The reverse happened with me. I got rid of them, and only then did I research how the heck I unintentionally came to love my legs. I did not see this coming. Actually, it was a frustrating point even at the height of my fitness days. I would run 6 miles and kill it with the lunges. I had rock hard quads, sculpted hams and firm thighs, but still puzzling was why after getting rid of so much fat in that are I still has cellulite with a personality of its own, not severe, but enough to NOT justify all the blood and sweat. I wasn't so much embarrassed by it as annoyed. Even though I was constantly improving my body through exercise, I had already embraced all the flaws and the part of ourselves women always find to loathe and criticize. What really put my panties in a bunch was that all the work I did, and no success in that area. (Years later, the light bulb will turn on about how burning calories and eating a large extra cheese pizza with coke every week is very counterproductive in other no-duh areas.)
So, as I've mentioned, while reading about Nopal and after taking it for less than a week I came across articles that explained how a liver not properly cleaning toxins contributed to cellulite. I stopped in my tracks, marched to the bathroom and yanked down my pants. Like butter, baby! Another part of the recent chronicles is how I'm fully committed to a thorough detox, via bio-energetic screening. Although I'm trying to halt an annoying disease in its tracks, a significant role for quality of life is to find the root of the disease and reverse the damage that has been done. Yes, we have the divine ability to clear out disease. Just because we don't know how to always do it, doesn't mean it's not out there. Cellulite is the effect, so what is the root?
I started putting it all together and here are the things I've been doing in the last three months that whipped my legs into shorts-worthy condition?
1) LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE SUPPLEMENT - In the detox, I'm taking a specific tonic called Drainage. The following article clearly denotes that a poor lymphatic drainage, along with bad circulation, can trap the toxins: http://www.cellulite-exercises.com/Cellulite-and-Bad-Diet-Toxins.php
2) NATURAL LYMPHATIC STIMULATION - I haven't been sweating my tush off at the gym, but I do workouts that specifically stimulate the lymphatic system, circulation, and stretch the connective fibers from all major points : See Lovely Lady Lumps for Classical Stretch. Note: I don't even do it every day as a healthier person is capable of. (For those who rot in an office chair all week (me!), or sleep in a bed from Hades (also me), your circulation needs a hand. Exercise and/or massage.
3) DIET - While I'm knee-deep in detoxification I have been forced -gratefully- into an extremely clean and natural diet. So, while getting rid of the old toxins and not reintroducing new ones, all the yucky muck has been gradually scrubbing it out and not accumulating new junk. It's not completely 100% avoidable, but let's say 90% of my habits have been house-flipped.
What toxin exposure I've removed:
- over the counter and pharmaceutical medications (used extremely sparingly)
- processed foods, i.e. refined breads and sugars, preservatives
- artificial additives (including sweeteners like Splenda and Truvia...It contains a form of ethanol...I know!),
- color dyes
- most cosmetics and toiletries with strange and unpronounceable names
- chemical cleaning products
- unclean waters via kitchen faucet and shower filters
- drinks: alcohol, coffee, and caffeine
Basically, it's really hard to get so clean overnight unless you've had it with thunder thighs (which like I said, I had come to embrace), or are becoming aware of unknown dangers in recent times, or like me, have absolutely no choice. It takes dedication, patience, and sometimes, a bit of el cash-o. It's better to go gradual if you know you'll just hang it up in 2 weeks, especially if you got a million things going on.
POST EDIT: I DON'T RECKON YOU WOULD HAVE TO REMOVE EVERY SINGLE TOXIN FROM YOUR LIFE. BUT I'M GUESSING THE OBVIOUS ONES WOULD HELP REDUCE THE PROBLEM, SUCH AS DRINKING COFFEE EVERYTHING AND EATING A CLEANER DIET. YOU MAY NOT NECESSARILY HAVE TO TOSS EVERYTHING YOU OWN. IF YOU ARE A RELATIVELY HEALTHY PERSON, A FEW CHANGES MIGHT BE ENOUGH. THESE ARE JUST CHANGES I MADE; DON'T KNOW WHICH ONE OR WHICH COMBINATION DID THE TRICK.
Additional helping habits undertaken: Drinking close to a gallon of water a day to flush more crap. Eating vegetables that helps clean toxins.
4) LIVER: The detox, and now the Nopal, are helping me clean out the liver. Whatever traces are left (and there is some, especially on the right leg which incidentally, the right side of my body has always been extremely stubborn..coincidence?), I'll be making sure the liver is working at its maximum to cure the inevitable inhaled or ingested toxins that now have hope of being destroyed or detained.
5) HORMONES: the last token I found in my research of how I an serendipitously controlling cellulite. This one is a hard one for all women living in a toxic world. Even our facial moisturizer can have chemicals that mimic estrogen and unwittingly create imbalance in us. The only reason I'm hormonally balanced (or at least closer than I used to be), is mostly discovering what foods and medications were throwing off my adrenal glands (where stress and hormones are managed), and a hormone spray from the holistic medication in the balancing detox protocol. It doesn't mean I'm not prone to some mood swings and crying, but let's just say I don't throw things at the wall as often. Thoughts, actions, and mildness are usually stable.
Wrapping-It-Up: It seems the only hereditary thing about cottage cheese is that our mommas' livers also did not have an optimum metabolism and lymphatic system, not that they doom us to central and localized toxic fats for all of eternity. It does not mean a lack of health overall, it just means some tweaking could be implemented in our lifestyles. If we take to listening to our bodies, it's basically telling us less french fries and more green beans. Now that we know where the culprit lies, we can start trying to fix it. Even thin girls can have dimply legs; and it's probably the one who can eat burgers and don't gain a pound.
Those are the secret nuggets I claim to have universal privy to. But I don't. It seems really easy for five simple steps to fix a life-long problem. My theory is just that it's not common knowledge and not a lot of people in certain clusters are on the clean diet bandwagon. It's pickin up speed I tell you. Note: for more severe cases, it might not be so easily reversible, according to links included in the post.
Disclaimer: This is not professional advice and does not intend to impose a change of lifestyle or imply that those who are not following a clean diet are unhealthy. This is a reach out to those who are looking for theories, methods, and ideas, to try and improve a specific aspect of their current habits or health regimen. My intention is to be humbly share my experience, not to be all high-and-mighty because I eat brown rice and organic cereal. I'm just a schmuck trying to feel better.
Some articles for your enlightenment:
Cellulite and the Connection to The Liver and Lymph System « Essential Oils… more than basic Aromatherapy.
Reduce Cellulite by Reducing Toxins (Oh yes, Celery is mentioned)
Lumps made of fat and toxins (A lovely testament that women have it rougher than men.)
