In our 4Weeks2Fit Nutrition and Detox course, eight participants spent 4 weeks getting rid of some of the mental and physical baggage that was keeping them from their health and fitness goals. Many of them came to realizations that their "harmless habits", like a cup of coffee every day, were actually keeping them from feeling their best. Others began to connect their lack of energy to the gaps in their meals or timing of their food intake.The biggest Ah-Ha, though, was the symbolism of our eating and exercise habits on a scale. Think of all the positive things you do resting on one side of a teeter-totter, and the things that you do to take away from the positive things being on the other side. The point is, to stay balanced. When you don't get enough sleep and you then drink a cup of coffee and have a bagel in a rush, you have now taken 3 things from the positive side and put them on the reverse. Your body is getting more drained of energy in the long-run because you have weighted the side that robs your body of health.
The time to treat yourself with a small coffee or a carbohydrate dense bagel would be when you have had plenty of sleep so your body is better able to flush the caffeine or high glucose intake through your system and use it. Most of the time, however, we add insult to injury by perpetuating the abusive cycle to our body by placing more and more actions on the side that keeps us from feeling great.
I get it. You need that coffee to function that morning, and it is true that in the short term your body may increase it's ability to cope with your lack of sleep. However, that next night, or as the weeks go on, you will become more and more dependent on more and more things to keep you "running". Why not take a step back and see what your body is really capable of on its own?
The participants of this detox lost an average of 5.7 pounds, 1.9% body fat, and 6.9 inches off their body. Not bad for a few weeks of eliminating the baggage in your healthy habits, huh?! Consider where you can clean up your health with a few things this week:
1) Reduce media and TV time
2) Go to bed 10 minutes earlier
3) Drink a glass of water every hour
4) Focus on eating whole foods from nature (veggies, fruits, proteins, and a few sprouted grains)
Let your body show you the miracle it truly is!
