Many of us put our bodies under a great deal of physical, mental and/or emotional stress daily. Whether its intentional or not, we may feed it with a steady supply of low-grade toxins which can build up in inside of us over time.

Consumption of alcohol, low quality foods, even meat and dairy can cause a buildup of unwanted toxins.

We may not even notice the effects of that on a day-to-day basis, but, over time, our bodies can start to show harmful effects. This may include weight loss / control issues, sleep irregularities, impact on mood and other health-related issues. The good news is, our bodies, with our livers at the forefront, are very responsive to detoxing. We must slow down and give it a periodic detox to flush some toxin buildup. Even if its just a 24 hour detox, we can start to feel the benefits. All we need to do is provide focused attention for just 1 full day. 

Here are 10 way to detox in 24 hours:

24 Hour Detox Option #1: Water, water everywhere…

Sounds crystal-clear obvious, right?  And you’d be right to be right because you’re, well, absolutely right.

Water is one of the most simple and straight-forward tactics at your disposal when commencing a 24 hour body detox.  Aside from the fact that we are largely made up of the stuff, water is calorie-free and a great thing to have flush out the likes of your digestion system and kidneys.

Start the day with a half-pint of iced water (filtered or spring if possible) with the juice of one freshly squeezed lemon, onto an empty stomach.  While the ice encourages your metabolism to speed up in an effort to warm up the icy H2O, the enzymes in the lemon-juice stimulate your liver and so is excellent for giving your metabolism an alarm-clock like wake-up and shower for your insides at the same time.

As the day continues, continue to stay hydrated by drinking sufficient amounts of water to keep the detox process going.  The faucet or the water cooler really needs to be you friend for the day.

24 Hour Detox Option #2: Ditch the Dairy

Aside from the fact that dairy is, if you think about it, not really designed with us humans in mind in the first place, there’s also evidence to show that it slows our livers down and stimulates mucous production too.

That alone should be encouragement to put down the dairy for the day as mucous clogs up your head, throat and lungs, slowing down effective toxin removal.  Cheese is one thing.  Getting those troublesome toxins out of your body is another.

24 Hour Detox Option #3: Use the Body, Not Just the Mind.

While we are using our grey matter to focus on just how well our detox day is going, don’t forget the user-unit that carries it around – the body.

So from hitting the gym, through to mowing the lawn, shoveling snow or even getting off the bus one stop earlier than you normally would, getting your body moving will help you with your 24-hour detox plan.

Increasing physical exertion, which of course makes the heart beat faster and increase the speed of blood-flow, will boost the body’s burn-rate and help with expelling toxins faster.

24 Hour Detox Option #4: Feeling Fresh

On a par with getting your body moving, showering or taking a bath, or hitting the beach, also have the same effect as physical exertion – they get the blood flow going, further stimulate your metabolism allow your pores to open up, thus allowing for faster exit of toxins in your body. 

For a more super-charged version, try a sauna.  While a white towel is (mostly) compulsory, the pine tree branch is of course optional.  Either way, a sauna is a great item to factor into your 24-hour detox plan if you can.

24 Hour Detox Option #5: Bye-Bye Booze

Your body, and your liver in particular, have alcohol flagged up as major toxin.  And that’s not just in the sense that it makes you feel crummy the day after if you have too much of it, with resultant brass band seemingly playing inside your skull…

Alcohol essentially re-directs the attention of the liver to prioritize its removal from your system – at the expense of expelling other toxins instead.  It also diverts the liver away from burning off calories too, resulting in the link between alcohol consumption and potential weight gain.

Alcohol also disturbs sleep patterns.  “It’s great at getting you to sleep, awful at keeping you asleep” is a neat way to sum up how alcohol further causes your bodies with toxins (see below).

24 Hour Detox Option #6: Stub it Out

As obvious as this sounds, it still needs to be flagged up.

The fact that we know that tobacco smoke is made up of enough chemicals to put the periodic table to shame, the list of pollutants and toxins to be found in tobacco consumption are mind-boggling.  There are over 4000 different chemicals in tobacco smoke, several of which are proven carcinogens.

Arsenic, formaldehyde and benzene are just a few of the delights to be found in there too.  So, any 24-hour detox program really should have a smoker refraining from tobacco use.

Some of the side-effects from smoking can take a lot longer than 24 hours to recover from (although the good news is, if you give your body the chance to do so, it will gladly take it).  However, holding back for just 24 hours will give your body a break from at least some of the nasty toxins in your body and immediately start to alleviate the pressure on your heart, lungs and blood pressure that smoking was causing.

Hopefully, those 24 hours without tobacco can be the gateway to giving up for good too.

Read this: 5 Reasons You Need to Quit Smoking Now

24 Hour Detox Option #7: Eat your greens

What you eat during your 24-hour detox is, unsurprisingly, important also.  The sad fact is, a lot of mass produced, processed foods are littered with unnecessary additives and chemicals, (as well as copious amounts of sugar, salt and body-unfriendly fats).  And where those additives and chemical are to be found, toxins are likely not too far behind.

In place of those, substitute cruciferous vegetables into your diet for the day.  Cruciferous vegetables are those vegetables that generation after generation of kids looked at with wrinkled up noses on their Sunday dinner plates (we do though of course inevitably drop the idea that we can live on nothing but ice cream and Oreos by the time we hit our teens).

So, we are talking things like cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli.  All of these contain a range of elements (“phytochemicals”) that help the body in its ability to get toxins out of your body.

If those vegetables are not flavorful enough for your pallet, throw in some garlic, onions and / or leeks too – they are great also for helping remove toxins from your body too.

Read This: 5 Reasons You Need to Consume More Greens Daily

24 Hour Detox Option #8: Rough and tumble

Getting enough fiber (roughage) is generally a well-known recommendation for health, but have you ever really thought about just why that is?  Well, without getting too nitty-gritty about this, fiber is known as roughage for good reason.  It’s food that your body can’t really digest, technically called insoluble fiber.

Because the body can’t digest roughage, it passes it along your system.  That keeps you moving and helps you get rid of the bad stuff (toxins) as you do so.  Think of millions of miniscule rakes in action…

Fiber rich foods include the sorts of vegetables we looked at above as well as things like whole-grain pasta, beans, lentils, legumes and almond nuts.

24 Hour Detox Option #9: Unloose the juice

You don’t have to stick with just water for your 24-hour detox session by way of something to drink.  Pomegranate juice, for just one example, is jam-packed not only with nutrients like vitamin C, but they are also high in antioxidants to help your body in ridding itself of toxins.  Other juices that carry a similar amount of detox clout include cranberry and beetroot.

Of course, if you are feeling more adventurous, there are tasty juice combinations you can put together.  Apple juice, kiwi, kale, spinach, cucumber and so on, can all be mixed in combination according to taste.  Throwing in spice like ginger or cinnamon can add to the flavor too.

24 Hour Detox Option #10: Cut the Meet

There are plenty of benefits of implementing a plant-based diet, such as weigh loss, increased energy, and even reducing the number of medications.

If you consume meat and/or cheese on a daily basis, chances are your body is inflammated and full of toxins. By simply eliminating all animal products such as meat, chicken, and fish from your diet and going plant based, you will help reduce inflammation, since plants are naturally anti-inflammatory. Please note, for most effect, this will require a longer diet plan, not just a 24 hour detox.

Finally, Don’t Dismiss the Importance of Sleep

Sleep is vital to our overall well-being and, like water, can sometimes be overlooked and neglected.  It turns out that not only is sleep so good for us in terms of allowing the body and mind to repair itself, it’s also a beneficial way for us to detox too.  The “glymphatic system” is a recently discovered, nifty night-time process whereby sleep helps with the detox process.

So, getting some decent, uninterrupted sleep at the start of your 24 hours and then again at the end will help with your detox plan.  Rather like smoking though, this is just a short-term hit that can hopefully lead to better habits for the long term too.

Sweet detox dreams await you.

Additional Considerations

A 24 hour detox may not be enough. A person in physical distress may need to see a Naturopath/Nutritionist. Who may advise to change their liestyle completely and perhaps implement Intermittent Fasting diet.

Read This: How to Detox Daily – 3 Easy Ways