Healthy Weight Loss Plan: Nutrition 103 - The Healthy Body Cleanse

In Nutrition 103 of the Healthy Weight Loss Plan series, we are going to delve into a body cleanse.  This is an oft-misunderstood part of the weight loss process.  There are a lot of different types of cleansing diets.  Some involve all-liquid diets, some involve a bunch of pills, while others involve extreme restrictions.

The body cleanse that I'm going to introduce you to in this article is not extreme at all.  In fact, it's pretty darn close to the way I'm eating right now, and I have no problem at all maintaining my diet.  There are plenty of good things for you to eat while you clean out your system.

This process is not really all that difficult and the rewards are incredible.  But, a body cleanse is not for everyone.

Some people many NEED certain foods on our exclusion list because of certain health conditions.  Please do not jeopardize your health just so you can follow this process completely.  That should go without saying, but I take nothing for granted.

With that said, what exactly is a body cleanse?

A body cleanse is a diet process that literally flushes the toxins and other junk out of your body.  These toxins are stored in your gut and fat tissue and will exit as a whole lot of water weight. 

Most of the weight loss associated with a body cleanse is water weight.  But this is a great thing!  This is EXCESS water that your body is holding to store bad things.

But that isn't all you will lose.

You will also lose some bodyfat because your eating habits will become phenomenal from the process.  The process will only last a few weeks, but I will also present you with a plan to carry out the benefits of the cleanse far beyond.

Believe it or not, the typical diet these days allows loads of chemicals to enter the body.  These chemicals will cause all sorts of problems to your health and level of comfort.  Also, the body's response can lead to that ugly distended belly that just does not seem to respond to exercise no matter what you do.

The whole process and reasoning is a bit technical and scientific, but I will try to present it in a simple manner.

Basically, if you eat something with a bunch of added chemicals or anything that triggers an intolerance in your body, your body will respond by fighting those foods as they enter the gut.  And by the gut I mean the intestines and the colon and everything involved in the digestive process in the stomach.

By fighting these foods as they enter the guy, all sorts of things are released (antibodies) to catch food that your body cannot digest (antigens).  The foods that your body cannot digest or only partially digest, be it do to their chemical nature or an intolerance, can cross the gut wall triggering an immune system response.

This immune system response will cause inflammation of tissues in the area to try to get rid of the unwanted undigested food particles.  This whole process can cause discomfort and a compromised immune system.  The result will be a great risk for many health problems down the road.

The inflammation in the gut can cause pressure in the area and on the abdominal wall.  This leads to common pain and bloating in the gut as well as weakening of the abdominal muscles.  When this is the case, no matter what you do for exercise you will not be able to get a flat stomach!

What you can take from this information is that it is critical to your healthy weight loss goals that you take on any and all food intolerances you may have as soon as possible.  I will show you a simple and painless process later in this article.

Excess belly fat is often the result of toxins and chemicals in the gut as well as food intolerance.  No matter how hard you work and how great the rest of your body responds to exercise, your belly will still be fat if you do not clean up the mess in your gut.  This can only be done with a focused nutritional plan to attack unhealthy bacteria.

As I mentioned above, there are a number of different body cleansing diets and systems floating around in cyberspace and the media.  The one I am going to propose is very simple, safe, and effective.  If you want a much more detailed version I suggest ordering a copy of The Fungus Link by Doug Kaufmann that I have linked to here.

In order to cleanse your system, you are going to have to eliminate all problem foods from your diet.  To do so, start by avoiding the following common culprits of food intolerance for two weeks:

• Processed Foods
• Breads
• Pastas
• Sugars (added)
• Alcohol
• Pasteurized Dairy

Those foods are very likely to cause food intolerance in a number of people.  Also, sugars actually promote growth of harmful bacteria, so to kill the fungi in your gut you must eliminate sugar for a period.  In addition, processed foods contain a load of chemicals that enter the gut causing you more problems than they save you by their convenience.  Eliminate processed foods from your diet as much as possible...FOREVER!

When you eliminate the foods above (it's only two weeks, you can do it!), take note of how you feel.  Notice if you find relief in your stomach.  Notice if you feel less chronic pain and discomfort.  Notice if you feel "lighter".  Also take not of your digestive process.  Are you more regular with your digestion and elimination?  Do you have less occurrences of upset stomach and diarrhea?

If you do notice improvements in these areas, you probably are eliminating problem foods from your diet.  The next step is to figure out which ones are causing the problems.

If you notice improvements, I highly recommend continuing the same process for an additional weak or two to allow your body full opportunity to get rid of all the harmful bacteria.  In truth, this process can take over 6 months, but I know most people will not follow this for that long so I'm trying to simplify the process.

After 2-4 weeks of improvement, it is time to begin reintegrating foods into your diet.  Do NOT simply go back to eating everything you were eliminating.  That will get you no where.

The key is to be slow and methodical.  Reintroduce one food at a time to your diet and see how you feel afterwards.  If you make it through at least 12-24 hours with no discomfort whatsoever, that food may be a safe one for you.

Continue to slowly reintroduce foods to your diet.  When you notice discomfort in the hours after reintroducing a certain food, there is a good chance that your body is intolerant to that food so you should continue to avoid it.

This process takes time, care, and focus.  But it is very much worth it and will same you a large amount of extra work, discomfort, and frustration in the long run.

There is a chance that you have an intolerance to a food that is not on this list, so if you continue to notice discomfort after a couple of weeks of eliminating the suggested foods you may want to have some blood tests done to determine your real intolerance.  Or, you may want to read The Fungus Link for a more in-depth elimination plan.

Here are a few things you can do to improve the success of your elimination cleanse:

• Drink lots of water. Follow the tips in the healthy weight loss plan: water article.
• Eat plenty of fiber. Follow the tips in the healthy weight loss plan: fiber article.
• Supplement with psyllium. I use a psyllium hulls supplement before bed.
• Eat A LOT of vegetables for digestion aid and antioxidants.
• Consider herbal supplements such as grape seed extract for probiotics and elimination of free radicals.
• Add probiotics to your diet such as organic plain yogurt, carrots, and berries to help eliminate fungi.
• Get plenty of sleep and limit caffeine to keep cortisol levels low.

Here is a good list of easy healthy recipes, so there is never an excuse that you can't think of anything to eat while restricting certain foods.

Like I said, while just a starting strategy for most nutrition programs, this body cleanse process is quite close to the way I eat all the time and I am very happy with my meal options!

This cleanse is not meant to be a two-week-cure-and-done process.  It is meant to be the beginning of a healthier body.  You are cleaning your body out of garbage.  The next step will be to keep the garbage out!

Continue to eat in a way that makes your body comfortable and happy and this healthy weight loss plan will easily be a huge success!