When you embark on your first detox diet, you will naturally be a little apprehensive about what the days ahead will bring. You have probably read or heard that you will experience a "healing crisis" that will have you suffering from a range of negative side effects connected with cleansing your body of toxic substances. The good news is that a little preparation will help take the sting out of a drastic, but temporary, change in lifestyle.

If you are planning on detoxing for a week to ten days then you may be feeling a little low for most of that time. You will be suffering the side effects of stopping your intake of coffee, alcohol, sugar, nicotine and any other noxious element contained in your food and beverages. As a general rule, if you make an abrupt stop to your intake of these harmful foods, you will be getting withdrawal symptoms starting from a few hours after your last cup of coffee or cigarette and drawing out for up to ten days.

The basic idea behind detox side effects is that you are on a merry-go-round where you for example, drink coffee which has some benefits in small amounts. Unfortunately you drink the coffee in large amounts which is bad for your body but it gets used to it and complains when you stop drinking coffee. So you and much of the rest of the world are in the position where you are only happy when you are giving your body stuff that is bad for it. That's dumb but we're all doing it.

The most common side effects you experience during your detox are nausea, headaches, irritability, lack of concentration and reluctance to do even the simplest physical task. If you are taking your detox diet alone at a time when you don't have to take care of business or family responsibilities, you might be able to endure your suffering until the withdrawal symptoms let up. But if you can manage it, it's far better to start to cut down on your bad habits a few days or a week before you commit to your detox regime. This way you won't experience such a violent revolt when your body realizes it's not getting any more coffee/sugar/nicotine/alcohol/nameless substance packaged in your hamburger.

So, detox side effects are not really brought on by your detoxing process but by your body getting used to sucking up harmful stuff on a regular basis. If you ease into your detox gradually, future detoxing will be times to look forward to where you are renewing your health and vitality.