By Katharina Podkin

 

When it comes to genetics, I didn’t start out too fortunate. All the women in my line developed cancer at a very young age. My great-grandmother died of breast cancer at 40, my grandmother died of uterine cancer at 46, and my mother was the first one to survive breast cancer at 42, but had to undergo six chemo treatments. It broke my heart to see her fighting for her life.

I decided to break this cycle and vowed to never get cancer in the first place. As a teenager, I began reading every book I could find about health and nutrition, and I started experimenting with countless diets. It became clear early on that detoxing was the key. Now, 15 years later, here I am helping thousands of women holistically heal and detox—incorporating mind, body, and spirit.

Here’s the deal: the term detox has been misused for many years. When people think of detoxing, they think of juice or master cleanses, starvation, and malnutrition. I am here to tell you that those cleanses not only don’t work, but they also leave you worse off than before.

Why? Because everything that puts the body into an extreme situation for too long does more harm than good. This doesn’t apply to short-term stimulation like intermittent fasting, short cleanses, or high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Your body needs constant stimulation and breakdown in order to grow stronger.

This principle applies to every aspect of your body, muscles, and cell tissue. When exercising, you destroy tissue that rebuilds stronger. When doing microneedling, you destroy skin that regrows smoother. You get my point.

However, there has to be time for repair, recovery, and refuelling. Most people just destroy and challenge their bodies every day without taking the time to repair and refuel.

 

The secret is to find that sweet spot of perfect balance for yourself and your body.

So, how do we achieve that? As a rule of thumb, no matter what you do, ask yourself first:

 

“Can I maintain this routine for the rest of my life and feel amazing while doing it?”

If yes, it is the right path for you. If no, take the time to find an individual solution that’s right for you.

A shortcut that has helped me is realising that in order to be in that sweet spot of perfect balance, our bodies pH level has to be slightly alkaline at 7.5. Keeping our pH level here can minimise our risk of cancer and chronic diseases, and help us stay healthy.

The biggest problem in today’s society is that people are highly acidic. What we put into our bodies, the stress we encounter during work, the suppression of emotions, and being exposed to all kinds of chemical toxins and pesticides puts a heavy toll on our bodies and creates an overabundance of acidity—the perfect breeding ground for pathogens, viruses, and parasites.

Here are a few things I’ve found that can help:

 

1. “Super Alkalizers.”

These are ingredients that have the ability to alkalise your body instantaneously. My favourite super alkaliser is sodium bicarbonate, also known as baking soda. I have been taking one teaspoon mixed in a glass of warm water every single day for years and have found it to be the most powerful weapon against disease, while also promoting weight loss.

What most people don’t know is that they are not overweight, they just have massive water retention in order to neutralise all the acids that are stored in their cell tissue. As soon as they start to get more alkaline, acids start dissolving and eliminating, which causes the body to lose that excess water weight.

After taking baking soda for one week, most of my clients start to feel less puffy and bloated. Organic baking soda can be found at most health food stores.

 

2. Daily Detox Drinks

When I say detox drinks I do not mean starvation diets with detox teas and juice cleanses. What I mean is that you have to make sure to drink enough—and what you drink has to include high quality ingredients.

Fresh-pressed juices and self-made smoothies with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables are the best. Avoid the pre-packaged stuff from the supermarket. Cold-pressed juices consist of organic water that is absorbed and utilised immediately. Astringent fruits like lemon, grapefruit, grapes, and pineapple have the most detoxifying effects on your body. Ingredients like celery are perfect to balance chloric acid in your stomach, and beetroot naturally detoxifies your liver. Try to add those ingredients as much as possible into your daily meal plan.

Here is the twist though: instead of drinking only juices, simply incorporate one juice first thing in the morning and keep the rest of your macros in place for the day. Over time, these juices will gently detox you the happy way without leaving you deprived or starving.

 

3. High Energy, High Nutrition Food

When it comes to food, my approach is simple and straightforward: before I eat something I ask myself if I want this to become a part of me? Because that is basically what happens to your body after you eat anything.

Do I want to become a garbage dumb consisting of fast food, dead animal protein, and cookies and cream? No, because that would create the perfect environment for my cancer genes to thrive in.

I choose to eat only high energy, high nutrition foods like organic fruit and vegetables, sprouts, nuts, and seeds that detox me on a daily basis. Basically, I follow a high carb vegan diet most of the time—with some exceptions here and there. What’s particularly interesting about this lifestyle is that once you start eating high energy, high nutrition food, your consciousness begins to upgrade as well. I find that I’m more open to the process of self-discovery, both physically and spiritually.

 

By eating organic fruit and vegetables daily, our bodies naturally detox—as that is what they were designed to do. This process is called “autophagy,” and it’s our body’s natural cleaning process that recycles toxins in our cells and turns them into energy.

Basically it is the cellular equivalent of burning our trash in order to survive and stay warm.

Over time, our cells accumulate toxins, dead organelles, damaged proteins, and oxidised particles that interfere with cell function. This accelerates ageing and makes us more prone to diseases. Autophagy clears out this clutter; the less clutter, toxins, and acids, the longer we’re able to stay healthy. Fruit and vegetables create the perfect environment for efficient autophagy to happen as they naturally cleanse our cells and help our kidneys and colon to eliminate waste.

 

Detoxing can be easy when it is done the happy way—all it takes is knowledge, discipline, and the desire to live a healthier life.

The best thing about this lifestyle is that it works in our favour. The older we get and the longer we are on this lifestyle, the cleaner and healthier we become. The only question left to answer is: “Do you want to join me?”

 

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