Chemicals make up everything. The air we breath, the food we eat, every living and non-living item is made up of chemicals. So before I say anything else, I must emphasize that not all chemicals are bad for you. I also must emphasize that not every chemical compound found in nature is good for you. A lot of times you may hear someone say "well, it's natural therefore it must be good for you". Well ignore that because it is bogus. There are over 70,000+ synthetic chemicals that are produced and used in the U.S. today with only a very small percentage of those chemicals having been scientifically tested in a lab for levels of toxicity to humans. This means that on a day to day basis, humans expose themselves to at least 40,000 potentially harmful chemicals daily. The main sources of taking in these chemicals are through the water we use and the food we eat.
But this blog isn't meant to scare you, so I am not going to continue with the facts. All I will tell you is that it is very wise to use a water filter both on your kitchen faucet and in your shower. Also, avoid bottled water if you can. There is literally almost no difference between bottled water and your faucet water.
Sometimes, the bottled water may even contain more toxins (http://www.healthkicker.com/705277869/still-shelling-out-money-for-bottled-water-why/). I want to remind you that this advise is coming from a student who studies water resources so what I say here is legitimate! Toxins taken in from food is a different story altogether and I plan on devoting a blog to that. Generally, the least amount of process the food has gone through, the better it is for your body. 
Now that I have lightly educated you on how we expose ourselves to toxins, I will tell you about an experiment that I am doing right now. I came across the master cleanse diet a few years ago and was attracted to it because it claimed to "remove your body of toxins" and help you to eliminate those toxic cravings. Basically, what you do is fast for 10-40 days and drink only filtered water with fresh lemon juice, pure maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. Sounds pretty terrible, right? I have been on the fence about the diet until I came to a recent realization. I personally know six people who tried the diet. Of those six people, three managed to complete the entire process and three didn't make it past the third day. The three people who did not complete the diet say the diet is terrible for your body and extremely unhealthy. The three people did complete the detox (as well as the countless blogs online from people of all ages who completed the detox) all say it was one of the best things they have ever done for themselves, mentally and physically. After realizing that, I decided to try it myself and see if there really is a beneficial outcome.
So, I am ending my fourth day on the detox and I have to say that I have been getting pretty interesting results. I have come to understand that a lot of times when we crave to eat we aren't even hungry. We may be craving a certain nutrient or toxin that our body is lacking. This causes us to over eat so often. And we all know what over eating does to us if we don't get an appropriate amount of exercise (we gain wait... in case you didn't know). I realized that if you do the diet correctly, you shouldn't experience major hu nger pains after the first day or so. You are simply removing your food cravings and I feel like mine are almost gone. Normally, I crave chocolate, coffee, and sweet foods on a day to day basis. After the first day, I stopped craving sweets, and after the third day, I stopped craving both chocolate and coffee. I had an insane craving for Domino's pizza on the third night. The funny thing is the fact that I didn't desire any other food including other types of pizza! Weird, right? It was very difficult, but I didn't give into the craving. Today, I feel better than before and feel entirely ready to continue with this diet (and finish it!). I wonder if I am actually losing toxins.
If the idea of fasting is too intimidating, there are plenty of other detox diets that are supposed to work. If you are interested in a detox diet, you can check out the different juice detoxes, raw vegetable detox, and I believe there is even a melon diet where you only eat melon for however long as a form of detoxifying your body. What are some concerns you have about detox diets? I personally believe that people should normally just eat natural healthy foods (include the occasional cookie or slice(s) of cake) and get a normal amount of exercise to stay healthy rather than try to follow a strict calorie and carb counting diet. So, for this week's challenge, see if you can go with out any food that has been processed for the entire week. This includes chips, crackers, and beef jerky. Next week, I will tell you about my final result.
So for now, I must wish you a wonderfully healthy and productive week! This week's song is one I recently came across: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVQfredKnFE&feature=related. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
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