Disclaimer:

 

All contents of this book are strictly for educational and informational purposes only. The author and publisher will not be held liable for any use or misuse of any information contained or mentioned within this book. The author is not a doctor, and none of the information contained within this book, is meant to replace or displace the guidance of one's personal doctor. The author strongly advises that everyone always be under the care of a qualified health care practitioner, and seek the advise and instruction from their health care provider, before making any changes to their health care practices.

 

Introduction:

 

What does healthy living mean? For me, health living means embracing a lifestyle of clean eating and life habits, including the reduction and elimination of toxic elements from one's diet, body care, and home care practices. Of course, it is much more detailed than that, but, at the same time, it really is as simple as that.

 

In a span of half of a generation, we as a society have gone from living a fairly natural lifestyle, to one that is inundated with chemicals and toxins in every conceivable form. In the average family's home, all you have to do is read the label on any of the food products in their pantry or fridge, or, any label on their collection of personal care and home care products, and you will see a plethora of words you can't pronounce, or even know what they mean on those labels. The average family uses toxic lab-made products at unprecedented levels, yet they are surprised that their family's health and well-being, is anything but healthy or well.

 

The human body is quite adaptable to change, yet, one thing it cannot do is thrive and survive, with regular exposure and ingestion of chemicals and toxins. The human body has a web of detection and elimination processes that signal the exposure or consumption of a toxin, and, it goes to work immediately trying to rid the offending toxin(s) from your body. If one continues on to regularly expose and consume these toxic elements, especially without regular detoxification practices, the body resorts to other measures in an attempt to keep you alive. This includes weight gain that you can't lose (there is a reason why), skin eruptions, bouts of sickness, illness, disease, and then the eventual demise of a functioning body. What the body is doing, is attempting to purge these chemicals and toxins from your body, any way that it can. When these attempts to detoxify the body are constantly being ignored, and overriden by continuous unhealthy living habits, the effects become compounded and more severe. Contrary to marketing ploys by many consumer products, chemicals are not safe for human exposure or consumption, even in diluted form. Just because something doesn't harm or kill you immediately, doesn't mean it won't eventually.

 

For far too long now, the corrupt practices of the FDA, USDA, EPA, and other so-called consumer protection agencies, have allowed the continuous influx of chemicals and toxins into our food, personal care, and home care product supply. Furthermore, the manufacturers of these products use downright misleading and false marketing tactics to promote their poisonous products to the consumer. Why? For money, money, and more money. It starts with the initial profits from the sales of their products, but then continues on when the people using and consuming them become riddled with illness and disease. There is big profit to be had in the world of sickness. The 'cut it' and 'drug it' mentality of the western world's medical system rakes in trillions of dollars every year. And, anything that threatens those 'cut it' and 'drug it' profits, is met with threats of retaliation. (That in itself is a story and book for another time.) Natural and alternative health care practices and practitioners are ridiculed and demeaned, typically through the use of more misleading and falsified marketing tactics.

 

In addition to being a vegetarian and vegan blogger and author, I am also a holistic therapist by trade. I provide a multitude of Asian-based holistic therapies to my clientele, as well as educate and guide them on healthy eating and healthy living habits. I spent my younger years, as a paramedic with the fire department, a 911 dispatcher and a MA (medical assistant) in the cardiothoracic surgery department of Mayo hospital. That being mentioned let me get this out of the way. When it comes to emergency care, acute care, and some specialty care, there is no other country that I would rather be, than the United States, to get the emergency, acute, or specialty care medical attention that I might be in need of. The United States has superior medical facilities, health practitioners and diagnostic equipment and testing to serve those needs. However, when it comes to definitive care, I personally feel that the medical care system is severely sub-par, and even abusive. Natural health and well-being is not on the agenda of the definitive health care system. Selling unnecessary surgery and drugs is, both of which, is far too often the 'go-to' solution when one goes to pay their doctor a visit.

 

I am impassioned with natural health, and all the healthy living habits that that encompasses. I practice what I teach, and, at just shy of 50 years old, I look and feel decades younger than my chronological age, I am free of any ill health, and very rarely ever get sick. I truly love teaching what I know to others, and will soon be closing my clientele practice, so that I may write and teach on the subjects of vegetarian, vegan, and raw nutrition, as well as natural health and holistic healing on a full-time basis.

 

Detoxification and cleansing practices, is one of those many subject matters within the scope of natural health and holistic healing, and of course, the topic of this book. Anyone who is aligned with healthy and natural living should be regularly including detoxification methods into their lifestyle, as well as clean living habits. While that may sound daunting to those who might be just now making a commitment to living a healthier life, it really isn't. Cleaning up your body and life is not a race, so you should never feel like it's an all-or-nothing approach. Do what you can, as you can, and celebrate those little successes along the way. One of the most common breakpoints of doing the all-or-nothing approach, to detoxifying and cleansing, is that if you try to do a complete overhaul all at once, you will typically view any misstep as a complete system failure, and then just give up. Avoid this all-too-common mistake that many people make, and tailor your detoxification efforts to your specific lifestyle and needs. It's ok to start slow, but, be careful to not use that as an excuse to stall, or have huge time gaps in-between your detoxification efforts.

 

So, celebrate your commitment, or re-commitment, to healthy living, and let's dive in on how you can detoxify and cleanse your body and living environment, in easy-to-do steps that will bring you into better health and well-being, starting today.

 

Gina 'The Veggie Goddess' Matthews