16 years at my Corporate career, 10 years married, two beautiful children, and a year away from turning the big 4-0. I had been to multiple doctors trying to find out why I didn’t feel like myself. Constantly stressed and tired, battled a cold or allergy like symptoms with a cough that lingered, could not sleep throughout the night, anxiety/depression, feelings of hopelessness just to name a few. I asked my OBGYN to have my hormones checked - everything was “normal”. I went to multiple other doctors who could not help me. I didn’t qualify for high blood pressure meds, high cholesterol meds, or diabetes. I also was not willing to take prescription medications.
Fast forward to my birthday when I am so sick with a head cold that I can’t taste my favorite dinner ever. I felt the infection was traveling to my ear. As much as I did not want to go to the Urgent Care I pulled into the parking lot at 8pm.
I found a Functional Health Practitioner to have bloodwork done and an hour long consultation to go over my bloodwork. Let’s just say the hour long consultation was not long enough and I finally understood why I was feeling so bad.
One of the main things I needed to focus on was supporting my liver. The liver has over 500 functions in the body. Everyone should be supporting their liver but nobody talks about it and what you have to do.
Here are a few things I have learned so far:
Majority of Your Journey is Mental:
Don’t try to be perfect in your health journey. Make small changes daily. When I mean small I mean changes so small they could be laughable. I often think of the ultimate goal and everything I have to do. As soon as I feel overwhelmed the stress kicks in and I fall off the wagon. Perfection either paralyzes people or burnout comes quickly. Consistency beats perfection.
Reduce the Inflammatory Load on the Body:
Diet: choose a period of time where you are able to adjust your diet. Following the Mediterranean diet is a great start. Incorporate 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil to recipes or while cooking. Choose fruits and vegetables instead of consuming carbs such as bread, rice, beans etc. stay away from Dairy, sugar, and gluten. Think protein with vegetables and fruit.
Add fiber into the diet by incorporating a smoothie with 1 oz of ginger (helps with inflammation), 1 cup of frozen fruit, 1 cup of spinach, 1 tablespoon flax oil, 2 tablespoons of chia seeds, 1 cup of pear juice, and water to make the desired consistency. This smoothie will help with digestion which helps open up an important detox pathway.
Hydrate: drink more water. Have you heard that before? Lol, me too. Our body is made up of 55-75% of water. Adding an electrolyte with sodium and potassium will help with hydration. I add an electrolyte from Redmond Real Salt or LMNT. I find I drink more water if I have something added to it. I also add lime and coconut water for the added potassium without the sodium to change things up.
Also look at the quality of your water. Choose filtered water over tap water. Do your research on PH water. There are many water stores you can purchase water from to help with health benefits.
Starting the day with lemon/lime water and ginger helps hydrate the body and with inflammation.
Move Throughout the Day:
Taking a walk first thing in the morning is essential for hormone regulation and vitamin d exposure. Take a walk for 10 min after your meal to help regulate blood sugars. In Italy they call it “passeggiata”.
Zone 2 cardio and weightlifting are perfect workouts during a time of supporting your liver. Too strenuous of workouts will cause stress on the body which is what you are trying to avoid by supporting your liver.
Manage Stress:
Slow down. This is a time to say no and really do the things that make you happy. Make a point to arrive places early to avoid the stress of being late.
Learn breathing techniques to help with stress. Take baths. Hearing water flowing or the beach waves crashing is very soothing. Think of what calms you and do those things.
Pick One Thing You are Open to Changing:
We put hundreds of toxins on and in our body on a daily basis. Cleaning our environment is the first thing you can do to improve your health. Here are some things I have done:
- switched the drugstore deodorant to a clean deodorant. You have to go through a detox process so be willing to give a month or two for your body to adjust.
- stay away from fragrance. I switched our laundry soap, hand soap, shampoo/conditioner, lotions, skincare, and candles
- I don’t allow pest control to spray in our house
- have air purifiers in the main living areas. Open the windows occasionally to allow fresh air into the house.
- installed filters for drinking water, filters on our shower and tub faucets, and even have a filter on my bathroom sink.
- as mentioned above I only drink filtered water or PH water
….just to name a few.
Support Detox Pathways
Digestive tract- make sure you are “going” at least 1-2 times per day. Increasing your vegetables and fiber will help with this as well as drinking enough water. If you are not supplementation will be needed.
Lymphatic System- lymphatic massages morning and night will help. Google lymphatic massage. There are many videos and tutorials out there. Dry brushing also helps the lymphatic system. There are also lotions you can purchase to help. I love the one from Rowe Casa Organics.
Sweating
Zone 2 walks or weightlifting sessions can help with sweating. Sauna sessions are recommended if you have access to one.
You can also dry detox baths (with filtered water), castor oil packs, and drinking dandelion root tea.
Oh and how did I almost forget…stay away from alcohol while you are supporting your liver. I had to ask the clarifying question as well. As much as we do not want to , it is essential for supporting your liver.