It’s been a few days since I blogged - I was birth support for my friend and we now have one more gorgeous soul in this world. It was an incredible experience for us all and bub is so beautiful!

I only just realised that today is officially my last day of detox – 4 weeks gone! I actually feel so good I may continue until the weekend, which is another 5 days. I have a dinner engagement on Saturday and I know I will have a couple of glasses of wine so detox has to end by then.

“Retoxing” must be done carefully and it is a perfect opportunity to test what foods agree with your body. So, post detox, reintroduce a new food e.g. wheat, and watch your body for 4 days. Do not introduce any other new food in this 4 day period. Look for signs such as bloating, indigestion, change in bowel habits, headaches, itchy skin or perhaps the return of symptoms that you had pre-detox and haven’t felt after week 1.Any foods that give you reactions indicated that your body does not digest them well, you may have an intolerance or simply it does not agree with you at this point in time.

If you are aiming for optimal health, not average health, then you will need to avoid these foods until after your next detox. By then, try a small portion of it and you should be fine. It really helps to keep a journal during a detox and write a summary at the end. All my patients email me food diaries on a weekly basis as well so that I can support them through any food difficulties.

The Reiki course was fantastic – it was very practical and involved meditation style exercises which I loved. I won’t go too much into it but I have a lot of support from other realms and sometimes that is easy to tap into and other times it feels blocked. Well, today was an easy day and I could actually feel and hear the energies at play. My third eye opened and I felt an incredible vortex of energy – I do believe that humans have only just touched the surface of their energetic abilities.

I do need to remember to meditate more – I learnt transcendental meditation as a child and did this for years so I can quite easily access that serene internal space. I have been working on my spiritual path for many years and it is something that I find integral to development.

Now that detox has officially finished, let me think about how I feel. Physically, my goal was to improve my fitness and I have definitely achieved that. The regular gym sessions have me toned and feeling really strong and grounded. I actually had a BioImpedance Analysis done and compared it to my last one 14 months ago. I have lost 5cm around my waist, dropped 3kg pure fat and increased my muscle mass by 2kg! I am ecstatic about that result! I didn’t want to lose weight but I am happy to see my stats shifting to a healthier long term profile.

Mentally I feel incredible and this is what makes detox so addictive for me! I can stay up late, get up early, feel fantastic and my neurons are firing beautifully all day long without a lapse. I do believe that we don’t utilise our potential mental abilities nearly as much as we should – they say that Einstein only used 12% of his brain capacity!

Spiritually I feel very grounded and in tune with myself – my intuition is much clearer. It is like looking through a clean window as opposed to a dirty one. Always watch your dreams while detoxing as your subconscious will talk to you quite clearly through them. The more you listen to this little inner voice of wisdom the more your intuition will become clear to you.

So, I want to say thank you for walking this journey with me and keeping me company. I have loved sharing this with you and I hope that it inspires you to begin your path towards optimal health. I have given you an insight into how life looks whilst on my detox program and how I manage with food, exercise and life’s busy demands. So, now you know the easy way why don’t you go to my website, join in the fun and begin your way to better energy, brighter skin and a more youthful you!

Love Emma

My little gorgeous niece has learnt how to crawl! I am planning on popping in for a demonstration on the way to clinic so will add a photo of her in action. My brother has been frantically coordinating the expansion of his physiotherapy business. He has relocated to huge premises and is opening on Monday. I will be practising there and also running my HypnoBirthing classes weekly. I am very excited about this as I know he will create an awesome space with a lot of great energy.

I stayed up till 1am working, as did my cat Simba (see picture), so I slept until my book keeper phoned at 9am! I haven’t slept in that late for ages but I must have needed a catch up. Apparently it is going to be filthy hot this weekend and I have a Reiki course all day tomorrow so I won’t be able to go to Bondi early morning for my swim. As I missed the gym this morning, I will go for a swim at Golden Door when I arrive tomorrow night.

Breakfast was cereal, fruit and yoghurt – for some reason on this detox I haven’t been eating many eggs. I could make frittata for lunch or dinner quite easily as it is a great protein source but eggs don’t appeal at the moment. Lunch was left over salad from dinner which I snacked on between seeing patients.

I had a social outing this evening which is probably the first big one for 3 weeks. I felt good about it before I went – I am not tempted by alcohol or bad food. The only thing I was concerned about were the options available for dinner! I have generally found that most restaurants and pubs can serve a piece of grilled fish with salad or vegetables. I always ask for dressing on the side and no sauce on the fish, just a lemon wedge. As far as drinks go I have mineral water with fresh lemon or lime - that is easy to access.

Did I tell you that my tomato plants have shrivelled up? I am trying to revive them but it is looking grim. I rang my grandma to ask for some emergency tips but she didn’t have any new ones for me.

Tomorrow I have my Reiki course so that should be great. I am curious as to how I will find it – I am not into fluffy stuff and while I am a big believer in energetic systems (think chakras, chi, prana etc) I need the scientific side as well. Will let you know how I go!

I had a crazy day in clinic today – even my 15 minutes breaks ended up being used for acute phone consults! So it is late and I have just finished writing reports to GPs and psychologists – not my favourite part of being a naturopath but a necessary one.

I used about 6 lychees with my cereal this morning along with a kiwi and it was a taste bud sensation. I took left over salad of rocket, sugar snaps, cucumber and avocado for my mid morning snack. All my friends laugh at me as they know that I often eat left over salad before I go to the gym in the morning. It started when I was younger – I have always enjoyed making salads but I always made so much that we never ate it all at dinner.

So I would stand with the fridge door open in the morning pondering what to eat for breakfast and the salad would just scream out to me “EAT ME!!!” So I did. I then began researching what traditional cultures ate in the morning and I discovered that the cereal and toast phenomenon was a relatively recent invention. In China they eat congee, in Japan it’s miso, in Greece it’s fetta, olives with coffee etc. So our Western version of toast and jam or cereal with milk is what we feel we are supposed to eat, but is it really the best start to the day? Why can’t breakfast be savoury and more substantial? Have you ever heard of the expression “eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch and a pauper at dinner”? So, if you are getting bored with your breakfasts, think outside the square and choose a savoury dish instead.

Lunch today was a Pitango lentil soup – I am in love with this company as they are certified organic, family run and have lots of different meals to choose from. I often have their take home meals in the freezer for emergencies. Dinner was red quinoa with lemon zest and extra virgin olive oil with broccoli, zucchini and tuna.

Today’s photo is of Kale - my absolute favorite detox food. I have just met the farmer who grows the most amazing varieties of kale - 15 in fact! I will blog about it soon but in the meantime, buy some and know that as you eat it your liver is kicking up it’s heels and dancing for joy!

Well, at least I woke up nice and early due to going to bed at a reasonable time for a change. The gym was not as busy and I felt great by the time I was stretching an hour later. Today’s breakfast was muesli, sheep’s milk yoghurt and half a dozen lychees. I love this fruit and just devour them when they are in season.

I then went for “coffee” and made the radical decision to have a soy chai latte. Well, never again! It was just like drinking hot milk and did not appeal to me at all. One thing that you need to ask if you are ordering chai is “do you use syrup or do you brew the herbs to order?” I kept having women complain to me that they couldn’t lose weight even though they were taking their herbs and supplements, exercising and eating well. After some investigation work it turned out that this subset of patients were all drinking soy chai lattes! If the syrup is used then this drink is high in calories, about 250 per cup, which takes quite a while to burn off at the gym. So, now I ask them to avoid this drink completely and stick to my herbal tea instead as it contains a little ginger which supports a healthy metabolism.

IKU provided a lovely lunch – I adore their cabbage and beetroot salad as just looking at it makes me feel healthy. I then had ocean trout and yellow fin tuna with salad for dinner. Now, a little about yellow fin tuna – this is a smaller, faster growing species than the blue fin tuna. Hence it is a far more sustainable choice to make as you:

1.    Will not be ingesting heavy metals such as methyl mercury
2.    Will not be adding to an overfished situation of blue fin tuna

I woke early to fit in a 20 minutes spa and a 20 minutes steam session. In the spa I aim the jets at any wobbly bits and make my plans for the week. In the steam room I do my meditation – that is called multi tasking! I am not too sore after my big cardio session yesterday but I think that is due to the Epsom salt bath last night. Being high in magnesium Epsom salts relax muscles as well as reducing lactic acid build up.

I had fruit, sheep’s milk yoghurt and LSA for breakfast followed by a mid morning smoothie of berries, banana and soy milk. Lunch consisted of a beautiful quiche with fetta, spinach, cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs. As this dish is so high in protein it keeps me feeling full for ages which is unusual for me. At 6pm when I finished I jumped in the car and drove home from the Hunter, spending the driving time to return phone calls.

I am rather excited as I need to book plane tickets to Thailand for August – I haven’t had a holiday for over 2 years so I am dying for some sun and relaxation. I can imagine now, afternoon cocktails by the pool, massage on the beach, oh I am there already!

Dinner was light - miso, almonds, black sesame crackers, white nectarines and an apple.  More like a picnic than dinner but occasionally I like to graze and have a few different flavours. Do you know how shiny my hair is - it’s amazing the subtle changes detox causes. I love it!

As it was the weekend I made my weekly early morning run to Bondi beach and although the water was icy it was incredibly refreshing. I usually take the Sunday magazine to read between swims but I forgot. The nippers provided plenty of entertainment instead, they look so tiny with those big yellow boards almost as big as they are! I had a decaf soy flat white on the way home – I figure 3 weeks in that I can have a treat!

I was starving by the time I got home as I only had a white peach and some hot water with lemon when I woke up. As I wanted to head to the gym I made a smoothie with 2 bananas and 1 cup of berries with all my other usual ingredients. I added extra banana for the energy and bananas are also high in potassium which is great when you sweat it out at the gym.

Now, get ready to cheer – my time on the rower today was an incredibly 10 minutes and 4 seconds! I use music and my HypnoBirthing training to get through the pain threshold but I have to admit that I felt like vomiting when I finished – my heart rate was up at 171 so no wonder! I then used the cross trainer and did a hill session which almost had me crying. I missed the yoga class this morning so I did some stretching instead.

I had a fresh juice of pineapple, apple and mint which is one of my all time favourites – it’s perfect on a hot day if you blend it with ice and make a frappe. Lunch was once again from a freezer cook up – a casserole of vegetables and beans.

I have made a really concerted effort to detoxify my home – I only use natural cleaning products as well as make up and body care. I noticed a few months ago that whenever I hoped in the shower I would be able to smell chlorine for the first few minutes. I looked into this and found an innovative Australian company that has patented a shower filter to remove all chemicals from the water. It makes sense right – why spend so much effort and time to detox then hop into a chemical laden shower? We absorb chemicals though our skin and the issue with chlorine is that its chemical structure is similar to iodine (as is fluorine). So both chlorine and fluorine block absorption of iodine.

In case you weren’t aware, iodine deficiency is at epidemic levels in Australia and I routinely test all my patients for this. I have only had 2 patients return normal levels. Iodine is vital for the thyroid hormones that regulate our metabolism, body temperature, reproduction, growth, blood cell production as well as nerve and muscle function. Low thyroid hormones can cause a person to become sluggish and gain weight, affecting their general health, their fertility and ability to carry a pregnancy.

It is important to ensure adequate iodine intake during preconception, pregnancy and breast feeding. During pregnancy, the fetus is entirely dependent upon maternal iodine, which plays a significant role in normal central nervous system formation and maturation. Iodine deficiency during pregnancy is the commonest worldwide cause of preventable intellectual impairment and can be associated with losses of up to 10 -15 IQ points. A recent study involving 1,709 schoolchildren across the eastern seaboard of Australia demonstrated that 40% of children were iodine deficient. So, ask me to check your iodine levels at your next consultation if you have not already been tested.

Dinner is light as I am at Golden Door – I had an abbas apple, a mango and a big bowl of miso. I then did a beautiful thing for myself – an Epsom salt bath, a mask followed by a scrub, all done by candle light whilst relaxing. I felt like a prune by the time I hopped out but I slept like a baby!

So, this morning I weighed myself at the gym and it seems that my weight is the same as when I started. I haven’t used these scales before so it will be interesting to see what Jess has to say at my reassessment in 10 days. I know my body is much more toned and my muscle mass has increased. My wobbly bits are less wobbly and in fact I feel good at the beach now. I wouldn’t like to do a Pamela run across the soft sand but none the less I could do a stroll comfortably!

I went to the gym and hit 10 minutes 43 seconds on the rower so a little behind my best time. My technique with all the exercises is much better and I really concentrate to get that right before I go for repetitions. Once I finish this detox I may ask jess to split my program so I can do upper body one day then lower body the next. This makes for a very efficient workout as it is quicker but harder.

I had a breakfast of gluten free muesli with a heap of summer fruit (love passionfruit right now), sheep’s milk yoghurt and apple juice. I then went to the organic markets and picked up some fresh produce for the next week. I found those little Abbas apples again and they are just gorgeous. I also bought two big bunches of flowers for myself – I have a tradition to make sure I do this regularly. I am a herbalist after all and flowers make me smile – both visually and olfactory.

Lunch was on the run – a shop bought salad of spinach and pumpkin – I am definitely a better chef so I need to be more organised! Clinic was flat out which I love and then I came home to BBQ some fish and make a salad for dinner.

Did I mention the importance of eating organic whilst detoxing? It is fundamental that you do not add to your toxin load at this time as you will not release any stored toxins. This is the core point of a detox. Have a read of my book for more information on this as it will make or break your experience.