If you’re trying to lose weight and get healthy, you’ve probably heard that a great way to do it is by going on some sort of detoxification plan.

Detoxification simply means the physiological process of removing toxins from the body.

There are many ways to detoxify the body, and I wanted to write this post specifically because so many people get detoxification wrong, and so did I in the past!

In this post, I am going to share exactly how you can detox your body this year, and lose weight as a result, and as always, support my claims with some juicy science!

Let’s dive in.

Detoxification: Do’s and Don’ts

Step 1: Do not stress about the detox or the weight loss

Not only is stressing and constantly being anxious about your weight loss journey and your detox completely unproductive (think about it, it doesn’t actually provide any results, it just slows you down…) – it’s worse than that. Stress causes your body to hold onto weight.

Any detoxification program should be undertaken with pleasure and ease and should feel good.

I know it’s not always easy to tell yourself to stop stressing. I want to give you a simple strategy to change your thought patterns that I recently learned.

Start to pay attention to your thoughts, especially around food, and during the times when you start criticizing yourself about your slip-ups on your detox program.
When you catch that criticizing voice, firstly tell it, “thank you so much. I know that you are trying to help me succeed on my weight loss journey, and I am grateful for that. However, I do not need you anymore”. After you do this, try to change the words to something more positive.

For example, if you are hearing something like, “why are you such a failure? You failed again and you’re going to gain weight”. Change it to, “you slipped up. That’s ok. It’s part of your journey. It’s another big step you took on your way to the top of the mountain, where you want to get”.

When we change our mental chatter from critique to empowerment, miracles do start to happen. I’ve been using this strategy lately to reprogram my mind in many areas of my life.

Please remember, all achievements in life look like this (and it goes on and on, up and down):

An amazing movie I highly recommend watching that will help you put mindset into perspective, and will definitely help you achieve your goals is “You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise Hay. You can watch it here – my favorite platform for health and wellness films!

Step 2: Trust and know that your body is already detoxing, all the time

I remember how awful I used to feel when I would start any kind of detoxification protocol. I would have these terrible beliefs that my body is dirty, and I need to do everything in my power to clean it of toxins. It felt like I could never really be good, or clean enough.

Before you begin any detoxification program, know that your body is already doing its detoxification job all the time via your largest detoxification organ: your liver!

All you have to do is support your liver by simply getting out of its way, and reducing the toxin load that it needs to clean up. I will tell you exactly how to do this in this blog post.

You can aid your liver’s natural cleansing abilities by consuming foods that produce sulforaphane, such as broccoli. Check out this delicious Fall Harvest Salad Recipe to get your sulforaphane game on!

Step 3: Get your fiber, and avoid juice cleanses. I repeat, avoid juice cleanses

You may be very surprised to hear me say this because I have done quite a few juice cleanses myself in the past. And I used to recommend them all the time.

The reason why I urge you to stay away from juices, as opposed to smoothies and other blended drinks, is the fiber.

Even if you are already vegan and eating lots of fiber, it does not mean that you can just skip out on the fiber. This is because:

- Fiber is the food for your gut bacteria, which is in charge of so many functions in your body, including digestion, immunity, mood, and so much more! Fiber is absolutely crucial for weight loss because you need your bacteria to metabolize food and get nutrients from it.
  For more digestion tips (which will also really help with weight loss), read my article on digestion here.
- Lose fiber and lose nutrition! Many nutrients bind to fiber, so when you throw it away, you are actually throwing them away, too. Here is a great post about this.
- You can read more about fiber’s role in the body here. Even if you are getting plenty of fiber already, please know that throwing it away is never a good idea!

Step 4: Sweat it out

This is a bonus tip. Sweating is an additional way to remove toxins from the body.

You can promote sweat by exercising, or by spending time in the sauna. These are also wonderful ways to relieve stress during your detoxification program.

Step 5: The Detoxification Program

We have arrived at the main step – how you actually can remove toxins from your body and perform a proper, correct detox.
To do this, I recommend the following steps:

Remove all processed foods from your diet, including oil, refined sugar (including maple syrup, coconut sugar, maple sugar, etc.), preservatives, and literally any other ingredient on a label that you cannot understand.
Eat whole, plant foods. This includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains.

I recommend doing this because not only will it make you feel amazing, not deprived, and joyful – it will also help you shed weight effortlessly! And it is a protocol that you can literally sustain your entire life, and enjoy! It’s not an extreme measure to take, but rather a gentle transformation to a healthier you that will feel amazing.

2-Week Detoxification Plan: Download Now

To help you do this, I have a 2-week whole food, plant-based meal plan and grocery list that you can download here. Use it to start feeling amazing, without any deprivation. This meal plan has the most incredible-tasting, simple recipes that will satisfy you and take you minutes to prepare.

If you are already vegan, this is perfect for you because it’ll help you drop some processed foods from your diet and focus on all of the healthy bounty that a vegan, whole food plant-based lifestyle has to offer.

I can’t wait for you to start eating well, and sustain it for the rest of your life!

>>>Download here!<<<

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Marina Yanay-Triner

Soul in the Raw is a high-raw vegan recipe + education blog. Marina creates quick, easy, and delicious high-raw vegan recipes and blogs about the health benefits of a high-raw plant-based diet. You can get more of Marina’s awesome recipes, tips, and lifestyle techniques on the free Facebook group: Raw Souls .