Navigating a Summer Reset for a Healthier, Sexier You! – Whether you are just beginning your healthy living journey or have been optimizing your health for some time now, it is the perfect time to jumpstart your next uplevel.
Did you know it is possible to feel remarkable results in only a few weeks?
By helping our bodies detox, we can see improvements in energy, weight, digestion, joint comfort, skin radiance, and brainpower.
I am not talking about a cleanse or a detox program where you spend a week in the bathroom. That is NOT HEALTHY! There is a better way to address our toxin levels and feel results quickly.
Toxins are all around us. We are exposed to toxins through the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the products we use, and how we respond to stress. Over time, toxins build up in our bodies and cause chronic inflammation, affecting how we feel and eventually leading to chronic illness.
Good News!
Focusing on doing a detox jumpstart in an effective and gentle way can really move the needle in how you feel in just a short time. While it is ideal always to work on reducing exposure to toxins and supporting our detox pathways, doing an intentional, proper detox can give you the boost you seek.
Why Focus on Detox?
Improved Energy
Detoxing can improve your energy levels. When you have a high toxic burden, your body is using your energy resources to detox, draining your reserves. Also, a higher toxin load causes inflammation, often leading to fatigue. By detoxing safely, you can give your body the support it needs to function at its best, resulting in increased energy levels and improved mood.
Weight Loss
Many toxins are endocrine disruptors, creating hormone imbalances that lead to weight gain. When toxins accumulate, they can interfere with metabolic processes, leading to inflammation and weight gain. By supporting the body’s natural detoxification processes through the steps below, you can help restore your body’s metabolic function, reduce inflammation, and rebalance hormones, all of which can support weight loss. As a matter of fact, I consider weight loss to be a side effect of health. The excess weight falls off when we support the body in being healthy.
Improved Gut Health
Processed foods, foods treated with pesticides, and alcohol are all toxins that directly affect the gut. Toxins accumulate in the digestive system. When these toxins build up, they can disrupt the delicate balance in our microbiome and lead to issues like bloating, indigestion, constipation, and diarrhea. By doing a true detox, you can reduce the impact of these toxins on the digestive system, supporting the growth of beneficial bacteria and leading to better nutrient absorption, reduced gut inflammation, and improved gut comfort.
Joint Comfort
Inflammation significantly contributes to joint pain, and toxins are an everyday driver of inflammation. Detoxing can also help reduce oxidative stress, damaging joint tissues and leading to pain and stiffness. You will naturally take in more anti-inflammatory foods and nutrients when using a whole-food approach to detox. Joint comfort will improve; aches and pains should melt away.
Healthier Skin
Inflammation caused by toxins can lead to acne, wrinkles, rashes, and other skin conditions, which can improve with proper detox. Supporting detox in the right way can reduce that inflammation and promote cell renewal, resulting in clearer, brighter, more youthful skin. Staying hydrated during detox can help hydrate your skin and give dry, tired-looking skin renewed radiance.
Improved Cognitive Function
Toxins can impair cognitive function by affecting brain chemistry, reducing neurotransmitter production, and increasing inflammation in the brain. This can negatively impact memory, focus, attention, and the all-too-common brain fog many accept as part of aging. In addition to improving cognitive function and mental clarity, detoxing promotes better sleep which is essential for brain health.
How to Navigate Your Reset
Hydrate
It is essential to be drinking enough water each day! This allows you to flush toxins out of your system. We often look for fancy fixes and must remember to cover the basics.
Eat Real Foods
Avoiding processed foods (which add to our toxicity) and focusing your diet on nutrient-dense foods will help reduce inflammation and support your detox pathways. Temporarily eliminating added sugars and sweeteners, gluten, grains, dairy, and alcohol will boost the reset you are looking for.
Get Moving
Even gentle exercise can stimulate the lymphatic system, which drains toxins from the body’s tissues. Exercise also increases blood flow and circulation, which helps transport nutrients and oxygen into cells and organs, supporting detoxification. Sweating during exercise can help release toxins through the skin. Regular exercise can help reduce stress levels. This reduces the production of stress hormones, which can interfere with the body’s natural detox processes.
Sleep
Sleep is an essential part of the body’s detox process. When we short ourselves on sleep or don’t get high-quality sleep, we impair our detox (among other things). Good sleep supports detox via liver function, and our brain detoxes when we sleep. The Glymphatic system clears out toxins accumulated during the day while we sleep. This includes substances such as beta-amyloid, which is associated with Alzheimer’s Disease. Our hormones, including cortisol, are also regulated during sleep. Optimizing sleep will help support hormones, blood sugar, detox, and overall health.
Stress Management
Modern life can lead to chronic stress. Cortisol is a stress response hormone that can drive inflammation and weight gain and disrupt digestive and detox function when elevated for prolonged periods. Chronic stress can also directly interfere with the liver’s ability to metabolize and eliminate toxins. Stress management will help reduce inflammation and support the body’s ability to manage toxins and heal.
Supplementation
It is crucial to keep in mind what the definition of supplement is: “Something added to complete a thing, compensate for a deficiency, or extend or strengthen the whole.” Supplements would add additional support to the detox process. If toxins impair cellular function, extra support may be needed to jumpstart and support the detox process. Many of us, myself included, have genetic variants that impair our detox processes. In this case, specific supplementation can be essential so that we are not recycling toxins instead of excreting them.
Why is a reset program better than a cleanse?
When we detox too quickly, too many toxins release into our bloodstream, and we can feel sick. Consequences may include headaches, digestive distress, depressed mood, increased anxiety, disrupted sleep, rashes, and an exacerbation of any chronic symptom you manage reasonably well. By making or up-leveling, the lifestyle changes outlined above, you are giving your body the support it needs to significantly improve detox without making you feel sick. AND chances are you will continue with at least some lifestyle up levels, supporting your overall long-term health.
It is truly amazing that when we simultaneously address the above key lifestyle pillars, we can lower inflammation and quickly feel results that otherwise would remain elusive. By reducing our toxic burden and supporting our detox pathways with intention, we allow our bodies to begin to heal.
Billie Crystal made “if you look good, you feel good” a popular sentiment. And it can certainly be true. However, when you feel good, you look good! And in a few short weeks, you can feel more energetic, lighter, brighter, radiant, and sexier than ever!
Nothing is sexier than feeling healthy!
Connect with Cover Girl Julie Michelson: https://linktr.ee/navigatewellnesshealth