3 Ways to Cleanse & Detox

1. Start the day with a glass of water.

Start as you mean to go on…

We know we need to drink plenty of water to keep our bodies healthy. After all, 60-70% of our body weight is made up of water and it’s important for protecting our organs and keeping our joints healthy. Water is also essential for kidney function to help remove waste from our blood in the form of urine.

There are different guidelines for how much water you should drink each day, but it can be confusing so an easy way to tell if you’re hydrated enough is by just checking that your urine is pale yellow and not dark in colour. (note that vitamins supplements can affect the colour too though)

For me, starting the day with a glass of water sets me up in a good routine and I find I’m much more likely to continue to hydrate myself throughout the day than if I start with a cup of tea or coffee.

Ideally the water should be body temperature. If you have the discipline for this then I applaud you. I personally find that I have more success if I mix things up:

In the winter months I drink hot water, with anything natural added to it – from fresh mint, honey and apple cider vinegar to cinnamon sticks or crushed cardamom pods. It’s great to create your own blends of flavours.

In the summer I opt for cool water with fresh cucumber, orange, mint, raspberries, basil or lime.

2. Know your ingredients

Back in the 90s I worked closely alongside a nutritionist who gave me a really simple rule of thumb to go by when shopping. “If the item has a paragraph of ingredients, half of which you don’t recognise, then don’t eat it” was her advice.

Now we have much more understanding in terms of clean eating, and things have moved on in terms of how much better educated we are about what goes into our body. But I do still follow her advice when shopping for my family as well as myself, and always try to purchase household foods with minimal ingredients listings which are made of wholesome, simple ingredients.

The less toxins you put into your body in the first place, the less you need to try to remove.

3. Dry skin brushing

Again I’ve been doing this daily since the 90s, and I would never be without my body brush.

Dry skin brushing is a great way to help keep your skin feeling healthy.

It’s also thought to help stimulate your lymphatic system – a network of vessels found just under the surface of the skin, which supports the immune system and helps remove waste from the body.

The general guidelines for Dry Skin Brushing are:

- Do it daily on dry skin before a bath or shower.

- Brush in long, gentle strokes.

- Brush towards your lymph nodes (these can be found in most of your large joints such as behind the knees, in the groin, inside the elbows, under the arms and in the neck).

- Clean your brush regularly. (follow the manufacturers advice here).