By Joshua Stevens
This is the pattern of most of our holiday habits and broken New Year’s resolutions. We eat and drink too much, then try to pry ourselves away from our beloved pitfall foods: chocolate mousse, wine and fruit cake. OK, most of us can do without the latter, but you get the idea. Countless numbers of us want to bounce back from our dietary indiscretions and feel helpless to do it. The fad diets and juice fasts overwhelm us or are too inconvenient. What are we to do?
Just do one thing: Hydrate. Drink more water. This is the key ingredient and first step to any successful dietary change and you cannot detox without it.
If you already drink plenty of water, your next step might be to look at the sugary and fatty foods you are still craving from your holiday binge and consider reducing them greatly (down to a treat once a week) or eliminating them. Alcohol, dessert and breads can derail a resolution to trim up faster than you can say “Grandma, I love your fruit cake!”
If your water is up and sugar is down then the last recommendation is to increase your veggies. These miracle foods contain all we need to fuel natural detoxification. Include them with every meal. Eat twice as many vegetable as fruits and your body will be well on its way to feeling and functioning better than you’ve experienced in years.
Regardless of the one thing you choose to focus on, realize the steps to natural detoxification are perpetual. If you continue to advance through these steps of hydration, elimination and vegetablization, you will create a lifestyle of eating habits that stay with you not only for the season, but for the life of your body. It’s the best resolution of all: greater health. Good luck … and would you please pass the wheatgrass?
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Joshua Stevens, D.C., is a holistic chiropractor in Chapel Hill and Durham, where he utilizes chiropractic, acupuncture, detoxification, nutrition and cold laser therapy with patients. A two-time Ironman finisher, he focuses on racing cyclocross and mountain bikes … much easier!
