The Difference Between Weight Loss Diet And Detox

Many people often mistake detox with weight loss diets. Actually, there is a big difference between them. They differ on the impact to the body as well as on the psychological motivation we have while we perform them. And it is definitely much better to detox your body regularly, in stead of doing a diet on and off.

The weight loss diet is performed with only one purpose in mind – to lose a kilo or two. The mind is focused solely on the weight loss and it is thrilled by each change in the numbers of the scales. Respectively, in the absence of change in those numbers, we get depressed. When we are on a slimming diet, we often eat one and the same foods in minimal amount or even we eat food, which further fills our body with toxins, only because it will help us loose some weight. So, after a diet even if we’ve achieved the desired weight, our body is exhausted and needs recovery.

Moreover, our body perceives the weight loss diet as a surprising aggression, so after the end of the diet, our body is doing everything possible to restore the reserves lost… Weight loss diets often lead to metabolic slow down, which makes further weight loss very difficult. This happens, because the body gets some food to process, but it is in a small amount, therefore it slows down the metabolism, so that the food’s energy it got can last longer. Our body remembers this period of scarcity, so when it gets a larger amount of food, it tries to put it in store. Therefore the results of slimming diets are of short duration, but unfortunately people often mistake that they just haven’t found the right diet and continue to test more and more weight loss diets, when in fact they only torture their bodies.

On the other hand, the detox of the organism is performed so that the body can get rid of the accumulated toxins, which improves our health and our immune system. The motivation behind the detox is to improve your health, your energy condition and the ability of the mind to focus, but some people are doing it also in order to support their spiritual growth. Of course, with detox people often lose some extra kilos. In order to protect the internal organs from toxins, our body often surrounds those toxins with a fat layer. When we get rid of the toxins, our body no longer needs this protective fat. But this is only a useful side effect. The goal is far different.

Often when people encounter the detox methods for the first time, they tend to accept them as another radical weight loss diet. But actually the mindset – that we’re doing this for our own health, is of great importance. Exactly this mindset gives us the motivation to deal with the way of detox we have chosen. And unlike weight loss diets, the detox methods are designed in such way, that they activate the body’s recovery, so it is given the opportunity to take care of itself.

Detox can be done in many ways. If we have never done any detox before, it is best to start with some easier program for a short period of time. Me personally, I like very much the developed by the Bulgarian nutritionist Nadia Petrova method for purification of the body through raw foods. If possible, I recommend you to get her book “14 days detox”, where she very thoroughly and with sample recipes explains how to cleanse our body. So her idea as a whole is to eat only raw foods for 14 days and in the middle of this period to spend three days only on water, tea and juices, respectively, if someone is not comfortable, they can add some smoothies as well. For beginners this is probably the best option one can purify their body, because it is light and well balanced.

Another option for purification of the body is detox on juice, where one or more days we take only fresh juice. Here we have to be careful to drink sufficient amount of juice and to make sure we don’t drink only fruit juice, but also enough vegetable juice. One can also do detox only on tea and water or water alone. In addition, there are purifications of the different body organs. The wheat regimen of Beinsa Douno is also a very good option for a fresh start for our body. There is also a yoga purifying with salt water, where two liters of salted water should be drunk in 4 equal parts while we do certain exercises and this cleanses the intestinal flora. This is only a brief example of different detox types, so that I can give you a general idea about it and so that you can make the difference between detox and weight loss diets.

Typical for the detox is that you have to feed yourself carefully and with light foods the first few days after it and this is extremely important, don’t miss it! You’ve given your stomach a rest during the detox and as it has rested a while, if you suddenly give it too much food, and especially if this food is tough to deal with, you might experience bad consequences. Therefore, it is necessary to always listen to your body and in the moment you feel that you have reached your limits, then you have to stop the detox on time, so that you are able to adopt the solid foods gradually in your menu again.

Me personally, I try to take only water, tea and juice one day a week. In this way I manage to restore the balance in my body and give my stomach this much needed rest. This does not mean that the other days I’m allowed to eat junk foods just because I give my body time to recover. From times to times I can afford something unhealthy, but it shouldn’t become a habit.

Besides the weekly detox, it is good when seasons change – most often in spring and autumn, to do also a longer detox – i.e. twice a year to give a longer rest to your body.

Detox is done as prevention. It helps us keep our body in good shape and it is not done only by people who have extra weight. People who have not enough kilos can also do it, because with detox we bring the function of gastrointestinal tract back to normal and this way we absorb the necessary nutrients better.

Detox is a precious gift to our body, but here as well it is better to observe the principle of non-violence. Especially when we have never done a detox before, it is unusual for the body and we might get a headache, dizziness or fatigue due to the many toxins that start to come out. If we have never done detox before, it is not a good idea to start with a long 10-day-fast on water. It is best to start with one day on juice or as we mentioned above, you can start with a longer program on raw foods.

It is time for something new! Let us right now build a wonderful habit to detox our body regularly and to forget the word: “weight loss diet”!