The Idea of Detoxing

Many people, unfortunately, give a weird expression or response when you mention the idea of detoxing to them. Although there are many who do grasp the importance and "realness", if you will, of the concept of incorporating detoxing into their life, there are still many, far too many, who are ignorant, whether by choice or by social conditions, to the reasons behind detoxing, and why it is a necessary component to a healthy life.

I first gained an interest in detoxing through research of my own. No one in my family or my circle of friends had ever mentioned anything about detoxing to me. It was a foreign concept to me, as it still is to many. I actually had never heard of it until learning of it on my own by searching for ways to develop a better health. I've spent years now, researching ways to acquire an overall better quality of life, of course, taking a holistic approach to my learning. However, thus far, nutrition and body health has been a strong focus, and the concept of detoxing was one of the very first key factors I had come across. Ever since, I have valued it to be one of the most important factors in healing and maintaining a healthy body.

Growing up, I didn't always eat healthy. Let me rephrase that, I don't think I hardly ever ate healthy! In fact, my eating habits consisted of a lot of McDonald’s and other fast foods. I loooooved pizza...shhh, I still do! I would often eat frozen dinners...and not the "Healthy Choice" ones. As a child, I remember not drinking water because I didn't "like" it. I loved candy and junk food, and in my household, there was plenty of it for me. My mother would cook meals often enough so that I would occasionally get my serving of vegetables, but, when she didn't, which became more often than not after having three more children, I was left to live off of the frozen pizzas, chicken nugget dinners, hot pockets, and hot dogs. I know, that sounds bad, but, I was ignorant to what was good.

Then, of course, I carried these bad eating habits with me into my adulthood. When I moved into my first apartment, I hardly ever used my stove!

Any who, after suffering from health problems as well as depression, I started to wake up and realize that that lifestyle was not the one I was meant to live. I wanted something better. I hated going to the doctors for health issues, only to find that nothing they ever provided for me gave me any true healing or long-term relief. As far as the depression, I knew for a fact that I would not yield that information to a doctor. The last thing I wanted was a doctor telling me what I already knew; that I was depressed. They would only to give me yet more medicine, which, again, had never provided any long-term relief for me before, and I didn't expect it to give me any long-term relief now. All that medicine could possibly do for me was suppress symptoms. I didn't want any suppression, I wanted a cure! I definitely didn't want to go to counseling...why would I want to talk to a stranger and I didn't even want to talk to those close to me?

I started researching. I thank God that I had finally instilled it in my mind that I was going to work on improving my life and turn all of my negative dispositions into positive outcomes, no matter what it took, and no matter how long it took.

I was introduced to the world of raw food. I was intrigued enough to use a 100% raw food as my first method of detoxing years ago. It lasted for a few days. I will never forget how much I went to the bathroom and how much weight I lost! Not being educated enough on what I was doing to my body, I had a near break down right after and my health problems seemed to get worse. I quickly went back to my bad eating habits...McDonald’s chicken sandwiches, fries, and shakes...almost everyday after work!!

With that being said, I knew that I didn't want to give up forever. I continued researching, making it a habit in itself. I learned that detoxing is essential, but, for a body that never detoxes, it can be initially very shocking to it. Many people may detox and either don't follow through because of the shocking feelings and withdrawal symptoms, and/or dismiss the idea altogether because of problem symptoms they have that seem to get worse during or after the detox. This is a natural, but, not long-term, body reaction that I was not initially aware of.

The more I learned about the body's ability to heal itself, I fell passionate to the truth that what you eat has a ton, a load, an EXTREME impact on the way you think, feel, look, live, and all of the bodily conditions that you have. Not only did I begin experimenting with preparing full meals, I taught myself how to prepare healthy meals. I discovered that I love cooking this way. Incorporating new spices, herbs, and an array of veggies into meals and inventing your own nutritional dishes is fun! I used to pass on salads at restaurants, now I am the salad making queen! Restaurant salads are boring :-)

Of course, as you may have gathered this is not something that happens overnight. It's a process that has to turn into a way of life. There are so many things to learn about the human body, food, and how they interact with each other, so many things to learn about the S.A.D. diet, or the Standard American Diet, so many things to learn about the way you should be eating, what foods can help you achieve this, not to mention the intricacies of raw foods, cooked foods, herbs that heal, etc.

You might be saying, this is too complicated or, where on earth would I start? I remember my mom starring at me in the kitchen while I tediously spent time cutting up an array of fresh veggies to put in my salad. She said, "That's why people don't do that, it takes too much work." I responded by saying, "It's worth it." Now I don't pay attention to the time it takes, I just do it and enjoy doing it. Indeed, after years of McDonald’s, cookies, cake, ribs, and indulging in a combination of every culture's food and seeing billboards everyday to keep us reminded of it, there is GOING to be temptation and you may be glued to some of your weaknesses for a while, but, you can make a drastic change in how often you fight that temptation, and what bad habits you will replace. You can start your new habits by building a foundation of respect for your body. Start by detoxing. Done right, it can provide as a strong leader to your health journey. When I say done right, I mean don't just go to the health food store and buy some detox pills. Instead, research the topic first. Learn what you are doing to your body. Learn how you can prepare for a detox, the ways that you can detox, the length you want to detox, how often you should detox, and what exactly are you detoxing! This will not only be a gesture of you respecting yourself and your body, but you will learn a lot about ways of health that you never knew, encouraging you to value the detox process, your body, and empowering you to maintain new healthy eating habits and living practices.

A lot of people get discouraged when they think about losing weight, setting health goals, or even just developing healthier eating habits. What people fail to realize is that the change needed to successfully accomplish any of these things should be viewed as a change within your lifestyle, and not just a temporary fix. Eating is a mandatory way of life! We wouldn't be human if we didn't eat. We eat everyday, all throughout the day. So obviously, making any change to how we eat is huge! In other words, it's ok to have that initial fear or resistance. But my point is that most people tend to give up and succumb to the defeat of the discomfort of the change, the confusion of what foods to eat, how to prepare it, etc. They feel as though they are not interested in learning, yet they want their desired weight, they want their health problems removed, they want more energy, and they want it now! Commercial businesses that advertise commercial chemical filled products that proclaim to solve your problems feed off of your impatience, yet, they will never feed you want you really want or what you really need. Yes, there is a lot to be learned in order to develop a new lifestyle, but, it is worth it. Any change that you can make to benefit your health, whether small or big, is worth it. You can start small by doing a detox for as short as two to three days. What value there is in a free education that will not only increase your intellect, but increase the quality of your life? If you don't value your body who will?

What's important to remember is that if something has the potential to increase the quality of your life in any measure, then it is well worth trying until you succeed. In fact, working on your health and the way you eat is something that should be done for the rest of your life, hence earlier when I stated it is a way of life that needs to be developed. Of course, in the beginning, as with any habit you are trying to develop, it may seem as though you have to obsess over it just for it to work at all, and again, that may seem like just too much work. Trust me, this is ok and healthy and better than giving up! Obsess over it! Drill it into your head that you want to kick old habits to the curve and develop new ones! This is just a secret to success. You do want to be successful at your health, right?

You may have guessed that gaining good health doesn't only depend on a detox, but, if good health is one of your goals, then you might want to start with the idea of detoxing...That's where I started.

Remember that eating is a way of life. Eating healthy is a way of health. Keep your life healthy!