5 Ways To Detox For The New Year

I absolutely love the Christmas season.
Each year I plan to eat uber healthily, on some form of paleo plan just to avoid the post Christmas cheese hangover and bloat misery, but each year I face those last few days of December feeling hellacious and sprinting towards a New Year detox.
There's no point in starting before New Year's Eve because I'm not going to miss out on champagne and canapes, and with me as of that very first cheat, the proverbial goose is cooked. (so I can't blow the diet in the first couple of days).

If you too are feeling the excesses of the holiday season and want to detox, here are a variety of ways to clean the system and get refreshed for the year ahead.

Exercise
Whether you hit the gym, hit the mat or hit the pavement running, exercise is one of the greatest ways to get your body back into the swing of things and get it detoxifying itself.

Water

I'm sure the worst month of the year for wine stores is January! Take a month off from all alcohol and sugar consumption and give yourself 31 days straight of serious water intake.
Drink it hot with lemon in the mornings, drink it with apple cider vinegar, drink it by itself, just find a way to imbibe as much as possible to flush your system out.

Dandelion Tea

Dandelion tea is known to detox your over-stressed liver, improve your skin and apparently has stomach and digestion benefits.
It actually tastes pretty good too.
I drink it throughout the year when I remember. I buy the Yogi brand at the supermarket, or I order it online at Amazon. When I order it this is the one I get: Dandelion Root Tea - Raw Organic Vitamin Rich Digestive - 1 Pack (20 Bags 2 Grams Each) 

Juicing
I like to have a few juice days before launching into the January diet. It breaks up going cold turkey zero sugar. It also is a little hellish to do, so after 3 or 4 days of it you are soooo excited to get off of it and get into your diet.

Last year I was all inspired by watching food documentaries on Netflix and decided to make my own juices. 

I have a Juiceman JM400 Juiceman Jr. 2-Speed Electric Juicer similar to this one. (Mine is a few years old now).
I absolutely love juicing and make juices throughout the year, but when it came down to living off juices for a few days I got bored with it and stopped doing it.

This year I have ordered Jus by Julie's 5 Day Juice Til Dinner Detox System.

Jus By Julie is a New York based juice company that makes amazing juices and overnights them to you to all 48 continental states and Canada. They have specific cleanses, booster shots, probiotics - all kinds of great stuff. They have a 40% discount going at the moment with free shipping too, so it's quite affordable. There is also a 3 Day Juice Til Dinner if you're not up for 5 days. It's on special right now for $99 with free shipping.

Get 3 Free Protein Juses and Free Shipping when you get the 3 Day JUS Cleanse with coupon code  NEWYEAR99 at JUSbyJulie.com! Valid through 1/9 at 11:59 PM EST - Shop now!

Don't Forget Your Scalp

Part of detoxing is clearing your skin. Body exfoliating, body brushing, detox baths are all things we are well versed in, and generally we have everything we need on hand for them.

Most of us forget to detox the scalp though.

You can use apple cider vinegar to clear flaky scalp or dandruff, but my favorite thing is Nioxin's Scalp Renew Dermabrasion.

I normally do it at the beginning of each season, but during the winter when we are wearing hats and beanies and going in and out of hot and freezing cold air your scalp will absolutely LOVE you if you give it an extra detoxing dermabrasion treatment.

I buy Nioxin hair Dermabrasion Treatment 75 ml / 2.5 oz ANTI-AGING TREATMENT on Amazon. It's not expensive and the results are fabulous. Hair immediately gets bouncy and full and shiny after doing a treatment, which is probably what keeps me coming back for more.

How To Detox For Fall ~ 8 Simple Changes That Make A Huge Difference.

original image via wellbella.com

Do you feel like you need to do a good detox before the holiday season gets into full swing?
I do.
But with my work schedule I just can't commit to juice fasting or any extreme detoxes that can make me irritable or sick or just plain exhausted. So while googling around for some different options I cam e across this post on Byrdie.com. And I can easily do pretty much all of these!

How To Detox For Fall - 8 Simple Changes That Make A Huge Difference

Story by Kelly Leveque

A few small changes can go a long way toward helping your body do its daily job: detoxing. We are constantly detoxing, so to say you’re “cleansing” is always true. The goal should be to support your body’s natural processes with few additional tactics. Keep reading for a few of my favorite detox support tools to help you start fall on the right foot!

Hydrate

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Drinking water slowly throughout the entire day will allow your body to use nature’s elixir effectively, so drink it between meals, too. Mayo Clinic recommends nine cups for women (72 ounces) and 11 cups for men (88 ounces); however, many factors affect hydration, so if you work out, drink lots of caffeine, or plan to spend your day in the sun, then up your intake. Water’s benefits are nearly endless—detoxification, weight loss, fatigue relief, headache prevention, and better skin health and digestion. 

Drink Chlorophyll Water

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Keep a chlorophyll dropper, like The Vitamin Shoppe’s Liquid Chlorophyll ($10), in your purse! Just adding a few drops of green pigment (the one that’s responsible for photosynthesis, if you happen to remember your middle school science classes) can help control hunger, cravings, and body odor (even that one we women don’t talk about). It’s a super-potent antioxidant that promotes healing and cleansing, including binding to heavy metals and helping kill off candida.

Sip on Smarter Water

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When you’re not sipping on green water, go ahead and ask for a side of lemons. Lemons, although acidic in nature, are alkaline in your body. Warm lemon water first thing the morning hydrates your body naturally, and lemons purify the liver. 

Add Coconut Oil

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Start or end your day with a tablespoon of coconut oil. Known to speed your metabolism and regulate yeast overgrowth (aka Candida), coconut oil is great in coffee, tea, or a smoothie. Many people don’t realize when they have a yeast overgrowth, and since it feeds on sugar, a big night out with wine or a sweet tooth could promote its growth. To maintain gut balance, incorporate coconut oil, like Nutriva’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil ($21 for a two-pack), into cooking, or take a spoonful daily. And don’t forget a probiotic, too! 

Fast for 12 Hours

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Between dinner and breakfast, get a complete 12 hours of fasting in. The first six to eight hours after eating dinner, your body is focused on digestion; however, the last four hours are dedicated to detox and are also the most effective fat-burning time. Eating too late can cause leptin to signal to the brain that no energy is required, and thus no fat burning will occur until early morning hours if at all.

Sleep in a Blackout

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Many of us aren't aware of all the wonderful benefits of sleep, and unfortunately we aren't actually getting the good stuff. Invest in blackout curtains and stop letting the morning light wake you up. In theory, it’s a great idea to stay on a circadian rhythm, but any light in your bedroom (including light from a street lamp, cell phone, or TV) could be preventing you from getting cleansing sleep. Benefits of sleep include (but aren't limited to) regulating hormones, curbing appetite, lessening inflammation and stress, lowering depression, spurring creativity, and improving memory and overall outlook on life. Get those blackout curtains or pick up a light-blocking sleep mask, like Flight 001’s Molded Eye Mask ($32). 

Try Dry Brushing

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Just taking a few minutes to dry brush your body in the morning or the evening (before you shower is best) removes dead skin cells and lets your skin breathe. This can stimulate blood flow and lymphatic drainage and potentially reduce cellulite. Try EcoTools’ Bamboo Bristle Bath Brush ($10).

Heat Things Up

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If you can’t work out, consider thermogenesis training. Infrared sauna or cryotherapy is a great way to challenge your metabolism on an off day. Depending on what you choose, benefits can include weight loss, sweating, muscle pain, inflammation relief, improved immune system, complexion, and appearance of cellulite.