Detox Basics

Cleansing offers possibilities for better health — if you find the right plan. Some programs recommend strict fasting (too drastic for many people) or rely on a single nutritional source, such as grapefruit, that may not be compatible with your unique constitution. Sea Change has used the basic tenets of sound nutrition to modify its 21-day plan into a week-long trial for Body+Soul readers that includes a food chart. This plan involves neither fasting nor calorie restrictions. Eating three full meals a day plus hunger-dictated snacks, you trade less-healthy choices for whole foods that satisfy in a more sustaining way. Before beginning this or any other program, take stock of your overall health. Never start a detox program while pregnant. If you have any chronic or serious health condition, cleanse only under a doctor’s supervision; even if you don’t have a health condition, consulting a doctor is a good idea. You may uncover underlying disease processes as you detox.

When you start your program, make a commitment to self-observation. Detox experiences differ, even for those who do it habitually. Also keep in mind that while some mild physical and emotional discomfort is normal, feeling really ill is not. If you experience the latter, you should quit and see a doctor right away. Final thoughts to bear in mind: The Body+Soul plan emphasizes well-being rather than weight loss, although you may find you lose some weight. Slow down and give food your full attention. Eliminate TV and other distractions that encourage mindless eating. And think about the origins of what’s on your plate. By fully appreciating the food that sustains you, you’ll stay nutritionally grounded long after the plan is done.

Day 1: Clean Up
Before you embark on this seven-day plan, read our general guidelines (“Detox Basics,” below) to identify any contraindications that may apply. You’ll also learn how best to approach the plan so you maximize its benefits. On Day 1, you’ll begin swapping nutritionally problematic foods for healthier ones. See “Detox Don’ts (and Dos),” below, for an overview. Don’t be surprised if you feel moody or headachy as a result, especially if you normally drink caffeine. This response will likely lessen in the coming days.
-Start drinking eight glasses of filtered water and walking for at least 20 minutes daily.
-Eliminate caffeine.
-Eliminate alcoholic drinks.
-Eliminate soda and all other carbonated beverages.
-Get protein from wild salmon, halibut, nuts (raw and unsalted), beans, and peas, as well as sprouts like lentil and mung.
-Eliminate meat and poultry.
-Replace refined sugars and artificial sweeteners with sparing doses of honey, maple syrup, and brown rice syrup.
-Eliminate all processed foods made with white flour.
-Start a food journal. Track mealtimes, the foods you consume, and how you feel.

Day 2: Boost Nutrients
Now that you’ve eliminated the main nutritional offenders, it’s time to fine-tune your diet. Today you’ll choose those vegetables that lend extra nutrient support as you detox. You may be experiencing general malaise. Drink more water and add small servings of nuts to keep your energy up.
-Go 100 percent organic.
-Vary your vegetables. Eat plenty of colorful veggies, including dark leafy greens.
-Eliminate nightshade vegetables: eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers.
-Enjoy fruit, but avoid all types of citrus and dried fruit.
-Eat fresh foods; eliminate canned and packaged foods.
-Avoid condiments. Season your meals with flavorful herbs and spices instead.

Day 3: Ditch Dairy
Today’s task can prove surprisingly difficult (unless you’re a vegan). But because dairy products — and soy-can cause allergies, eliminating them will give your body a break.
-Remove all dairy.
-Eliminate eggs.
-Eliminate soy. Replace soy milk with almond or rice milk.
-Practice healthy snacking, which will benefit you nutritionally and emotionally, as you make your way through the plan. Try apple slices with a dollop of almond nut butter; cabbage leaves filled with raw vegetables; or carrot sticks and frozen grapes.
-Add seeds (such as sunflower or pumpkin) to your diet. As with nuts, opt for raw and unsalted.

Day 4: Good Grains
You’re now ready to make the final dietary shift, eliminating potentially allergenic grains. With your nutritional changes complete, focus on visualizing the cleansing process that’s under way.
-Eliminate any potentially allergenic grain, including all wheat-derived products, such as bread and crackers. Try amaranth, brown rice, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, oats, and wild rice instead.
-Cut out corn and its derivatives (such as tortilla chips and corn breads). Instead of corn oil, cook with olive oil and use sesame and flax oils for flavor.

Day 5: Slow Down
The next two days emphasize good self-care. When you detox, your energy levels may wane as your body uses energy to eliminate toxins. You may also be feeling cranky or antsy, so take this day to focus inward.
-Counter any symptoms of comfort-food withdrawal with creative snacks. Try “baklava oatmeal,” made with rolled oats, honey, and pistachios, and other invented treats.
-Practice non-food ways to satisfy yourself, such as yoga or tai chi, but avoid fast-paced aerobic activity.

Day 6: Pamper Yourself
Indulge yourself today. Enjoy your favorite home-spa treatments, or try one of these ideas.
-Take a warm shower and apply your favorite salt or sugar scrub to your entire body in circular motions.
-Get a massage.
-Give yourself a steam facial. Cover your head with a towel and lean over a bowl of boiled, herb-infused water (try chamomile or eucalyptus).

Day 7: Take Stock
Now that you’ve reached the final day, how do you feel? Eager to make the transition back to your regular diet? Ready for more cleansing? Either way, note the mind/body boost you feel and consider making detox part of your regular program for health.
-If you’re ready to resume your normal diet, start with the foods you suspect may negatively affect your system (such as dairy or refined carbs). Eat one group at a time for a few days to see how it affects you. Then permanently remove any problem foods from your diet.
-If you’d like to continue beyond the seven days, consult with a reputable program such as Sea Change (seachangehealing.com; 212-889-7300).

Detox Don’ts (and Dos)
Make a shift away from allergenic, inflammatory, or just plain unhealthy foods. We’ve targeted those that contain artificial additives, hormones, saturated fats, or allergy-promoting substances and put organic, nonallergenic, whole foods in their place. Use this list to stay on track.

Avoid: Meat
(beef, pork, and lamb) and all types of poultry
Why? It can contain added hormones and antibiotics
Choose: Ocean game fish such as halibut and salmon, which contain high levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids

Avoid: Potentially Allergenic Protein Sources
(dairy products, eggs, soy products)
Why? Aside from causing allergies in some people, dairy and eggs often contain antibiotics; dairy can cause mild-to-severe digestive distress
Choose: Raw, unsalted nuts and nut butters (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, and walnuts); raw, unsalted seeds (flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower); beans and peas (adzuki, chickpea, kidney, lentil, navy, and pinto); and sprouts (lentil, mung, and pea)

Avoid: Partially Hydrogenated Oils and Saturated Fats
Why? They pose health risks
Choose: Healthy oils such as organic olive and sesame oils

Avoid: Carbonated Water
(in the form of seltzer or in soda)
Why? It can cause bloating, unnecessarily stressing the body during cleansing
Choose: Fresh, filtered water, which helps the body flush out toxins

Avoid: Common Allergenic Grains
(corn, wheat, and white flour and derived products such as breads, cereals, and crackers)
Why? They’re overprocessed; potential allergenic reactions include headache, diarrhea, and irritable bowel syndrome
Choose: Unrefined, fiber-rich, nonallergenic grains (amaranth, buckwheat, oats, quinoa, brown and wild rice) in whole form rather than in breads and pastas

Avoid: Citrus Fruits
(grapefruit, lemon, orange, tangerine, and lime)
Why? They can be allergenic
Choose: All other fruits in natural, whole, organic form (rather than juiced or dried)

Avoid: Nightshade Vegetables
(eggplants, peppers, white/yellow potatoes, tomatoes)
Why? They’re potentially allergenic for some people
Choose: Antioxidant-rich leafy greens (bok choy, collard greens, dandelion, kale, mustard greens, romaine, and spinach) and other colorful vegetables (carrot, pumpkin, yam, and yellow squash)

Avoid: Condiments
(bouillon, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, soy sauce, and tamari)
Why? They’re highly processed; many contain refined sugars and additives
Choose: Flavorful herbs that enhance digestion, such as basil, bay leaf, cinnamon, cumin, fennel, garlic, ginger, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, and sage

Avoid: Refined and Artificial Sugar and Corn Syrup
(found in sodas, alcohol, desserts, and sugar-free gum and diet drinks)
Why? Both refined and artificial sugars pose health risks when used in excess
Choose: Unrefined sugars (honey, maple syrup, and rice syrup) in modest quantities

This is from a roadcycler.com article. Stop getting screwed over with how much energy bars cost. These bars = approx 50-65 cents each to make on your own, a lot better price than the $2 or more per powerbar!

I would make a couple changes to make it a little healthier – use only half a dark chocolate bar.  Use “Better’n Peanut Butter” (which is actually peanut butter, just a lower calorie/fat version) or the natural peanut butter light version (both at Trader’s), 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup honey (use a lighter colored honey).  Throw some dried fruit and puffy cereal in there and voila – you will probably cut off 150 calories per bar and 1/2 the fat.

Energy Bar Consultation

What is that magic stuff they put in those energy bars?  Actually, there aren’t any magic ingredients.  The main benefit of energy bars is their convenienc.  You don’t have to make a well rounded snack.  The main problem I have with them is that they are extremely expensive.  You are paying approximately 30-50 cents more per 100 calories for an energy bar compared to a snack you put together yourself.  If you decide to use energy bars as snacks, just make sure you drink a lot of water with them.

What’s The Difference?

If you’ve ever wondered what the differences are between the average good-for-you snacks and the bad-for-you snacks, see the following:

• Candy Bar: 230 cal, 13 g fat VS Energy Bar: 230 cal, 2 g fat
• Corn chips: 160 cal, 10 g fat VS Pretzels: 110 cal, 1 g fat
• Orange Soda (16 oz): 260 cal; 0% Vitamin C VS 100% Pure Orange Juice (16 oz) 220 cal, 200% Vitamin C (daily value)
• Ice Cream (1 cup): 540 cal, 36 g fat VS Yogurt (1 cup, flavored): 210 cal, 2 g fat

Best Bang For Your Buck

If you are looking to pack as many nutrients into what you eat, check out the following fruits ordered, from top to bottom by how nutrient dense they are.  You’ll never guess what #1 is…

1. Watermelon
2. Grapefruit
3. Papaya
4. Cantaloupe
5. Orange
6. Strawberries
7. Kiwi
8. Raspberries
9. Tangerine
10. Mango

Need Good Snack Ideas?

It’s always good to include three food groups into each snack.  Here are some examples:

• Whole-grain bagel with peanut butter and a (decaf) latte
• Trail mix with granola, nuts, and dried fruit
• Grape-Nuts with yogurt and berries
• Smoothies: milk, yogurt, or juice; fresh frozen fruited; and wheat germ or flax meal

Myth: When I work out, the weight I’m losing is mainly fat.

Have you ever weighed yourself before and after you go to the gym, to see how many pounds of fat you’ve just burned?  Well, I have some news for you… that weight you lost, was mainly water weight.

Did you know sweat rates during a workout commonly ranges between 1-4 lbs. per hour?  60% of the human body is made up of water.

Myth: Toxins and fat are released when I sweat.

So what is all that sweat?  Is it just water?  No!  When you sweat, you are losing vital electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium ).  These help maintain your body’s basic functions.  To replace each type of lost electrolytes during an average workout, Nancy Clarke suggests the following:

Sodium: 1 qt. Gatorade

Potassium: 1 medium banana

Calcium: 8 oz. Yogurt

Magnesium: 2 tbsp medium peanuts butter

How much water should I drink?

The important thing to note here, is that if you sweat too much, you will find yourself fatigued not only after your workout, but throughout the next day.  Dehydration is all too common.  An easy way to keep track of your hydration level is to check the color of your urine.  If it’s dark yellow, then you’ve got a problem.  An extremely athletic female should drink approximately 11 ½ cups (96 oz/6 L) of water per day.  Extremely athletic males should be drinking about  16 cups.  If you are not extremely athletic, 8 cups (48 oz/2 L) per day will do the trick for both sexes.  Another way to calculate your water weight is to divide your weight by two.  If you weigh 150 lbs, you want to drink 75 oz (9 ½ cups/3 L) per day.

Want to know your sweat rate?

To calculate your sweat rate, step on that scale before a one hour workout and then after.  That is your sweat rate/hour.

H20: Before, During, After a Workout:

Before: Try to hydrate up to 8-12 hours prior to a workout.  The goal is to drink about 2-3 ml per pound of body weight at least 4 hours before you exercise.  For a 150 lb. athlete, that would come out to about 300-500 ml (10-15oz/1 ½ -2 cups).

During: It is recommended that you drink every 20 minutes during long workouts (over 3 hours).  You should know your sweat rate and work to replace it to prevent performance decline.

After: Drink as much as you can after a workout.  If you know your sweat rate, replenish at least 50% of that rate.  Sipping fluids over longer periods of time, will maximize the amount of water you body will retain.

Best Sports Beverage

• Check to make sure the drink has sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.
• Vitamins CANNOT be incorporated quickly enough during exercise for you to benefit.
• Watch out for Carbonation – bubbles may cause bloating.
• Say NO to Plastic Bottles – they are wasteful.  Consider purchasing your sports beverages in larger sizes and pouring them into a reusable Nalgene bottle for each workout.

Fruit: 1 ½ cups

Vegetables: 2 ½ cups

Grains: 6 ounces (175 grams) Examples: one slice bread or a ½ cup of cooked pasta or rice = one ounce

Dairy: 3 cups (720 ml) – preferably low-fat or fat free versions

Meat and alternatives: 5 one-ounce equivalents.  Examples of alternatives: 1 egg or 1 tblspn peanut butter, or ½ ounce nuts = 1 ounce meat.  Try to get one small portion of protein into two of your daily meals.

Meat or Alternatives (i.e. tofu) should not be the centerpiece of your meals.  You should not have a giant slab of steak in the center of your dish.  Your meal should be evenly balanced across the five food groups with slightly more carbohydrates if you are an athlete.

I highly recommend purchasing fruits and veggies (and nuts, if possible) from your local farmer’s market.  You will find tastier produce (with higher nutrient value than your typical supermarket produce) and will support your local community.  Also, if you take the time to look at the stickers on produce sold at the supermarket, you will find that many of them have traveled hundreds if not thousands of miles to get into your hand.  The environment has paid a high price for those fruits and veggies to travel that far.  By purchasing from your local farmer’s market you can help prevent this wasteful type of marketing.  Go to www.farmersmarket.com to find your neigborhood market or just Google your city name and the word “farmer’s market”.

To get a custom food plan based on your daily caloric intake, go to www.MyPyramid.gov

How many calories should I be eating? Nancy Clarke is to Sports Nutrition what Stephen Hawkings is to Quantum Physics…that said, I will be referring to her work quite a bit…Clarke recommends the following 4 steps to calculate your daily caloric intake:

1. Estimate Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)  (these are the calories you need just to exist [i.e. breath, think]).  Equation: Goal Weight X 10.  If you want to stay at your current weight, use that.  Otherwise, use your goal weight for this equation.  If your current/goal weight is 125, your RMR is 1,250 calories (125 x 10 = 1,250).  If you are overweight by a significant amount, cut the difference between your current weight and your goal weight in half and use that number.  For example, if you weigh 170 and you would like to weigh 130, use 150 for the equation.
2. Routine Daily Activities: If you are sedentary most of the day, add 20-40% of your RMR to your RMR.  Moderately active, add 50%.  If you are very active, add 60-80%.  Equation: RMR + % RMR Routine Activity.  It’s pretty simple.  Here’s an example: if your RMR is 1,250 calories and you are moderately active throughout the day, you would take 50% of 1,250 = 625 calories and add this number to your RMR and you get 1,875 calories.
3. Exercise: Just add the number of calories you burn in your daily workout to the total you’ve just calculated.  In the previous example of 1,875 calories – if you were to burn 500 calories in a workout, just add this to the 1,875.  The result would be 2,375 calories.  Equation: (RMR + % RMR Routine Activity) + Exercise.  
4. Lose Weight: If your goal is to lose weight, subtract 20 percent of your caloric needs.  Just take the number of calories you calculated thus far and subtract 20%.  Equation: (RMR + % RMR Routine Activity + Exercise) – 20%.  For the ongoing example of 2,375 calories you would: 2,375 X 20% = 475.  Then subtract 475 from 2,375 and you will get a daily caloric intake total of 1,900 calories.

To some of you this may seem like too many calories, but it’s not!  If you want to be a top performer on game day, during your workouts, at work, and in your personal life – eat what your calculated caloric intake says you should.  It is the proper amount of calories you need to feel healthy throughout the day.  Don’t cheat yourself.  You will lose in the long run because your body knows when it needs more calories … the end result will be the munchies … and we all know that never works out for best…

My name is Rose. I am a 26 yo formerly sponsored surfer, competitive horseback rider, competitive gymnast, division 1 pole vaulter, varsity lightweight rower (crew), and half marathon runner.  I grow my own organic vegetables and am an avid outdoor enthusiast.  I have a gastrointestinal disorder that no one can seem to define in addition to an unforgiving ulcer…so for those of you that are athletes with stomach problems – I feel your pain.  After almost collapsing at the finish line of a half marathon, due to stomach pain, I decided to take nutrition seriously.   I would like to invite you to join me on a quest to reach peak athletic/daily living performance through a healthy balance of proper nutrition and adequate exercise.