6 Secret Detox Retreat Tips to Achieve a Healthier & Happier Life in 8 days!

Detox – a buzzword that has gained increasing popularity over the past years. From juice bars advertising shots that make your skin glow to yoga studios and a detox retreat offering classes that remove toxins from your body. Detox is everywhere. 

The real deal of detoxification

And to be fair, in our busy everyday lives, there is a valid reason to detox. To detox means to abstain from unhealthy or toxic substances and practices. Considering the amounts of stress many of us are confronted on a daily basis, we have seem to have lost the ability to slow down and focus on the important things in our lives. A cleanse should not only rid our bodies from poisonous byproducts, but it should also give the ability to detox mind and soul alike, so we can return to clarity and focus in all areas of our life. 

In the following, we have collected some easy and effective vegan diet tips for detoxification that can be applied in your everyday life in order to live happier, healthier and more balanced.

1. Stay hydrated to kick those toxins out of your system!

Yes, we hear this one all the time! From your GP to massage therapists and your yoga instructors, everyone recommends hydrating as the magic cure. But as annoyed as we are of hearing this fact, there is much truth to it. Think about it: our bodies are made up of about 65% water themselves. In order to support our organs like the liver and the kidney effectively in removing toxic waste products from our bodies, we must stay hydrated. We release toxins mainly by sweating and urinating. To flush the toxins out, we must also bring the hydration back into our bodies. 

Always keep a bottle of H2o with you and never feel thirsty again

The recommended daily amount of water is between 2.5 to 3 liters minimum for an average adult. If you live in a hot country or exercise, it is even more. An easy tip to incorporate drinking more water into your daily life is to always carry your reusable water bottle with you. That way, you will always be reminded to drink water and you never have an excuse not to.

2. Reduce your intake of sugar, wheat and processed foods and feel light like a fairy

Next to optimal hydration, a healthy diet is key in detoxing. Moreover, adopting a wholesome diet ensures that after the phase of a full-on-detox, toxins from poor nutrition will not enter your body again. 

The first step in cleansing your system from toxins is by eliminating or reducing various foods on your plate. Mainly sugar and processed foods, but also in wheat products are closely linked to poor gut health, candida overgrowth, obesity, heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. 

Be a detective to catch it..

However, sugar is hiding in many products you wouldn’t expect to contain sugar in the first place like ready-made granola, yoghurt, tomato sauce and even in some breads. Try to avoid buying these ready-made products in the supermarket as best as you can and substitute them with natural wholefoods. If you do buy ready-made products, make sure they contain no more than 5 ingredients and that you can pronounce all of them. 

3. Stock up on those veggies and glow from the inside out!

Congrats! You’ve successfully ditched all the junk food from your food shelf. Time to restock it with all the healthy goodness that is so abundant. Try to incorporate more fruits and veggies into your diet. Especially leafy greens have many health benefits as they are packed with vitamins, minerals and fiber. In general, a balanced, mainly plant based diet reduces the intake of toxins into your body dramatically. Try to buy organic fruits and vegetables where you can, use less salt in your meals (as it binds water which then cannot be released) and eat fiber-rich foods like beans, lentils and legumes. 

If you’re a carnivore, you might ask yourself how to handle meat during a detox. Well, many meats are also stuffed with antibiotics and fed with genetically modified food. For detoxification matters, meat isn’t ideal, as it is quite heavy to digest. However, if you still do want to eat meat, try to reduce it to once a week only, eat no read meats and buy strictly organic instead of factory-farmed flesh. 

4. Lemon water and celery juice are your new best friends

If you really want to give your detoxification process the ultimate kick, try to incorporate detox masters like lemon or celery. Drinking fresh lemon water or a glass of celery juice first thing in the morning can help you kickstart your day and stimulate the digestive process, quickly eliminating waste products from the body.

Next to that, lemon water and celery juice have many other health benefits. Lemons are packed with vitamin C and celery is a whole little vitamin bomb, including vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, phosphorus and electrolytes.

5.Regular exercise keeps everything flowing in your system

Next to a change in diet, more exercise can also be beneficial in releasing poisons from our body. Through exercise we move and sweat, which stimulates the release of waste products and protects you against diseases. Any moderate exercise is beneficial here, but the perks of a regular yoga practice are its incorporation of breath work, also called pranayama. Deep breathing as practiced during yoga class increases oxygen levels and stimulates the lymphatic system, our bodies network of organs and tissues, helping us to naturally eliminate toxins from our bodies.

6. Heavy metal detox as a hard core helper

In modern western society, we are naturally exposed to poisonous heavy metals. Having some of these metals like zinc, copper and iron in your body is necessary and even support our bodies’ immune function. However, metals like arsenic, lead and mercury are highly toxic and can get into our system through various ways like food, water and air pollution in cities, industrial chemicals or even paint. Common symptoms of heavy metal poisoning are recurring headaches and migraines, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea and weakness.

There are many possible ways to rid your body of these highly poisonous metals. Some people swear by the power of organic blueberries and the supplement spirulina. Another way to detox is to drink the volcanic mineral zeolite. This mineral ash attracts and binds the heavy metals in your body and helps your digestive system to flush them out.

If you want a full heavy metal cleanse experience, we encourage you to consult an expert or visit a specialised clinic such as Praxis Lemm in Berlin, where they work with chelation therapy. Within this therapy, a type of medication, a so-called chelator, is injected. The chelator the binds the heavy metals into the bloodstream and filters them through the kidneys where the metals are then released in urine.

Be mindful about what you consume (in every.single. aspect. of your life)

If you are slowly incorporating some of the above tips and tricks into your daily life, I promise you will see a dramatic change in your physical abilities. Increased energy, weight-loss, better skin, more clarity and a general sense of well-being are the results. However, a detoxification also incorporates our emotional and mental well-being. 

We can detox many things, ranging from social media, relationships, jobs and everyday stress. Take some time for yourself and pose honest questions on what areas in your life need improvement. This can also be a form of detoxification. 

Cleansing your mindset as core part of the detox!

Why are you doing the things you are doing? Do they bring you happiness or are you just doing them because others expect you to? Are you mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or spiralling down into negative thought patterns, feeling overwhelmed by life’s challenges?

Through a good cleanse in every area of our life, we can eliminate toxic energy and negativity, releasing everything which doesn’t serve us anymore, bringing us back to our true essence. 

Take time to relax and let our yoga retreat do its magic..

Make time in your life to nourish what feels good for you, spend a little less time on your phone and more time reading, journaling or taking a bath. Disconnect for a few days from your busy everyday life and reconnect with nature by joining on our Yoga Retreat in Montenegro! It is one of the best yoga retreats in Europe, nestled between the lush Montenegrin highlands and the Adriatic coast. Our yoga retreat gives you the space to to slow down, reconnect your true self and balance body, mind and soul. 

Written by Clara Malzer