A Toxin-Free Diet For the New Year

I’d love to say I did this the week between Christmas and New Year’s a started the 1st with a clean slate. I cannot tell a lie! January is actually a full month of cleaning out, weeding out, and getting cleared in every possible way. In my business, my support team, my personal space, and work and home environments. It ends up being a huge life detox! The freedom and lightness, the room for better, not more to come in opens up real opportunities, right along with the very possibility you will say “no” and feel good about that!

In each of my programs and most recent book I discuss the stress from a toxic environment and the effect it has on your goals of optimal weight and energy. Here’s how I take the plunge to really deep cleanse and prepare for better every year and then maintain as well as possible throughout.

Pantry Raid

1. Tossing expired items. The first time I did this, I had items that had been expired for six years sitting in my cupboard!
2. Organizing new recipes.
3. Stocking up on every day dry goods and travel items. Thrive Market has become a regular stop for me. There are things that save me from driving to 3-4 stores (who has time to do that?) and saves me money too. I’ve got a running list of items I either can’t find locally, can buy here for less, and that I fail to think about too often when I need them for traveling last minute.
4. Supplement stock up. I run out of dog food. There, I said it. I find it silly that this could happen. Like running out of diapers with babies. (and yes, that came close to happening too) You know they’re going to need to eat again. You can see it coming. So it’s no wonder that I run out of vitamins and supplements if I don’t stock up and put a sticky note on my supply to reorder BEFORE I’m out. At the beginning of the year I get more diligent about this again. I can’t run down to the drugstore and buy my vitamins. I use and recommend a formula that is made to have the best absorption, the least competition (yes micronutrients compete for a seat on the bus), and is easy to drink instead of popping a pill. (My fav is vanilla and choc though many of my clients prefer the unflavored)
5. Protein restock. Believe it or not, I have to order my own products! I love love the Girls Gone Paleo. I use Your Whey pre and or post exercise, and I use Plant Powered Girl and love the fact I’ve finally found a plant-based option I like! My significant other says he actually likes the plant-based better than the others! I just smiled and nodded. #winning I am a believer that adequate protein is required, mandatory, for keeping lean muscles and for the one-two punch that protein and fiber offer for killing cravings.

A Tech Cleanse

1. Set boundaries on being online vs. being productive. I manage several Facebook groups and belong to several for fitness and wellness experts as well. I don’t, however, live online. Live is out here.
2. Set purpose: research, writing, posting, community. This is how I make a plan and work the plan. If it is an emergency someone will email me. I’m going to check that more frequently because that’s how my VIP private clients contact me. I have a phone and I give my phone number out. If someone has to get ahold of me they can and will.
3. Cautious contact. I don’t wear my phone on my body. Ever. There is a correlation with men who wear cell phones on their belt or have it in their pocket and prostate cancer. Use a blue tooth when possible. Carry it in a purse or bike pouch and not in the back pocket of your bike jersey. If you’re doing anything regularly, look twice at the effect of it on your body.
4. Overnight success. I try to go 12 hours without connection. That doesn’t always happen but at least 8 does, and trying to stretch it to 10 is getting closer!
5. Midnight to midnight cleanse once a week. Once a week I seek a midnight to midnight unplug. No one is that important. If you’ve forgotten how to do this, start small. Make it a computer first. Then a phone or vice versa. I watched as men in the hot tub at the pool and a swim coach (during a lesson) were on their phones. We’ve gotten to the point where we can’t be in the moment for fear of missing something. What we’re missing, I think, is life.

Skin Products

1. Tossing old products. Like your spice rack, the medicine cabinet and bathroom drawers need a swipe from time to time.
2. Stock up on Plant-based oils and toxin-free skin care products. I use and love Annmarie Skincare products! I love them for my selfish self and skin…and for the fact that the husband and wife duo support Flipping 50 TV by giving each of our selected applicants a full size trio of products. What do I love most? Can’t choose! Won’t! The facial scrub, the mud mask, the honey mask, the anti-aging eye cream, the brightening serum… don’t take my word. Try it yourself. They’ll send you a sample kit free for the Shipping. Then they’ll include a $10 off coupon so essentially if you love it (you will) the sample will be free! You can choose based on the type of skin you have.
3. Cover home, gym bag, travel. I restock with items that are toxin-free for every where. I hate getting to the gym and not having the right things in the bag. It’s so easy to dash home, stash the bag and do the same lame routine again! Make the gym (or travel) experience easy and enjoyable by regularly putting the right things in your bag instead of relying on what’s there (or finding nothing is!)

Closest Cleaning

1. Donating items I’ve not worn in two years. Once you’ve done #2, it’s easier and painless!
2. Storing items I’ve not worn in a year. I just move them out and then realize I have a whole lot fewer but better choices!
3. Shopping post-holiday sales: PJs, exercise clothes, outerwear. I LOVE sleep. And I make it as comfortable and inviting as possible. PJ Salvage is my brand of choice. And I just stocked up on sets of jammies out of need…I literally wore holes in the ones I’ve worn for 5 years. Even though I have others, if these were clean, I’d pull them out. Like old friends!

Clothing Care

1. Spare the wear and tear. I try to wear out my clothes and not wash them out.
2. Minimize the water. I wait until there’s really a need to wash a load.
3. Clean cleaning products. Shifting to detergents and spot removers that are safe, and avoiding traditional dry cleaners whenever possible is becoming my norm.
4. Dryer care. I’ve been blessed with a sister-in-law that has skills and she’s shared with me dryer balls that mean no more toxic dryer sheets.

Cleaning and Air Care

1. Essential oil blends have been a go-to recipe for years. I used to teach in the department of Kinesiology at Iowa State University. During the time I was there I was asked to teach a health studies course and through it met a mom in the community whose son was diagnosed with cancer when he was five. Environmental factors, together with a depleted immune system can make the cancer cells that live in any of us more likely to emerge. Eliminate those toxic cleaners and protect yourself and your family. The very things you think might make your environment germ-free might be making you sick.
2. Fragrance and chemical-free environmentally friendly products. This is a tough one for those of us that like our perfume. Find a good substitute by returning to essential oils and plant based products.
3. Diffuser/humidifier. I have been using a diffuser that humidifies my bedroom for months now regularly. Initially, at the onset of a cold or dry weather, this is a skinsaver too. I use lavender and it goes on at bedtime and off when I leave the bedroom in the morning.

One of the best ways to learn more about how much toxins might be getting in the way of your fitness is to grab my free resource below and take a simple Do It Yourself challenge for 14 days: