The writers guide to detoxing, cleanses and fasts

The diet is going pretty well. You’ve climbed over the stall, and have continued to lose weight at a reasonable rate, which is about 1-2lbs a week. RWA National is three weeks away, and things are looking pretty good. Exercise is a challenge with life, but it’s manageable. Now you’re considering a cleanse, detox or fast.

A detox and cleanse is a good old fashion fast with a modern twist to it. Every major religion in the world has fast and feasts days. It’s part of not only cleansing the body, but the soul. It’s a good time to reflect on life and faith. In modern times, fasting is still widely used for both the cleansing for those old reasons, but it’s also used to jump start a diet or help it over a hump.

My best advice is not to cleanse before you’ve settled into your diet routine. Cleanses are not for the faint of heart. There is some preparation that is needed both physically and mentally to succeed and go the distance. Think about this, detoxes, cleanses and fasting is not easy nor is it fun and they are not meant to be part of a diet routine. It's an occasional fix. 

Here are some suggestions:

• Research the kind of cleanse that fits your taste. Know what you’re putting into your body for two or three days. If it sounds insane, most likely it’s not good for you and the results will be limited.
• Be prepared to be hungry, at least a little.
• Don’t exercise. There is a reason monks meditated during fasts. They didn’t have the energy to do much else.
• Plan it out. Pick a weekend where you don’t have to be anywhere and you don't have to explain to Grandma why you can’t eat anything she’s prepared for the family gathering. It should be a quiet weekend at home.
• Avoid stress. You’ll fail if you’re stressed out while trying to cleanse. If something stressful comes up, cancel your planed cleanse and do it another time.
• Don’t do it if you’re working. Work can be stressful, and you don’t want to be cranky with co-workers.

Right now juice detoxes are popular. They are great for cleansing the body, but they are difficult. You need a juicer with lots of fresh produce and juicing recipes. A friend of mine, did a three day juice detox and lost six pounds. But-the first two days she felt like crap. It was her body detoxing. By the third day she could manage a lot better. She did this prior to her sister's wedding, so she'd look fabulous as the maid of honor. She came off the detox at least three days prior to the wedding, and instantly gained back 3lbs. But she had achieved a goal to lose a couple of extra stubborn pounds.

I just completed an detox using Dr. Oz’s recommended cleanse. I lost 2 ½ lbs in two days. I’ve kept off 1 ½ lbs. I gained back 1lb. That is typical. You will lose weight, and feel much lighter. But will gain back part of it.

When you’ve completed your cleanse, give yourself one full day of eating in your normal diet before returning to exercising. With ingested calories your body will respond much more favorably to a your exercise routine. 

Remember, detoxes aren't easy. If you decide to try one, whatever you're eating it should be clean, organic foods, absolutely nothing processed. Otherwise, why bother.  

Here is one of my favorite detox juice recipe: 

1 to 2 red beets, depending on size. 
2 lg carrots
2 stalks of celery

Clean the veggies thoroughly. Chop the beets into quarters, cutting off the crown end. Run the beets through the juicer, then the celery (whole) and the carrots. The juice will be a very intense reddish purple color. If you make a large amount and plan on storing it, only make enough for a couple of days. It is best if it's fresh as possible. This will clean out your system...

The Writer's Guide to a Stalled Diet

One of the biggest problems most dieters face is the stalled diet. The reason behind this is your body has suddenly become use to your diet and exercise program. It’s settled in, you’ve lost weight, and now it seems like your just maintaining your new weight.

The first part of your diet is the greatest weight loss. Part of it is water, and then the body adjust to no more fatty rich foods, and the weight comes off. Then suddenly stops. You stay the same weight for weeks.

The best thing to do, if you’re not doing this already is eat six small meals a day. Look at your caloric intake, what you’re allowing yourself in calories, and divide into six. Say if you’re eating 1200 calories a day, you have six 200 calorie meals a day, with lots of water in-between. Yes, you’ll be running to restroom often. But you need to flush the system of toxins released by your sudden healthy eating.

If you’re already doing the six meals, try this. Reduce any other fatty items you can in your diet and reduce carbs. That little piece of chocolate might have to go for the time being. Then increase your caloric intake with a healthier item, or replace less carbs with lean protein. Yes, increase, do not decrease calories. Then add, if humanly possible another 15mins of aerobic exercise, such as a longer faster walk or run. The body will kick start again and the weight will start to come off once more.

It’s important to stimulate your metabolism with healthy food. By not eating enough of the right food, the body will hang on to the fat. It’s often called the ‘starvation mode'. For a dieting body to go into starvation mode, it takes a long time of not eating enough, or not eating enough of the right food. The body has a mini rebellion and refuses to let go of fat.

To get the body going, add more healthy foods to your diet, increasing the caloric intake and reduce carbs or anything with added sugars. The body will automatically respond, by working to burn those calories, which in turn burns fat. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way with fatty foods. If you increase your caloric intake of foods that are high in sugars and fat, like a fast food hamburger, all you do is feel sluggish and bloated while the body tries to fight through the garbage to digest it. Once you get done, you feel like crap, and hate yourself for eating it. The moral of the story don’t try to stimulate the metabolism with unhealthy food. The key is feeling sluggish after eating too much of something unhealthy. The body is trying to tell you something, like its fighting to digest it.

How to solve the problem:

• Increase caloric intake with healthy food.
• Reduce carbohydrates and increase lean protein.  
• Increase meals to six a day.  
• Eliminate any remaining fatty food from your diet.  
• Reduce dairy products.
• Increase aerobic exercise.

Another reason for stalled weight loss, is gaining muscle weight. If you are working out in a gym in combination of aerobics, machines and weights, most likely you're gaining muscle. This is a good thing, because muscle is smaller, but heavier then fat. If this is the case, start to measure yourself, and that's were you'll see the changes, not on the scale. Still look at your diet carefully, to continue to decrease size you might need to reduce carbs and add more protein in the form of lean meats and protein shakes. Read the labels on protein shakes carefully, they can be high in calories and sugar for energy.

Next week the detox or cleanse. Do they work?