Detox or cleanse diets are often synonymous with weight loss. These plans promise to remove toxins and impurities from your body by including certain supplements and foods while discouraging others. Often, cleanse programs aren’t based on nutrition or science, and only drastically reduce calories that make weight loss inevitable. The idea of a cleanse isn’t inherently bad, however.
Cleaning up your diet routine to include more whole, unprocessed foods and less alcohol and sugar, and fewer refined grains can help boost weight loss. You’ll also need to watch your calorie consumption, and move more to change your physique, though.
The Principles Behind a Cleanse
The recommendations, results and safety of cleanses vary. You need to detoxify your body, and get rid of all these toxins. But be careful, because most detox programs actually damage your health – in the long term.
And what about all those “Hollywood” detoxes… which you’ve probably seen on television, or read in a celebrity magazine? Or those magic detox pills… or “spicy lemonades”… or herbal cleaning shakes? Sure. They do flush toxins from your body – at least for a little while. But they’re mostly unsafe and definitely unhealthy. And they provide absolutely no nutritional value. And so, eventually, your body will force you to ditch them. They are simply not sustainable.
Extreme cleanses, such as the Master Cleanse, which has you subsist on lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper for 10 days, can leave you weak and nauseous.
You may lose weight in the short term, but are likely to gain back all the weight you lost shortly after returning to your old habits.
The only way to completely protect your body from these toxins and heal yourself, is to use a food-based cleansing program. The cleanses that are based on whole foods, though, can help you jump start a long-term weight loss program.
They teach you how to steer clear of processed foods, added sugar, refined grains and saturated fats to help you focus on nutrient-dense foods such as vegetables, fresh fruit, whole grains and lean protein. These diets support the cleansing organs already present within your body, including the liver, kidneys and lymphatic system.
A whole-food cleanse helps your energy, and helps provide clearer skin and less bloating, because you’ve eliminated excess calories and sodium and enhanced your nutrient intake.
What to Eat on a Whole Foods Weight-Loss Cleanse
When shopping in the grocery store buy foods you can eat on a healthy cleanse for weight loss. Choose plain fresh and frozen vegetables; focus on green, watery vegetables such as kale, spinach, broccoli, fennel, asparagus, green beans and bell peppers. Pick up colorful fruits such as citrus, berries and melons.
Raw nuts and seeds provide healthy fats and protein. Dried beans and legumes, such as lentils and chickpeas, provide protein and phytonutrients. Brown rice, quinoa, teff and millet are whole grains that you can find in the bulk bins at health-food stores and in some grocery chains.
The fiber in the whole grains and produce will help keep you full and help regulate your digestive tract. Whether you choose to include dairy, eggs and animal protein is up to you, but if you do, look for pasture-raised products. If you do decide to abstain from animal-derived foods, seek calcium from fortified milk alternatives and speak with a dietitian about the possible need for a vitamin B-12 supplement.
Detoxing is Vital and It is Not Only for Losing Weight!
Millions of us, over half the population, suffer from FLC Syndrome. That’s when you Feel Like Crap (according to Dr. Mark Hayman and his #1 bestselling book The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet!). Sometimes it’s annoying little symptoms such as achy joints or muscles, brain fog, fatigue, headaches, allergies or gas, or more serious problems such as autoimmune diseases, migraines, asthma, acne, irritable bowel, reflux, arthritis or worse. Most of us don’t connect what we’re eating to how we feel.
The scientific establishment has convinced us that losing weight is just a matter of calories in/calories out, that it’s about energy balance, about eating less and exercising more. How’s that working out for you? Probably not so well!
Problem is, the scientific establishment is different from the established science. The science says sugar and flour calories are way different. First, they trigger addiction and overeating. Second, they spike insulin and inflammation, which makes you store belly fat and blocks your ability to feel full. The verdict is in: Sugar calories are worse than whole food calories. Sugar spikes insulin and triggers inflammation, a double whammy guaranteed to mess up any attempt at long-term weight loss.
You can’t control your sugar and carb cravings (you may be suffering from food addiction).The fact is that sugar and flour are biologically addictive. The science behind it is clear and conclusive. Yet we blame the fat person for being a lazy glutton, which leads to shame and guilt. I am here to tell you it’s not your fault. Your biology has been hijacked by the food industry. They have done a hostile takeover of your taste buds, brain chemistry, hormones and metabolism.
More than 300 food industry insiders spilled the beans to Michael Moss in his book, “Salt, Sugar and Fat”, explaining they hire “craving experts” to create the “bliss point” of junk food in order to achieve “heavy users” and increase their “stomach share.” Sugar is the new nicotine. In fact, sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine. If you are trying to use willpower to lose weight you will fail. You have to use science to unhook yourself from the addictive power of sugar, flour and hyper-processed, hyper-palatable food—like substances or junk food.
Most likely you have never detoxed.
Most of us have never in our life taken 10 days to put nothing in our bodies but delicious, whole clean food. Just 10 days. Even if you think you are healthy and feel good, you may not realize that your normal state is not your optimal state. Think of it as a tune-up, a super-quick, super-easy way to supercharge your health.
You need a STAYCATION.
All of us stray from living in a way that supports our health: too little sleep, too little exercise, too much bad food, too much stress, not enough time for ourselves.
The best way to reset your life is a 10-day detox. Simple, delicious foods.
No toxins or drugs, by which I mean sugar, flour, processed foods, caffeine or alcohol. Self-nurturing practices: deep breathing, sleeping 7-8 hours a night, a little exercise, self-love. All this works to get your body and mind back to their original factory settings – and quickly!
Here is a kind of mild cleanse you can try for 10 days
1. Take a Drug Holiday
There is no way to handle a true physiological addiction except to stop it completely. Addicts can’t have just one line of cocaine or just one drink. Go cold turkey as Dr. Hayman suggests. But you won’t have to white-knuckle it because if you follow these simple ways to detox you will automatically reset your body’s neurotransmitters and hormones.
Stop all forms of sugar, all flour products and all artificial sweeteners. They all cause increased cravings and slow metabolism, and lead to fat storage. This especially includes liquid sugar calories – a latte can have more sugar than a can of soda – that makes you eat more all day and drive storage of belly fat.
Also get rid of anything with trans or hydrogenated fats and MSG (watch for hidden names). Ideally, for 10 days you avoid any foods that come in a box, package or can or have a label, and stick to real, whole, fresh food. And the best way to really detox is to give up all grains for 10 days. Give up all drugs, too. Caffeine and alcohol are the two biggest after sugar.
2. Start your day with protein.
Protein, protein, protein at every meal, especially breakfast, is the key to balancing blood sugar and insulin and cutting cravings. Start the day with whole farm eggs or a protein shake. I recommend Protein Shake Ultra Lite and Fiber from this producer. Use nuts, seeds, eggs, and fish for protein at every meal. A serving size is 4-6 ounces or the size of your palm.
3. Eat unlimited carbs (the right ones)
Yes, that’s right. Unlimited carbs. Did you know that vegetables are carbs? And you get to eat as much as you want. Unlimited refills! There is one catch. I only mean the non-starchy veggies such as greens, the broccoli family (including cauliflower, kale and collards), asparagus, green beans, mushrooms, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, fennel, eggplant, artichokes, peppers, etc. What’s out are potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash and beets – just for 10 days. Also skip grains and beans for 10 days. It supercharges the results so you lose weight and feel great.
4. Fight sugar with fat
Fat is not a four-letter word. Fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar does. Fat makes you full, balances your blood sugar and is necessary for fueling your cells. Along with protein, have good fats at every meal and snack including nuts and seeds, which also contain protein, extra virgin olive oil, coconut butter, avocados and omega-3 fats from fish.
5. Use friend power, not willpower
Extraordinary new research shows that obesity is contagious. You are more likely to be overweight if your friends are overweight than if your parents or siblings are overweight. But health is contagious too. In a large social experiment I did with my friend Rick Warren at Saddleback Church we got 15,000 people to lose 250,000 pounds in a year by doing the program together. They met in small groups, helped, loved and supported each other. And those who did it together lost twice as much weight and got twice as healthy. Dr. Hayman calls it the Love Diet! Every “body” needs a “buddy.” Find a friend or form a small group and do the detox together. This online detox /weight loss program is extremely helpful.
6. Exercise on a whole-foods cleanse
A cleanse to lose weight should include exercise – especially if you don’t already have an exercise routine. Aim to get at least the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio work per week that’s recommended for good health; increase the duration to 250 minutes per week to lose significant weight, says the American College of Sports Medicine. If you train far more than this on a regular basis and you feel that it’s leading to fatigue and staleness, consider moderating your effort to give your body a break.
Exercise helps relieve stress, but chronic over training can contribute to stress. A review published in the Journal of Novel Physiotherapies explained that too much exercise and the pressure to perform can lead to chronic fatigue and burnout. Over training syndrome may affect elite athletes, but it can be an issue for anyone who feels compelled to work out — regardless of how they’re feeling that day. If you fail to recover between sessions or if you don’t give yourself days off and you notice excessive fatigue, diminished performance and sleep disturbances, you may be over training.
Good forms of exercise during a cleanse for weight loss include walking in nature, rebounding on a mini trampoline, yoga and light weight training to maintain lean muscle mass. Stay away from any cleanse regimen that discourages all exercise; it’s advocating unhealthy behaviors and severe calorie restriction that doesn’t serve you in the long run. Movement actually works your natural cleansing systems. You stimulate the colon, you purge the pores with sweat, you breathe deeply through the lungs and you assist the lymphatic system in processing waste.
All of these ideas plus a step-by-step plan of how to make them work for you the best way you can find on this page.
If you’re inspired to detox, end your food addiction and your sugar and carb cravings, and renew and reboot your health, check out THIS.
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