2 Buy and start using the following items today

• » A juicer to start making your own vegetable juices. Don’t worry about buying the most expensive model – just get whatever you can afford. Once you really get into the juicing, you can look for fancier, quicker models later on.
• » A blender to start making your own delicious, easy-to-digest smoothies.

3 Start skin brushing

Buy a skin brush and please make sure you use it. Dry skin brushing speeds up the rate at which toxins are expelled from the body, because it motivates blood cells and lymph tissue, two key physiological detoxification avenues. Skin brushing is not something you do in the bath or shower, but when you are dry. You can bathe afterwards but not during the process.

Method:

Smoothly brush the soles of the feet, working your way up the legs, then up the arms and down the back. Brush in long sweeping movements towards your heart, as it increases circulation and improves skin tone and texture. Always brush lightly and gently, and avoid broken skin, thread veins and varicose veins.

4 Breathe!

The way you breathe can have a dramatic effect on your health – oxygen is á powerful detoxifier. Deep breathing is the key. Most people breathe in a shallow manner, thus depriving the cells, organs and glands of much-needed oxygen. Oxygen literally feeds the blood and cells, as it detoxifies the organs and glands, and is just as important as adequate supplies of water and good-quality food. A lack of it actually starves the brain, nervous system, adrenals, pituitary, kidneys, gall bladder, spleen, liver, diaphragm and colon.

In my breathing method I’ll expect you to adopt more full and ample breathing from the lower diaphragm, while filling the entire lungs on a regular daily basis. But in order to get to a point where deep breathing becomes a part of your everyday life, I would like you to practise the following breathing method for just a few minutes each day. Once you master it, you will find it so much easier to incorporate deep breathing into normal life, when you’re walking, talking, sitting, working or relaxing.

Method:

• » Lie on your back on the floor in a position that is most comfortable for you: for instance, you might want your knees bent and your feet apart. Close your eyes if it helps you to relax.

• » Place one hand on your tummy and one hand on your chest. Then breathe deeply. Which moves first: the hand on your chest or the hand on your tummy? If the answer is the hand on your chest, then you are not using your lungs to optimum capacity. You are undoubtedly starving your cells and organs of oxygen.
• » Now slowly breathe in through the nose. Count to 10 if it helps you to focus.
• » Make an oooh sound slowly through your lips. Then blow out any remaining air as gently and slowly as possible, simultaneously applying light pressure to your lower abdomen to help expel all stale air.
• » Slowly inhale through your nostrils, keeping one hand on your stomach just above your belly-button. Visualize your breath literally expanding throughout the lungs, ribs and sides (middle and upper segments of the back). It’s like putting air into a balloon. When you inhale, it fills with air. This air expands to your sides, ribs and back. When you exhale, the balloon deflates.
• » When you breathe out, feel the ribs move down and your tension melting away as the tummy and upper body deflates. Repeat the oooh sound, and gently blow out air, completely emptying your lungs. Once you become more experienced, you may not need to make this sound.

Note

You don’t need to over-breathe while doing this. It’s meant to be a slow, gentle, calming, meditative exercise. Use visualization (to see or) to think about the slow movements of the air, and, most importantly, feel calmness, tranquillity and serenity as you do it.

5 Take daily exercise

In order to properly detox the body, exercise is essential. I am not suggesting you have to embark upon a vigorous body-building plan that takes you to the local sports centre each day. I am talking about simple, gentle movement – the type that will keep your body nimble, supple and young! Some stretching, walking, step-climbing, mini-trampolining, dancing, salsa, disco, swimming, bicycling, aerobics, Pilates, even tai chi or karate if you can find it in your neighbourhood, or any other moderate fun movements would be excellent on a regular basis. Anything that makes you break into a sweat is even better.

6 Drink water

Regularly drinking still water – not from the tap unless it is filtered – is one of the most efficient detoxifying fluids we can give ourselves each day. I recommend 6–8 glasses of water a day.