7 Steps to Cleanse & Detox Your Post-Holiday Body – Episode

Empowering you Organically – Season 8 – Episode 65

Title: 7 Steps to Cleanse & Detox Your Post-Holiday Body

Hosts: Jonathan Hunsaker, TeriAnn Trevenen

Description:  The pace of life these days makes most of us feel stressed, frazzled, and just plain exhausted at the best of times. Add party treats, holiday feasts, and one too many libations to the mix… and a lot of us get the feeling right about now that doing a post-holiday detox would be a good idea.

But how do you cleanse and detox your body without spending hours doing research or breaking the bank? Detoxing doesn’t have to be complicated. One clever way to help your body’s own natural detoxification systems is to add some simple detox practices into your life on a daily basis.

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What Does Detox Mean?

Detoxification refers to helping your body “clean out” your internal organs to rid them of bad bacteria, poisons, pollutants, and especially food waste.

Granted, your body is detoxifying itself all of the time. After all, that is part of the job description for the colon, lungs, kidneys, lymph glands, skin, and especially the liver.

However, with everything toxic that’s in our environment, combined with what we’re slathering on ourselves and ingesting, it’s a good idea to give your organs a helping hand periodically.

Focus on These 7 Key Areas for the Best Detox Cleanse

If you want to cleanse and detox your body the easy way, start small and take tiny steps in each of the seven broad categories listed below. If you’re consistent, over time you will establish healthy detoxification habits that will stay with (and benefit) you for a lifetime.

#1 – WHAT YOU EAT.

Let’s start with the basics. Your diet can either add to your toxic load or help you detoxify from it. Whole foods are what you are aiming for to help your body eliminate toxins. Greens like celery, spinach, parsley, kale, and cilantro contain fiber, phytonutrients, and chlorophyll (the substance that makes plants green).

Chlorophyll is especially great for detoxification since it cleanses the blood, is a super anti-inflammatory [1] and can bind with heavy metals. It also protects against DNA damage caused by Aflatoxin-B1 (AFB1) [2], which has been linked to liver cancer. [Note: Aflotoxins are cancer-causing substances produced by certain types of mold and are commonly found in peanuts, grains, corn, and cottonseed meal.]

And don’t forget fiber! Getting enough soluble and insoluble fiber in your diet every day is essential for pulling toxins out of the gut and cleaning the colon.

A 2015 study [3] published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that people who simply ate 30 grams of fiber every day lost more weight and stabilized their blood pressure more than those who engaged in complicated dietary changes.

What You Can Do Now: Crowd out junk food slowly by focusing on your main meal of the day. Whether you consider this breakfast, lunch, or dinner, make sure you add a healthy amount of green vegetables to your plate.

If you don’t like salads, try steamed veggies sprinkled with a little sea salt and some extra virgin olive oil. Another option is to replace a meal with a nutrient-dense smoothie that includes healthy ingredients such as wild blueberries and broccoli sprouts.

#2 – WHAT YOU DRINK.

Besides eating healthy foods, drinking enough fresh, filtered water is absolutely vital for detoxification. Think of your bloodstream and intestines as a plumbing system. It takes water to flush all that bad stuff out of your body and down the drain.

Water is especially helpful for the kidneys since these glands need it to get rid of certain waste products. Make sure you drink only fresh, filtered, fluoride-free [4] water.

A good tip if plain water isn’t your thing is to add healthy substances to your water glass and turn them into detox waters. A very basic detox water is a little lemon juice added to 8 ounces of water first thing in the morning, which can help with alkalinity.

Plop some cucumber or a few watermelon slices in your water glass for a refreshing and hydrating treat.

To go for the big guns when it comes to health, try some apple cider vinegar (ACV) diluted in water first thing in the morning. Besides its amazing detox effects, ACV is chock full of vitamins and minerals [5], helps balance gut bacteria, and is amazingly immune-boosting. It also has antimicrobial and antifungal effects [6].

What You Can Do Now: For the next week, try drinking a tall glass of water first thing in the morning. If you want a real health boost, add a little bit of ACV in it. Start with a teaspoon and work up to a tablespoon or two in 8 ounces of water upon rising. Take note of the difference this one change can make in your overall energy levels throughout the day.

#3 – GO ORGANIC.

Going organic as much as possible in what you eat and drink can be a huge step towards living a low-toxin life.

A general rule of thumb for clean eating is to steer clear of commercially-raised meats and dairy.

According to the advocate organization Consumer Reports [7], a whopping 80% of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used for livestock. In addition, commercial dairy may contain high levels of cancer-causing dioxins, since they are mostly stored in animal fat.

The World Health Organization found that the majority of human exposure to dangerous dioxins comes from animal products [8]. If you eat meat and dairy, make sure you get pasture-raised, hormone free, and organically-raised and non-GMO fed products only.

When it comes to fruits and vegetables, be aware of the “Dirty Dozen.” A current list is provided annually by the consumer safety organization, the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

What You Can Do Now: Go online and check out EWG’s current “Dirty Dozen” list [9] now (some of the foods on the listing can change from year to year). Then, make a point the next time you shop to go only organic for these particular fruits and vegetables.

#4 – HOW MUCH YOU EAT.

Wise individuals through the ages have recommended eating less and going on fasts to clean out the body and boost both physical and mental energy. Nowadays, research continues to pour in about the benefits of calorie restriction as well as routinely spending some time not eating at all.

The connection between fasting and detoxification is clear. Fasting kicks in “autophagy,” the process of cellular self-digestion.  When the cells starve, they begin to eat themselves. This is a way of breaking down and getting rid of damaged cells, which are then used as recycled energy.

Studies show that fasting can rid the body of unwanted pathogens, improve brain health, and regulate metabolism.

Fasting is a great way for your body to “clean house”… and the best part is it’s free!

As it turns out, you don’t need to spend days sucking on ice cubes to gain the health benefits associated with fasting. “Intermittent Fasting” (IF) also stimulates autophagy. Intermittent fasting refers to alternating times for eating and not eating. Many individuals adopt the 16/8 rule. They fast for sixteen hours, including sleep time, and eat only during an eight-hour window (noon to 8 pm, for example).

A 2017 study conducted by the University of California, San Diego, found that intermittent fasting improved

“(a) circadian biology, (b) the gut microbiome, and (c) modifiable lifestyle behaviors, such as sleep.”

As far back as the early 1980s, researchers at City Hospital in Baltimore found that IF increases lifespan [10].

What You Can Do Now:  Start with a food journal. Write down what you eat for one day, then reflect on it. Were there times that you ate even though you weren’t hungry? Perhaps you reached for that bag of chips because you were stressed or just bored?

Being aware of our eating patterns as they are right now is the first step in changing them. After a few days of observing what you eat, experiment with extending your non-eating time a little.

If you have hypothyroidism or adrenal fatigue, take it slow and monitor your energy. Be sure to seek the advice of your health care provider before you start if you have either one of these conditions.

#5 – HOW YOU MOVE.

Besides what you eat, getting enough physical activity is probably THE BEST thing you can do to keep your body detoxifying naturally every day. It may be hard to see the connection at first. Take a look at the links between exercise and detox, however, and you’ll be convinced:

• Aerobic exercise makes you sweat, which helps to eliminate toxins through the pores.
• Exercise in general increases and regulates breathing, which helps detox through the respiratory system.
• Aerobic exercise also pumps oxygen into the bloodstream, which cleans it out and increases blood flow. The faster the blood circulates, the faster lymph fluid can circulate as well.
• A 2018 study published in The Journal of Applied Physiologyfound that during a workout, muscles act much like the liver. They produce enzymes which clear out toxic chemicals [11].
• Aerobic exercise is a catalyst for the production of endorphins [12] other “feel good,” healing hormones.
• Taking a walk, stretching, doing tai chi, or moving your body in another way outdoors fills your body with hormone-balancing vitamin D, which assists all your organs and your detoxification pathways.
• Finally, it’s not just fast-paced cardio that can help you detox. Stretching activities such as yogacan help you as well. A 2018 study in the Indian Journal of Medical Specialties found that yoga helped pregnant women increase internally-produced antioxidants [13].

What Can You Do Now: Haven’t exercised in a while? Start slowly by committing to take a brisk walk around the block at least two times this week. Even a 15-minute jaunt on your lunch break can do wonders to get you moving again. Note the difference this little bit of movement may have on your overall energy level for the rest of the day.

#6 – HOW YOU HANDLE STRESS.

Being consistently stressed out can take a major toxic toll on your body. This is because chronic stress produces extra cortisol, which can lead to inflammation and sluggish systems that just get sluggish over time as they build up with waste.

Cortisol is surging through the body night and day also has the ability to shut down key immune system cells involved in hunting out and destroying viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens.

Stress can also change DNA, and those changes may be passed on to our children. Researchers at the University of Alabama found that traumatic and stressful events that happened early in life affect the BDNF gene [14]. BDNF is responsible for making certain proteins found in the brain and spinal cord.

The bottom line regarding stress is if it gets out of hand, it can absolutely lead to more toxic sludge in your body and a weakened immune system that will not be able to handle it.

What You Can Do Now: The opposite of the “stress response” for your body is the “relaxation response.” That is the sweet spot for detoxing since in this zone all of your metabolic energy is focused on healing the major organs, including your liver and kidneys.

The good news is that there are tons of ways you can employ to go from stressed to smiling. Exercise, hydrating, and eating healthy can help in this regard. So can meditation. You don’t have to spend hours at it to get results too.

A 2014 study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology found had healthy individuals who practiced mindfulness meditation for just 25 minutes 3 days in a row experienced a lessening of psychological stress activity in the brain [15].

Again, start out slow with 5 to 10 minutes of observing the breath every day and go from there. When it comes to all the benefits meditation can have on the brain and body, consistency is key.

#7 – WHAT SUPPLEMENTS YOU TAKE.

Last but not least, there is the issue of supplements. Many experts feel that taking key quality supplements is a necessary part of leading a healthy life in our pollutant-riddled world.

We tend to agree. Luckily, we can now marry the wisdom of nature with advanced delivery systems. When it comes to detoxification, take synergistically compatible supplements. This will give you the support you need to kick your own natural detox mechanisms into full gear.

What Can You Do Now: How do you know what supplement is right for you and your detox pathways? For best results over time, we recommend a high-quality, organic, multi-nutrient supplement that is easy to take every day and gentle on the system. Detoxx by Organixx contains over 15 concentrated detoxification herbs, including parsley and Turkey Tail mushroom.

How Not to “Retox” Your Body

• Be mindful of what you’re putting in (AND on) your body is one of the best ways to not retox.
• Ongoing, stay away from the processed foods as much as possible, stick to the whole foods.

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Jonathan Hunsaker: Welcome, everyone, to another episode of Empowering You Organically.  I’m your host, Jonathan Hunsaker, joined by my co-host, TeriAnn Trevenen. 

TeriAnn Trevenen: Hey, everyone!

Jonathan Hunsaker: I hope that everybody had a fantastic holiday.  I hope everybody was safe, you got some good down time.  Now that we are in the new year, we’ve got to talk about detoxing all of that junk out that we had during the holidays.

TeriAnn Trevenen: For sure.  The new year is a popular time to detox.  However, you should be detoxing all year long, but the toxins and the garbage really builds up with those Thanksgiving meals, those Christmas meals, those neighbor goodies that get delivered, and the treats you make yourself that you eat way too many of.

Jonathan Hunsaker: And listen, detoxing is great, but sometimes, it’s not the most pleasant experience.  So, one of the best ways to detox is to not retox so much.  So, we’re going to talk about seven steps to cleansing and detoxing your body, not just how to detox currently, to maybe get some toxins out, but simple things that you can be mindful of every day that won’t have you retox your body and will just have you operating at a higher level constantly.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Absolutely.  I don’t think a lot of people realize that many aspects of your body need to detox.  So, detoxification means cleaning out your internal organs, to rid them of bad bacteria, poisons, pollutants, and especially food waste.  So, there’s a lot of things that can build up in your body, and there’s a lot of things that can keep your body from detoxing.  So, we’re going to talk about ways that you can detox today, keep that process moving along in your body.  And again, this is a really great time of year to focus on that. 

Jonathan Hunsaker: It is.  And really quickly, I know that detoxing can sometimes have controversial responses, like “Well, your body automatically detoxes and gets rid of everything.”  That’s 100 percent true.  Consider though, that we do live in a more toxic time than we ever have in the past.  Whether it’s noise pollution, right, or the pollution from all of the vehicles that are out there, to the different toxins that we use to clean our home, the industrial, you know, all of that, to the different foods that we have, and the pesticides, and the herbicides. 

There’s just more there, and I’m not saying that your body can’t detox itself.  All I’m saying is there’s things you can do that will help it along, that will make it easier and make it better.  And I promise you, there’s not going to be a bad side effect to detoxing, you’re just going to be healthier, it’s going to be cleaner.  So, I just wanted to address that before we really get into things.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Well, and it is 100 percent true that our bodies were created to detox.  However, there are things that you may not be doing in your life right now, like exercise and eating foods that help your body in that process of detoxing that can actually be stopping your body from detoxing properly.  You would have to be at optimal health to really have your body detoxing the way it should be, and even then, people who are at optimal health may need some help when it comes to detoxing certain aspects of your body. 

And our body, our colon, lungs, kidneys, lymph glands, skin, liver, all our need to detox.  And so, you would, again, really have to be living at optimal health for your body to be detoxing at full capacity and doing what it needs to be doing.  And again, even then, helping your body along with that process has massive benefits when it comes to your health.

Jonathan Hunsaker: So, if you’re not living out in the countryside, away from all pollution, you’re growing your own food.

TeriAnn Trevenen: You’re working outside every day.

Jonathan Hunsaker: You’re hunting every day, you’re doing that.  If you’re not doing that, pay attention to today’s podcast.  You’re going to love it.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Absolutely.  So, let’s talk about seven areas where we can focus on when it comes to detoxing. 

Number one, what you eat.  This is one of the most basic ways to improve your health from a detox perspective.  Your diet can either add to your toxic load or help your body to detoxify from it.  Whole foods are what you’re aiming for to help your body eliminate toxins. 

Greens like celery, spinach, parsley, kale, and cilantro contain fiber, phytonutrients, and chlorophyll, which is the substance that makes our plants green, and that’s especially great for detoxification since it cleanses the blood, is super anti-inflammatory, and combined with heavy metals to pull them out of your system, which is a form of detoxification. 

It also protects against DNA damage caused by things that are linked to liver cancer, and don’t forget as well, that a lot of these greens that we’re talking about have fiber.  We don’t get enough fiber.  [0:05:00] So, getting enough soluble and insoluble fiber in your diet, like some of the greens that we mentioned, every single day is essential for pulling toxins out of the gut and cleaning the colon.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Absolutely.  I mean you are what you eat.  Plain and simple.  Ask any kid that.  We all know that.  So, be mindful of what you’re putting in your body is one of the best ways to not retox your body.  And to detox it, like you said, adding a lot of the greens, green juices, doing juice cleanses, things like that are phenomenal for just cleansing your body out. 

And then, ongoing, stay away from the processed foods as much as possible, stick to the whole foods.  And whether you eat—we’re just talking about greens or meats or anything like that, just getting rid of the processed stuff will make a world of difference in your body.

TeriAnn Trevenen: And I think it’s important to note what we mentioned there.  So, we talked about blood, we talked about fiber, so toxins in your blood, heavy metals, we talked about getting enough fiber.  Because fiber is a form of detoxing, getting it in your body is a form of detoxifying things out of your body.  It helps that process. 

So, there’s probably a lot of things that you haven’t realized when it comes to eating a healthy diet, and the processes, and the different aspects of your body that comes down to you detoxifying your body.  So, just a few important things to note there.

Number two, what you drink.  Besides eating healthy foods, drinking enough fresh filtered water is absolutely vital for detoxification.  Think of your bloodstream and intestines as a plumbing system.  It takes water to flush all that bad stuff out of your body and down the drain. 

Water is especially helpful for the kidneys since these glands need it to get rid of certain waste products. Make sure you drink only fresh, filtered, and we like to talk about fluoride-free water when you’re getting your water in every single day.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Absolutely.  I won’t go down that rabbit hole, but let’s talk about hydration, right?  And so, you can overhydrate even, right?  If you drink a whole lot of water at one time, it can really flush out a lot of the electrolytes, it can flush out vitamins and minerals from your body.  So, it’s not a matter of “Let me just chug a whole bunch of water and I’ll be okay.”  Timing matters as well. 

So, when you first wake up, having a large glass of water is great, because you have been dehydrating all—for the eight hours you’ve been sleeping, right?  You haven’t been taking in any water.  So, it’s good to rehydrate first thing in the morning.  And then, throughout the day, drinking your glasses of water, drinking to rehydrate, not just “Let me just chug a whole bunch at once and I’ve got my water in for the day.”

TeriAnn Trevenen: Absolutely.  Yeah, and I think some of the things you can do if you’re not a big water fan is you can add some really healthy fruits or veggies to flavor your water.  You can put berries in your water, you can put lemon in your water, you can put cucumber in your water, kind of squeeze in a little bit to get that flavor in there to really help you get that water intake up.  And water, again, is so critical when it comes to detoxifying your body. 

If you want to pull out the big guns when it comes to your health, try some apple cider vinegar diluted in water first thing in the morning.  Besides its amazing detox effects, apple cider vinegar is chock full of vitamins and minerals, it helps to balance your gut bacteria, and is amazing for boosting your immune system.

Jonathan Hunsaker: It is.  I don’t enjoy the flavor of apple cider vinegar.  And so, I just found something.  If I knew we were going to—

TeriAnn Trevenen: You mean you don’t drink a whole bottle of it every day?

Jonathan Hunsaker: I don’t.  I don’t.  But I just found a supplement, the very first one.  I wish I knew the name off-hand.  I just got it a few days ago.  Where it’s actually an apple cider vinegar inside of gummies that you can take.  And I’m trying that.  We’re going to see how that goes.  So, if that goes well, I’ll let you know more about it.  Organixx doesn’t make it, but I wanted a way to get my apple cider vinegar in, and it’s not always the most pleasant way to start the day with a shot of apple cider vinegar.

TeriAnn Trevenen: I just say plug your nose and bottoms up.  Health, right?  What we do for health.  So yeah, just a really quick tip.  For the next few weeks, just try drinking a huge glass of water every morning to start your day and see how that impacts you.  I like to try and drink a huge glass of water, or get my water in, in the morning, and then I like, especially—sometimes, we can forget throughout the day to really drink our water, but if you say, like first thing in the morning, “I’m going to get some water and I’m not going to forget it.” 

And then, I like to really get some in at dinnertime or mealtime.  Like don’t forget your water here.  And I know there’s a lot of controversy around when you should eat and when you should drink, and all those things.  In my opinion, if you’re not getting enough water, just drink it when you can get it in, because it’s more important to have it than worry about “Should I be drinking while I’m eating this meal?”  So, I try to get a lot in when I’m eating meals because that’s when I can remember to do it.

Number three, go organic.  So, obviously, at this point, if you’ve been following along, you know that we love organic here at Empowering You Organically.  That’s why we’re called Empowering You Organically.  But if you’re listening in for the first time, we believe in organic. 

We have a lot of amazing podcasts to talk about the benefits of organic, why it’s important to buy as many things as you can organic, not only USDA-certified organic, but if you can get USDA-certified organic with the non-GMO verified seal, that’s the best. [0:10:05] It’s really, really important. 

And we’re not going to go too far down that rabbit hole today.  Again, you can go back, and we’ll link to other podcasts in our show notes.  But you really want to be careful about sourcing organic, non-GMO foods.  There’s a lot of toxins, a lot of garbage in our food, a lot of things that our body’s already trying to fight, just by the nature of our soil and other things going on with growing our foods. 

But then when you add genetically-modified organisms to that and your body’s trying to figure that out, you’re trying to get rid of all those toxins out of your body, it’s just really important to source that organic, clean food, the way we should be growing our food, we’ve been growing it for centuries, getting back to the roots of good, clean farming, clean food that was made for our body.

Jonathan Hunsaker: And the reality is, is food’s being sprayed with pesticides and herbicides all the time, and that’s not coming off of it, right?  And so, if you go organic, then you know that it’s minimally sprayed, or it’s not as hazardous as getting something that is non-organic.  The other thing to consider, I mean this is why we make organic supplements, this is why the ingredients are organic. 

It really matters, because in a supplement, we’re talking about really condensing down that herb or that nutrient, and if it was not organic, then we’re also condensing down the pesticides, and the herbicides that were in the supplement.  So, the supplement matters.  Your skincare matters, right?  Getting—using organic ingredients in your skincare. 

That’s why we launched Organixx Skin, because listen, your skin is your number one organ, and you’re absorbing toxins in through it.  So, if you want to not have to go through such crazy detoxes all the time, consider the toxins that you’re putting in, and it’s happening from your food, it’s happening from your skincare, it’s happening from all sorts of places. 

And then, even your cleaning products around your house, right?  What are things that you can do to that are cleaner?  Using Seventh Generation is a great brand.  Using things that are less toxic so that you’re not putting the toxins into your body.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Yep.

Jonathan Hunsaker: We could do eight podcasts talking about organic, so we’re not going to go down that route, but just that’s the quick Cliff Notes for those of you new to the podcast.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Yeah, and one other thing, really quickly, to pay attention to is the meat you’re eating as well.  You want clean meat, so grass-fed organic meats.  Because those that aren’t organic have hormones, antibiotics, and then also typically, when they’re USDA-certified organic, they’re also eating feed that’s certified organic as well, that hasn’t been sprayed with pesticides. 

And if you’re eating meat from an animal that’s been eating food that’s been sprayed, you’re going to be getting that same thing when you’re eating your meat.  So, you need to be really careful there with your meat sources.  So, just like we need to detox our body, we also need to detox our houses, detox the products we’re using.  I think there’s a lot to be said there.

Jonathan Hunsaker: I’m going to talk for 30 seconds on that, because factory farming is horrible, right?  So, definitely, try to support your local farmers, and let’s not go down that route.  But I want to talk about what you said when it comes to the feed, right?  So, we make a USDA-certified organic bone broth protein, and what’s really important about that being organic is, if it were non-organic, then the chickens are eating a GMO-rich diet.  And glyphosate actually stores in your bones. 

And so, when you’re making a bone broth and you’re trying to pull all that nutrients out of the bones, now the glyphosate is coming out of the bones inside of that chicken and ending up in your broth or your powdered bone broth, if you go down that route.  So, you’ve got to—that’s why I love what you brought up, is there’s a whole chain here that makes a difference.  It’s not just “Oh, well, that chicken got to free range, and so, it’s great.”  Well, what was that chicken eating?

TeriAnn Trevenen: Absolutely.

Jonathan Hunsaker: And that matters.  And that’s why organic is such a big deal.  This is why it’s so important for us to have the organic bone broth and the different things like that, because these are things most people aren’t thinking about.  So, look for that USDA-certified organic when you’re buying your products to know, and I mean to just shortcut having to go through all of this learning process.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Yep.  We’ll link two podcasts in the show notes.  The first one was with our friend, Jeffrey Smith, who talks about the importance of organic food.  And the second one that comes to mind for me was with our good friend, Ocean Robbins, when he talked about the different types of meat that you can buy and what you need to know about those different types of meat – cage-free, grass-fed.  We had a great conversation with him about that, so we’ll link that in the show notes.

Something you can do, just really quickly before we move on to number four, check out EWG’s Dirty Dozen List.  We’ll link it in the show notes.  These are the top 12 things you want to avoid when it comes to food that is organic.  You want it—these 12 things to be organic, and if you want a simple way to start going down that path of organic, these are the most dangerous foods to buy if they’re not organic as far as pesticides, sprays, things that can be in them that can be harmful for your health. 

So, we’ll link that in the show notes.  You can take a peek at those, and just some simple things when you’re in your grocery store buying produce and other things that you can make that simple switch to organic and it will dramatically improve your health and your body. [0:15:06]

Number four, how much you eat.  So, this is a big topic of conversation, right?  I want to be really careful when we talk about this because nutrition is unique for all of us.  We live in a day and age when people think that we all prescribe to the same thing when it comes to doctors, medicine, the way we live our lives, but the beautiful thing about human beings is each of our bodies is extremely unique. 

So, when we talk about how much you eat, please take this with a grain of salt, because you really need to be doing what’s best for your body, where you are with your weight, your shape, your size, all of those things, your current health situation.  But how much you eat can be really important to keeping your body clean and healthy. 

There’s a lot of conversations around fasting, there’s a lot of conversations around detoxification, like we’re talking about today when it comes to your body. So, when we talk about how much you eat, again, I just want to reiterate, be really careful in doing what’s best for you and your body.  Research continues to pour in about the benefits of calorie restriction as well as routinely spending some time not eating at all. 

So, we live in a society, and the reason why we’re touching on this is we live in a society where we overeat all the time.  Instant gratification.  We have tons of food, fast food, the grocery store is full of crazy amounts of food, some of it’s not even real food.

And so, there’s a lot of research behind the fact that detoxification, certain methods of detoxification, certain methods of fasting, and certain methods of calorie restriction can really help to reset and benefit your body, your immune system, and help with the detoxification process. 

One of the things that I know Jonathan can really speak to and that helped him at a certain phase of his life with his health is fasting.  And so, I’ll let you speak on that a little bit.  But I think there’s a lot of different things people can be doing.

Jonathan Hunsaker: I mean the rabbit hole goes deep when we talk about how much you eat.  So, the first thing that I want to address is we generally overeat because we’re not getting the nutrients that our body needs.  So, we tend to eat more because our body is craving more nutrients, but we’re eating fast food, we’re eating processed food, we’re eating all these things. 

And while it registers as a calorie, right, your body may store it and turn it into fat, the nutrients are still missing from it.  And so, your body is—wants you to eat more, right?  “I need more nutrients.  I need more nutrients.”  So, it’s just telling you to keep eating.  Or, you’re dehydrated, right?  And so, we eat to extract the moisture and water out of the food, which is something that we used to do way back when, right, when water wasn’t always abundant you would eat, and you could extract the water out of it.

So, back to kind of the drinking the water and the overeating, especially now that we’re in the new year and a lot of people are likely looking at dropping a few pounds.  If you find yourself getting hungry, go drink some water first, wait 10 minutes, and see if that wasn’t the problem, a hydration thing.  So, second is the nutrients.

This is why we do supplements, why we have a supplement company, because it’s hard, it’s just there to supplement the nutrients that you’re not going to get from your regular diet.  Even if you’re eating a whole food, plant-based, and you’re eating non-factory-farmed meats, and organic, and all of that, you’re still likely not getting all of the nutrients, and it can lead you to needing to eat more. 

So, taking a good multivitamin, taking different things like that, helps your body get the nutrients it needs, which also makes it not feel as hungry and have you overeat.  Then, we go down to intermittent fasting and all of that, and I think that—I think what really is beneficial around the intermittent fasting is the caloric restriction that happens around that. 

So, there’s a lot of talk about apophagy, and different things like that, and I’m not going to go down that route, because there’s studies that also show just being in a caloric deficit can cause apophagy, and not being in a surplus all the time.  So, I don’t want to go down things that are too controversial.  What I will say is, though, intermittent fasting has helped me a lot on my weight loss journey, simply because it’s limiting the times that I’m eating, right? 

And so, a 16/8, where you don’t eat for 16 hours, and that includes your sleeping.  So, I wake up and I don’t eat for four hours, just have some water.  Then I eat for eight hours.  And then, I don’t eat for four hours and go to bed, and I hit my 16/8 relatively easily that way.  So, I say all that to say, I mean I think that we have to be careful too, with too much of a caloric deficit, because then, your metabolism starts slowing down to match the fact that it’s not getting enough calories. 

And it’s not like you’re hurting your metabolism, you’re just—it’s just not operating at such a high level because it’s not getting as much food in there. [0:20:01] So, there’s a lot of people that operate at a caloric deficit of 1,200 calories a day, and now everything is kind of slowed down, and I don’t know that that’s necessarily the healthiest, either. 

So, there’s this fine line between how much you eat, and then also, what are your goals?  Right?  Are you looking—currently, I just finished a point where I wanted to bulk and build up muscle, and I’m currently in a cut.  So, I’m doing a caloric deficit.  So, I don’t want to talk in circles here other than understanding like what you said, figuring out what works for your own body. 

Don’t overeat just because you’re eating junk and you’re eating processed foods and all of that.  So, make sure you’re getting enough water, make sure you’re eating nutrient-dense food, and then if you’re still having a challenge there, consider intermittent fasting as another way to just really monitor how much you’re putting in your body.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Absolutely.  You know?  One other thing I want to touch on is there’s a lot of research around calories in and calories out.  This is something I’ve been reading a lot about.  We can also train our bodies.  So, for people who are heavy, heavy athletes, they can train their body to consume more food than people who are more sedimentary and don’t really move—or sedentary, excuse me, and don’t really move, but they have vastly different metabolism, vastly different ways of processing food. 

So, when it comes to the food that you eat, what I would say is there are so many different ways that you can treat food.  I think knowing what your goal is, knowing what your body needs, knowing what you’re after, knowing what kind of food you need to be healthy, and then tracking that is super important.  I think that’s one thing you can start doing is figuring out what you need and then start tracking it and see how you feel, and then tweak from there.  I think it’s really important to be in tune with our body.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Really quickly, just because it’s the new year, and likely, there’s people looking to lose weight.  If you find yourself already not eating a whole lot, 1,200-1,400 calories, and you’re still not losing weight, Google, and look at the show notes actually, for reverse dieting.  What reverse dieting is, is it’s a process to rebuild your metabolism to be faster on 2,000-2,500 calories. 

That way, if you do a caloric deficit of 500 calories a day, you’ll go back to losing.  So, there’s a lot of people that are like “I don’t eat a lot and I’m not losing weight.”  Well, you just—the problem may be is you’ve been in a caloric deficit for so long that your body’s just used to operating off of 1,200 calories a day, and so, you’re not going to lose any more weight.  And what you need to do is you need to retrain your body to operate off of 2,000 calories a day.  That way, you can drop down to 1,500-1,600 calories and start losing the weight again.  So…

TeriAnn Trevenen: Yeah, you make me want to go down the rabbit hole, because even if you got to 2,500 calories and fixed that issue, and all you ate was Snickers, you’re still not going to feel good.  So, we could go down this rabbit hole so far, but I think we’ve given you enough tips and enough information to kind of do some of your own homework and research.

Number five, how you move.  And I love this one.  Besides what you eat, getting enough physical activity is probably the best thing that you can do when it comes to helping your body detoxify naturally every single day.  It may be hard to see that connection at first, but sweating, moving, and helping your body to get that stuff out through that sweating process is super critical to detoxifying. 

And again, as we mentioned, it may be hard to see that connection, but actually, it’s probably one of the easiest ways that you can help your body to detoxify.  Getting up, moving, sweating a little bit, and really not just sitting still all the time.

Jonathan Hunsaker: I couldn’t agree more.  Luckily for me, I sweat easily.  I can sweat just thinking about long division.  But really, most people need to get out there and move their bodies a lot more.  Just get the blood pumping, and it will really detox you quickly.  I think often we underestimate how much we eat, and we overestimate how much we exercise and move our bodies.  But if we get really honest with ourselves, we are not moving nearly enough.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Absolutely.  And you know?  The interesting thing is, is I don’t think that most people, just like we talked about earlier in the podcast, I don’t think most people realize how much our body needs to detox.  When it comes to physical activity, exercise can increase and regulate breathing, which helps detox through the respiratory system. 

Also, exercise pumps oxygen in the bloodstream, which cleans it out and increases your blood flow.  There’s other things like enzymes, which clear out toxic chemicals, enzymes that are produced when you’re exercising.  I don’t know that we think about this one very often, but have you ever thought about an emotional detox? 

Exercise is a catalyst for the production of endorphins, or feel-good emotions that are helpful with your hormones, and balancing your hormones, and helping you to feel happier every single day.  So, there’s a lot of detox benefits to moving your body every single day and getting some good exercise in, some things that you may not have even realized.

And, if you’re not really used to exercising, you don’t have to go full-blown, working out in the gym an hour every single day.  Your body can realize the benefits of movement just by getting up and taking a 5-10-minute walk that you haven’t been taking every single day and moving in that way.  So, start small and build from there.  Don’t overwhelm yourself.

Jonathan Hunsaker: I think that’s something that often people miss, is you feel like, especially now that it’s the new year, “I’ve got to go to the gym and pump iron for 60 minutes a day,” or “get on the treadmill.”  Just get your steps in, you know?  That’s all you have to do is get 10,000 steps in a day.  And if you’re used to only getting 1,000, start at 2,500 steps and build up to 10,000 steps.  Just that alone is enough to really change your body.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Absolutely.  Number six, we’re going to talk about stress.  Being consistently stressed out can take a major toxic toll on your body.  This is because chronic stress produces extra cortisol, which can lead to inflammation and sluggish systems that just get sluggish over time as they build up with waste.  Inflammation is so bad when it comes to our health for a lot of reasons. 

Inflammation can help us to realize when something’s wrong in our body, but chronic inflammation is negative when it comes to having optimal health.  Cortisol is surging through the body night and day, also has the ability to shut down key immune system cells involved in hunting out and destroying viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens in your body. 

Stress can also change DNA, and those changes may be passed on to our children.  Researchers at the University of Alabama found that traumatic and stressful events that happen early in life affect the BDNF gene, which is responsible for making certain proteins found in the brain and spinal cord. 

So, overall, letting stress get out of hand can change our body, from our immune system being suppressed, it can change our genes, our DNA, it can help to add to that inflammation and toxic buildup in our body that we don’t want.  Keeping our stress levels down is super important.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Again, this is another one we could probably do five podcasts on, talking about stress and really how you manage stress.  And so, consider that how you manage the stress matters, right?  Drinking a bottle of wine every night is not the best way to manage the stress and get the toxins out. 

Some mindful meditation is a great way to manage stress.  In fact, we talked about working out, we talked about exercise.  The reason exercise is so good for stress is it’s actually putting a minor stressor on your body.  And so, your body gets used to handling a controlled minimum amount of stress, which makes it easier for it to process other stresses that happen in life. 

But I think stress is the biggest thing, not the biggest thing, but it’s one of the biggest things that we all need to look at, because it’s there everywhere now, from our digital devices, to all these expectations, and working 50 hours a week, and paying all the bills.  It’s an overload on us and on our nervous system and on our bodies, and I think that’s one place to really focus on is how do you manage your stress, how do you decompress?

TeriAnn Trevenen: Absolutely.  Finally, number seven.  What supplements do you take that help benefit your body when it comes to detoxification?  There is issue with a lot of supplements because there are many—and this is a whole rabbit hole we could down—but there’s a lot of supplements that claim to do certain things for your body, and claim to be healthy, and claim to have amazing ingredients, but really, they’re not being manufactured properly to benefit you and your health.  And so, you have to be really careful when it comes to supplements and what you’re putting in your body, that you know what you’re putting in your body.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Yeah, I mean to be safe, just buy organic supplements and you’ll be good.  No, on a total serious note, it really does matter.  I mean the things that we’ve learned since being in this business the last four years are just shocking.  And I share that to educate you as the consumer to really know what it is, you’re getting when it comes to your supplements. 

USDA-certified organic matters.  Organic ingredients matter, right?  And the quality of it, and who’s it coming from, and what is the company, and what do they stand for?  All of that matters because too often, it’s just about profits in the supplement space.  It unfortunately feels very similar to the pharmaceutical space. 

A bunch of big promises and “How cheaply can we make this supplement, and how much can we sell it for?”  So, I think supplements really do matter.  I think there’s some good supplements out there that can help you detox.  I think that, again like I said earlier, making sure that you’re getting all the nutrients on a regular basis can help you from eating too much junk and processed food. 

So, a good multivitamin, like Multi-Vita-Maxx, or other products that we have can really help.  But again, we don’t create everything.  I’m not saying that we’re the only place to shop for.  But you have to know what you’re looking for, and organic matters.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Yeah.  We’re huge supporters, inside of Organixx and beyond, of anyone who’s producing supplements using proper methods, proper ingredients, clean ingredients, organic ingredients.  We just want this movement to be far-reaching so that people have access to good supplements that really benefit their health. 

When you really go down the rabbit hole of detoxing, yes, there are products out there that are specifically geared towards detoxing, but as we talked about our blood, as we talked about the different organs in our body, as we talked about our emotions, our respiratory systems, optimal health is one of the best things you can do for yourself when it comes to detoxifying your body, detoxifying your emotions, even to detoxifying and cleaning out the systems that work in your brain. 

There are products out there geared towards a healthy brain.  Having a healthy body, having a healthy immune system, all of those things, getting supplements that support that is the best way that you can detox day-in and day-out.

Jonathan Hunsaker: It goes right along the conversation of the best way to detox is to not retox.  Right?  And not need to.  And that just comes through eating healthy, good sleep, getting a lot of hydration, taking good supplements that help.  I think all of that really contributes.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Absolutely. 

Jonathan Hunsaker: Hey, I hope you enjoy today’s episode.  I know we covered seven things that we probably could have gone way deeper on each of those.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Podcasts for every single one.

Jonathan Hunsaker: We probably could.  I hope this is helping you start your new year off right, gives you some ideas, some notes that you took.  If you missed anything or want to—if you missed anything that we mentioned, just go to EmpoweringYouOrganically.com.  We’ll have all the show notes, we’ll have all the links to different things, especially organic supplements.  And if you want to watch the video, the video is there. 

Also, go to iTunes and subscribe on iTunes.  Give us a big thumbs up.  Give us your feedback.  Let us know what we’re doing good, let us know what we’re doing bad.  Let us know what you’d like to hear more about.  We would love to hear from you and continue to provide the information that you want most. 

So, I think I’ve covered everything.  Did I miss anything?

TeriAnn Trevenen: You got it all. 

Jonathan Hunsaker: Happy New Year, everyone.  Thank you for tuning in, and we’ll see you on the next show.

TeriAnn Trevenen: Thanks, everyone.

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