A lot of us overindulge during the holidays and we need to find ways to get back our fit figures and active lifestyle. Overeating can make you feel sluggish and unwilling exercise and eat well, and you need to take time to detox your body and start fresh when that happens.

Detoxing is as important to your body as a servicing is to your car. It needs to be done on a regular basis, and I suggest about twice a year. This helps to rid the body of toxins that have accumulated due to bad dietary choices, and I find it is best to do one near the beginning of springtime and then one after a major holiday, where I tend to overindulge.

A typical detox can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. We have a few suggestions here for how you can go about performing a detox on your own body.

Break from Your Vices – You should give yourself some time off from the overindulgences and vices you regularly enjoy. Try not to consume alcohol during your detox, eat any processed foods or eat foods that are high in sugar, dairy products or red meat. You aren’t trying to starve yourself; you just want to give your body a break from all the foods and beverages that are dragging it down. This can be a great way to kick start your detox and make your body feel a lot better.

Scrape Your Tongue – There is an Ayurvedic folk medicine practice that involves using a scraping tool to clean off your tongue. This helps to get rid of toxins that have accumulated during the night-time, so you would use the scraping tool in the morning.

Coconut Oil Mouthwash – This also comes from Ayurvedic traditions, and it makes use of coconut oil mouthwash. Now, you probably won’t find a mouthwash that already has coconut oil, but you can simply use plain coconut oil to rinse your mouth. Just swish it around for 10 minutes or so and spit it out. This is a great way to gather up toxins and remove them.

Drink Lemon Water – You can also detox with some lemon water in the morning. This is often used in place of tongue scraping or coconut oil mouthwash. It helps your body expel toxins and boosts your general health. All you need to do to make this is to squeeze about half a lemon into some water that’s room temperature and chug it down.

Brushing Dry Skin – According to those that engage in this practice, brushing your skin clears out the pores and helps the skin to release fatty deposits. All that improves circulation and regenerates the skin.

Hydrotherapy – You can bathe in Epsom salts to create reverse osmosis. This actually pulls out the harmful toxins from your body and rejuvenates your skin with sulphates and magnesium. This is a great way to sweat out toxins after a hearty overindulgence.

Drink Plenty of Water – Staying hydrated is the best way to just let your body do its thing and get rid of toxins on or own. You can flush them out with lots of water, forcing you to sweat more, urinate more and more easily defecate. It is an essential part of every detoxing program.

Use Tea to Detox – Drinking some herbal tea can help to calm you down and allow your body to detox on its own more effectively. The herbs in tea are known to have detoxifying effects of their own, though, and you can use either green tea or prepared detox teas.

Herbal Detox – Alternative medicine has all sorts of ways that you can detox yourself. Using a detox herb can cleanse your liver and your bowels, which are the two primary places that toxins accumulate. We suggest using Senna and St Mary’s Thistle for optimum herbal detox.

Ear Candles – You might not know about ear candling, but this uses hollow candles that get rid of wax in the ear and other debris that may be there. That draws out some of the toxins from your body. Obviously, it is only a small part of the larger detox process, but it is still a useful step.

Exercise – It doesn’t take much exercise to get the toxins exiting your body. A little yoga, some light cycling and some casual swimming can all remove toxins faster than if you were staying inactive. If you go outside in the fresh air to do your exercise, you benefit even more.

Exercise Harder – Of course, if you exercise more vigorously, then you can enjoy greater benefits. A hilly cycling session, some track running, or hot yoga are all good ways to beat the toxin accumulation and cleanse your body. You will be in great shape in no time.

Lymph Draining Massage – This type of massage requires that a specialised massage therapist help your lymph flow. This can get rid of toxins and bodily water by boosting lymphatic processes.

Breathe – This is the simplest of all the detoxing methods here, but it is also an important one. Take some time to stop, breathe in and out and relax for a while. Your body will be able to better expel toxins and rejuvenate for a more effective detox.

Sleep More – A lot of us don’t get enough sleep, and yet it is one of the best ways to fight toxic build-up. You will feel refreshed when you wake up instead of tired and haggard. Start your day feeling your best by resting more as you begin to detox.

We listed so many methods for detoxing because everyone is different. We all have different needs and different methods that will work well for us. Try some of these out and experiment to see what work well in your situation.

Use discretion, however, as not every method may be safe for you. Depending on your medical condition, age or level of fitness, you may need to take some of these slowly or just aim to do one or two of these at a time. You should talk to your doctor before making major changes to your dieting or exercise regimen, as major changes can cause health problems for you.