Breaking a sweat, breathwork, and mindfulness are probably the most difficult pieces of the wellness puzzle for me. Fellow academic minds- is this you too?
I have to literally schedule in ways to practice these things consistently, but I do it because it matters. I’m also never going to ask a client to do something that I myself am not willing to explore.
When you’re busy with work, kids, trying to eat right, move your body, and somehow get that pile of laundry accumulating on your sofa put away…. Efficiency matters.
So that’s how I found myself back in hot yoga classes.
Hot yoga combines all of the most challenging pieces in one hot, sweaty, detox-boosting package.
Detox is your body’s natural waste removal process.
Even if you think detox is total woo-woo, you’re doing it right now.
Every breath you take, every move you make (PLEASE tell me you're singing along🤪)... every bite you eat and step you walk produces waste.
Add on exposure to chemical pesticides as you walk through your local park, synthetic fragrance in your personal care products, and even mental stress, and it’s not hard to see how one may need to pay some extra attention to how their body is handling day-to-day waste removal.
Let’s talk about the 5 P’s and what you can do to support them.
The ‘5 P’s’ refer to your body’s waste removal pathways:
Pee
Poop
Perspiration
Pranayama (breath)
Peacefulness
Let's get to it!
1: Pee
Drink plenty of filtered water daily. Aim for about ½ ounce per pound of body weight. Ideally, add a few drops of trace minerals (you can find my favorite on Fullscript with a 10% discount just for shopping though my dispensary).
2: Poop
Make sure you have 2-3 full bowel movements each day. If you struggle with this, refer back to drinking enough water, then evaluate your plant-food intake and increase as needed, move your body more, then consider your magnesium status and talk to your health team about supplementing.
3: Perspiration
LADIES, so many of you I talk to hate sweating, and do everything to avoid it. Even if you are not adverse to sweating, many women have a harder time breaking a sweat than the men. But listen up- studies have shown that women are more efficient at detoxing certain heavy metals through sweat than men. Use that power!
If this is a struggle for you, think about investing in a sauna- I have a Therasage Infrared Sauna, which you have get a discount on just by entering my name ‘JESSICA’ in the coupon box at checkout. You can even make a detox stack combining perspiration, pranayama, and peacefulness like I do and tryout a hot yoga class! Shout out to Hot Yoga Healthy You for challenging my growth in all these areas!
4: Pranayama
This is the yogic practice of controlling your breath. Try out some of my favorite breath practices- box breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and 4-7-8 breathing. Practice this daily to get the full benefits of detoxifying deep breaths, and so it’s a natural ingrained behavior you can call on to help you relax and find peace. Learn all about how to do these breath practices on my blog here.
5: Peacefulness
This is my personal addition to the more widely known ‘4 P’s’ of detox. When you are in a state of peacefulness, your body is operating in the parasympathetic nervous system mode, aka ‘rest and digest.’ This also is the state your body needs to be in to prioritize detoxification. Think about it- if a lion was chasing you, should it spend resources on detox, or just focus on saving you at that moment? No. Your body should focus on fighting and getting your booty far away from that lion. That’s the sympathetic ‘fight or flight’ mode. You need to spend the majority of your time in ‘rest and digest (and detox)’ mode, so you are ready to respond to those acute stressors as they occur.
Let's chat!
Which of these elimination pathways is the hardest for you to support? If you are like me and need to prioritize perspiration, pranayama, and peacefulness, maybe I’ll see you at yoga! If you’re looking for a more personalized approach to health, be sure to subscribe to my email list and follow over on Instagram to stay in the loop!