Why wait for the new year when a simple body detox can help you get there faster?
There’s still time to rock an LBD for NYE.
(OR a fluffy unicorn onesie, if that’s your thing - it’s totally mine!)
However you’re planning to ring in the new year, there’s still plenty of time to get you feeling - and seeing - the results that drive us to the gym the first week of January every year. Like Mel Robbins says:
“Who needs a new year when you have a new day?”
In the fitness world, they have a saying: it takes 4 weeks for you to notice results, 8 weeks for your friends to see them, and 12 weeks for the rest of the world. And while that may sound like a long time, it really isn’t.
Our version? It takes 4 weeks to feel results, 6 weeks to hear them, and 8 weeks for most people to see them. Within 12 weeks, you’ve transformed your life by creating a new pattern!
In six to eight weeks, you could transform your entire lifestyle.
Instead of looking at a quick body detox or a fast weight loss program that you bounce back from after a month, you commit to small yet incremental changes so that by the month mark, you can see your first -and wonderfully motivating- results.
Commit to 6 to 8 weeks of a new health and fitness journey combining different tools for body detox, debloating, exercise, and empowering nutrition. You could very well be hitting a party you didn’t mean to - just to show off how good you feel.
There are a few things that may help you get to your goal faster if you do them for a while. A little goes a long way!
8 Things You Can Do for a Glowing NYE Body in Eight Weeks
These are not magic bullets, but when you implement these tips and programs consistently, you may find that your body is stronger, fitter, less bloated, and getting closer to your ideal version of you. The best part? It’s definitely healthier.
#1 Start With a Sugar and Body Detox
The number one culprit behind tummy-sucking for pictures is sugar. Closely followed by sneaky fat. Now, neither sugar nor fat is the enemy - but the excess of either is.
There’s plenty of research pointing to sugar as a leading cause of inflammation, weight gain, bloating, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. The easiest way to cut sugar dependency is to reboot your gut; the little guys living in your gut microbiome are the ones giving you sugar cravings.
What to do:
- Giveaway all your remaining Halloween candy and clean out the pantry (and the secret drawer.)
- Start a morning lemon water detox to make your body’s pH more alkaline
- Switch your Starbucks fix for a 3-min Matcha Green Tea Latte or Healthy Hot Cocoa to help you stop sugar cravings.
- Have small fresh berries at hand to munch on when the craving is too intense.
- Consider a Probiotic to help reset your gut’s flora or a Liver Detox supplement to support this process.
This body detox step is an important one, so try not to skip it!
#2 Restrict Starchy Carbohydrates
We all need carbs to survive, but we tend to overdo them very quickly. If you’re on a plant-based diet, you may find yourself often filling yourself up with starchy carbs, like white potatoes, pasta, and bread.
Others may find themselves adding more than one portion of pasta or pizza in their day.
The fast weight loss associated with this milder form of body detox might make this a lot more attractive to you; research shows low-carb diets make weight loss go on “autopilot” by making you feel fuller for longer - even more than a low-fat diet!
What to do:
- Practice portion control: dietary guidelines recommend 45 to 65% of the total calorie intake per day. Use something like MyFitnessPal to track it.
- In a 2,000 standard calorie diet, go for 225 to 325 grams maximum.
- For fast weight loss or during your body detox period (before adding exercise), bring it down to 50 to 150 grams of carbs per day.
- Choose carbs with high fiber content or low glycemic index like pumpkin.
#3 Add Movement to Your Day
Body detox helps get you started, now it’s time to increase your metabolic rate. If you can add 150 minutes of exercise to your week, you’ll meet the minimum recommended by the Heart Association of America. To see changes in four to eight weeks, you need to know how to break that down effectively.
Kayla Istines BBG workout program is a good option and guide: it’s only 3 days of HIIT or resistance training with little weight or just body-weight and 3 days of low-intensity cardiovascular exercise. On Sundays? You rest.
The structure behind this highly successful and fast weight loss program applies easily to your “Glow by NYE” goal!
What to Do:
- Schedule three 30-minute workouts during the week that involve either bands, weights, or body-weight strength training like this one from the Fitness Blender.
- Go on three 30-minute walks during the week. Bonus points if you can keep your heart rate stable throughout the whole thing (meaning dog walks with multiple stops don’t count.)
- Bring a friend! It will help you get more motivated and expedite that body detox you started on week one with the fitness world secret sauce - consistency.
- Tell yourself: it’s only 30-minutes, only three days. Bite-sizing exercise will help you get it in your routine without making you (too) miserable.
- Find a fun class!
#4 Control Cruciferous Vegetables and Beans
Broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts are incredibly healthy and fantastic in green juice, but since you may experience some bloating from them, restrict them during the body detox. They may also make you gassy, just like black beans and pinto beans.
What to Do:
- If you’re drinking green juice for fast weight loss, you don’t have to stop just switch the ingredients. Find alternatives that support body detox, like beets, and flight inflammation, like ginger or turmeric.
- Consider a goitrogen-free green juice alternative like Organifi’s green juice, which is 100% organic and plant-based but doesn’t have cruciferous vegetables in it. Find it in our Sunrise to Sunset Bundle, which (bonus) comes with berry-rich Red Juice to combat sugar cravings.
- Eat them cooked when possible and in smaller amounts than usual, monitor your body for two weeks to see the changes.
- Cook your beans at home when possible, a slow cooker is a life-safer, and add one teaspoon of baking soda to the water to fight bloating and gas!
#5 Switch Cereal for a Protein-Packed Breakfast
Follow your lemon water body detox with a protein breakfast; cereals are usually very sweet and start your day on an insulin spike, making you crave more sugar and food later.
What to Do:
- If you’re a smoothie person, choose berries instead of bananas to sweeten your drink. And instead of adding two cups of spinach, add just a handful, along with chia seeds or flax seeds.
- If you have time for a larger brekkie, oil-free omelets, poached eggs on barley avocado toast, or hard-boiled eggs make a good option.
#6 Add Good Fats to Most of Your Meals
Contrary to popular opinion, no-fat to low-fat diets don’t automatically lead to weight gain. Choose healthy fats like nuts, avocados, olive oil, walnuts, and flax or chia seeds. Just practice portion control with them!
#7 Drink 16 Oz of Water Before Each Meal
A study in the UK found that when you drink 500ml of water or 16Oz of plain water (or body detox lemon water wink-wink) half an hour before your three main meals during the day could help you lose weight faster - in twelve weeks.
Researchers followed 84 obese patients and gave 43 of them water before each meal, compared to 41 patients who did not. The results showed that those who “preloaded” before all three main meals lost of 4.3kg (9.48lbs) over the 12 weeks.
#8 Try Intermittent Fasting or Restricted Feeding
Intermittent fasting is not for everyone, but its benefits go beyond body detox and fast weight loss; it could help reboot and boost your immune system. It’s not about going hungry, but rather to restrict your calorie intake to a specific time window.
What to Do:
- If you add those 150 minutes of exercise a week, you can keep a three-day. Intermittent Fasting schedule on the “light” exercise days, leaving Sundays for rest.
- If you don’t feel like exercising or committing to 150 minutes, then restrict meals to an 8-hour window.
- Add half a plate of veggies in your meals and make sure you always have some healthy, high-fiber source of carb, healthy protein, and fat.
- Avoid pizza, french fries, and junk food until you start seeing results and leave them for treat meals - not days!
- Hydrate normally, with a minimum of 8 glasses of water every day.
Bottom-Line:
There’s no reason to wait until the new year to go after the version of you that you dream of, starting with a simple body detox you can reboot your system, promote fast weight loss, and potentially even boost your metabolism. Adding just 150 minutes of exercise a week could help see a drastic transformation very soon. In four weeks you’ll create a habit, in twelve maybe a new lifestyle.
