Image by: karimian
By Jake Bradshaw
What men fail to realize is that our bodies are like machines. Every so often, it needs a bit of re-tuning. If you think of your body like a Truck – every few years, it needs upkeep to clean out the engine. You can keep an automobile up to 20 years and 200,000 miles if it’s well taken care of.
The difference between men and women is that men don’t seem to care about their internal body. Perhaps this is why our lifespan is usually shorter than women. It’s time to upkeep our bodies and keep it rejuvenated, the results will quickly prove to be well worth it.
Today, foods are mostly processed which means our organs are digesting chemicals. In time, they begin to damage our insides and wreck the jobs our organs are supposed to be doing for us, creating toxins which spread throughout our body. If we don’t clean them out, it can eventually affect our long term health.
Detox The Smart Way
There are a lot of detoxing programs out there that require the minimalist of food intake – usually 500 calories per day for a week or so – which is sold as being the best way to detox. Stay away from these! This has been a harmful marketing tool sold to the public since celebrities started using them to lose a quick five pounds. Your body will shut down from these kinds of detoxes. As men, we need food to function. Our body weight itself requires the mass.
Detoxing should be looked at as changing the oil in your car. Give yourself two weeks every year to detox and stick to it. Think of it as a body flush – and I mean this literally. During the detox, your body rids the toxins out through your sweat or feces.
The Two Week Plan:
First, go to your kitchen and throw away all pesticide and chemical-filled products. This means all red meats, fried foods, junk food, sodas, alcohol, and regrettably COFFEE. Get $100 and go to the grocery store – preferably Trader Joes or Whole Foods – and stock up on organic foods. Rid yourself during these fourteen days of alcohol and smoking.
In the morning, chow down on organic fruits. This will give you a jump start since the natural sugars will boost your metabolism, feeding your adrenaline. Be sure to drink a lot of water during this time because it will give more pressure for your body to flush. Mid morning, concentrate on grains and oats like brown rice and oatmeal – but don’t go overboard.
For lunch and dinner, concentrate on eating ONLY vegetables. Steamed, raw, and organic. If you need to have a side, think proteins. Try fish, beans, or ORGANIC chicken. Brown rice can be substituted as well, but all sides must have little quantity. In organic chicken, they feed the chickens natural foods which is ultimately transferred to you, the consumer.
During the two weeks, take Milk Thistle. It is a natural herb that cleans out your liver. As men, our livers decide much of our health. According to Paul Martin, the chief of hepatology at the University of Miami, our liver produces bile, a chemical that breaks down fat. An unhealthy liver will disrupt this particular function. Milk Thistle will ring out the poisons from the liver like a dirty sponge.
When Should We Detox?
When men reach the age of 35, our bodies go into “default”, which means whatever habits we have been doing before, our bodies depend on that to manage itself. We see this a lot when men over 40 go to the doctor who recommend a significant change in their diet, and upon doing so, they usually get sick the first few days. This is because their body is used to their normal processes.
Before we reach 35, it is a good idea to consider detoxing to give us a head start. Think of it like a restart button. Your body can become a blank slate again, and you can start over in a sense to make up for years of eating Quarter Pounders. Two weeks is two weeks. Don’t starve yourself, instead simply replace your bad habits with good ones.