How to Naturally Detox Yourself…for Good

If you’re carrying around a few (or more than a few) more pounds than are good for you, you may wonder if you should give a detox diet a try.

After all, they look very attractive. Just drink some gorgeous juice and lose up to 21 pounds in 21 days, as one famous detox diet promises.

Well, before you spend several hundred dollars on something that is very likely to actually help you gain weight, read on.

Because it’s natural to start thinking about wanting to lose weight this time of year. After all, the days are getting longer and warmer. Many of us are thinking that a winter of eating rich comfort foods has left our clothes fitting a little tighter than we’d like. Summer is just around the corner. This means most of us are also thinking about wearing lighter, thinner, brighter clothing than we did when it was cold. And maybe we’d like our clothes to fit a little better.

So if the longer, warmer days make you think it’s time to shed a few extra pounds before they turn into a few more, you may want to know the difference between a real detox diet and the scams called detox diets. The typical detox diet practically guarantees you will regain all the weight you lost—plus interest—so fast your head spins. (A little side effect that that typical detox diet dealer won’t tell you about.)

Do You Need a Detox Diet?

Yes, you really do need a detox diet. And it’s not just about the pollutants, insecticides and pesticides that fill our environment. It’s that you’ve probably been eating foods processed with harsh, even toxic chemicals that you would normally never, ever put in your mouth. And these foods are also loaded with sugar, salt and “bad” fats in amounts your body was never designed to handle. All these things slow your metabolism, clog your arteries, make it hard for your body to repair your precious, fat-burning muscle, and/or force your body to retain fluid, which is very tough on your heart and lungs.

The Truth about Most Detox Diets

The truth is, even though your body may really crave a true, healthy detox diet, the typical detox diet is an expensive, dangerous marketing gimmick.

The typical detox diet claims to help your body rid itself of toxins, such as the insecticide or pesticide residues on fruit and vegetables. But they often do it by bullying your organs, with methods that at best constitute an oversimplification of your needs, and at worst sabotage your internal ecology. The fact is that your body has a wonderful built-in detoxification system. Your liver, kidneys, entire gastrointestinal system, and even your lungs and skin share the job of purifying your body. In turn, they need to be optimally supported to optimally do what is expected of them, despite taking heavy hits every day.

What your body wants, needs and craves is a detox diet from all that sugar, salt and fat and all the residues from those harsh processing chemicals. These things don’t nourish you, they just cause your body to swell up with unwanted fat and retained water, and slow your metabolism.

The typical detox diet sharply restricts what you can eat. You eat mostly fruit and vegetables, far less protein and energy than you actually need, and often a concoction of what are essentially laxative drugs.

Then there is the liquid detox diet. These diets often deprive your body of the very fiber that is vital for healthy gut bacteria. (Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria that play an important role in weight management and overall health.) A liquid detox diet also ensures rapid energy swings because your body metabolizes liquid nutrients faster than solid ones. In fact, fiber helps your body slowly burn calories for fuel, which ensures you get a long, steady glow of energy, rather than abrupt peaks and rapid crashes.

We love our fruits and veggies here at the Trim Down Club. But the truth is that your body requires protein, vitamins, minerals, and energy for basic metabolic processes, plus complex carbohydrates that provide ready energy and natural plant nutrients that strengthen as well as purify you.

Most people lose significant weight on a normal detox diet, all right. Unfortunately, it’s not the weight you want to lose.

That’s because most of that weight will be muscle loss. If you don’t eat enough protein, your body takes it from your muscles to keep you alive. Muscle is your biggest, most important fat-burning organ, while strong muscles are crucial for quality of life. The typical detox diet also leaves people so hungry, weak, and lethargic that they are too weak for physical activity.

Once they start eating again, their slow metabolism and reduced muscle mass often causes major rebound weight gain… making them candidates for another detox diet.

That’s not a vicious circle, it’s a downward spiral.

It’s why so many people end up thinking, “I wish I weighed as much as I did when I only thought I was overweight.”

How to Really Detox Your Body

A genuine detox diet is based on vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins, healthy fats, and fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth, plus herbs and spices to fight inflammation and flush out free radicals. A true detox diet does not require you to eliminate large categories of nutrients, nor does it starve you. In fact, a true detox diet sets you up for long-term weight loss success by nourishing you so you have the energy you need to do the things you enjoy. True detox diets have you eat enough protein to protect your muscle. Finally, true detox diets don’t deprive you. That’s because food is meant to be enjoyed. Depriving yourself of your favorite treats almost inevitably leads to eating much more than if you had just enjoyed a reasonable indulgence when you wanted it. Even worse, the hunger and deprivation of this kind of strict dieting are often an important cause of full-blown binge eating disorder, which itself can cause obesity.

Detoxing at the Trim Down Club

The Trim Down Club way of eating is a healthy detox diet.

Detox is not a special phase of the Trim Down Club, it’s just part of it. That’s because the Trim Down Club program is based on eating enough food you enjoy so you are nourished and satisfied. In particular, you also eat enough protein to keep your muscles healthy. There are no “bad” foods in the Trim Down Club. The meal plans simply avoid processed foods, added sugar, refined carbs, and excessive amounts of salt and unhealthy fats. None of these nourish you. All of them force your body to store them as fat.

Instead, we encourage you to flavor real, natural food with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, phytonutrient-rich herbs, spices, citrus juices, vinegars, and intense flavorings. Homemade (and super-easy) ketchup and Worcestershire sauce are two member favorites.

That’s because the Trim Down Club detox diet is not really a diet: it’s not about hunger, deprivation, or sacrifice. The Trim Down Club detox diet is about enjoying tasty, nourishing food that your body can use to energize you, rather than highly-processed food-like items that are so very hard on your body.

When you start eating foods that feed YOU, rather than feeding your FAT, you can lose all the weight you need to… while enjoying your meals and feeling great. Because that’s what god food does for you.

If you’d like to learn more about how food affects your body and the Trim Down Club program, click here to watch our informative presentation.