Nutrition #8 - Ten Day Health Detox - 21 steps to holistically restore mind, body, and spiritual health

How many times have you tried to 'diet' and failed after a week? How many times have you read about some new 'diet' method and thought it sounded real cool and tried it out, only to be disappointed after seeing very little of the promised results? How many times have you wished you just knew how to prepare and eat clean, healthy food that made you feel good and lose fat? Then when you go to educate yourself on it, there is simply so much information out there you have no idea where to start or what to do, so you go from eating standard American food to chicken and broccoli and hate it. These are all major roadblocks to us reclaiming our health.

Read on for motivation and inspiration to eat 'the right way', along with other lifestyle principles that all integrate to create the perfect you. Allow me to guide you to fully reclaim your health. I assure you that if you follow at least some of the tips that I outline in this post, you will rapidly take control of your life and see performance, health, and happiness skyrocket so quickly that you will have little choice but to continue to live such an optimal lifestyle. 

What is a 'Diet'?
The majority of the time, we hear the word 'diet' and we think restriction, calorie counting, measurements, and stress. 'Dieting' has literally become a fad as of recent years, and due to media and other societal pressures, we are being driven by fear to eat bland food and restrict ourselves. This should not be the case. 'Dieting' should be liberating. In fact, let's scrap the word 'diet' altogether - I strongly dislike using this term at all. Being on a 'diet' implies a temporary change to eating habits. This should never be the case. Eating healthy should be a lifestyle, and simply making the changes necessary to support a natural and healthy life will result in lifelong fat loss, health, energy, and optimal performance.

You're Closer to Health than You Think
Depending on your current state of what I refer to as 'modern human neglect', you are anywhere from several days to two weeks away from full reclamation of your health. 'Modern human neglect' = your body is experiencing standard wear and tear over years of partying, alcohol, possibly smoking, lack of exercise or incorrect exercise, poor nutrition and other less intelligent lifestyle decisions. I do not say this with insult. I say this with sincerity in a hope that it helps you self-reflect and be critical about your current state. Being aware of yourself and being able to accurately assess your health is so important to being able to take the right steps forward. And just because you got to the gym 6 days a week and tracking your food intake every day doesn't mean you are the image of health - in fact, you may be over-stressing yourself and damaging yourself further. Trust me, I am speaking from experience.

Give Yourself an Assessment 
That being said, take a look within and honestly assess your health. How do you feel when you wake up? Do you wake up tired still, as if you barely slept? Do you have trouble falling asleep, and staying asleep? Do you feel stressed through the day? Do your energy levels rise and fall through the day? Do you experience mood swings or random emotions with no explanation? Do you respond well to stress? Are you happy most of the time or only some of the time? Do you find yourself thinking negative thoughts? Is self-discipline something that wanes quickly through the day and you find yourself making poor nutrition choices by 3 PM after having such a great day so far? Do you rely on caffeine to stay productive? Are you spinning your wheels at the gym and wondering why fat loss has stalled? Do you find yourself making goals but remaining dead-in-the-water when it comes to progress towards those goals? The list goes on....

Answering yes to any of these issues could mean that there are gaps or holes in your current lifestyle preventing you from living an optimal life. I am sure if you could take a magic pill to be able to answer 'No!' to all of these questions, you probably would. Heck, I would too. But, that is not what life is about. Life is about being able to overcome these difficulties and challenges by creating such a life for ourselves that it is easily possible to conquer these external circumstances. And I am telling you right now, that you can create this life through a simple but systematic process.

Reclaiming your health requires these separate yet integrated principles which I will briefly talk about, then I will launch into a ten day plan to totally re-haul these items, and develop a simple plan to incorporate them into your life.

1. Being - The first yet most important principle is defined simply as 'being'. Abiding by this concept means that you are present in the moment. You deal with things as they come. You do not dwell on the past and you create the future through your current state of mind. You listen to people as they speak. You enjoy the beauty of the world as it unfolds before you. You have deeply held inner beliefs and principles that allow you to respond to all situations as they arise in a positive and creative manner as opposed to a reactive manner. You are simply 'being'. Living like this will remove fear from your heart, eliminate stress, and literally change the physiology in your body. Science has proven that thoughts can literally change the DNA expression within our cells! Imagine that. Just be as you are.
2. Exercise - The second principle in your journey to health, is the facet of exercise. Socrates said it best when he said "No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable." Now I am not saying you need to go out and squat 1000 lbs or bench press 500, or run a 4 minute mile. While that would be totally cool and awesome, it is not necessary. All that is required is for you to move your body through the various ranges of motion nature has intended for us to move, and do so with balance. Go for a walk in the morning. Play with your kids. Run, jump, swim freely. Lift heavy weights if that is your gig. Play a recreational sport. Just do something. We evolved to be agile, fast, and strong so that we could capture prey. Don't forget that millions of years of evolution has fine tuned your body to be quick and powerful, not to sit behind a computer screen. 
3. Nutrition - Another foundation concept. What you choose to put in your body is what you get out of it. Insert poor quality food, exude poor quality physical and mental characteristics. The nutrients, vitamins and minerals in food communicate with every cell in your entire body - they deliver messages encoded in the biochemical and physiological responses that occur during our daily processes. Millions of enzymatic activities are occurring every second in your body. Cells are dying, dividing, and recreating. Build yourself up with the best possible bricks to create a magnificent fortress, called the human body. Eat as mother nature intended and I promise you will be astounded as to what I feels like to be an optimal human being.
4. Connection - The last principle on the list. Connection. Being able to feel connected to something. A part of something bigger than just yourself. People find this in community, clubs, charity, religion. work, relationships. Anything or anywhere that you can contribute so that you feed the social requirements our soul desires. Get out and get involved. Connect with people, places, or things. Find a meaningful message and believe in something. We all have a purpose. Surrender yourself to this purpose and be guided by it. This makes everything else come naturally. 

So now that you know the foundation and have a sense for what these ideas mean, begin thinking about how will abide by these principles in your own, individual and personal way. 

The last thing I will leave you with is what I call the "Ten Day Detox" - a holistic plan that integrates all the above principles into a daily plan of action that if you follow for just ten days, you will literally change your life. Once you know what it feels like to be truly alive, to master your emotions, to feel the iron discipline supported by faith, to have every cell in your body functioning at a higher level, and to rewire your body's mechanics to run optimally.... there is nothing that can prevent you from achieving whatever it is you hope to achieve. 

To reclaim your health, follow these daily principles:

1. Go to bed at the same time every night, and get up at the same time every morning. If you are a night owl, try going to bed before midnight and inching back by 30 minutes earlier each night. Research has shown if you are not asleep between midnight and 3 AM, you have a severe reduction in certain recovery properties of sleep that only occur during those hours. 
2. No TV before bed, no FaceBook or Instagram or e-mail checking when you wake up.
3. Every morning, wake up and write 3 things you are thankful for and 3 things you are looking forward to today. When you go to bed, re-affirm 3 things you were thankful for (can be same or different), and 3 things you want to accomplish tomorrow.
4. No eating within 2 hours of bed-time. 
5. Eliminate all added sugar. Literally consume zero sugar during this time. It is only ten days.
6. No caffeine after 2 PM. This disrupts sleep quality.
7. No alcohol. Again, only ten days. You can do it. Your true life is calling, and it literally depends on this.
8. Consume a mid-sized breakfast within 30 minutes of waking, after your journaling and teeth brushing, and have only protein and fat in this meal. 
9. Limit carbohydrate consumption to after at least 5 PM, preferably with your last meal of the day. Consume anywhere from 50-100 grams of starch depending on your activity levels. These means 1 or 2 large sweet potatoes, or 1/3 to 2/3 cup of (dry) rice. 
10. Consume zero gluten and limit grain consumption. This means no wheat products such as bread or pasta, and preferably zero corn or soy containing substances. In America, we rely on a super strain of genetically modified yeast to ferment extremely quickly and combine that with GMO wheat, we have a super resilient form of bread products that wreak havoc on our gut and contribute to a whole host of other problems, including things like depression and other hormonal impacts. 
11. Eat wild caught fish, organic grass-fed beef/ lamb/ bison, or shellfish everyday. These meat products contain essential amino acids and vitamins/ minerals responsible for optimal brain health and body function. Consuming meats from high quality sources versus conventionally raised fish and beef means we are fully eliminating grain toxins, which are present in these conventionally raised animals, due to the fact that they are fed the corn, soy, and GMO wheat we are trying to avoid. Combine this with the fact that they are fattened up to improve taste, and animals store most of their toxins IN their fat cells, and we are basically consuming toxin-laden crap. Do yourself a favor and avoid this, and support the natural resources. 
12. Consume large amount of plant based products. Aim for at least one pound of green vegetables per day, and more if you enjoy it. After just a couple days of this detox you will find that you have a palate for broccoli again. 
13. Along with above - bust out the blender and use it to your advantage. Blend up large amounts of these vegetables with water and just chug it down. This is the easiest way to quickly detox, as plant matter will help bind to the toxins you will be excreting and eliminate them for your body. Walk through the organic produce aisle at your market and get between 4 and 6 varieties of green vegetables such as spinach, kale, chard, celery, cucumber, parsley, etc. and blend those with a wedge of lemon, some fresh ginger and turmeric (highly anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial), and several squirts of stevia to sweeten. This is an easy way to consume an extremely nutrient dense shake in a short amount of time. 
14. Consume organic produce, and shoot for local when possible. Organic means they are pesticide free and this will limit amounts of additional toxins you will be consuming. Local will ensure better nutrient integrity - when produce is shipped from many miles away, it is picked early and damaged during packaging and shipping, reducing the total nutrient load. Also, local produce will ensure you have a deliver a regular circadian message to your body and keep it in tune with the seasons. This is not hippy bullshit - live on Earth evolved around a circadian clock, and all of your cells are still wired this way. It is important that we follow this natural rhythm of the Earth for optimal functioning.
15. DRINK WATER !!! At least half of your bodyweight in ounces per day. Drink twice as much during this detox to help facilitate the elimination of waste and toxic build up in your body. Avoid tap water and go for RO (reverse osmosis) or filtered water, to reduce heavy metal consumption.
16. Go for a twenty minute walk at least once a day and focus on your breathing. Turn off your phone during this time and just walk. Preferably early in the morning or late at night to unwind. Count your steps and breathe through your nose in a rhythmic pattern. Four breathes in for each right foot, three breathes out for each right foot. This is a very easy way to reduce cortisol levels (stress hormone),  stimulate the lymphatic system, get easy exercise in and meditate.
17. Force yourself to smile upon rising every morning and tell yourself how excited you are to be alive and to be reclaiming your health. 
18. Give love freely to other people - compliment a stranger at least once a day. A real, genuine compliment. 
19. Smile to everyone. 
20. If you are up for it, more rigorous exercise at least 3 times per week. This can be anything - aim to get the heart rate above 160 BPM. Intense hiking, short sprinting, bodyweight exercises, resistance training, sport. Incorporate these into your week.
21. Most of all, respect yourself. Understand that this is a change in your lifestyle. Shift your internal responses from "I can't" to "I can". Avoid the negative thoughts that permeate your mind. Instead of turning down the donut at work and saying "I can't", you simply say "no thanks" because you respect yourself and strive to feel amazing. You know deep down inside that eating that donut will not make you feel any better, beyond the temporary satisfaction of consuming it. Invest in the most important and most valuable piece of real estate you will ever own - your body. Commit to this, and follow the steps outlined above.

As you can see, this is quite an extensive list, but I promise you that once you start changing your habits and empower yourself to take control of your life and health, your momentum will pick up and it will become natural. I set the mark at ten days because for some people, you will feel worse in the first couple days upon taking this challenge on, and even up to the one week mark. This is your body removing all the toxic waste that has built up over the years, literally. Both in your mind and your body. The cells are cleaning themselves out. For most people, by day ten you will begin to feel amazing. You will wonder how you ever thought the way you felt previously was "normal". I assure you, make it the ten day mark and listen to what your body is telling you during this time. Observe your thoughts. Watch as your life literally transforms. Always remember - you are in the driver's seat.  Take point #21 to heart. 

Good luck on your journey to optimal living. Thanks for reading and I wish you best. I believe in you, as much as I believe in myself. You contain the power to accomplish anything your heart truly desires. Allow your heart to desire unity with the body and a profound respect for it. Start living.