Who doesn’t like vacations? Finally, you are afforded an ideal time to unwind, live in the movement, soak up novelty, and learn about a new culture. But, this overwhelm of sensory novelty can also be dysregulating to the body’s systems, depleting your energy and causing an imbalance in the gut flora, endocrine function (due to bodily stress), organ function, and hormonal regulation.
No wonder a detox after vacation is essential to reset your health and energy levels!
And even if your vacation is meant to be relaxing and Zen, the process of getting to a new location and coming back home is more taxing than we’d like to think.
How Travel Takes a Toll on the Body
You may not necessarily feel stressed after a long trip or vacation – and may instead feel exhilarated – but the toll your body goes through after the adrenaline-fueled preparations, experience, and return is experienced as stress that the body must manage and regulate to reset your life back to harmony.
If we run on empty, there is a big chance of further dysregulation and chronic inflammation, which accumulates silently until symptoms of disease get our attention.
Being in the energizer-bunny state for some time can indeed adversely affect your emotional, physical, and mental health.
Here are some of the ways you can dysregulate the body during travel:
Airports are highly energy-draining hubs of concentrated human energy that are characterized by stressed, anxious, tired, and hurried humans. They are also rampant with radiation, electromagnetic energy pollution, and electricity. All of these energies impact the state of our whole body and can cause us to feel lethargic, sick, and out of balance for days after traveling.
If you travel by plane, you are literally ungrounded (not connected to the healing Earth energy, or the Schumann frequency) for hours and are breathing recycled oxygen with dozens of others. The meals served are likewise packaged, processed, and microwaved, the oxygen levels are low, and the speed of travel is so incredibly fast that our bodies are placed in a state of shock and stress. Being so sensitive, I usually get headaches and have even thrown up after long plane travels.
Dehydration is a big factor when traveling long distances, since body stressors are highly acidic. If you drink coffee and don’t usually drink water during travel, be extra diligent to hydrate – preferably with lemon water or coconut water.
Traveling to a new time zone can throw off our circadian cycles, throwing off our body’s intuitive connection to sleep, activity, and food intake. When we often dysregulate our natural rhythms, we weaken our immune system and increase our susceptibility to chronic disease.
Not moving much during travel can stagnate the lymphatic system and blood circulation, causing poor delivery of nutrients throughout the body and sluggish ability of the body to purge acids and toxins. Stretch and move as much as possible to help the body in this process.
If you have lymphatic stagnation problems in general, the sedentary effect of travel could make your feet, ankles, and body swell.
What Is Detox and Why Is It So Beneficial?
Detoxification is a centuries-old ancient healing modality that uses herbs, diet, and other energy-moving modalities to remove blockages to energy flow and purge toxins and acids from tissues through the elimination organs.
Inevitably, detoxification helps the body eliminate acidic chemistry that leads to chronic inflammation, which is the cause of most diseases. It also helps the body hydrate and heal by providing electrolytes and energy (through simple sugars) to nourish cells so that they can regulate and heal damaged tissue and potential chronic degeneration.
If the body has enough alkaline chemistry as fuel, it will not only be able to correct acute issues that have been bothering you recently but will also have the capacity to heal long-standing problems and genetic weaknesses that you may have written off as your fate that you can’t do much about.
When it comes to detox, it absolutely matters how long and how dedicated you are to the protocol. If you simply want a post-vacation cleanse, a short-term dedication is appropriate and will truly provide you with the results you seek.
However, if you really want to dig deep and heal your body from a lifetime of chronic inflammation, you do have to dedicate months and years of periodic cleansing and alkaline diet consumption.
It takes a lifetime to get the body to the point of degeneration, and as the law of cause and effect dictates, there must be a proportional time of dedication committed to regeneration.
The most effective ways to detox are to prepare your body for it effectively by:
eliminating acidic chemistry and instructions to energy flow
slowly introducing cleansing (alkaline) chemistry
strengthening the function of the elimination organs
rebuilding cellular, organ, and glandular function
Why You Should Always Detox After Vacations
Not only is the travel aspect of vacation very stressful, but vacationing itself can be overstimulating enough to cause your adrenaline levels to rise, putting a strain on your adrenal glands, nervous system, gut, and overall body metabolism.
The sheer level of novelty and unfamiliarity with an environment can also cause you to be hypervigilant, which would exude more nervous tension and energy depletion.
Likewise, when you are in a new country or a very different setting, you are exposed to unfamiliar pathogens, water quality, bacteria, foods, and chemicals, which your body may not be used to and finds it hard to process, especially if you have underlying health issues and weaknesses. This strain can leave the body out of balance with weakened defense mechanisms.
Here are just a few other reasons why detox after vacation is truly recommended:
Alcohol consumption
Eating out often and eating more than usual (especially rich foods)
Street food hygiene
Too much time in the sun/water/high altitude/near traffic (car exhaust)
Overactive days
Overconsumption of stimulants
8 Tips for Post-Vacation Detox
#1 Rest plenty and sleep whenever you feel tired
Since travel offsets our natural circadian cycles, the body will operate on the time-zone of the place where we come from, and will cause our sleeping, eating, and activity patterns to become unbalanced.
This is why listening to your body and not pushing yourself to perform at your standard pace is of primary importance after travels. If you are feeling tired during the day, instead of having coffee, take that nap your body is desiring in order to rest, rejuvenate, and energize.
Try to take on less activity and work during the first week after your vacation to give the body the space to rebalance and find its center. The best way to do so is to go to sleep early and wake up with the rising sun. To regulate the body most effectively after long vacations, you should mimic the patterns of nature in your own environment.
Another helpful tip to align your body with the circadian cycles of your home environment is to go in your backyard (if you have one) and walk barefoot on the grass. Alternatively, you can lie down on the grass with your arms and bare feet touching the earth while taking deep breaths that you imagine are claiming and rebalancing your body.
Do this daily for about 15-30 minutes, and your body will thank you! The reason earthing helps with rebalancing our energetic frequency is that it connects us with the natural frequency of the Earth – the Schumann frequency – that we are innately connected to as beings of nature.
Overall, our cells and systems work more efficiently and healing is more possible when we have closer contact with nature regularly.
#2 Eat only fruit for breakfast for at least a week
Fruit is one of the most cleansing and energizing foods on the planet, and the sad part is that the mainstream “health” circles have demonized it for its “unhealthy sugar content”!
Contrary to popular belief, fruit is not full of harmful sugars (which are extracted and processed sugars) but simple sugars that are synergistically connected to the inherent nutrition, intelligence, and wisdom of the fruit that elevates all systems in the body. The truth is that simple sugars from fruits and vegetables are the quintessential fuel our bodies need to run on, survive, and heal.
And yes, diabetics can eat fruit, since diabetes is caused by pancreatic dysfunction, and fruit doesn’t require insulin to be broken down. In fact, fruit can heal pancreatic dysfunction and diabetes!
Another benefit of fruit is that it is quick and easy to digest, meaning it does not require much energy from the body to devote to digestion, assimilation, and elimination. In net energy terms, fruit provides more energy than it takes from chemical breakdown and assimilation. No other food in nature (besides herbs and certain vegetables) can do that.
This makes fruit the ideal food for energy, healing, regeneration, and anti-aging.
By incorporating fruit as the first meal of the day, you will provide the body with the essential energy and nutrients it needs to cleanse properly and start the day off with vitality.
Since breakfast is meant to “break-the-fast” of the nighttime sleep cycle, it must be gentle on the body and provide it with plenty of hydration and nutrients for systemic revamp – including circulation and elimination.
By consuming fruit for breakfast for a week (or if you want my advice, as a daily routine), you can help your body heal quicker and more efficiently than with any other health method or protocol.
#3 Eliminate stimulants (coffee, alcohol, and other substances)
Stimulants place more tension on the adrenal glands (which manage stress, fight and flight, and the inflammatory response) and the nervous system, making them a burden on the body, especially as it seeks to regulate its processes.
Since coffee/caffeine is chemically addictive and acidic (creates acid ash when it is broken down chemically), it is known to leach electrolytes from the body and overstimulate the adrenal glands, which excrete cortisol (an anti-inflammatory hormone) and adrenaline (places the body in the stressful alert state) as a result of caffeine intake.
Since your body needs rest and no stimulation, chocolate and other caffeine-rich beverages should definitely be eliminated while on your post-vacation detox!
#4 Hydrate with lemon water, cold-pressed juices, and/or coconut water throughout the day
Hydrating with fruits and vegetables is much more effective than simply with pure, filtered water (which is always recommended!). Why is this so? For one, the body absorbs structured water’s chemistry in a different way than water that has been heavily processed.
You can think of this as having the same analogy as fruit sugar and processed sugar or as pill supplements and whole foods. The extraction process dilutes and changes the chemistry of the element and is recognized differently by the body than a substance that comes from nature directly.
Structured water is water that contains geometrically cohesive molecules (H3O2 instead of H2O) and that is found in fruit, vegetables, rain, rivers, and streams. Because it interacts with direct sunlight (solar energy) and is naturally interacting with elements of nature that have the water flow in a vortexing pattern, it is electrical and stores natural energy that can revitalize the body.
Unlike still, tap water or purified water that is artificially treated and has no contact with the elements of nature, structured water is imprinted with frequencies of nature. That is why adding lemon to purified water, or juicing fruits and veggies is much more hydrating than consuming large quantities of filtered water on its own.
Even placing water in a jar and leaving it on the grass in direct sunshine can infuse the water with energy and natural frequencies.
One of my favorite ways to rehydrate is to simply eat more fruits and veggies and sip lemon water, coconut water (since it is full of electrolytes that help with kidney and organ function), smoothies, or pressed juices throughout the day.
#5 Eat your last meal before 7 pm and have the largest meal in the afternoon
When you think of the path of the sun in the sky and the warmest time of the day, you can apply the same exact logic to your body’s ecosystem and metabolism. The sun is at its strength mid-afternoon, and this is exactly the time of the day that your metabolism is at its strongest.
Digestive enzymes are also more plentiful in the afternoon than in the evening (when the sun sets and the body gets the message that it is time to rest soon), therefore having lunch as your heaviest meal of the day is truly recommended in terms of digestion, assimilation, and body regulation.
Another big tip when detoxing after vacation is to incorporate more seaweed, sea vegetables, spirulina, chlorella, and cilantro into your diet. These superfoods are known to absorb and eliminate radiation and heavy metals from the body and are ideal detox helpers when flying and coming back from cities and polluted areas.
For dinner, have a very light meal and try not to eat past 7 pm. As a general rule, consuming your last meal 4 hours before bed is ideal, since going to bed while your food is still digesting can impact the overall quality of your sleep and regeneration during sleep.
You want your sleep to serve as a time when your body doesn’t have to exert extra effort and energy and can turn on its innate intelligence to help you heal and recover.
Did you know that 70% of all the energy you have is spent on digestion, assimilation of nutrients, and elimination? By introducing simple changes to your routine such as consuming heavier meals earlier in the day and having simpler and smaller meals can significantly impact the amount of energy your body uses for digestion, which it can divert toward detox.
Try it and see how you feel!
#6 Stay away from complex protein (both animal and vegan)
This may seem counter-intuitive, since we live in a culture that praises protein as a panacea for good health. However, protein deficiency is absolutely a myth!
In fact, humans don’t require much protein at all, as mother’s milk (the perfect food for the human being) is only 1% protein and the rest is made up of fat and carbohydrates. Because of our structural needs, excessive protein intake is very hard to process in the body and is known to cause kidney and colon damage over time.
Another reason we don’t need much protein is that proteins are very complex in their molecular structure, and therefore, are hard to digest. Their digestion involves multiple chemical breakdowns, which creates acidic residue and depletes elimination organs, especially the kidneys.
Not only is animal protein hard on the body, but not many people realize that plant-based protein can have similar effects. In fact, nuts and nut-butters are full of complex proteins and should be kept to a minimum for optimal health.
If you want to have better digestion, more energy, less brain fog, and overall lower inflammation levels in your body, my advice is to minimize your intake of all complex proteins. This is even more important if you have a weaker gut function and tend to experience aches, pains, and lethargy.
When you’re detoxing, it is essential to eliminate all complex proteins from your diet to give the body a break from using all its energy toward processing it. The acidic byproducts of this chemical breakdown inflame the body, putting more strain on the lymphatic system (the body’s sewage system that drains through the kidneys) and other elimination organs.
So how do you get protein most healthily? Through amino acids, the building blocks of proteins! The body must break down proteins into amino acids to be even able to use them as building blocks for growth, function, and structure.
Therefore, getting essential amino acids through fruits and vegetables (wonderful sources of amino acids!) is the best and most efficient way to provide the body with the raw and basic material it needs for protein synthesis.
#7 Eliminate dairy
Ah, dairy! We are often told that it is the best source of calcium to keep our bones strong. But, did you know that we can’t even digest it?
The only people that have adapted to dairy digestion over time are Northern Europeans, simply out of survival necessity and the sheer amount of butter and dairy that they consumed during cold winters. However, dairy is made up of chemistry that is specifically made for a growing calf or an animal baby.
That means each species’ milk is specially designed to help its baby grow quickly from a helpless baby to a young adult. That is why milk includes specific ratios of protein, sugar, enzymes, and nutrition that are specific to the growth needs of each species.
This is precisely why cow’s milk is incompatible with the human digestive system, and do our bodies let us know! Dairy is processed as foreign chemistry by our system and is highly acidifying.
Likewise, dairy is one of the most congesting and mucus-forming foods. It is one of the main causes of sinus infections, brain fog, allergies, and headaches as well as major chronic diseases like arthritis, osteoporosis (due to acidosis, an opposite effect of “strong bones”), and cancer.
#8 Move your body by stretching, doing yoga, and walking
Your body has a vast network of vessels, organs, and nodes that circulate its metabolic waste, acids, and toxins back to the elimination organs – especially the kidneys – for elimination. This is the mighty lymphatic system, which is twice as long as the blood network and helps to keep the body clean from waste.
Just like we do, our cells consume fuel, generate activity, and create waste that must be expelled. Simply imagine what would happen in your own house if the bathroom pipes exploded and everything was covered in waste – definitely not a lovely scenario to think about.
All of us have functioning elimination organs, but because of the sheer amount of toxicity in the modern world, daily stresses, and our less-than-stellar lifestyle choices, our cellular function has become weaker, making the lymphatic system more sluggish and unable to circulate and eliminate waste properly.
And as you detox, if your lymphatic system is clogged, all that you cleanse from your body will have nowhere to go but be reabsorbed and circulated back to all the tissues. That is why strengthening your lymphatic system as you detoxify is key to proper cleansing and to feeling your detox protocol is working!
One of the best ways to improve the function of your lymphatic system is through movement! Unlike the blood that relies on the heart as its circulatory pump, the lymphatic system can only move with the assistance of alkaline (astringent) chemistry and body movement.
That is why stretching, yoga, brisk walking, and physical activity are complementary musts when on a detox cleanse.
Just make sure you don’t overdo it with exercise, since cells are more active and secrete more metabolic waste (lactic acid) when under physical stress!
Final Thoughts
When planning your detox after vacation, know that rest, diet, and movement are key ingredients to feeling replenished, energized, and healthier – quicker!
After a vacation, your body is depleted and dysregulated, therefore your efforts should center around rebalancing your body so that you feel stronger, energized, and vital.
A big risk of being on the high-energy go after experiencing the adrenaline of a vacation without proper rest of detox is that your body would be struggling to keep up, and this depletion could cause acute and chronic health issues over time.
And if you need more help with your post-vacation detoxification efforts, check out my educational detox products, which will provide you with practical guidance to get back to your healthiest self!
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