part0034

Occasionally, I would decide to start a diet on a whim. But more than once I regretted it because my kitchen was full of processed food and sweets and I wasn’t mentally prepared for the diet. The next time I approached it differently, deciding that next Monday I’d start a diet, and doing all I could to prepare myself mentally for it. I stocked low-fat proteins, supplements, nuts, seeds, and sugar-free pop... and got rid of any “bad” food that might beckon me.

I started to care about the foods I ate. I also developed the habit of telling everyone that I was dieting, so they could ask me how it was going. For me, social pressure works well. Because of that, I would hesitate to cheat in front of someone that knew I was on a diet.

Before dieting, I usually measure myself and take a “before” photo. Then I’m ready to get focused on my weight loss. I also do visualization exercises, and visualize myself as a lean, muscle-pumped person. This helps me endure the first few days until I get used to the diet.

So, since this is a diet & detox book, let me tell you few facts about proper detox planning. The goal is, of course, to expel all the toxins from your body. Those toxins are stored primarily in your fat cells and they get expelled from the body through the liver. Now, there is a fixed amount of toxins that the liver can process in 24 hours, so our goal is multifold:

• You want to minimize the ingestion of toxins during the detox period. That can be done by avoiding processed foods, fatty foods (red meat), alcohol, caffeine, fatty cheeses, sugar, etc. These same foods reduce liver function, so you have achieved a double goal by avoiding them.

• You want to make sure that toxins exit your body as fast as possible. Again, there are foods that prevent your body from doing that (low fiber foods), and there are foods that help your body expel toxins, which are foods that are rich in fiber.

You can also help your liver work better if you enhance your liver enzyme function. This is where bitter foods come into play (kale, spinach and other leafy greens, green tea, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, garlic). These foods are also high in fiber.

To protect yourself from all these toxins, you need to consume antioxidant-rich foods during your detox. Berries, green tea, and lemon are antioxidant-rich foods.

Finally, you also need something to speed up the elimination of toxins from your body. This will require the consumption of a lot of water and green tea as well as a lot of fiber. Veggies, fruits, oats, and legumes are the best source of fiber.

Basically, if you just switch to the Clean Foods Superfoods Smart Carbs Diet, you’ll get all the benefits and you’ll detox your body in few weeks anyway. But let’s start with 20 days Detox and slowly get introduced to the Clean Foods Superfoods Smart Carbs Diet. Some people like to start with the full detox, meaning they’ll eat just vegetables and fruits, but that can be quite hard. I propose to start slower and to have those vegetables and fruits after few days. So, the first 2 days are following rules of the Clean Foods Superfoods Smart Carbs Diet. The next 2 days are days without meats or fish and with almost no dairy or eggs. Following that, there are 4 full detox days. Then you’ll go back slowly to the Clean Foods Superfoods Smart Carbs Diet.