How to Structure a Detox Day
By: Ashley Richmond
Tags: Self Improvement, Lifestyle, Health, Advice, Routine

Daily detox routine

Morning

Oil pull

This is an Ayurvedic technique I have recently been experimenting with. It’s not as awful as I expected but I also wouldn’t say that it’s pleasant. Essentially, oil pulling is when you put a tablespoon of oil in your mouth, usually organic coconut oil, and swish it around for 10–15 minutes before spitting it out (not down the drain, as the oil will clog it).

What this does is remove the fat-soluble toxins and bacteria from your mouth. This not only helps to clean your teeth and gums for overall improved oral health but has also been shown to help with inflammation in the body.

Implementation: Do this on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning. Grab a spoonful of coconut oil, put it in your mouth, let it melt, and then swish it around.

Hydrate

Hydration is very important in the morning. If you don’t do anything else when you wake up, at least hydrate. Your body will be very dehydrated from breathing and sweating during the night, especially since you likely haven’t had a drop of water for at least 7 hours. I always keep a bottle of water on my bedside table and try to drink the whole thing as soon as I wake up (or after my oil pulling, if I’m doing that).

You can add a pinch of pink Himalayan salt and a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice to make the water more alkaline, which can counteract a state of acidity that our bodies are often in, as well as to replace the precious minerals we have lost overnight. Drinking water as soon as you wake up will rehydrate the body and start to flush toxins out.

Implementation: Drink a bottle of water, or at least a tall glass of water, as close to waking as you can.

Switch to decaf

Caffeine mimics adenosine, the neurotransmitter in the brain that makes us feel tired. Caffeine binds to the adenosine receptors, therefore blocking the adenosine from binding to the receptors, which is how caffeine works to make us feel awake.

However, continued caffeine use causes our brain to create more receptors, which is why it takes more and more amounts of caffeine to achieve the same buzz.

This also means that when we don’t have caffeine, or when the caffeine runs its course, there are a lot of receptors for the fatigue-inducing adenosine to bind to and we experience a huge crash in energy.

I love coffee, so I’m not willing to give it up altogether. People talk all the time about quitting caffeine, and I’m sure there are amazing benefits to this. But coffee and tea also have amazing health benefits and research has consistently linked coffee consumption to increased longevity. It tastes good, and I like the focus and energy it gives me. But you need to be aware of what it does to your body.

A one week detox from caffeine will allow your brain to get rid of some of the adenosine receptors in your brain, by the use it or lose it mechanism.

If you want to learn more about the health benefits of coffee, and the healthiest way to brew your coffee, see these articles:

Implementation: Find yourself a bag of decaffeinated coffee beans and use these instead of your regular coffee beans.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Intermittent fasting

I never used to fast, and all the times I tried it I could feel my sympathetic nervous system being stimulated. My body was stressed, and I didn’t react well to it. But over time I have slowly (and accidentally) pushed my breakfast time further and further back. I just find I have more time in the morning to do deep work if I don’t eat. And now I feel great not eating for 14–16 hours, and barely think about it.

For some people, fasting is stressful on the body. I don’t recommend fasting if you’ve had a bad sleep, have a stressful day ahead, or are feeling particularly hungry. You don’t want to stress your body more. Eat if you’re hungry.

But going for extended periods of time without food gives the digestive system a break, and induces cellular autophagy. This is essentially a cleaning out process where the body gets rid of old cells and cellular waste products.

Similarly, during the day take breaks from eating. Try not to snack between meals. It will have benefits for your gut as well as your circadian rhythm:

“By giving your body a break from food for five or six hours, you are allowing your digestive track to rest and reset its circadian rhythm. This is an important step in healing the brain-gut axis.” — Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar

There are some considerations to be aware of when attempting to fast, especially for women. More about this can be found here:

Implementation: For this practice, the most commonly used strategy is to eat dinner as usual, and not eat again for another 14–16 hours. So, if you have dinner at 7pm, then don’t eat until at least 9am the next day. You can structure this in any way you want however, for example by eating breakfast but then skipping dinner.

Rebounding

I always thought this was a crazy and odd thing to do. But there are so many benefits to jumping on a mini trampoline, especially first thing in the morning.

It gets your heart rate up and burns more calories than running, and also stimulates your lymph system by increasing lymph flow and drainage. This will improve immunity, improve fitness levels, as well as increasing blood flow and boosting circulation. Here is a list of 197 other benefits of rebounding.

Implementation: Find yourself a mini trampoline, a regular trampoline, or even a skipping rope. Jump for about 5 minutes each morning.

Avoid deodorant and other artificial body products

During this detox week, I try to avoid things like deodorant and face moisturizers as much as I can. I’ll use organic coconut oil for a moisturizer, and I’ll either not use deodorant (which can become impractical), or I’ll switch to either a natural one or just some drops of essential oils such as tea tree oil.

A lot of the toxins we absorb come from these products. Anything you put on your skin is going to end up in your body, so a good recommendation is to not put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t eat.

Thankfully, many companies now make such products. They can be expensive, so if you want something cheaper, you can also Google all sorts of recipes for how to make your own.

Implementation: Try to avoid putting anything artificial on your skin — deodorant, moisturizer, perfume, etc. Find natural alternatives, or go without for the week.