The Beauty Detox Solution (5 page)
Read The Beauty Detox Solution Online
Authors: Kimberly Snyder
Where do these toxins come from? They are the preservatives and chemicals
in
our food, and also food particles that are not properly digested. The improperly digested foods become breeding grounds for “unfriendly” bacteria, yeasts and mold in our body, and the wastes they release are acidic and toxic (for more information on this, see the
Alkaline-Acid Principle
The Cleaner the Body, the Clearer the Mind
Detoxification is not just about the body. Detoxification also serves to purify the mind, because when our bodies are cleansed, our minds become more clear and we are able to strengthen our focus on what we really want to achieve in our lives. In this clear, clean space, there is no room for chronic negativity, depression, violence, jealousy or anger. We become more naturally magnetic to others, and more at peace with who we really are.
The more internal blockages we have, the less we will feel our absolute best in both our body and mind. Conversely, the cleaner we are, the more energy and focus we have to be able to accomplish our personal, physical and spiritual goals.
There truly is an undeniable connection between our bodies and our minds. Unfortunately, over the last few decades, as medical science has put a large emphasis on medications and surgery, the emphasis on internal cleansing and the belief in the body's ability to heal itself have virtually disappeared.
The Beauty Detox Solution works to gently loosen up years-old waste in your body and flush it out, along with any past emotions and attachments that may have been “stored” along with it. Ancient Hindu and yogic beliefs teach us that our Manipura chakra, or energy center, is located in our navel and belly area. It is associated with the element of fire and, when blocked, is the place where we can store the emotions of anger and bitterness in our bodies. Clearing out the sludge means we don't have to drag all that “old stuff” around with us anymore. We can live in the present with a much sharper and clearer mind, and discover more joy and happiness.
True Beauty Story
MY CLIENT ALEXIS MOORE IS A SUCCESSFUL, DRIVEN TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD WHO
has a great job in advertising at a large firm in midtown Manhattan. Like the stereotypical New York young professional, she has a type A personality and lives her life on a very tightly planned scheduleâfrom her prework gym routine to dinner meetings or after-dinner drinksâand packs her weekends with appointments, brunches and get-togethers. She's the kind of girl that wears heels and pearls on Saturday morning and always has perfect makeup and manicured nails. You know who I'm talking about! She approaches her diet from the same controlled perspective. She keeps a food diary and can tell me exactly how many calories and grams of carbs, fat and protein she ate at each meal, as well as during the entire day.
The problem was that even with all that careful counting, Alexis was still a good ten pounds heavier than her ideal weight. For someone very used to controlling outcomes, she was incredibly frustrated with the difficulties she was having with her weight. She did lose weight periodically but always ended up gaining it all back when she didn't follow her closely monitored diet to a T. Of course, it was inevitable that she could not be perfect
all
the time! She wanted to flatten her belly “pooch” and target the fat on her thighs.
Over our sessions I got Alexis to see food as more than just a bunch of numbers. We had an in-depth discussion on how weight loss and energy have everything to do with how well (or poorly) we digest our food. The degree of digestibility and how much certain foods contribute to
sludge
cannot be derived simply from looking at numbers like calorie content.
At first, Alexis was reluctant to let go of her old beliefs, and she wanted to cling to her old foods that were low carb and low calorie (like her daily protein bars) but simultaneously difficult to digest. It was mentally difficult for her to see that she had possibly been doing something wrong for so long. I steered her away from labeling things as “right” or “wrong” by instead using more holistic ways to think about food. How close is the food to its natural state? What sort of process did it undergo to wind up in that package at the grocery store? Our health and weight-loss goals should
always
be looked at from a holistic perspective.
After a few weeks Alexis started to get the hang of evaluating which foods required less energy for digestion, and began to focus her energy on not just counting calories but also on sticking to natural, easily digestible foods. Her energy immediately increased and, as we continued to cleanse, it got higher and higher. She had no problem waking up for her early workouts, and in fact she reported that they got better and even more intense. She trimmed off four pounds the first two weeks, then hit a plateau and fluctuated for the next few weeks. After two months she was down a net of twelve poundsâ¦and she has kept it off now for over a year. Her body looks sleek and trimâ¦hot! Not only did she lose weight, but she eliminated bloat, gas and waste stored in her body.
I see Alexis only occasionally nowâwhen she swoops in wearing her perfectly pressed dress pants and matching tailored shirts, armed with a list of very detailed, specific questions. She has applied that intelligence and energy to going deeper into the Beauty Detox lifestyle. She is vibrant, loving her new body, full of energy, much more lighthearted and, dare I say, more laid-back!
Only when we cleanse can the energy in our body be distributed to rebuild the beauty and lustrous qualities of our skin and hair, add sheen to our eyes, and firm up and tighten our skin.
Even though I have eaten a diet mostly made up of high-quality greens, other vegetables and unprocessed foods for years, I am amazed at how this program continues to work. I am constantly hitting new levels of energy and seeing improvements in my skin and body!
Most diets out there are focused on the number of calories or grams of carbs and protein to consume, yet they make no effort to deduce how efficientlyâor notâour system can break down or use any given food. These eating plans do not consider the factor of Beauty Energy and how it is used up in digesting foods that are difficult to break down. You may not even realize which foods are hard to break down, but you will by the end of
The Beauty Detox Solution!
Calories and grams of carbs and proteins alone do not give a holistic picture of how healthy a food is
within the human body,
how nutrient dense it is or how much fiber it has. Nor do they give us any clues as to the amount of foreign chemicals, preservatives and additives that may be in that given food. That is the very reason that dieting and losing weight have always seemed like such a miserable chore and struggle, a struggle that most of us feel we are losing, along with our energy levels. Don't worry, because you are soon going to learn the
easy
way to lose weight and get your energy back up again!
The high content of enzyme-rich, living foods in the Beauty Detox Solution will help cleanse and unclog the waste from the villi in the intestines so the body can start to absorb nutrients optimally. This creates more Beauty Energy. Weight will come off, and beauty will increase!
We must respect how incredibly powerful our bodies are. Our body has the ability to heal itself, and it will achieve its highest potential if we clear the way for it to do so. We need to clear out all the foreign junk and toxicity. Remember the wheel analogy? We have to get the clogging sludge out of the spokes so we can look and feel our best. Each and every one of us has this potential for natural healing and beauty within us; we just have to understand and work with Beauty Energy to make the most of it.
Building up toxic waste in the body can take many years, even decades, so detoxification on a deeper level is not something that can happen instantly. It should be a gradual, controlled and regulated processâ¦and it needs to take place continuously! In fact, detoxification that happens too quickly can be very uncomfortableâwe can actually feel or become ill. But we can start to see changes fairly quickly by making important shifts in the foods we are eating, when we eat them, and the order in which we do so.
THE ALKALINE-ACID PRINCIPLE
Perhaps you haven't thought about acid or alkaline measurements since chemistry class in high school. But maintaining the balance of alkalinity and acidity in our bodies and tissues is one of the most important roles of nutrition. We need to understand this principle, as it is key to fighting aging and weight gain.
The balance between alkalinity and acidity is referred to as pH, which stands for “power of hydrogen,” and reflects the concentration of hydrogen ions in any given solution. The pH scale ranges from totally acidic at 0.0 to totally alkaline at 14.0, making 7.0 neutral. The higher the pH number of something over 7.0, the more alkaline it is.
All foods leave either an alkaline or an acidic residue in the bloodstream due to whether they contain more alkaline or more acid minerals. What is important for our health and beauty is the way the foods break down in our body and the
residue
that foods leave. Don't get confused by the fact that the word “acidic” is used to describe the taste or flavor profile of a food. For instance, limes or lemons add an “acid” balance to a recipe, but when
digested,
both leave an alkaline ash in our bodies. It is not helpful to evaluate the pH of a particular food in isolation, because how it breaks down in the body is a whole other story. Dairy milk in isolation has an alkaline pH, but when it is digested it leaves an extremely acidic residue in the body. Digesting animal products also produces acidic compounds.
Different areas of our body have different pH requirements. For instance, our tissues should be slightly alkaline, while our colon should be slightly acidic. When you average all the areas of the body together, the net average would optimally be slightly alkaline. Our ideal blood pH is 7.365,
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and it must stay within a tight range in order for us to maintain optimal health.
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Under normal circumstances, and when we are eating a diet rich in alkaline-forming foods, our bodies have no difficulty maintaining this optimal, slightly alkaline pH.
BEAUTY TIP
Overfed, yet Starving for Beauty Nutrients
Another reason we overeat and struggle so much with calorie counting and portion size while still being hungry is that our bodies are not fully absorbing nutrients. Nutrients are absorbed through tiny hairlike villi along the walls of our intestines. We have over seven thousand feet of surface area in our small intestine.
However, if the tiny villi get clogged, we will not feel nourished, no matter how much we eat. The villi are easily clogged by the waste products of foods that our bodies can't metabolize and utilize efficiently, and that also promotes the production of excessive mucus or yeast. Just a few examples of these clogging foods are processed or microwaved foods, canned foods, refined sugars, cow's milk and other dairy products, excessive animal protein and white flour-based foods.
Another way the villi can get clogged is from the excessive growth of yeasts and fungus in the body. In his book
The pH Miracle,
Robert O. Young, Ph.D., explains how yeast and fungus impede nutrient absorption: “They can cover large sections of the membrane lining the inside of the small intestine, displacing probiotics and preventing your body from getting the good stuff out of what you eat. This can leave you starving for vitamins, minerals, and especially protein, regardless of what you actually put in your mouth. I estimate that more than half of adults in the United States are digesting and absorbing less than half of what they eat.”
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When we aren't absorbing nutrients, our bodies tell us to keep eating, though we have just been fed. Thus begins the utterly deflating and guilt-inducing cycle that most of us are all too familiar with: eating more, even when we know we have just eaten plenty of food and, yes, plenty of calories. I totally understand the frustration and have experienced it myself.
Why am I still hungry when I just ate an eight hundred calorie lunch?
Raw food nutrition pioneer Dr. Norman Walker writes in depth about the effects of eating processed and devitalized foods. As he explains in
Colon Health:
“If a person has eaten processed, fried and overcooked foods, devitalized starches, sugar and excessive amounts of salt, his colon cannot possibly be efficient, even if he should have a bowel movement two to three times a day!”
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In other words, the prevalence of our bowel movements, while very important, does not necessarily indicate how cleansed and toxin free our bodies are. We can still have clogged intestinal villi, as well as impaction and waste matter pushed deep into our bodies, which keeps us from absorbing the nutrients we need.