Okay, you have lost 15 pounds and you feel horrible. What is the deal? This is frustrating. You are doing the right things. You drank your water! You worked out like you were supposed to and made the right choices at the table. What is the problem? In a word, it is toxins causing you issues. Even if you live a healthy lifestyle, you are still surrounded by toxins: from the water you drink and bathe in to the air you breathe, toxins have invaded our world at every turn.

What are toxins? They are the heavy metals and additives in our food, pollution in our air that we inhale and water we use. We have been exposed to these heavy metals and toxins since the time we were in the womb, continuing through to this moment. We live in a toxic world, and unless you are living in a bubble you can almost bet that you are being exposed to something right now. But don’t worry, your body has become an expert in processing or hiding those toxins. Just know that the process makes losing weight harder if you don’t get to the underlying cause: the toxins themselves.

From day one, our body was designed to take toxins out of the blood in whatever manner possible. One way is to surround it with fat cells to protect the vital organs. It is like storing your clothes for winter; your body goes to the blood, plucks out the toxin and places it in a fat storage box. Now you are safe. It is packed away in a safe place, your belly. This is, first, a form of self-defense against being poisoned, and second, a strategy to get toxins out of the circulation and away from major organs. This means that some people will not be able to lose any weight at all, regardless of how little they eat, until the acute nature of their plumbing problems are addressed. Some of you are now smiling and thinking to yourself, I knew my fat was doing some good. Well, don’t kid yourself. Being fat is still going to shorten your life.

Let’s get back to the original problem—why am I plateauing and not losing weight? You focused on eating right, cutting the calories and hitting the gym, and you lost some weight, but now nothing is coming off. Here is part of your problem. Your body released the fat, but it also released those deadly toxins that increased your free radical production and can damage your internal organs. The body, being the resilient creation it is, recognized its toxicity and started making fat cells to hide those toxins. So now your body has a split personality. The one personality wants to shed fat, since you are doing the right things in your lifestyle, yet the other personality does not want to die from toxin exposure and begins the process of making blubbery fat too.

What do you do now? In a word: detox.

Here are some suggestions for detoxing. First, increase the amount of fiber in your diet. It acts like a sponge for toxins. To help with digestion and dealing with toxins, your diet should include 35–60 grams of fiber per day. This helps keep the toxins in your food and water on the run.

Fiber is primarily found in our whole fruits, whole grains and whole vegetables, which are scarce in the average American’s diet as there is not much fiber in processed foods, dairy products and meats. To get more fiber in your diet, make the best choices you can in terms of the food you eat. The best option is eating 8 to 10 servings of real, unprocessed fruits and vegetables. Fresh is the best option, with frozen foods being a decent choice and canned being your last choice in terms of nutrition when choosing what goes in your body.

Next, you need to attack the toxins with high-quality nutritional supplements including antioxidant nutrients such as grape seed extract, known to help the detoxification processes while protecting the vital organs.

Finally, I recommend that you use a true detox product that goes into the body and scrubs you clean at the cellular level, not just a mere cleanse. When choosing a detox product you should make sure it contains zeolite and chlorella, which help remove toxins and heavy metals.

Now that you know how to take care of your toxicity, you will see all of the benefits of a living a healthy life and that fat will be gone for good.