Tips for Detox: 'Preparation is the key!'

Tips for Detox: 'Preparation is the key!'

Alessandrina Lerner, The South Beach Detox, December 28, 2010

If one of the key elements to capitalizing on the gains and progresses made during a detox is the transition phase into a healthier diet and lifestyle, equally important is the preparation phase.  How you prepare yourself for a detox will greatly determine how easy, carefree and enjoyable of an experience it is for you. While not everybody has an emotional attachment to food, most often than not people in western societies have developed a strong - and often unhealthy, relationship to food, and most specifically to what is referred as 'comfort' food.  Intelligent nutrition-based detoxes such as The South Beach Detox allow you to gently break this attachment -  and the vicious cycle that comes with it, without depriving your body of the nutrition it needs at the cellular level and while still resting your digestive system.  Following are a few tips to make to ease into your Detox and make this memorable for you in every good sense of the way.

1. Food Intake: 

• Start reducing your food intake in the week prior to the detox. Cutting back on 10% of your daily volume each day is easily manageable and makes a big difference over the course of 5-7 days. If you can start that early, cut your volumes back in the 3 days prior to starting your detox.  Taking this step will make it a lot easier to shift from a solid food diet to a primarily liquid food diet during the detox.  
• Start incorporating more raw food, especially fruit and vegetables - preferably organic - into your diet in that same preparation phase.
• Drink lots of water or other healthy liquids - such as gentle herbal teas - to help you pre-detox your bodies.  Try to make this a new habit you can take with you after the detox. Drinking lots of water helps you remove all unwanted waste material and debris which might otherwise cause blockages and dis-ease in the body.
• Little by little, start shifting from a solid to liquid-based diet, i.e. eat more soup, smoothies, natural juices - both vegetable and fruit.

2.  Conscious Eating & Journaling: 

• (1) Exercise mindfulness when eating.  Be present with every single bite.  Chew your food very thorougly. In some traditions of healthy eating practices, one bit of food is chewed as much as 50 times! While this may sound extreme, the more you chew your food, the more easily digestible it will become for your body to absorb all the necessary nutrients it needs to thrive; so just do your best to chew your food as much as possible without it becoming 'neurotic'.
• Feed your body what it needs. You may not know what that is, but The South Beach Detox package can help you with that. You can also talk to a nutritionist or macrobiotician who will point you in the right direction  for establishing new healthy eating habits. 
• Try to be aware of the times you may be eating for emotional reasons. When you do, simply be aware of the reasons why it is happening. If you are unsure as to why you are eating in this manner, connect with your deepest feelings and emotions and what you are looking to fill - and not feel, through the use of food.  Be extremely compassionate and non-judgmental towards yourself through this process. Continue using detached awareness of your eating habits and eventually in time as you identify the root cause for this 'unconscious' eating and cater to your real needs, they will dissolve.  
• Start using a journal to write down what you eat, when you eat, why you eat and how you feel after you eat. This will greatly help you identify ingrained patterns and 'addictive'-type behaviors and empower you - through non-judgmental awareness, to change them by addressing the root causes for any emotional eating at the source.
• Making a connection between the foods that you eat and how you feel physically, mentally and emotionally is also extremely important. Start investigating into this relationship so that you can then make a 'conscious' choice every time you take a bite.

3.  Exercise Regimen:

• If you never exercise, start slowly and gradually incorporating some level of exercise to your daily life.  Whether that be gentle Yoga to start with, walking, swimming, or anything else that both feels good and is useful in keeping you healthy
• If you already have an established exercise routine, keep it up and try to exercise for an hour a day. Make sure that it is a well-rounded practice that exercises your whole body and that not only benefits your muscles and the external, most superficial parts of your body but also your internal organs and other bodily systems. The best form of exercise to achieve this is Yoga. 

4.  The Power of Intention:

• If you are not familiar with what 'the power of intention' is and how you can use that in your life to manifest the changes you want to see, then spend some time researching the subject matter so you can truly understand how it works and how to make it work for you

• Once you've done that, scan your life for any changes or areas of improvement. If you are unsure whether you need to change anything or not, ask yourself this simple question: "Am I really happy?".  If the answer is yes, change nothing! If it's no or not a definite yes, then simply try to identify at a high level or more deeply if you are able what is the source of your unhappiness and need to change.
• Finally, set an intention/ clear objectives for your detox that will support the changes you want to see happening in your life... Yes, it's that easy!

5.  Mind De- and Re-conditioning:

• Spend some time reflecting on the fact that the way you think and behave is only the result of past conditioning and therefore can be change through re-conditioning.  While this may sound like trading one for another, this is the closest we can get to freedom as human beings.  Being conditioned to enjoy life and not react to it in negative patterns is freeing in itself and that's what you will learn with The South Beach Detox. The key thing to remember is that you are not your mind, and that's a great thing!
• One of the most effective methods of cleansing your mind and reprogramming it is going to the source, i.e. using sound vibrations - such as powerfully charged words, i.e. mantras - to transform the content of both body and mind
• In line with this principle, select a mantra from any mantras you will have received in your South Beach Detox package or do some research and find a mantra that resonates with you and supports your intention and the detox objectives you've set for yourself
• The best mantras to use during a detox are usually 'healing' mantras.  These will heal body and mind and prepare your body to receive the maximum benefits from the detox. They will also make you highly receptive to change and higher vibrations, making your meditations much more effective and powerful. 
• In selecting your mantra, you can select 2 routes. You can either follow your intuition; i.e. try a few mantras, repeat them a few times and select the one that resonates with you most.  Or you can take the intellectual approach and select the mantra of your choice based on its 'worldly' meaning/ translation - though that is often a less effective approach since charged words and sound vibrations can only be equated to the direct experience they deliver, and that can never be translated into word.

6.  Breath Awareness and Breathing Technique: 

• With something as simple as breathing, you would think there was no room for error.  However, because breathing is an automatic process rather than a learned one, we often do not do it properly. Learning to breathe optimally to feed both mind and body and bring them to a state of balance is one of the essential tools you will learn during The South Beach Detox. You will also use various breathing techniques to induce deep states of relaxation that will not only enable you to process all the changes occurring during the detox with ease and detachment, mitigate any stress you may be feeling in regards to breaking old patterns, but also to access deepest states of consciousness during your meditations.  

• Following is a simple technique you can start using to prepare yourself for more advanced breathing practices you'll use during the detox. For a day or two, be aware of your breathing pattern and simply observe your breath, with complete detachment and non-judgment. Observe how your breath, mental state and emotions are connected. When stressed and taking short breaths, consciously start to lengthen your breath and see how that immediately calms your mind and gives you a sense of peace and plenitude.
• After the first period of observation (1-2 days), move onto a more involved yet extremely easy and relaxing breathing technique. The method is very simple. Inhalation and exhalation are slow and deep and of equal duration, with no effort or strain.  At the end of the exhalation, pause for 1-2 seconds (with empty lungs). The latter helps really complete the exhalation and stop the chatter of the mind.  
• After another day or two, and as a continuation to this simple and relaxing breathing technique, start lengthening the inhalation and exhalation which remain of equal duration (so for example if you started with a count of 4, after a day or two, move to a count of 5. Again no effort, no strain. If you feel any strain at any point, discontinue the pauses and if you still feel any strain, then go back to regular breathing before you start again.)
• The key to success with breathing techniques is time and effort to perfect it. Always make sure that you master the beginners' techniques fully before moving onto other more advanced techniques.

For more detox tips, visit us at www.thesouthbeachdetox.com