9th September, 2015
I’m reminded of a rude little trick we used as kids. Sometimes the only way we felt we could win an argument with a playmate was to plug our ears with our fingers, close our eyes, and shout “I can’t hear you!”. This brought the discussion to a halt, leaving the other kid frustrated and angry because we refused to listen to his side of the argument. Even as adults, we sometimes resort to playing kids’ games. We close our eyes, plug our ears and shout, hoping that what we don’t want to hear go away.
Too often we treat the symptoms instead of removing the cause. We scream at the pain, but the pain only signals that we have violated a natural law. It solves nothing. A wise man once said, “ We must extinguish the the fire, not just silence the siren.” Instead of giving the body ideal conditions for health, we ignore its call for help. As a result, our actions and attitude insult the wisdom of our human bodies.
Perhaps our overeating causes indigestion. We drink too much coffee, alcohol and all the “unfriendly sweet” drinks, and it triggers uncomfortable heart palpitations. We exhaust our bodies with too many stressful hours of work and not enough rest. We over-tax our human capabilities and then complain when our bodies demand rest.
Remember , all these seemingly slight indiscretions in health add up. They drain the body of its precious nerve energy supply, and they add to the toxic build up of endogenous and exogenous wastes. This sets the stage for future acute and chronic life-threatening disease.
You’re bombarded with toxins in today’s modern world… everywhere from the polluted air you breathe, the water you drink, the shampoos and other cosmetics that lather your body with chemicals, and of course, all of the chemical additives, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and other harmful compounds in the food that you eat.
All of these TOXINS can have harmful effects on your body, harming your metabolism and hormones, impairing your digestive system, and zapping your energy levels. This is an alarm blaring and calling for a clean up- Detoxification…
WHAT IS DETOXIFICATION?
Detoxification is the cleansing of the internal organs of the body from environmental pollutants, food waste, poisons, harmful bacteria and other substances such as alcohol, medications and parasites. The human body is designed to get rid of waste. The organs of detoxification include the colon, liver, lungs, kidneys, skin and lymph glands.
Mike Geary, a Certified Nutrition Specialist, shared a daily trick with me recently. This daily trick can help you detoxify, improve your digestion and boost your metabolism and energy levels.
It’s about the wonders of Lemon as No 1 detoxifier, although I am a regular user of Lemon and have always had pleasant experience each day I use Lemon as part of my drink.
If I could tell you ONE thing that you could do each morning right as you wake up to help your body eliminate some of these toxins, improve your digestion, stimulate your metabolism, and BOOST your energy, would you do it?
Of course you would… and it takes less than 1 minute! Here’s the trick…
Immediately upon waking each day, squeeze about 1/2 to 1 full lemon (depending on size of the lemon) into a glass of warm or room temperature purified water. This is gentler on your body first thing in the morning compared to ice cold water. I’ve found that slicing the lemon into quarters before squeezing by hand is easier than squeezing halves.
Drink this at least 10 minutes before eating any food for the day.
Make sure to use fresh organic lemons to make this drink, and not bottled lemon juice. You want to use organic lemons to avoid the pesticides that can accumulate.
There are three major benefits of this morning drink to your body, health, and energy:
According to a leading health publication, TheAlternativeDaily.com: “The health promoting benefits of lemons are powerful. For centuries, it has been known that lemons contain powerful antibacterial, antiviral and immune boosting components. We know that lemons are a great digestive aid and liver cleanser. Lemons contain citric acid, magnesium, bioflavonoids, vitamin C, pectin, calcium and limonene, which supercharge our immunity so that the body can fight infection.
“Lemons are considered one of the most alkalizing foods you can eat. This may seem untrue as they are acidic on their own. However, in the body, lemons are alkaline; the citric acid does not create acidity once it has been metabolized. The minerals in lemons are actually what helps to alkalize the blood. Most people are too acidic (from eating too much sugar and grains), and drinking warm lemon water helps reduce overall acidity, drawing uric acid from the joints. This reduces the pain and inflammation which many people feel. And the American Cancer Society recommends warm lemon water to encourage regular bowel movements.”
BENEFITS THAT YOU CAN ENJOY
1. Improves your digestion: Lemon juice helps your body improve digestion and stimulates bile production. Lemon juice can even be an aid for heartburn and indigestion.
2. Boosts your energy for the day: Even just the scent of lemon juice has been shown to improve your mood and energy levels, and reduce anxiety. Plus the detoxifying effect and alkalizing effect of fresh organic lemon juice can improve your energy through the removal of toxins from your body.
3. Helps you to lose fat: Since lemon juice helps to improve your digestive system, aids in removal of toxins, and increases your energy levels, this all combine together to help you to lose body fat as well through improving your hormonal balance… Yet another reason to add warm lemon water to your daily morning routine!
ADD EXERCISE TO IT!
The human body is designed to move. A sedentary body doesn’t function as well as an active one, and this applies to the detoxification systems of the body as well. I don’t advocate over-training, but aside from times of healing when activity might be limited temporarily, regular activity is a key component in general health and detoxification.
Why? Because when the body is stagnant, its components tend to be stagnant as well. This includes the circulatory and lymphatic systems, both of which play a significant role in natural detoxification processes. The lymphatic system especially requires movement to facilitate lymph flow, because it doesn’t have an organ like the heart to pump it. Exercise also encourages improved oxygen delivery and aids the elimination of toxins through the lungs.
WHY EXERCISE IS GOOD FOR DETOXIFICATION
Exercise is an important part of any detoxification program. Moving the body creates the conditions for the body to breathe, stretch and circulate and sweat. It is a good idea to drink lots of water during a detox period, so the skin can sweat and the kidneys can effectively filter toxins. By increasing your water intake, as well as increasing your heart and breathing rate, your body can more effectively flush out unwanted toxins, fats and waste.
HOW EXERCISE DETOXIFIES THE BODY
Exercise helps the body’s organs of elimination to function optimally simply by getting them going. Moving the body helps to circulate both blood and lymph. The more they circulate, the more the liver and lymph nodes can do the job of cleansing and purifying the blood and lymph.
The digestive system works well and more regularly with consistent exercise. When you exercise you breathe deeply with your lungs. The oxygen that you breathe in travels through the blood to the brain and muscles. The lungs increase their capacity as the heart muscle grows stronger, and they produce and give off carbon dioxide as a waste product of aerobic exercise. The skin is cleansed from the inside out by the cleansing process of perspiration. Many toxins can be eliminated through the skin by sweating.
Another way exercise helps to detoxify the body is by reducing the body’s subcutaneous fatty tissue. Toxins get stored in the fatty tissue of the body. Therefore, when fatty tissue is reduced as a result of aerobic exercise, the toxins are released and can be eliminated through the cleansing organs.
TYPES OF EXERCISE FOR DETOX
Gentle, low-intensity aerobic exercise is good for detox since it gets the body moving, heart pumping and the lungs breathing deeply but within the fat-burning zone. Running, walking, bicycling, dancing and swimming are examples of aerobic exercise. Try to exercise at a pace at which you can breathe evenly and carry on a conversation. Yoga poses are also beneficial because some are specific for detoxifying certain organs. Some types of yoga, Pilates and martial arts involve an aerobic component as well.
Rebounding (bouncing on a mini-trampoline) is especially good for exercising during detox because the low-impact motion allows for excellent stimulation of the lymph system. For best results pick a form of exercise that you enjoy and start slowly. Exercise for at least 20 minutes two to three times per week.
Remember that the care you give to your bodies brings about corresponding results. We need to educate ourselves and gain whatever knowledge is available.
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