Hi everyone!

Just like that – the Holidays have come to a close. Did anyone else feel like it flew by?

I had my fair share of gluten free treats and wine, and with a very busy January on the horizon I want to take the best possible care of myself, so thought I’d share my plan.1

The word detox has some bad connotations, primarily with the mainstream media. However, I like to think of the word detox as simply giving your body time to reset, removing some of the not so good foods, and adding a ton of the healthy stuff into your routine.

What I’m Removing:

• Sugar. My gauge for whether I need to stop sugar completely for a bit is how much I’m wanting it. After a couple of weeks of xmas, I found myself wanting it a LOT more than normal. Ask yourself the same thing – is it easy for you to go a day without it? If not, might be time to do something about it. For me, cutting sugar is much easier to do when I’ve got the good food ready and in the fridge. Essentially, I’ll be following the meal plans in my own Wellness Challenge.
• Dairy. It’s not that I eat a lot of dairy anyways, but it was creeping back into my diet over the last month. Any sort of mucous in the ear/nose/throat, or digestive symptoms like bloating can usually be significantly reduced or eliminated by removing cow’s dairy. Of course, all of my recipes in the Wellness Challenge are dairy free. 🙂

What I’m Adding:

• All of the veggies. 7 servings a day is the goal. People’s eyes usually pop out of their head when I say this, but it means you’re having 2 servings with each meal, and 1 with a snack. This makes clean eating SO much easier, not to mention that the nutrients in vegetables are what support your body’s natural detoxification system.
• I know some of the feedback from the Wellness Challenge last year was that people were surprised how much they enjoyed eating so many veggies. I think the hardest part is knowing how to eat them and make them taste good, so feel free to check out any of my main recipes as there’s usually a ton of veggies in each recipe.

Other Things I’ll Be Doing:

• Trying to sweat as much as possible. If you read the guest post, Natural Ways To Detox, you’ll see that saunas are a fabulous way to detox. If you don’t have access to a sauna, a good ol’ sweat sesh, whether it’s from a hard workout or hot yoga, will do the trick!
• Supporting my liver. After a time of indulging both in treats and alcohol, I find liver support to be really useful. I like the Liver / GI Detox by Pure Encapsulations, but I’ll be providing more guidelines to this in the Wellness Challenge.
• Focusing on sleep. This is perhaps less detox oriented and more self care oriented. A good night’s sleep makes avoiding the sugar that much easier though!

How are you planning to take a bit of extra care this January?