The New Year is here, and I’ve talked to more than one person who’s feeling the effects of overindulging a bit over the holidays. In December, it’s fun to enjoy the holiday cookies, an extra glass of wine, and your favorite holiday dishes. BUT, it can leave you feeling a bit heavier than normal, bloated, tired, and craving sugar.

So what can you do to get back on track? An extremely effective strategy to jumpstart your health and weight loss goals is to do a short-term detox. To be clear, I’m not referring to one of those “don’t-eat-anything-for-21-days” or “drink only juice” kinds of detoxes. A detox doesn’t need to be drastic or include lots of supplements in order to be effective.

Instead, what I recommend is to commit to 21 days of eating healthy and nourishing your body. More specifically, during a detox you will…

• Avoid the foods that may be toxic or inflammatory to your body…such as sugar, gluten, and dairy.
• Replace those foods with ones that are nutrient dense…such as vegetables, fruit, and good quality fats.
• Support the natural detoxification processes in your body with things like detox baths and dry body brushing.

By committing to a detox for 21 days, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you feel better and start losing weight! Then, it’s so much easier to stick with those healthy habits all year long.

Let’s look at the top 11 reasons why it’s a great idea to do a detox after the holidays…

11 Benefits of Doing a Detox in the New Year

1) Reset Your Eating Habits

It doesn’t take long for bad habits to creep in during the holidays…or any time of year for that matter!  Doing a 21 day detox with structure and guidelines is an amazing way to stop those bad habits in their tracks and to get the good habits back in place!

2) Get Rid of Cravings

Holiday treats, extra carbs, and alcohol wreak havoc on your blood sugar levels and make sugar cravings feel out of control. But, by eliminating sugar for just 21 days, you can get rid of, or at least dramatically reduce, your sugar cravings. By the end of a detox, you’ll feel like a new person who is no longer controlled by sugar.

3) Eliminate Bloating, Stomach Upset, & Heaviness

Digestive upset and discomfort is a common issue for many people, and it tends to get worse when you eat more sugar, carbs, alcohol, and processed foods. A well structured detox will help you pinpoint which foods might be causing your stomach issues. Once you remove those foods for a few weeks, you’ll find that your stomach feels so much better!

4) Boost Your Mood

We don’t usually think about how food affects our mood, but our physical health greatly impacts our mental health. By removing foods your body is sensitive to, eliminating toxins from your body, and improving the health of your gut, you may be surprised by how much happier, calmer, and less stressed you feel.

5) Get Your Energy Back

When I offer a group detox, the first benefit that participants usually notice is that they have more energy. The food you eat either zaps your body of energy…making you feel tired, sluggish, and unmotivated…OR it will nourish your body and make you feel like you can take on the world!

6) Jumpstart Weight Loss

Let’s be honest…weight loss is the #1 goal most people choose to work on in the New Year. But, it can feel challenging to start a new “diet” or program when you’re still battling sugar cravings.  Detoxes are my favorite way to jumpstart weight loss because a good detox is designed to support the health of your body and to reduce inflammation. Weight loss then becomes a natural side effect of improving the health of your body.

7) Learn Healthy Eating Habits that You Continue Long Term

I’m not a proponent of short-term “diets” because they don’t work, they create an unhealthy relationship with food, and they don’t support the health of your body. A detox, however, can teach you the foundations of a healthy eating lifestyle. It will help you identify which foods work well for your body and which ones are best reduced or eliminated. A detox also encourages you to try new foods and recipes that you’ll continue eating.

8) Give Your Body Time to Rest & Recover

A detox is an amazing way to take care of your body because you’re temporarily removing many substances that can be “toxic” to the body, such as alcohol, caffeine, and inflammatory foods. When you remove them for 3 weeks, you allow your body to rest. You replenish your store of nutrients. And you allow your body’s detoxification system to function how it was designed to.

9) Decrease Inflammation So Your Joints Feel Better

Inflammation is the root of so many illnesses and diseases. One very common symptom of inflammation, though, is joint pain, achiness, and stiffness. It’s so amazing that you can greatly decrease inflammation just by changing what you eat! After completing my first detox, I vividly remember waking up in the morning feeling refreshed and without any stiffness, aches, or pains…and it was great!  I didn’t realize that those aches and pains didn’t have to be “normal” for me.

10) Clear Skin and Glowing Complexion

The health of our skin truly begins on the inside. When you are healthy on the inside, that will be reflected in your skin. And when you aren’t healthy on the inside, that also tends to be reflected in your skin. This may show up as acne, dry skin, rosacea, eczema, rashes, and so much more. By doing a detox, people often notice that their skin begins to look and feel better!

11) A Sharp, Clear, & Focused Mind

You know that feeling of fogginess in your brain or that sense that you’re just not as mentally sharp as you’d like to be? That, too, is often caused by what you’re eating, toxins in your body, and the health of your gut. Doing a detox will jumpstart the process of getting your thinking back on track, too!

What to Look for In a Healthy Detox

While I’m not an advocate of short-term and quick fix diets, what I love about detoxing is that you’re truly supporting the health of your body. Then, when you feel better than you have in a long time, you’re motivated to continue with the healthy habits you learned in a detox.

There are many detox options out there, and some are amazing while others will leave you feeling hungry, miserable, and ready to quit!

In order to get the benefits I mentioned above, here’s a few tips on what a well designed detox will include:

• The detox should be focused on removing the foods that are most likely the source of food sensitivities and inflammation. The removal of these foods is what truly allows you to experience quick improvements in your energy levels, digestion, weight loss, and so much more!

• Ideally, the detox will also help you figure out which foods you’re sensitive to and might be causing some of your health issues and weight gain.
  

• The detox should be filled with lots of delicious and nutrient-dense foods. This will make the detox more enjoyable so that you stick with it, but it will also replenish nutrients that many Americans are deficient in. You don’t need to only drink juice or to starve yourself to see the benefits of detoxing!

• The detox program should also give you ideas on how to support your body through the process. Your body is designed to eliminate toxins, but during a detox it’s helpful to support the detoxification process with tools such as detox baths and dry body brushing. This will make your detox experience more enjoyable and may reduce some of the negative short-term side effects that can come with a detox.

• The detox should provide support. While you can do a detox on your own, I’ve found that having support dramatically increases how successful the detox is for you. Because then you can ask questions when you’re confused or stuck, get encouragement when you’re ready to give up, and you won’t feel like you’re in this alone.

Reset: The 21 Day Detox

So are you ready to jumpstart your health and weight loss goals by doing a detox? If so, I’m excited to announce that I’ve created a 21 Day Detox that has been carefully designed to meet all of the above criteria so that you have an enjoyable detox experience.

Reset: The 21 Day Detox lays out exactly how to be successful with a step-by-step plan, suggested meal plans, delicious recipes, and coaching to help you stay on track.

So, if you are COMMITTED to improving your health, losing weight, and increasing your energy, this 21 Day Winter Detox is exactly what you need to get started!

Group detoxes are offered once a season, so jump on the waitlist to be notified as soon as the next detox is announced. You’ll also be eligible for special early bird pricing!

If you’re ready to detox NOW, then simply email Christina at christina@christinajohnsonwellness.com. She’ll send you all the details and then personally guide you through the detox experience!

I know this detox can get you all the amazing benefits I’ve described, and I’m so excited for you to get started!