Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Detox Foot Soak

Okay, we are going to start things off today by reminding everyone that I am not a doctor, so anything I use and love on here might be great for me, but not great for you.  There is no medical advice being dispensed here at N&N.  I am just a mama that worries about pretty much everything in life, leading to a lot of stress.  So I like to find things that give me moments to relax and hopefully do something good for my body at the same time.

Like yoga, but without all the pain.  And the breathing through the pain.  I want the benefits of yoga, with minimal breathing through the pain.


Like I said, I'm a worrier.  A stresser.  Give me a situation and I can always find something to worry about.  It's a bad habit, one that I am constantly trying to work on, but I'm pretty sure there is a little rung on that DNA ladder that is labeled stress, and in my makeup that rung is close to the top.  And we all know that worry pollutes your body and your mind and robs you of precious minutes of life that will never be gotten back.

So when I started researching detox baths about a year ago, I was all over it.  Finding a way to pull toxins from food and stress and, well, LIFE out of my body?  Yes, please. 

It isn't like I'm overflowing with toxins from food.  I eat relatively well, if you can get past the Skittles.  And the coffee.

(Full disclosure: I have all but given up the Skittles.  I don't remember the last time I had some.  Coffee, on the other hand, is never going away, so get used to that, people.  A world without coffee is a sad and soulless place.  Kind of like a world without bread.)

I don't drink a lot of soda.  I try to keep to foods made from ingredients that I can pronounce.  Maybe even ingredients I can find in my own kitchen.  I eat lots and lots of fruits and vegetables.  But I also know that between the worrying and stress, and the bit of junk that I do eat, there are plenty of toxins hanging out in my system that are slowing me down, making me less healthy.

And detox baths seemed to help with that a fair amount.  I mean, I think they did.  Who am I to say (not a doctor, remember?)?  My skin was better.  My energy level was better.  But it took a chunk of time to do it.  If I want to soak in a bath for half an hour, I have to wait until Noodle and Nugget are both in bed and asleep.  And I had better have all my blog stuff done, and the kitchen cleaned up before attempting a detox bath because I am quite literally useless after one of those things.  I can pretty much roll myself into bed and that is it.  Seriously.  That.  Is.  It.

So when I found Tidy Mom's Lime and Mint Foot Soak on Pinterest, it inspired me to try scaling down my detox bath to a detox foot soak!  The bath recipe that I was using is perfect as a foot soak too, and we all know that feet are a great portal to the systems of your body.  So, without further ado, here is the recipe I use for a detox foot soak.

It starts with one cup of Epsom Salts:


To the salts I add several drops of Grapefruit essential oil. 


I use grapefruit for a lot of reasons, but the main reason is because it makes me smile.  When we were building the house, and I was stressing like a fiend, I used to put grapefruit oil on my pillow at night to keep my anxiety down while I slept.  Otherwise, I was a mess.  I would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep.  It was awful.  Grapefruit made it less awful, more happy.  Because grapefruit is a happy smell.

Unless you hate grapefruit.  Then it's a terrible smell.  Sorry about that.

For detox purposes, it would probably be more useful to use Lemon or Rosemary or Helichrysm, but I like grapefruit.  End of story.

Then, the thing that makes it a serious detox soak - clay.


Bentonite clay, to draw the impurities from my body.  Because, seriously, bentonite clay can be used for so many things, and a detox foot soak is just one of them.  It can be mixed with water to make a paste that can be used on cuts, bites, stings, burns, rashes... you name it.  I got turned on to it over at One Good Thing By Jillee, and that woman knows a good thing when she finds it!


So, adding clay to my foot soak seems like a great way to get some detox into my relaxation.  I added about 1/4 cup of clay to my mix.

Now, here's where it becomes a little bit of a fail.


To make it pretty I decided to add some citrus zest, like Tidy Mom did.


See, isn't that pretty.  Problem?  When you add it to the clay/salt mixture, the clay coats the zest, making it not so pretty, just kinda lumpy.


Which makes it really rather unappealing.  And the zest is totally useless if it's going to get coated and ugly, so feel free to leave that out.

Oh well!  Moving on!

I filled a tub with some warm water.  Actually, let's be real here.  It was blazing hot water, and I might have scalded my feet a fair amount in this process.  But when doing a detox bath, it is recommended to have the water as hot as you can stand it, to make you sweat all the ick out.  (Totally technical explanation, yes?)  So I just went with that, and came away with lobster red, fully detoxed, feet.

I added my clay/salt mixture to the water...


 ...and stirred and stirred until I was reasonably sure the epsom salts had dissolved.  


The whole thing was a cloudy mess, thanks to the clay, but I knew that for my purposes it didn't have to be pretty.  It just had to work.

I hauled the whole thing out to the front porch to enjoy my soak for as long as I could before Noodle and Nugget descended on me. 

Please note the clay already dried to my ankles and lower legs.  Attractive.

Which turned out to be about 3.7 blissful seconds.  Then I was barraged with questions.

"Ewwww!  What is that?!"

"Can I try it?"

"Why are your eyes closed?"

"Are you asleep?"

"Why are you sitting out here?"

"Will you get me some water?"

"I have to pee!"  (Less of a question, more of a warning).

*Sigh*

So, while I managed to pull off soaking for about 10 minutes, it was neither quiet nor relaxing.  But even that short period of time did yield some detox results.  How do I know?  Because I had a feeling of noodleness similar to what I experience when I take a full detox bath.  Of barely being able to drag myself through the rest of the day, but on a lesser level. If this had been a full blown detox bath, I would have been completely unable to stay awake, much less upright, until bedtime.

Oh well, at least the view was good while I was failing to relax!


Do you have a quick detox method?  Share it with me!!


18 comments:

  1. Could be the achilles tendon tightening up, pulling the foot up into the ankle and making a lot of pain for those parts involved. she has to release that tendon to get relief from this and here's how to do that:
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  2. My kids are the same way. Its like they are hardwired to interrupt when I'm really needing some quiet or rest. Or need to make a phone call. lol Wish you better luck next time!

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  3. Ha! ESPECIALLY making a phone call! They have an internal alarm for Mom making phone calls. :-)

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