Post Cruise Detox
I’ve been on two cruises in my life - one through the British Virgin Islands and the one I just finished through Alaska. Both were incredible. Although completely different experiences, I think a very common experience for many people coming off a cruise is feeling overstuffed, underslept and generally kind of blech. This can be true of just about any vacation. It’s not uncommon to “need a vacation after your vacation” and have the strong urge to diet or detox when you get home. Even though I keep it fairly reined in when I go on vacation, I definitely indulge more, sleep less and am exposed to lots more toxins no matter how mindful I am. I always feel the need to recalibrate and get back on track - and that was certainly true coming off 11 days in Alaska. I thought I would share some of my cruise prep and my post-cruise detox in case you find yourself in this kind of situation.
**This information is educational only and not intended to diagnose or treat a specific individual or client.**
Fishing for halibut in Ketchikan
CRUISE PREP
Packing:
An Alaskan cruise presents a few extra packing challenges than one with a more temperate destination - especially if you do a land tour before you start the cruise, which is what my family did. We traveled 485 miles over 3 days - by bus, boat and train - starting in Fairbanks, through Denali National Park, Anchorage and finally hitting Seward which is where we embarked on the cruise. ‘Tis the nature of seeing Alaska, which is vast and hard to traverse. We wanted to see as much as possible on this trip so the land tour was great, but definitely exhausting. It’s very scheduled, with early morning start times (which messed up my daily poop schedule - lol - you knew I’d bring up poop, right? …more on this later) and a lot of suitcase shuffling (which wasn’t easy since my suitcase was 64 lbs 😬🤦🏼♀️).
Packing was tough. In addition to the extended amount of time to accommodate the land tour, I had to be prepared for cold and rainy weather and warm and sunny weather, all of which could happen in one day. That said, I WAY overpacked. I should have packed a few more cold weather items and less warm weather. I brought a fleece, a puffer jacket and a rain jacket and used all three multiple times. Packing layers is key. I was glad I brought rain boots but could have left my Uggs at home (rain boots, sneakers, flip flops and a nice pair of sandals was all I needed). One nice thing about the Alaskan cruise is that it’s not fancy. A few of the nicer restaurants do not allow shorts and require collared shirts for men, but that’s about it. You CAN dress up, but don’t have to.The fanciest I got was jeans and a sparkly tank top.
Even though I overpacked and there was a lot I didn’t need or use, there were a few things that I’m glad I brought:
Clearly Filtered Water Bottle
It is IMPERATIVE that you bring some kind of water bottle on the ship. Weirdly, water was kind of hard to access. We could get cups of water in the dining areas and at all the bars, but unless you want to carry open cups of water around with you or take them back to your room, you need a water bottle. They’re not handing out water bottles on the ship, which is actually a good thing considering how much plastic waste that would create. However, there were no easy places to fill water bottles (at least on the Norwegian ship I was on). The only place we could do it was in the buffet dining areas in the self-serve beverage dispensers. But even then, they don’t allow you to hold your water bottle up to the dispenser to fill it. You have to use a clean cup, fill it with water and pour it into your water bottle - which usually takes several cups full. This is to prevent spreading germs, which is good, but also kind of a pain. The buffet dining areas are pretty crowded and with so many people trying to get water for their meal or fill a water bottle, the line can get backed up.
I brought a Clearly Filtered Water Bottle which is a water bottle that has a built-in filtering system. Let’s face it, water quality is not great in most places and this special bottle targets and removes up to 99.9% of 220+ contaminants, including fluoride, lead, and chlorine. The filter is attached to the straw inside the bottle. It does take up some room, so I opted for the bigger 32 oz bottle instead of the 20 oz. If you read the reviews, it does get some dings for being difficult to suck through. I did find this to be true until I figured out to suck it through my teeth instead of sucking it with lips covering the straw - if that makes sense.
A side note: we brought an extra water bottle (a regular Hydroflask) for coffee and I’m so glad we did. There are no coffee makers in the rooms and I would have brought a little mini keurig (yes, I’m that ridiculous about my coffee) but they are not allowed because it’s a potential fire hazard. You have to go to the buffet dining areas to get coffee which, for us, was 3 floors away (another thing: elevators get really crowded so we opted for the stairs a lot. Built-in bonus workout!). Only small, traditional size coffee cups are available which is not enough (for me anyway!) and not easy to go back and forth for more. One of us would make the trek to the dining area each morning and fill up the hydroflask so we could at least get a few extra cups without having to leave the room. I very much enjoyed sitting on our balcony drinking coffee with Alaska as my view!
Get the Clearly Filtered Water Bottle here.
Supplements & OTC Meds
I brought a ridiculous amount of supplements and medications because I’ve read horror stories about people getting sick on cruises and being forced to stay confined to their room so as not to spread it. I also heard the cruise ship often runs out of common medications and I didn’t want to be in a bind so I brought it all…natural and conventional alike. A few of my peeps took Advil, but we didn’t use the Benadryl, nausea pills/patches, nose sprays, bandages or neosporin I brought just in case. However, my husband did start feeling a little poorly a few days into the cruise - tired, achy and symptoms of a head cold. He was down a day but after some rest and doses of Cellcore Para 3, he improved enough to get back to cruisin’. Para 3 is strong and a good all around germ killer and immune booster. I also sent him to the steam room in the ship’s gym for a good sweat and told him to take a cold shower afterward. If you can induce some heat in the body to help “cook” and sweat out the badness - kind of the way a fever does - that accelerates the healing process. Hot baths can serve the same purpose. I did the steam room/cold shower combo several times over the week and it felt great. I was so hot and sweaty that I didn’t even mind the cold shower. I also braved the cold plunge pool in the spa. I didn’t last long but I did it!
The supplements I relied on the most during the cruise were:
Cellcore CT Minerals
Cellcore Advanced TUDCA
Cellcore ViRadChem Binder
Biotics Magnesium Glycinate
LMNT and Pickleball Electrolytes
This is actually what I take regularly anyway. I don’t take TUDCA every day but I knew it would be helpful for liver and bowel support. And it’s a good thing I had it because, much to my horror, I forgot to pack Bowel Mover. Rookie mistake. Of all of the things that made it into my 64 pound suitcase, this key poop helper did not. I always take Bowel Mover on vacation because vacation constipation is real…and it’s horrible. Luckily, between the magnesium glycinate and the TUDCA, I was able to go most days. There were a few I did not (especially in the beginning with our rigorous land tour schedule!) and it reminded me of all of those awful years in my teens and twenties that I had such constipation issues and only went a few times a week. I swear I have Post Traumatic Poop Stress Disorder and I do think some of my vacation constipation issues are mental. I’m so freaked that I’m not going to poop, and that doesn’t help at all (but neither did the extra desserts and chardonnay on the cruise 😆).
Champagne on our balcony
I ate gluten-free during the cruise. Even though I have introduced freshly milled wheat back into my diet, I remain gluten free otherwise. This is a quality-control boundary that comes in very handy when faced with boundless food choices on a cruise or life in general! I didn’t eat the bread, buns, muffins, cakes, cookies, pizza or pasta. Don’t worry, I made up for it with dessert and alcohol. 🤣 I love my champagne and chardonnay and I discovered a yummy concoction called a Mudslide that basically tastes like a milkshake with vodka in it. That ended up being my dessert on some days but I also enjoyed creme brulee and some other custardy–type desserts. See? I’m no food angel. As I teach in Feast 2 Fast, there’s no shame in indulging in what’s worth it to you. You just can’t indulge in ALL the things ALL the time. I ate a lot of veggie omelettes, hamburger patties, fish and fresh fruit during the cruise. I opted for fruit like cantaloupe, watermelon and honeydew melon which are safer choices (pesticide-wise) than fruit like berries or apples. But even though I was pretty mindful of food choices, they still use processed seed oils for cooking, sauteing and salad dressings. It’s hard for me to enjoy a salad if all I’m going to do is cover it in soybean oil, so I didn’t hit the salad bar too often. Of all the things, 11 days of seed oils is what troubles me most. My body is used to some alcohol and sugar (yes, I am a nutritionist and I just said that 😆) but not such a wallop of seed oils. Sure, I get them from time to time if I eat out and maybe in a packaged snack here or there, but it’s not often and they are not easy to process out of your system. They get integrated into your cell membranes and compromise your health at a cellular level. Plus, they’re not considered good fuel to burn (like saturated fat) so you hold it as fat longer. I didn’t worry about gaining weight on the cruise (and I didn’t), I was worried about gaining INFLAMMATION (and I did). My skin condition flared up a bit, my face got puffy (which always makes my eyes squintier and my nose look wider…it is CRAZY how inflammation can change so much about the look of your face), my tummy felt bloated and I just overall felt a little more tired. I know it was the combination of ALL the things, but those seed oils are extra problematic. I took a binder every day of the cruise which helps bind up toxins more efficiently to take them out of the body, but they’re not a magic pill. They don’t erase the toxins, they help lessen the blow. I HIGHLY recommend Cellcore binders because they work systemically (not just in the gut like charcoal), they can be taken with food or other supplements (unlike traditional binders) and they support electric charge in the body for better cellular function.
Also challenging for staying on track when it comes to Alaska is the crazy circadian aspect. Our first day there, the sun didn’t set til 12:06 AM and it rose at 3:47 AM. 😱Tack on a 3-hour time difference and my body was all kinds of confused. You know how much I like to teach on circadian rhythm and explain how much our body functions are influenced by light and dark. I suppose Alaskans adapt to the extra long light in the summer and dark in the winter. But my Texas body was like - what just happened here?? I wish I had brought a sleeping mask to wear. Getting my circadian rhythm back on track was a top priority when I got home!
POST CRUISE DETOX
So here are all the things I did to recalibrate and help move out some of that toxic load when I got home. I felt so much better after 3 solid days of doing the following (you could certainly extend it longer!)
Eat: meat/eggs, veggies and fruit
The basis of my diet is always a Gen 1:26 (plants), Genesis 9:3 (animal foods) focus. Since discovering freshly milled wheat, I’ve added that in too. This is my baseline, my diet (noun). I don’t “diet” (verb). I also allow myself Heck Yeahs as I teach in Feast 2 Fast but, when I overdo it (especially during holidays and vacations), I simply come back to baseline. I don’t start googling diet options. I don’t do a panicky juice cleanse. I don’t look for fat burning pills. I tighten up and get back to my base. Sometimes I stick solely to protein and produce, and sometimes I include FMF bread with it. Depends how “tight” I feel like I need to get. When we do the Sugar Detox week in Feast 2 Fast, we keep it out.
Fasting:
I REALLY got off my normal eating schedule on the cruise. We ate dinner much later than I’m used to which also does not help the poop or detox situation. Digestion delays the detox processes that are supposed to kick in when you sleep. It takes several hours to fully digest food and, because it is such a demanding process, it not only delays night time detoxification, it inhibits sleep because it prevents the body from cooling down to the optimal sleep temperature. It’s a big reason you wake up feeling tired, cranky, bloated and constipated.
My first night back from the cruise, I did a 20 hour Superfast. A Superfast is simply a longer fast than you would normally do. It’s such a good reset. Sometimes we feast and sometimes we fast! Fasting is a beautiful antidote to overfeasting. I normally fast for about 14 hours between dinner and breakfast but it can range anywhere from 12-16 hours. Getting back to my normal fasting schedule plus kicking it up with a Superfast really helps accelerate the detox and fat burning process!
Sunshine and Grounding:
As I mentioned earlier, between the time change and Alaska’s crazy sun schedule, my circadian rhythm got way out of whack. This throws off all of your body’s internal clocks (including hormonal clocks), not knowing what to do when. My top priority on the first morning I was home was to get outside ASAP and get sun into my eye. It’s best if you can be outside for sunrise and UVA rise for as long as you can (3-20 minutes). Those transition times are highly impactful when it comes to signaling hormones, digestion, fat burning, appetite/cravings, cognitive function, etc. It also signals your melatonin processes so that it will kick in appropriately later in the day - which means better sleep. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE the power of the sun.
If you don't know what time sunrise and UVA rise are in your area, download the circadian app.
While you’re outside getting sun, kick off your shoes and do some grounding on grass, dirt or concrete. This is one of the best things you can do to overcome jet lag. Plus, you pick up electrons which will go to sites of inflammation in your body to help calm things down. God made our bodies so incredibly smart. It knows what to do when you give it what it needs.
Castor Oil Pack:
Castor oil has been used therapeutically for centuries to reduce inflammation, support detoxification, and promote digestive motility. The seed contains large
amounts of ricinoleic acid, which is an omega-9 fatty acid with laxative properties. Applying an external castor oil pack is a gentle way to promote detoxification by stimulating bowel movements, particularly if constipated.
The easy button for getting started with castor oil packs is to order from Queen of The Thrones. (use this link and code THECHRISTIANNUTRITIONIST10 for any order of $59 or more).
You can also buy supplies on Fullscript in my Liver & Detox category, I just find that getting a ready-to-go setup from Queen of The Thrones is much more straight forward, especially for first-timers!
Dry Brushing:
Dry brushing is a simple way to support the body's natural detoxification pathways and stimulate lymphatic flow. You use a brush like this to gently brush your body BEFORE you get into the shower.
Sweat:
Sweating is such an important way that your body releases toxins. As I mentioned, I loved using the steam room on the cruise ship. I don’t sweat super easily (thyroid symptom) but boy did I pour it out in the steam room. It was awesome. Wish I had one at home. I do have a little sweat pod that I use and is helpful. I use it more in the winter time or in times of focused detox (like now). I do get a decent sweat on my walks in the summertime. Even though I go pretty early in the morning, it’s Texas. It’s hot. Just being outside in general gets you sweaty.
Another good way to induce some heat is a hot epsom salt bath. It can help you break a sweat plus support detoxification by soaking in the epsom salt.
No matter how you do it, make it a point to sweat. It’s good for every day but especially when you’re detoxing!
Supplements:
There’s a combo of Cellcore products that I like for an extra mini detox push:
KL Support (kidney/liver)
Advanced TUDCA (liver/gallbladder/bowel)
Lymph Activ (lymphatic flow)
And, of course, a binder to help bind up and more efficiently remove the toxins. I always have Biotoxin binder or ViRadChem binder on hand.
I also used Bowel Mover to ensure a good poop. The toxins must be able to exit and two key ways are poop and sweat.
Cellcore supplements are SUPER powerful. It’s not something you want to “wild west” on your own. I teach and guide people through Cellcore’s 4-month Foundational Protocol which is a true detox systematically stepping people through key stages of drainage, toxin removal, gut support and immune boosting. I call it my “big gun” detox protocol as a true detox and gut reset takes longer than a week or a month. If you’re not already on my email list to get details, you can sign up HERE.
After 3 solid days of incorporating these practices, I feel SO much better. I do a lot of these things on the reg, but drift in and out of doing others (like dry brushing, castor oil packs and specific supplements). I love having a focused gameplan, knowing that I can help my body recover for those times that get a little off track - like a cruise or other vacation. No need to panic or go to drastic measures, simple supports are very effective and the body knows what to do. Because that’s how God made us.☺️ I hope you found something interesting, informative or helpful from this post.