Completing a Functional Medicine Detox is an incredible step toward resetting your body and revitalizing your health from the inside out. Rooted in Ayurvedic principles, it's recommended every 12 weeks (quarterly), to help your body transition smoothly from one season to the next. A Functional Medicine Detox works by replenishing nutrient deficiencies, removing accumulated toxicities, and restoring healthy inflammatory responses. Many experience far reaching benefits including improvements in energy, mood, skin issues, sleep quality and supportive weight management.
But how can you continue to support your body's natural detoxification processes after the detox to sustain the benefits and maintain your results?
Post-detox, your body is primed to absorb the full benefits of this reset, with enhanced detoxification pathways, improved nutrient absorption, and a newfound sense of balance. This is why incorporating foundational nutrition principles, targeted supplementation, and natural detox modalities into your routine can help sustain the benefits and keep you feeling your best between detoxes. Here's how:
A well-rounded approach to nutrition plays a key role in supporting your body's overall well-being and maintaining balance. By focusing on whole, nutrient-dense foods, balancing blood sugar levels, optimizing meal timing and frequency, and adopting supportive eating habits, you can enhance your body's processes, promote detoxification, and nurture long-term health. This includes:
Top Detox Foods: Incorporate foods known to support liver function, including cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, leafy greens, beets, garlic, and lemons. Aim for foods that are nutrient dense, anti-inflammatory and rich in antioxidants that promote optimal detoxification as the foundation for all diets
Digestive Rest: Eating balanced meals that include protein, healthy fats, and carbohydrates can help keep you satiated for several hours between meals, allowing digestion to fully complete and stop snacking if you're not hungry. This approach not only supports optimal digestion but also helps stabilize blood sugar levels, allowing them to return to baseline before eating again.
Incorporate Fasting Practices: Following the 12-hour fasting rule to give your digestive system a break between dinner and breakfast is a great place to start if you are new to fasting. As with digestive rest between meals, extended fasting allows your body to focus on repair and detoxification overnight, rather than digestion. As you advance, there are 4 types of fasting you may want to incorporate
Prioritize High Quality Whole Foods: Minimally processed, organic options reduce the intake of toxins like pesticides and artificial additives, further lightening your body's detox burden. Fruits and vegetables can often be heavily treated with toxins, so it's best to favor organic produce whenever possible and when not, avoid the "dirty dozen" and incorporate options that are less harmful. Favor grass-fed and grass-finished meat, wild fish and pasture raised poultry and eggs
Stay Hydrated: Proper hydration helps your body flush out toxins. Aim for at least half your body weight in ounces of clean, filtered water daily.
Digestive Support: While not directly involved in detoxification, digestive enzymes play a supportive role in maintaining a strong, balanced system for ongoing detox efforts. Incorporating Daily Digestive Enzymes with whole food meals may help reduce the digestive load, ensuring that nutrients essential for detoxification are properly absorbed. Gluten and Dairy Support Enzymes targeting two top food sensitivities may also be beneficial, especially when incorporating your favorite flex meal or treat. By optimizing digestion, enzymes support gut health and regular elimination, preventing the buildup of waste and toxins.
Specific supplements, formulated with targeted ingredients, can provide safe and effective detoxification support on an ongoing basis, making all the difference in prolonging your detox results and maximizing the benefits. This includes:
Universal Binder: This gentle yet powerful supplement contains activated charcoal, bentonite clay, and humic and fulvic acids that help bind toxins in your gut and carry them safely out of the body, reducing toxic load
Daily Detox Support: This formulation includes phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification nutrients, such as milk thistle, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), and alpha-lipoic acid, which help your liver process and eliminate toxins effectively
Simplify Your Routine with a done for you Daily Detox Protocol that combines these two essentials into one convenient bundle, making it easy to prioritize your detox goals daily. The Daily Detox Support and Universal Binder work synergistically to address the daily toxin load we encounter from food, water, and the environment. By supporting your body's natural detox pathways, you can maintain the clarity, energy, and health benefits you experienced during the detox while minimizing toxin buildup over time.
Move Your Body: Physical activity is essential for stimulating lymphatic flow and circulation, which support toxin removal. Even moderate exercise, like brisk walking or yoga, can activate detox pathways in your liver and kidneys. Aim for at least 30 minutes of movement daily to enhance circulation and clear waste products from your body. Our liver, kidneys, skin, and lungs have a remarkable built-in detoxification mechanism that can allow us to stay healthy.
Sauna: Research shows that just 19 minutes a day can drastically reduce all-cause mortality by over 40% and cardiovascular risk by over 60%. There are numerous benefits to incorporating sauna into your wellness routine to support relaxation, improve recovery, and promote toxin release from tissues. Infrared saunas provide a gentle detox experience by penetrating the body with infrared light to induce deep sweating at lower temperatures.
Sweating: Sweating is one of the body's most effective natural detox mechanisms. Regular exercise or sauna (including infrared, dry, or steam saunas) can boost circulation, promote lymphatic flow, and enhance toxin elimination. Aim for 15–20 minutes of sweating to help expel toxins
Dry Brushing: Dry brushing with a natural bristle brush helps stimulate lymphatic drainage, supporting the body's ability to clear out toxins. Incorporate dry brushing into your daily routine before showers to improve circulation and aid in toxin removal, contributing to smoother skin and better overall detox
Prioritize Quality Sleep: Sleep is when your body performs key detox and repair functions, especially in the brain. Aim for 7–9 hours of restorative sleep each night to activate the glymphatic system, helping to clear brain waste and support overall detoxification
Minimize or Avoid Alcohol: Alcohol places a strain on the liver, which is already working to process toxins. Limiting alcohol intake reduces liver stress, supporting its detoxification functions. Consider cutting back or avoiding alcohol completely to help your liver function optimally and maintain detox results
Mindset: A positive mindset and stress management are vital for supporting overall wellness. Everyone can heal, practicing mindfulness or meditation daily can help lower stress levels, support emotional balance, and enhance your body's ability to detoxify effectively
By implementing these strategies, you can maintain and even enhance the benefits of your Functional Medicine Detox, supporting your body's natural detoxification processes long-term. Whether you're continuing your detox journey with foundational nutrition, targeted supplements, or lifestyle practices, consistency is key. If you haven't yet completed a Detox, now is the perfect time to give your body the reset it deserves and experience the full benefits of improved energy, mood, skin, and more. Implement these supportive post-detox strategies to enjoy lasting results and keep your body functioning at its best.
When it comes to body transformation, the short-term, quick fixes often take center stage. What doesn't, are the consequences of using fad diets on our health and mindset. If you are looking for proven ways to reach a healthy weight and support long-term maintenance, listen to this podcast.
