Whenever I’m doing a 2-3 week clean eating cleanse, people always ask me “What’s the point?  I mean, it’s not like I’m going to continue to eat like that all the time, so why bother?”  But probably the most common question…

Will I lose weight on a detox?

Yes, of course you will lose weight!  But that doesn’t mean you should do a detox or cleanse to lose weight.  If that’s you’re only reason you’re doing it, and you go back to your regular diet after you’re finished, you’re just going to put the weight right back on.  Plus, you will be really miserable and find it hard to stick to while you’re doing it.  So here are the right reasons to detox.  And the more habits you incorporate into your life when your done, the more weight you will lose and keep off for good!

Right Reasons to Detox

1. To learn how amazing it FEELS to eat clean whole foods.
2. To learn new healthy habits to incorporate into your lifestyle and move you further along your path to radiant health.
3. To cleanse your body of built up toxins and improve your digestion.
4. To empty your “barrel”and reduce or eliminate symptoms of less than stellar health.

Empty Your Barrel

I learned this in holistic nutrition school and it’s a great analogy.  Think of your body as a barrel.  The total load in your barrel includes past and present physical, chemical, biological contaminants in your food, air and water, along with your emotional state.  When your barrel becomes full and starts to overflow, that’s when you start to feel symptoms of food allergies, poor health and disease.  But up until that point, you may not even feel any symptoms.  That’s why it’s important to keep the contents of your barrel at bay so it doesn’t fill up and overflow. A detox, or cleanse is a great way to clean out some of the toxic stuff that’s accumulated in your barrel.  But not the only way!
There are simple things you can do every day to minimize the buildup.  I’ll get to a super easy one you can start right now, but first, a closer look at what fills up your barrel.

1. Genetics

Yes, genetics can play a part, but please don’t get hung up in this, because it’s a small part, and there’s lots you can do to clean up the other components without worrying about genetics.  See point #2 below, and I repeat, don’t worry!

2. Emotional

Stress is a biggie! It’s a major contributor to disease and poor health which is why it’s important to keep your stress at bay with things like exercise, meditation, having a positive attitude.  Yes, a positive attitude can do wonders for your health!

3. Environment

This is another big one!  Toxins and pollutants are absorbed through our skin and lungs.  Lots more info to come in future blog posts because it’s a big passion of mine, and one I think there needs to be a lot more education on.   Did you know that 60% of what you put on the surface of your skin is absorbed straight into your bloodstream within 15 minutes?!  That’s why I created my Radiant Botanics skincare line made with ONLY all natural plant based ingredients that nourish your skin.

You see a lot of skincare products marketed as “natural” these days, but there are no regulations on using the word natural, so I encourage you to read the label on these products, and if there are ingredients that you don’t recognize, ask yourself if can that really reconsidered natural?  I think not!

4. Diet

Yes, this is what all the detox buzz is about, especially at the beginning of the year, New Years Resolutions and all.  But for good reason!  While you can’t control everything that goes into your barrel from the other categories, your diet is one thing that you have total control of!
But for now, as promised, one simple thing to start tomorrow morning is having a glass of warm or room temperature lemon water first thing in the morning.

5 Reasons to Start Drinking Lemon Water Today!

 1. Improves Digestion

Lemon water helps stimulate your digestion by increasing hydrochloric acid (HCl) which is required to help you digest protein. Low HCl is very common, so adding lemon water is an easy and effective way to help.  HCl also helps to kill bacteria and pathogens that can enter your system with your food.  Lemon water can also help increase your bile, which is needed to help you break down or emulsify fats, and fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) so that they can be easily absorbed.

2. Boosts your Immune System

Lemons are high in Vitamin C, which is great for your immune system and can help reduce stress.

 3. Increases Alkalinity

I know this sounds counter intuitive because lemon is acidic, but it’s the effect it has on the body that’s important.  Lemons have a high alkaline mineral content, so once metabolized, they totally have an alkalizing effect on the body.  A more alkalinized body means less inflammation, a better immune system and increased energy to just name a few benefits.  That’s because alkaline foods are rich in alkaline minerals which are released into the bloodstream when we eat them.  When we don’t get enough alkaline foods, our body has to pull these minerals from our organs and bones to maintain the pH level of the blood, causing imbalances in the body.

4. Detoxifying

Lemon water increases liver enzymes that aid in detoxification.  The liver plays a major role in detoxification.

 5. Radiantly Beautiful Skin

Lemon water can beautify your skin on multiple levels.  First of all, improvement in digestion is directly related to your skin health, but also, the Vitamin C in lemon helps regulate collagen which gives skin it’s elasticity and firmness.

Lemon Water Recipe

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon water into a glass of warm or room temperature water and enjoy first thing in the morning. Unless your using organic lemons, please just squeeze the lemon juice into your water and don’t put in the lemon with the skin.  You don’t want the pesticides from the skin getting into your drinking water. That’s it, easy peasy!  No excuse why you can’t start now.
I’d love to hear your comments or questions below.  What did you learn? What would you like to learn more about?
Thanks so much for reading and I’d love it if you’d spread the word on social media using the links below. I’d be super grateful 🙂

Lots of love and gratitude,

Leanne xox