood swings
- Poor sleep
- Unrefreshed sleep
- Breast tenderness
- Irregular periods
- Painful periods
- Bloating
- Hair loss
- Acne
- Dry skin
- Weight gain
- Stubborn weight
- Muscles aches
- Joint pain
- Estrogen dominance
- Bloating
- Endometriosis
What are the key process of a detox?
Reduce your toxin load. Avoiding hormone disrupting compounds found in foods and our environment is also key to prevent interfering hormone signaling in our system.
Increase your ability to remove them from the system by regular bowel movements, and optimal urine output and sweating by increasing hydration.
And Improving the detoxification system in your body especially in your gut and liver. That is where good quality nutrients usually from plant based whole foods come in. Along with getting sufficient good quality, well sourced plant or animal protein as another key ingredient for the detoxification pathway.
9 Detox Steps to Balance your hormone and boost your energy
1. Drink plenty of clean water.
Dilution is the best form of detoxification. Drink at least eight to ten glasses of filtered water a day as your baseline, then increase another 16 oz during a detox.
2. Keep your bowels moving.
Your toxins are removed from the body through your bowel movements, so keep them moving at least once or twice a day.
If you can’t get going, even with increase vegetables and fruits in your diet, then you need some help and this can include taking two tablespoons of ground flax seeds, taking probiotics and extra magnesium capsules around 400mg in the form of magnesium citrate. If you have any chronic diseases or problems you have to be careful about taking supplements, you should work with your doctor.Your toxins are removed from the body through your bowel movements, so keep them moving.
3. Sweat.
You want to sweat lots at least three times a week, using a sauna, steam or detox bath (Epsom salt 1cup, baking soda 2tbsp).
4. Avoid external toxins
Reduce your environment and food exposures to common toxins.
Use https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ to guide you on your personal care products.
Use https://www.ewg.org/consumer-guides to get consumer guides to your home cleaning products, seafood choice and water source guides.
5. Improve your diet.
a) Eat organic produce and animal products as best as you can.
Use Dirty Dozen list and the Clean Fifteen list from Environment Work Groups.
b) Eat at least 8 – 10 servings of colorful fruits and vegetables daily
include some from each group every day, ideally in every meal:
Cruciferous vegetables: broccoli, collards, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi.
Dark leafy greens: arugula, turnip greens, basil, cilantro, dandelions, great for stir fry or smoothies.
Allium or the garlic family: garlic and onions, which help increase sulfur in the body and help detoxification.
Bile supporting vegetables that helps body bind to toxins better: bitter greens, dandelion greens, berries, beets, milk thistles.
High in Antioxidants and phytonutrients: Artichokes, apple, berries, pomegranate seeds, mandarins.
c) Eat enough protein
Eat at least your body weight of Kg in gram of protein each day. (For example, if you are 75Kg, eat 75g of protein).
Your liver requires protein to run detox pathways in the form of amino acids. Eat organic, pasture raised meat, or legumes, nuts and seeds.
d) Choose healthy fats
Fats and oils from avocados, coconut, flaxseed, olives, and sesame seeds are great for detoxification.
Avocados are full of healthy dietary fiber, monounsaturated fat. And phytosterols that help with healthy function of the intestines and immune system.
Coconut oil contains medium-chain triglycerides that can provide energy sources to the gut and liver especially during detoxification
e) Avoid Toxins, Stimulants, sedatives
Sugar – can be inflammatory and stresses your hormones
Alcohol – such as caffeine and nicotine and try to reduce alcohol intake.
Inflammatory fats – Most polyunsaturated fats are chemically fragile, and can cause chronic inflammation. Avoid processed vegetable oils like peanut oil, soybean, and canola oils
Caffeine, Nicotine are also a burden to your liver system.
6. Consider Supplements for extra support
To improve the detoxification system in your body, especially in your gut and liver, we need good quality nutrients usually from whole foods and well sourced plant or animal protein, but sometimes supplements can move along the process especially if we have a high toxic load.
I use this detox kit in my practice and personally because of the high quality, non GMO, gluten free, food coloring free commitments. There is a Pea Protein option and a Bone Broth based option in my store. I do this detox cleanse every 4-6 months to optimize my hormone and liver system, and it helps me lose any extra weight from inflammation. Be sure to check with your doctor to see if these supplements are appropriate for you.
7. Exercise every day
Exercise can improve circulation and optimize the lymphatic system which is key for a good detoxification.
Move joyfully every day.
And focus on a mix of high intensity interval training, strength training, and aerobic exercises during the week.
8. Sleep at least 8 hours every night
Sleep is where your repair, recover and restore.
Check out these tips for a better sleep.
9. Manage your Stress
Relax deeply every day to get your nervous system into a state of calm, rest and relaxation.
Try this breathing meditation technique. Practice them for 7-11 minute in the morning or before bed. Or use an app like Calm or Insight timer.
Try this recipe for its detox benefits!
