The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet: Activate Your Body's Natural Ability to Burn Fat and Lose Weight Fast (13 page)

Most of us are completely blasted every day with input from all sorts of places that overwhelm our nervous systems: the news, television, radio, the Internet, smartphones, e-mails, text messages, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram… there seems to be more and more input every day.
While these things are often great sources of information, entertainment, and connection, they also have a dark side. They swallow up our attention and our energy and create subtle but constant stress that distracts us from deep healing.

I recently took a ten-day trek in the Himalayas of Bhutan and was completely removed from all that stimulation. I noticed a calm, deep peace and a dramatic reduction in anxiety, not to mention better sleep and a greater sense of well-being. Of course, being away from work and in the mountains on vacation was helpful, but it was more than that. I often find myself addictively checking my smartphone for e-mails, texts, news, messages, and it takes a toll on me. It’s really another form of addiction. In fact, in the new
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-V), “Internet Addiction Disorder” is listed as a “condition for further study.” Yikes!

I encourage you to take a media fast—a holiday from all nonessential electronic inputs, including television and radio. Think of this program as a detox not just for your body, but for your mind as well—an opportunity to lose all the mental weight and baggage that gets in the way of noticing what is important and true in life.

Now it’s time to add in the good stuff!

Each of the elements in the Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet is included because of its powerful ability to help your body heal, detoxify, and shed excess pounds. This special combination of foods and lifestyle practices is scientifically designed to work synergistically to
help accelerate and optimize your results. You’ll be adding in these potent healing and detoxifying elements:

The meals and recipes in this program are specifically designed to flood your body with superfoods and phytonutrients to maximize the detoxification process in every cell. In a healthy body, the process of detoxification runs smoothly. When we are toxic, though, the mechanism for detoxification in the liver gets sluggish, and certain toxins can remain active longer than we want or than our systems can handle. This makes us sick and impedes normal metabolism. It also causes fluid retention, bloat, and puffiness.

If you are overweight, you are toxic by definition because most environmental chemicals like pesticides and plastics are stored in your fat tissue. As you lose weight, you need to flush out the toxins that get released from your fat tissue; otherwise, they can poison your metabolism and impair weight loss.

Certain foods speed up the process of detoxification and allow more effective and efficient weight loss. The foods that help boost these detox pathways are those rich in B vitamins, vitamin A, vitamin C, and antioxidants and special detoxifying chemicals called phytonutrients
that are naturally found in bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cayenne pepper, cilantro, collards, garlic, ginger, kale, lemon, onion, parsley, rosemary, watercress, and sea vegetables like wakame, arame, and kombu. Eggs are not a plant food but contain detoxifying nutrients and sulfur.