It seemed like your vacation would never get here! Finally time to take a break from the everyday and enjoy some excellent food and drink. And more food, and more drink, and perhaps a dessert or two…but now you’re back home.
Tired of feeling sluggish and bloated after your vacation? Does it seem like all that rich food and alcohol have taken a toll? You are not alone. In fact, many people experience this when they return from a trip. It is time to detox! Here are some tips on how you can detoxify your body naturally, cleanse your liver and reset your gut microbiome.
Why Should You Detox After Your Vacation?
When you detox after your vacation, you allow your body to reset and get back to a healthy place. This will help your system return to the clean, healthy state it was in before you left on vacation.
Detoxing is important because toxins can build up over time due to a lack of exercise, an overabundance of rich, unhealthy food, and an increase in alcohol consumption – all things that usually happen when we’re kicking back on vacation.
A detox after a vacation will help your body rid itself of toxins. It also helps reset the gut microbiome, which is important because this area can often be left unbalanced due to an increase in processed foods and alcohol consumption.
How Many Days Should a Post Vacation Detox Last?
Doing a detox after your vacation should take at least the number of days you were on vacation. This will help you get back to the healthy state your system was in before those decadent vacation days.
First Steps to Naturally Reset Your Body After a Vacation
If you’ve just returned from a trip, it can be hard to jump right back into your regular routine. This is because our bodies have gone through such drastic changes in the last few days and weeks: we may eat more and differently than normal (excessive quantities of rich or fatty foods), cut back on sleep for multiple days on end, and indulge in too many margaritas.
Here’s how to start setting simple steps to naturally reset your body after a vacation.
1) Get Your Body Rehydrated
It’s important to increase your fluid intake after a vacation. Avoid dehydration by drinking plenty of water or herbal tea and eating citrus fruits that are high in vitamin C, such as grapefruit and oranges.
I recommend drinks like detox water, which is a great way to detox after vacation.
Detox water has been popularized by Gwyneth Paltrow and includes ingredients like cucumber, lemon, and cayenne pepper for flavor. Detox water is a great addition if you normally hate drinking plain water. The possibilities really are endless.
2) Prioritize Sleep
When you’re detoxing and cleansing your system, it’s important to prioritize sleep. This allows your body time for repairing cells that might have been damaged by toxins during the day (and all of those holiday cocktails).
On vacation, we’re often up late and sometimes up early. Restoring your body’s natural circadian rhythm of sleep after a vacation is essential for detoxing and cleansing.
When you prioritize your body’s natural rhythms, it will be easier to fall asleep when the time comes (even at night). And we all know what happens if you’re not getting enough shuteye: crankiness + weight gain = NOT pleasant company!
3) Get Your Oral Hygiene Routine Back On Track
If you’ve neglected your teeth and gums while on vacation, it’s time to get reacquainted with your dental floss. Get back into a regular routine for brushing and flossing.
Your mouth is the first part of your gut axis, so good gut health can start here.
It may even be time to schedule an appointment with your dentist or dental hygienist if you’re experiencing bad breath, bleeding gums or tooth decay, or even just to make sure you’re keeping your mouth healthy.
4) Set Up and Adhere to an Intermittent Fasting Schedule
A healthy way to detox after vacations is with intermittent fasting.
If you’ve been on vacation and gotten used to eating three large meals a day, along with drinks and snacks, an intermittent fasting routine can help give you some needed discipline and structure to your meals.
You can start with a 12 hour fast and work up to 16 hours.
This will allow your body a needed break from digestion, and it’ll also help you work off that vacation weight loss by burning fat stores while conserving muscle mass.
Check out our Intermittent Fasting Library for tons of information on this popular method of eating.
To Detox your Body After A Vacation, Start With Your Liver
Let’s talk about how to detox and reset your liver after a vacation.
Your liver is an organ that works double-time when you do, so it also needs time for rest and rejuvenation after your vacation.
How Fasting Jump Starts The Detoxification Process
You may be wondering how fasting and detoxification relate to each other.
Your liver is a vital organ that filters your blood, removes toxins, and regulates fat storage in the body. After a vacation, it’s super important to give your liver a rest from all the rich food and alcohol.
Fasting provides an opportunity to rest the digestive system, so that it can focus on eliminating waste products from your bloodstream.
Detoxification begins when you stop eating or drastically reduce food intake– this allows the liver time to regenerate and detoxify the body. One of the most effective ways to detox your liver is by fasting for 24 hours or more– this will give it time to regenerate without burden from digestion.
Naturally Detox Your Liver By Eliminating Problem Foods
As you detox your liver, it is important to avoid foods that may hinder the process. These include alcohol, caffeinated beverages, processed sugars and fats such as candy bars or chips, fried food items like french fries or onion rings– all these will put strain on your liver as it works to detox your body.
Try to avoid these foods when you’re detoxing from your vacation:
- All animal protein
- Sugar
- Soy
- Corn
- Wheat
- Peanuts
- Processed Foods
- Alcohol
- Tobacco
- Caffeine
An interesting note about caffeine…several studies have shown that black coffee can actually be helpful to your liver.
Drink Plenty of Water To Flush Out Toxins Removed By Your Liver
While your liver is working to detox your body, you can help the process by drinking plenty of water. This will flush out toxins that have been removed from your system and make them easier for the liver to excrete.
– Drink pure water– including mineral or filtered water if possible. Avoid any beverages with sugar, artificial sweeteners, or preservatives.
– Drink about one half of your body weight in ounces, or eight glasses a day on average.
– Add lemon juice to the water for more detox benefits– it can help boost liver function and stimulate digestion. There are also lots of tasty, healthy detox water recipes that include fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables.
Get Your Sweat On To Help Your Body Detox
Working up a sweat can provide some detox benefits, but you’ll want to work out for at least 30 minutes. Working with weights will help strengthen your muscles and increase lean mass– which is important as muscle helps the kidneys process toxins more effectively.
Try a mix of strength training, cardio workouts, yoga or pilates– anything that is high intensity for at least 30 minutes should do the trick.
Cardio is great for detoxing the body because it helps to increase your heart rate and boosts circulation, both of which help with the detoxification process.
Consume Foods for Liver Health and Repair
You can help in the detox process by eating foods that are beneficial for the liver. These foods can help lower the risk of liver disease, raise antioxidant and detox enzyme levels and help the liver get rid of harmful toxins.
Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are great detoxifying veggies because they contain sulphur compounds that can break down harmful substances in the body.
Grapefruits also have enzymes that can aid in the detoxification process.
Should I Do A Natural Colon Cleanse After My Vacation?
You may be wondering if you should also do a natural colon cleanse or detox after your vacation.
The good news is that a lot of the same things that go into a detox or liver cleanse are the same things you should do to cleanse your colon. Start by drinking enough water, eating a healthy and balanced diet, drinking detox tea or soup, exercising, getting enough sleep, and eating plenty of fiber.
Liver Detox And Colon Cleanse At The Same Time? – Precautions
Don’t do a natural colon cleanse or detox after your vacation if you are pregnant, elderly, have any pre-existing illness or condition. Be careful when detoxing if you take medications that can interact with the process of cleansing like diuretics and some types of antibiotics.
Make sure to talk to your doctor before starting any natural colon cleanse to determine whether you’re taking any medications that may interact with the detox process.
We don’t recommend any crazy colon cleanses – they’re just not necessary, and they can cause more problems than they’re worth.
Ways To Clean Your Gut Naturally And Reset Your Biome After A Vacation
There are many things you can do to help your gut biome after the indulgence of a vacation.
Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Fresh fruits and vegetables are high in fiber, which acts as a prebiotic for your gut.
Try fermented foods like kefir, kimchi and kombucha to help bolster your gut flora. (link to fermented foods post. Fermented foods add natural probiotics to your gut microbiome.
It’s also important to drink lots of water.
Rule of Thumb for a Great Detox and Post Vacation Cleanse
While everyone wants a quick fix, remember that it will take time to get your body back to normal after a vacation. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it will take more than 24 hours for your body to detox and cleanse from your vacation.
Be Patient and Consistent As You Get Back to Your Pre-Vacation Normal
Experts say that you should allow for the same number of days to detox and cleanse your body as you were on vacation.
It makes sense too. If you only indulged for a long weekend, it won’t take more than a couple of days to get back on track, but if you’ve been on a two week free for all with eating and drinking, expect to spend the same amount of time recovering.
The Takeaway: Detoxing After a Vacation is a Good Idea
Detoxing after a vacation is always a good idea to get your system back on track. It’s never a bad idea to detox your liver after eating lots of rich food, and enjoying plenty of cocktails.
Use common sense, drink lots of water, get good sleep and eat and drink foods that support your liver and you’ll be back to your normal self in no time!
