Week 1: How toxic are you? Take the quiz below to find out.
TOXICITY HEALTH ASSESSMENT
To determine whether you are likely experiencing or will experience toxicity levels that endanger your health add up the number of Yes answers.
If you answered Yes to:
• 5 questions, your risk is mild.
• 6 to 10 questions, your risk is moderate.
• more than 10 questions, your risk is severe. You should see your doctor for further evaluation.
What are your reactions to this quiz? Do you have a feeling about where you would like to make some changes in your health plan? Whatever your assessment score, the practices you will engage in during your Detoxification Week can cleanse your system of much of its toxic load and reboot the body’s natural mechanisms that flush out harmful substances.
Welcome to the first week of my 8-week Longevity Program!
Week #1 is Detoxification
Here are three simple tips that you can start with to kick off your new year.
For over 35 years, I have studied and researched the lifestyles of centenarians. I have selected 40 of the most simple and powerful habits to transform your health and lengthen your years. These top 40 longevity habits can be found in my book: Secrets of Longevity 8-Week Program.
Here are the first three!
All it takes is 14 to 21 days of consistent practice to cement a new habit, as long as the activity is fairly simple. Do the same activity nearly every day. Especially if you do it almost the same time every day, it will become automatic, like how you brush your teeth before bed every night.
Try to practice the three detoxifying habits below every day for one week. Then choose just one and keep practicing consistently. By the end of two more weeks, it will become a new healthy habit that will serve you for the rest of your life!
Top Detox Habit #1:
Drink a 16-ounce glass of hot water with a fresh lemon each morning.
Lemon has been shown to stimulate your liver's detoxification function. Water, on the other hand, is essential for everyone.
Our bodies require a certain amount to maintain our osmotic blood levels, provide the medium for circulating and excreting waste products, and cleansing the interstitial tissues. Your safest bet is filtered water. The best filtration process for removing contaminants uses activated charcoal, which removes impurities but leaves water-soluble minerals. Make it easy on yourself by filling two 32-ounce, bisphenol-A (BPA) free water bottles. Take one with you when you leave and use the other at home, drinking throughout the day.
Top Detox Habit #2:
Take a daily 20-minute walk.
In my three decades of investigating the daily activities of centenarians, I have found that every one of them walked for at least 30 minutes a day, and most walked for more than an hour. Aside from producing proven benefits for your heart, walking is the perfect gentle exercise for improving digestion and encouraging cleansing of the lymphatic system. Moderate physical activity unclogs your body's systems, helping it eliminate waste more efficiently.
Top Detox Habit #3:
Dry Skin Brushing
Many centenarians that I've interviewed don't look their age. Their secret? Dry skin brushing! Find a natural bristle body brush and do long, slow brush strokes on your skin, starting from your hands up both the inside and outside of your arms towards the armpit and neck. Then brush from feet up on both the inner and outer parts of your legs towards the groin and abdomen.
Next, brush from the base of your skull and along your jawline down the back and front of your neck towards your armpit. Then brush from your ribs on both sides and up across your chest to each armpit. Finally, brush from your stomach down on both sides across your abdomen towards your groin.
Dry brushing activates your lymphatic system by stimulating circulation. The armpit and groin are reservoirs of lymph glands and as part of the lymphatic system are responsible for clearing toxins and waste from your body, as well as providing immune protection against infections.
A bonus about dry skin brushing is that besides the aforementioned benefits, it sloughs off dead skin and stimulates collagen production, which is responsible for your skin's elasticity, therefore improving its appearance.
Get the natural bristle dry skin brush as part of the detox kit, containing Detox Tea with dandelion, chrysanthemum, and other cleansing herbs, as well as the Detox Bath. This sulfur-based bath salt simulates a natural hot spring with essential herbs to help excrete toxins from your skin. Get the Detox Kit here.
Pick one or more tips from above or pick more from my 8-Week ebook and practice the routine daily for the next seven days.
Listen to my audio podcast here and watch my video here.
Here's a sneak preview of Week #2, Restorative Sleep, starting on January 16:
Sleep is essential for every bodily function. Lack of quality sleep will rob you not only of your youth and beauty but also your immunity. Tune in next week for more!