Why Detox Became “Feminine” And Why Men Can’t Afford to Ignore It, With Meghan Swidler

17 different types of cancer are skyrocketing across the United States right now. So we are seeing the impacts of years and decades of basically toxicity overwhelming our bodies. And my prediction now is we're in a place where the only way forward is detoxification. Megan Swidler is a holistic health coach, helping people heal their gut, hormones and skin through detox and mindful living. You can't heal in the same environment that made you sick. If a fish is sick, you need to clean the tank, not the fish. If a flower doesn't bloom, you need to clean the environment in which it grows, not the flowers. The same thing applies to your body. Your body is your own home for the rest of your life, like literally your entire life. And meanwhile, we clean our houses, we maintain them, we upgrade them, we clean our cars, we get oil changes, we get our cars washed. But for some reason, when it comes to our bodies, we struggle so much to take care of it. I think, you know, anxiety, depression, and mental health issues of various different forms have always been a associated with. It's in your head, like this is in your head, and so let's resolve it in your head. But what's come to light and what's really become really, you know, prominent even the last few years, but is the gut brain axis. So.

Hi, Megan.

Hi, Jake.

We met officially in January, I want to say, so like six months ago. To wind back the clock a bit, jog your memory. I interviewed you years ago in a blog post that I was writing for a company that I was cmo at. And you were, you know, one of the rising entrepreneurs in the blog post that we were featuring. And then we were both at a hang here in L. A. Fast forward, years later, that was six months ago. And I was like, how do I know this person? You look so familiar. Turns out, like we had met through that. And I remembered you, you as the detox and holistic health like, wizard, you know, guru. You were, you were the. The girl, the gal for that. And as we formed our friendship this year, it's been incredible learning from you and also seeing all the people that you're working with and all the content you're putting out. Brilliant writer.

Thank you.

Watching your growth, even the last few months alone has been very inspiring. Most of the episodes that we do on the optimistor a little more like inspiring. And we just kind of get deep into a topic and hopefully motivate through that. But I think today's will be very educational, a lot more tactical, actionable. I love that word. So for anyone listening, I'm hoping that they can almost like pause this episode every five minutes and take notes throughout. Maybe they have something that they can like mentally copy and paste into their life, starting immediately. And so that's kind of the intention. I'd love to set a little bit today, but I'd love to just dive in to the first real question here, which is like you've, you've coached and worked with hundreds of people over the last chapter of your career on detox, holistic health, etc, but yet I can't help but feel like the word detox, which also often means like, cleansing, fasting, all these things, they feel so, for lack of a better word, girly. They feel so feminine, they feel so soft. And when I, I think about it like, I've never done a cleanse, I've never detoxed, I've never really fasted. Of course I've dabbled in intermittent fasting, but my fear with that is like, I'm going to lose muscle mass, it's going to slow down my training, it's going to mess me up cognitively. So I'm not able to perform at work for the three, four days that I need to go through it. But you told me that about 20 ish percent of your clients are men and you have enormous success with men. What's going on there? Why did we end up in a scenario where this whole world of detox and holistic health feels so not approachable for men?

It's a really good question and it's a question I'm still trying to find the answer to. Yeah, detox is really, it's this topic that's just so widely misunderstood right now. And I think my life's purpose, like why I'm in this human, human experience, is to make a detox accessible and attainable for the average person. Again, because it's. Yeah, it's just so incredibly misunderstood right now.

How do you define it?

Yeah, so detox isn't about juice fasts and trendy supplements and, and cayenne and

lemon water for a week?

Yeah, totally. It's, it's really, it's not about that. It's about removing the obstruction from the body so that your body can come back to its original state. So we live in a very toxic world right now. This is not the life that nature intended for us to live. We are constantly bombarded by processed foods, chronic stress, EMFs, blue light, just an overwhelming amount of toxins and pathogens like, you know, mold and fungus and again, EMFs, parasites, environmental toxins, industrial pollutants, processed food and drink waste. I can, you know, chlorine, fluoride, glyphosate, I can go on and on and on and on. Of the 85,000 chemicals in our supply, 10,000 of them in our food supply alone, less than 1% of them have been rigorously tested for human safety. So basically every single day you are inundated with toxins that the body was never meant to get rid of and detox naturally. So basically you're accumulating waste within your system that is not meant to be there. That waste is impairing your cellular function. It's clogging your detox pathways, it's creating obstruction in your organs and systems within your body, and it's basically leading to cellular congestion and breakdown over time. And, and so detox is not about restriction. It's not about deprivation. It's actually about liberation. It's about bringing your body back to its original state. It's about freedom, it's about power, it's about, it's about life force energy, right? Like your body naturally has this life force energy and vitality that's flowing through it. And when you have these blockages in the way, think of it like a clogged sink, right? Think of it like a clogged engine in your car. Your car is not going to work well if you have a clogged engine. You can't just pour gasoline into a car that has a clogged engine. So you really want to remove that obstruction, remove the blockage, remove the barriers to allow your body and that life force energy and vitality in your body to flow freely. And that's again, it's not about restriction, it's not about deprivation. As I said, it's about liberation. It's really about allowing your body to not just survive, but to really thrive. Yeah.

So we grew up in the 90s, early 2000s. A lot of people out there, same deal or a little bit later, a little bit earlier. But like looking back at our childhood in America, obviously one, no one was thinking about this or talking about this, but the households were filled with frosted flakes and, you know, cookie crisp for breakfast. Lunch was like lunchables, it was like a fake pizza. And then dinner was chicken nuggets from a plastic bag that we put in the microwave and rinse and repeat that for 15 years. And then you go to college and you're just like loading yourself up with alcohol and cigarettes and all kinds of other stuff. Oh, and that's just the food. What about, like, birth control, tampons, cleaning supplies in our house?

Yeah.

And now it's 20, 25, and I feel like the closest thing we're getting to, like, let's start to fight back, is like, where these blue light glasses, like, are we just too fucked? Like, is it too far gone, 30, 40 years of this? Like, what's a cleanse going to do for me? Like, we're fucked, right? What do you think about that?

Well, yeah, I mean, we're. We're clearly seeing the impacts of the toxicity that's in our modern world today. So we're, like, inundated, as you said, with blue light and, and toxins in our environment and in our water and our air and our household products and our makeup, our skin care, oral care products. It goes on and on and on and on. So. And we're seeing the impacts of that very clearly, like, most common impacts. I mean, I mean, obesity is skyrocketing across, you know, both adolescents and adults. Diabetes is skyrocketing. Fertility is plummeting. Autoimmune disease is skyrocketing.

You'd have to be sleeping under a rock.

Yeah. 17 different types of cancer are skyrocketing across the United States. United States right now. So we. We are seeing the impacts of, you know, years and decades of basically toxicity overwhelming our bodies. And my prediction now is we're in a place where the only way forward is detoxification. Yeah. So, like, I strongly believe, and, you know, I started this work seven, eight years ago when I healed myself and people thought I was crazy doing colon cleansing and liver cleansing and parasite cleansing. But now it's very clear that we're entering into an era where less is more, where healing is about subtraction, not addition. And this isn't just about the physical body. This translates to the mental, emotional, spiritual realm. If we think about how do you come back to your true essence? What does that look like? Oh, we want to clear away the limiting beliefs, the patterns, the blocks to come back to our true essence, which is love and light. So it's the same thing in the mental, emotional, spiritual realm as it is in the physical realm. And that carries over to everything. Right. We're trying to. We're trying to detox our phones, we're trying to detox our apps, we're trying to detox our home and our clothes. We're really entering into an era where less is more. And the same thing applies to the physical body. The only way. The only way out of this is through and we need to properly detox. And so, you know, as you said at the beginning, detox is really misunderstood. It's associated with restriction and deprivation and it's seen as complex and oh like it's kind of, it's, it's, it's scary. And so I think my job in this lifetime is to detect, destigmatize, detox, and to normalize it again, to make it accessible, attainable, approachable to the average person who's trying to embark on their health journey. Because once you actually understand and go through a detox and realize like how profound it is and life changing it is, you will fully understand that it's like really the only way forward on a true path to health and healing.

I'm really curious before we get into, I want to, I want to know about like your healing journey and where you started, but I'd love to go to like the most core level set place, starting point, which is like, how do we end up here in the United States of America? What year was it? Where did we go wrong economically, socially, politically? Where like we let. Because we're the only country in the world that has this situation. Right. For the most part. What, what's gone on there over the last half a century, to your knowledge? I mean, like, the closest thing I've learned is like, what was it in the 70s or something? We subsidized the use of high fructose corn syrup and made the soda cheaper than water. Yeah, like that's where it kind of all started, to my understanding. What's your historical take on this?

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of different points in time in history that have gotten us to where we are. And I don't think I'll do a very good job of giving the whole history of it, but I think fundamentally the systems, the systems were never built to help us. They're fundamentally broken, but they were always built in this way. It's not like they broke down. They're built for profit. Right. So we have the food system and the agricultural system and the health care system. They all sort of feed off each other, right? So if we are feeding people ultra processed foods, we are, you know, as a country, we are profiting off of that because they're highly addictive substances and people are consuming more and more of those foods. And the more and more of those foods that they consume, the sicker they get, the more that they need health care. The health care industry is pretty much the fastest growing industry in the country

by a long Shot number one employer right now.

Yeah. And so these, these are, we, we forget that these systems are built for profit. They're not built to support the health of our people and they're fundamentally broken. So even just the other day I posted about the USDA on, I think it was yesterday on LinkedIn. Like their strategic partners, the USDA, the organization that basically makes our food dietary guidelines, the food pyramid, that sort of makes the rules around our hospital meals, our school lunches, what's it, what's in our, what's allowed in our food, what's not allowed in our food. Their biggest strategic partners are food and pharma companies. I posted a visual on LinkedIn about like their strategic partners. And yeah, it's all big food and pharma companies. So the system is entirely broken. It's not built to support us. And so we're at this, this massive turning point in healthcare. We're entering into this new wave of healthcare 3.0, which I think is the decentralization of health, like where people need to take their health back into their own hands because at the end of the day, the systems are not built to support us, you know.

Are you scared?

No, I feel, I feel really empowered. Like I'm, I feel so lucky to have found my purpose and my calling at this age in my life and to know that like, this is my life's work and I'm here to help people heal themselves just like I healed myself and to help people live happier, healthier, meaning more meaningful lives and to do so through proper cellular cleansing and detoxification. Like, I feel so lucky and empowered. Like I have so many people to help. Like I have, you know, endless amount of work to do. I have my work cut out for me, but I'm, I feel really inspired. I feel, feel really empowered. Of course it's challenging because as a practitioner you have to really accept the fact that you're never going to be able to help everyone and you have to just like, yeah, you just have to accept that. But I do feel really. Yeah. Happy about, you know, the fact that I'm able to do so.

Yeah. Well, tell me about your healing journey. Take me back.

Oh my God. Yeah, well, I, you know, I went to Cornell and I was, you know, I was a self proclaimed type A overachiever. I told myself, I'm going to work, you know, I'm going to graduate from Cornell, I grew up in Montreal, I'm going to get a job in tech in Silicon Valley, then I'm going to go get my MPA at Stanford or Harvard. Then I'm going to go into venture capital. Like, I had this whole plan mapped out for myself.

And that's the plan.

Yeah, the plan, you know? And I graduated from college. I did get a job in Silicon Valley at a hypergrowth tech startup venture backed by Sequoia and Andreessen. And I was there for about five years. Like, started when the company was under 100 people, left when the company was about 500 people. And at that same time, I was in San Francisco, in New York. And even though everything was great on paper, I found myself feeling very misaligned, lonely, low energy. I was struggling with a lot of health issues. I had digestive issues, hormonal imbalances. I was on an iud, birth control that really destroyed my hormones, gave me cystic acne. I had acne on my face, on my back. I had inflammation. I was probably like 20, 25 pounds heavier than I am now. Probably, Like, I had just like a lot of inflammation. I was tired all the time. And in my early 20s, I saw a naturopath in Montreal that was just like, right when I graduated from Cornell. I was probably. I was 21 when I graduated.

Was the world of holistic health or even just like healthy living in your world?

Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. So I, I grew up in a healthy household. Like, my, my dad in the 60s was a macrobiot marathon runner. My mom, growing up was a triathlete. I definitely grew up in a healthy household. But going to Cornell, being in a sorority, I was drinking, I was eating not healthy. I was eating late night pizza and whatever, and I was, you know, on birth control. Had no idea what, what effect that was having on me. And then I saw a naturopath in my early 20s who changed my life. I. I went to a more plant forward diet, and within weeks, I was like a totally different person. I. Inflammation and down. My digestive issues resolved. I was like, I had felt this life force, energy and vitality that I had never experienced before.

I was gonna say, like, we all grew up.

Yeah.

Putting these toxic blank in our body.

Yeah.

So when I hear, like, go back, you can get back to your, Your.

Yeah.

Your vitality, your life force, your mojo.

Yeah.

There was no back. We never had it. So I'm like, yeah, was this here the whole time? And now we're uncovering it for the first time ever.

No, no. And for some people, you know, for some of my clients, it is that, like, they. They all say, like, I've literally never felt this elevated State of being in my whole life. So, yeah, I did. I did feel that. And he's actually still, you know, a very good friend. He's. He's in Montreal, he's in his six, probably 60s, and I'm gonna see him when I go home. Like, he's. I feel like he's become a really close friend and that feels really nice. Cause he's. He's still in my life and. But then I knew there was another layer. So when I was in New York, I started getting colonics with the godfather of colonics in New York. Colonics is. We'll get into it. It's like, I would say a waste management specialist to help release deeply impacted waste from the colon. It's basically like giving your colon a shower.

Sounds nice.

Yeah, that's what it is. So Gil Jacobs saw him. And I remember getting my first colonic and leaving and calling my sister in law and being like, cleansing is the missing link. And I was on the street on the Lower east side FaceTiming my sister in law. I will never forget. And I said, I don't know how this is gonna play a role in my life, but I know that this is. I had this like light bulb moment.

What did it feel like?

That it just like I just knew that I really. It. It felt like the missing link. Like I knew that I just had this moment where I realized that healing, like true healing, is about subtraction, not addition. It's about the removal of, not the addition of. And it was the experience of getting my first colonic with Gil, who is just. Anyone who's listening who might know him knows that he's just like an iconic healer. He's just one of those incredible healers that just makes. Just brings you into an experience. And then I went deep into cleansing. I was in the corporate world. I went into colon cleansing and liver cleansing and parasite cleansing. And I healed myself. I, you know, over many years. And again, things ebbed and flowed over the years. And removing the IUD and the birth control and rebalancing my hormones, again, that's a longer journey. But long story short, tldr, I healed myself. I healed all my digestive issues. I rebalanced my hormones holistically. I unearthed clear, healthy, glowing skin, eliminated all my inflammation and excess weight. And again, I discovered this life force, energy and vitality. And again, this isn't just in the face physical realm. It's in the mental, emotional, spiritual realm. So when you detox, it's not just about resolving the physical symptoms. It's about up leveling your spiritual and energetic frequency and that cascades to every single other area of your life. And we're talking about quantum leaps and, and frequency and energy. Like it really gives you an elevated state of being. And so I felt that and pause

on that for a second. Yeah, I think a lot this term comes up a lot on the show, I think, and it comes up a lot at my business. And like the promised land, like pitch me the promised land just kind of glazed over in a second. But like for, for you, but also hundreds of people you've worked with. Can you paint a picture of like when they get their vitality, when they find this new life force, they get their mojo back. How does their life look different?

Yeah.

What do they feel like when they wake up now? How do they walk through the day? Like, what's happening at their finances? What's happening with their relationships? What's happening to like their mood, their happiness, their children? What's the promised land?

Well, I think it's twofold, right? So we talk about the shifts in the physical realm. If you're experiencing gut issues or hormonal imbalances or skin issues or autoimmune issues or mood imbalances, or excess weight or inflammation or low energy fatigue or blood sugar issues, or literally any and every physical symptom under the sun, you will feel the eradication of those physical symptoms, which is in and of itself, if we just put that aside, miraculous right to be someone. If you are someone who's struggling so much with your physical health and you are struggling day to day with physical symptoms. If we talk about a high performing founder, entrepreneur in their 20s, 30s, 40s, that's like waking up and wanting to work and be focused and perform at a high level and have the mental clarity, focus and energy to get through the day like in and of itself. Just resolving those physical symptoms is completely life changing for someone like that. Right. I work, I work with high performing founders who are like, I can't even believe that I now am free of these physical symptoms. But the benefit, again, as I said before, is not only physical, right? Because when we get into, you know, mental, emotional, spiritual, energetics, detox again is, as I said before, is not about deprivation, it's about liberation. It's really about upgrading your frequency in your physical body. So when you get rid of the blockage and you allow your life force, energy and vitality to flow freely, which is your inherent natural, the inherent natural state of your body, then that is love and light. That is an elevated frequency. And so that's going to cascade into every single other area of your life. So generally speaking, you know, and we, you know, if anyone knows anything about quantum leaps, it's like if you are vibrating at a higher frequency, if you embody that which you know, that frequency that you, you want to be, then you will attract abundance and opportunities in other areas. So career takes off, calls, you know, call in a partner, get a new home, get a new dream home. You know, there's. Go on an incredible trip. Like, there's so many other areas of life that start to fall into place when you're vibrating in that frequency. Right. It's. It's a. You know, it's about expansion versus contraction. Like, if you are struggling with physical symptoms day to day, you are in a const. You are in a contracted state. Like, you are not, you are not in your. Your body's true inherent state, which is life force, love, light, expansion. And so you're, you're not allowing those opportunities to come in. And once you flip the switch, once you do a proper detox, you come back to your body's original state. You're naturally just going to attract opportunities and abundance in other areas. So I think it's just. That's. Yeah, that's. That's it.

Okay. So it was what's called, I don't know, five, six, maybe seven years ago. You're early in your practice.

Yeah.

What were you seeing then in the world? Like kind of level set where the, where the market was, where people were. The zeitgeist. I mean, I was beginning of COVID Yeah. So compared to where we are now.

So like before I quit the job, like before I quit my.

As you were just getting this practice started.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, so just maybe backtrack. Like when I, When I healed myself, I mean, what I was doing was no one was talking about these things. Like I was. I had a book, a bedside table full of books from the 60s that I was reading that no one had ever heard of.

Where in the world were you?

I was in. So I'd been in San Francisco for three years, but I was in New York at the time. And this was like right before COVID

I mean, I think people still are not talking.

I know. So it's very niche, right?

A little bit in west la.

Yeah, totally.

A little bit in Brooklyn, a little bit in the Bay Area.

Yeah, it's still very niche. So at the time, like it was very. It was not talked about. And you know, most people and Most practitioners see healing as the inputs. What you eat, what supplements you take, what products you use, etc. Like, that's how you heal the body. So, you know, what I've seen and what I still continue to see, I mean, we have, you know, Western medicine, which is all about treating symptoms. So here you come in with this gut issue. So I'm going to prescribe you this medication to resolve that gut issue. Or here you have this skin issue here I'm going to prescribe you Accutane or, you know, and the list goes on. Functional medicine, I even see as pharma 2.0. So there's a lot of functional medicine doctors. And I don't want to generalize, you know, because there are some incredible doctors, of course, but generally speaking, it's like I see a lot of people that they go to functional medicine doctors where they run a lot of tests and they say, you have all these imbalances here, take 25 different supplements and go on your way. And so people come to me and they're like, I've been taking these supplements for six months and nothing's changing and nothing's working. And so that's what I saw and that's what I continue to see. And my job and my life's work and this human experience is to change that narrative. Because again, you can't heal a body that's toxic and congested. You have to detoxify before you optimize. So like, if you are struggling with physical symptoms, again, it's because your system is so full of toxins, your, your internal terrain has been weakened and obstructed, your organs are not working properly, and then you're now experiencing cellular congestion and breakdown. So you, you can't heal in the same environment that made you sick. If a fish is sick, you need to clean the tank, not the fish. If a flower doesn't bloom, you need to clean the environment in which it grows, not the flowers. If you deep clean your house, you need to take the garbage out of your house for your house to be clean. You're not going to leave garbage bags all over the floor. The same thing applies to your body.

I mean, I do that.

I don't. So instead, you really need to empty your bucket, empty your system, and do so correctly with the right cleansing modalities to regenerate your organs and systems to build a new foundation of the body to. Before you can even think about optimizing anything. And that's really, that's, that's true healing, right? So like yes, 99% of practitioners and people do not see healing in this way. And it's just, we're just starting. It's even crazy to me, like having done this work for so long to even see, you know, things changing. On Instagram and TikTok, we're seeing like liver cleansing and colon cleansing and parasite cleansing. Most people don't even know what they're doing or how to do it. But we are seeing detox and cleansing come to the forefront. But it's again, it's super niche. Like it's just, you know, maybe in New York and LA and you know, very wellness focused hubs where people are seeing healing in this way. But to me, it's the only way to heal the body.

So I hear this and I'm like, okay, great, sign me up. Yeah, I want to heal my body. I want to like cleanse all the, and all the toxins because I have my own symptoms. And I'm sure everyone listening is like, oh yeah, I've been dealing with that blank forever. Whether it's in their brain and their gut, in their, some chronic pain, whatever. Yeah, what's, what do we do? Like, what's this? What are the steps?

Yeah, what does that practically sort of look like? Well, so again, detox is about taking out the trash like we just talked about. It's about we have a clog, you know, we have a clogged sink, we have a full trash can. It's about taking out the trash. So what does this actually look like in practice? Again, I don't want people to think that detox means restriction and deprivation. It's about eliminating waste from your body, eliminating the toxicity, the toxic overload from the body to let your body to come back to its original state. But it's doing so in a way where you're still nourishing the body. You're not depleting the body, you're still nourishing the body as you're detoxing the body. The key thing with detox is that it has to happen in a very sequential order for it to function properly and effectively. A lot of people detox out of order, which can be dangerous. Basically, the body has, let's say, five main channels of elimination. We have the colon, which eliminates waste through the bowel movements. If you have a slow moving colon, it prevents all other organs and systems from functioning effectively. You have to start with the colon. You have to get to a place of eliminating one to three times a day. Not having any gas, constipation, diarrhea any like, any sort of digestive issues with the colon. Then we move to the liver. The liver is basically the body's filter. It processes everything you eat and drink.

Am I like taking pills for this stuff? Am I not eating certain foods, like what's the prescription?

So there's, there's a process. It goes, you know, you know, it can be between three, it could be three months, it could be six, it could be longer. But generally speaking, it starts with a colon that's going to be, you know, following. It's two pronged, right? It'll be the inputs and the output. So starting with obviously a food protocol that supports the body in the removal of waste and then using modalities like either cleansing supplements or modalities like colonics, enemas, et cetera, to remove that which the food has awakened. So this two pronged approach called awaken and release awakening is using the food to awaken the waste in your system and then the release is yes, these modalities that help to remove that which the food has awakened. And those two things will allow your body to heal and regenerate from within. So again, we start with the colon, we move to the liver, the kidneys, filter the blood and then eliminate water soluble toxins through the urine. So we have to go to the kidneys and then we go to the lymphatic system which works on pressure and movement. It's basically your drainage network. And then we move to the lungs and the skin. So the lungs through breathing, cellular respiration, and the skin, you know, sweating. So all of these channels of elimination, proper functioning of these channels of elimination are really important to make sure that the body is functioning effectively. And we need to release the waste out of all of these different channels. So typically we start with the colon, move to the liver and the lymphatic system and then we can move in to address things like parasites, mold, heavy metals, those things are typically deeply stored within the tissue, mold and heavy metals especially. And so they require a very, very well functioning system to release from the body. So you have to first open up the channels of elimination, the colon, then you go to the liver, the lymphatic system, make sure that your system is open and then you can address parasites. Parasites are just a symptom, they're not a cause, they're a symptom of actually underlying toxicity within the body. So you kind of go through these steps. I think the problem right now with detox trending is that people have no clue what they're doing. So they're, you know, there's all these, you know, TikTok shop supplements and buy this parasite cleanse and this liver cleanse and this thing and it, when it, when someone does this but they don't have a well functioning system or they have a really, really blocked colon for example and they're trying to detox parasites. Those parasites can die and get reabsorbed into the body and actually create herxheimer effects and create die off and a lot of really crazy detox symptoms because your body cannot actually release those parasites. So that's just one example. But it can be dangerous to do out of order. So it requires going through these steps in order and it requires also ample time for rest, hydration and integration. You can't just be eating cheeseburgers four times a day and then go to eating salad. Your body will just experience too much detox. Symptoms of detox can be really, really intense. And so you have to kind of support the body and do things in stages. So yeah, I mean I can go on.

I'm most curious because I'll think in my life I'm like okay, I want to do a three month or six month clients but I'm like, but I can't afford to take a step back in other areas of my life during that time. So it's like how do we do it where it doesn't impact my work.

Yeah.

It doesn't impact my sleep, it doesn't impact my, my training along the way.

Yeah. 100.

So I mean or if it does, it's minor.

Yeah. So, so when you do, I mean when you do detox, of course, you know, it's hard to know with each person. Right. I don't know the level of toxicity and acidity in the body. Like I don't know necessarily what's going to come out of the body. But there can be detox symptoms. Right. Because like I say to my clients, the symptoms are the cure. Right. If you have toxicity within your body and we start to awaken that waste and release that waste that's going to come out of your bowel movements, your urine, your skin, your sweat. And so there can be and sort of an upheaval of that toxic waste which can result in sinus congestion, mucus congestion. Again, it's all coming out of the body. Increased urination, increased bowel movements, maybe a little bit of digestive distress. Sometimes people break out for a little bit. And so I do have clients that where things get a little bit worse before they get better. But it's usually pretty short lived. Like, I wouldn't say someone's going through my three or six month program and, or, and like really struggling throughout the whole period. Like I would say generally speaking, people start to feel this life force, energy and vitality that they've literally never experienced before. So it usually translates in, you know, I just had a female client who was actually like a bodybuilder and she was super worried about this work like impacting her training and her performance and, and her muscle building and strength. And it was actually the complete inverse. It actually she was, she was, she had way more energy at the gym, she was performing better. She felt like she was building more muscle even while eating less protein. So it actually, she was like, wow. Like it actually did the inverse of what I thought it would do. I thought it would deplete me and it's actually completely invigorating me.

It reminds me a lot of like dealing with this right now, super busy at work. And I didn't, I neglected to do this last quarter, which is plan the next quarter. And that usually means like a two to three day off site where you're going to take two to three days off of daily work to like plan the next quarter. And I didn't do it because I was like, there's just too much day to day stuff that I have to focus on. And then guess what, the next quarter comes around and you're like, not, you don't have a plan. You're just continuing to operate. Now it's like, all right, I'm gonna slow down to speed up. I'm going to take the, the extra three days or take the weekend to like, you know, not be on all day.

Yeah.

And then go crush it the next quarter with this new plan. So it's like, why would you not do that?

Yeah, it's like, you know, I love using analogies. It's like, you know, a car, like a, you know, an awesome car. Like if you have, if you have a clogged engine and you're trying to pour gasoline and the engine's clogged, like that doesn't work. It's like, it's like, it's like trying to build a house with bricks that never make it to the construction site.

Why is it so hard emotionally for people to like do the detox thing? Like it's logical as fuck to be like, you have to take your car to the shop every six months to get an oil change so that long term it doesn't have problems. And we don't even think twice about that. But when it comes to our bodies, why is it so different?

Yeah, exactly.

That's an interesting question, actually.

It's funny. I posted about this on Substack the other day. I wrote, it's funny that you say that. I literally wrote, your body is your own home for the rest of your life. Literally your entire life. And meanwhile, we clean our houses, we maintain them, we upgrade them, we clean our cars, we get oil changes, we get our cars washed, we do closet cleanups. But for some reason, when it comes to our bodies, which is like, you know, the most sacred temple ever, because it's the home that for the rest of our lifetime, we struggle so much to take care of it, you know, there's, there's different groups of people. I think typically the person who's coming to me, I see two groups. There's either someone who has struggled with health issues for so long and they've tried everything else that when they hear about me or hear about my methodology and approach, like, I'm sure someone listening on this podcast will be like, even you, like, whoa. This actually makes so much sense. I know that this is the answer. When people hear me talk about it, they generally are like, it clicks. And they're like, this is the answer. And so for people who've exhausted every other option and they want to feel better, they will be so willing and committed to doing the work because all they want to do is feel better. And then the other group of people I'm working with is typically a high performing founder, entrepreneur, executive that knows Detox will optimize them. They're like, really into health and really into health optimization, and they just want to perform at their highest potential and achieve like, peak clarity, peak performance, peak energy, peak muscle strength. And they know that Detox is going to allow them to do that. So those two groups are very, like, willing and committed. You know, I do have consultations with a lot of people who, I think, you know, they might say, oh, I can't, I'm going on a trip for a couple months, I'll circle back, or I, I can't afford it, or whatever else. But I think usually that's rooted in potentially an underlying, you know, a lot of people just don't want to do the work. Like, it's just, it's just kind of what it is. And that applies to every area of life. Like, a lot of people are just, you know, I like this formula of, like, willingness plus ownership equals growth and evolution. So if you're willing, if you're 100 willing and committed, and then you take ownership and accountability, that you are going to make the changes in your life. You will see growth and evolution. And I feel like as a person, I've always been willing, I've always taken ownership, and that's why I've seen, you know, my life transform. And I've always seen that I'm able to manifest anything and everything because of those two things. But a lot of people are not willing and they're not. They don't take ownership. So. And I don't. I don't. Honestly, it's hard, right, because I want to help everyone. And it's been hard because I've had to release that, like, being like, oh, I just wish this person would, like, want to do this. But the reality is you don't. As a practitioner, you don't want to work with someone who isn't willing and who's not ready to take ownership because then they think that you're going to do the work for them. When, in fact, I'm not a healer. I'm just helping you uncover your body's natural ability to heal. So, like, you need to do the work and you need to take ownership, and you need to be willing and ready and committed to do the work. And I think a lot of people just are scared or they're not willing or they don't fully understand. And I always trust when people say it's not the right time. I always say, you know, you're gonna reach out when the time is right. And I do have people circle back, like, six months later. Hey, we did a consultation a year ago. Six months ago.

Yeah.

I feel like. I feel like I want to do this now. And I just. I feel like releasing and letting go and surrendering and not being attached to, like, I really want to help. This person has just helped me so much.

I'm really curious about the impact that your work has on people's physical health compared to their mental health. What's going on the mental side? Because everything we've talked about for the most part is like, digestive issues, bloating, gas.

Yeah.

Skin issues, etc. What about, like, if you're just depressed?

Yeah, that's a really good question. So I think, you know, anxiety, depression, and mental health issues of various different forms have always been associated with. It's in your head. Like, this is in your head, and so let's resolve it in your head. But what's come to light and what's really become really prominent, even the last few years is the gut brain axis. So to give you a very specific example, over 90% of your serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter, is produced in the gut, as are other neurotransmitters like dopamine and gaba, which are all very much responsible for like mood and focus and clarity and nervous system regulation. And those are all produced in the gut. So if you have your gut is your second brain. So if your gut is in a state of dysregulation and it's not able to produce those neurotransmitters per the gut brain axis, that's automatically going to create mental health issues, anxiety, depression. When your gut's completely out of balance, there's, you know, gut liver signaling that's going to affect your liver. When you're, when you have a slow moving colon, it prevents all other organs and systems from functioning. So then your liver becomes back up, your liver becomes overburdened. That creates hormonal imbalances. Those hormonal imbalances create also create dysregularities that impact your mental health as well. So it's all, it's all interconnected. The body is an orchestra. It's like, you know, like if there's people, Western medicine has siloed all of these different areas of the body. Like, oh, if you have gut issues, you go to a gastroenterologist, if you have hormone issues, you go to an endocrinologist, if you have skin issues, you go to a dermatologist. But that's literally not how the body works. You can't look at the body in silos. It's an orchestra, it's a symphony. When you have an imbalance in one area, it's going to affect other areas of the body. And I think that that holds true with the gut brain. Like if you have dysregulation in your gut with 100% certainty that will affect your brain, it's going to affect your neurotransmitter production, which is going to impact your mood and your stability in the mental realm. So for sure, with 100% certainty, any sort of detox, any regulation of the gut, you know, clearing an overburdened liver and rebalancing the hormones, decreasing your cortisol, all of that is going to really dramatically impact your mental health. And then that's just like, you know, that's real. But also, let's not forget that just by way of like feeling physically good in your body physically, you will automatically mentally start to feel Better, you know, because like if you feel, if you wake up and you feel low energy, tired, you can't see straight, you, you can't focus at work, you have digestive issues, that, that sucks.

Right.

And so you're gonna feel bad for

if someone's like, okay, sign me up, I wanna get going. But I'm not gonna do the full like work with Megan and do the whole cleanse thing yet. What are some things people can do starting tonight?

Yeah.

Maybe add a little bit more every week or something, I don't know, at home things to start eliminating things to take things to do things, questions to ask, websites to visit, books to read. What's your like starter pack?

Yeah, so I want to give some practical tips and then I'll talk about some resources and yeah, so I think with removal of, you know, it's, you know, if we think about the food, if we just look at food and just inputs, food wise specifically, I'd say refined sugars, refined seed oils, refined grade, refined grains and carbs, like those are the big three that I would say you'd want to eliminate. Right. And that in and of itself, even just removing those three things.

For someone who's like, what's a refined sugar? What's a refined seed oil? Can you define all that?

Yeah, I mean refined Sugar has literally 56 different types of names. So it would be impossible, possible for me to just define like sugar because I would have to list 50, you know, 50 to 60 different names like high fructose corn syrup, you know, table sugar, cane sugar, maltodextrin. Like there's so many different varieties of sugar. Seed oils would be any refined seed oils, Canola oil, rapeseed oil. Yeah, there's probably like eight or nine, rice bran oil, etc.

Why is seed oil is such a controversial question right now.

Yeah, what's going on there? Yeah, well they are, they basically for, for oil specifically we want it. It's really the exposure to heat and the processing that messes up the oil. So instead of, instead of having anti inflammatory omega 3 as we get to pro inflammatory omega 6s when we expose these oils to heat. So anything refreshed, refined, any refined seed oil is being exposed to heat and it's going through a tremendous amount of chemical processing to get to its end result. So when we look at like a cold pressed extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil that's unrefined, raw, extra virgin, like it's not being exposed to that chemical processing and to that heat. So it's maintaining those omega 3 benefits. When we have seed oils, it's, they're pro inflammatory to the body. So a lot of packaged foods have these seed oils, refined sugars and refined grains and carbs, anything white, white bagels, pasta, cookies, whatever, like anything like that. So again, healing is about subtraction, not addition. So I think that's a really good start from the subtraction piece. And then when you talk about day to day things that are going to help with this removal of waste, I like to look at things like in different categories. So if we go back to the channels of elimination that I mentioned, we have the colon. So what's going to help the removal of waste from the colon? Eating high fiber whole foods. Fiber is the key. So what has fiber? Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains. Fiber rich, alkaline rich, enzyme rich foods. Whole foods unprocessed, minimally processed, will support in the removal of waste because fiber basically acts as an intestinal broom that comes in and so sweeps up all of this built up matter in your system. So 97% of Americans are not getting the minimum daily recommended amount of fiber. So we're obsessed with protein, which we'll get into. But no one's obsessed with fiber. And fiber is literally the key to good gut health. So you want to eat more fiber. If you cut out those three food groups and then you eat more fiber rich whole foods, you will help with the elimination of waste from the colon. Then we get into the urine, we get into the kidneys. Okay, what, how do we get waste out of the through the urine? Well, you want to hydrate more, so you want to drink more water. You want to make sure you're having the right water. You don't want to drink tap water but have like mineral rich spring water or you know, reverse osmosis filtered water, making sure you're hydrating. People are chronically dehydrated because of stress and exposure, sedentary lifestyles. The foods that they're eating are super dehydrating and dead. So a lot of people are just chronically dehydrated. So you want to really, really hydrate and drink a lot of water. And then I think a third one would be sweating, right? Sweating daily. Whether it's through movement, through infrared sauna, you're going to be eliminating waste and toxicity through your sweat. And so we think about, okay, you're eating fiber rich whole foods, you're going to be eliminating waste through the bowels. Then we have hydration, you'll eliminate more waste. Through the urine and then we have sweating, you'll eliminate more waste through the skin. So those are like very, very simple things. And then for people who want to go deeper, like I built out a series of digital cleanses called the Cleanses. And I, you know, I, my goal is to build a whole ecosystem of cleanses that support the body. So basically I have a free detox quiz on my website and someone can go on there and fill out a bunch of, answer a bunch of different questions about their symptoms and then they get redirected to the cleanse that will be most appropriate for them. So as I said, it needs to happen at a very sequential order. So the first cleanse is called the cleanse. It's a seven day cleanse and it gives a framework for eating and then supplements, you know, any other modalities like colonics, enemas. And it's a seven day cleanse with a habit tracker and you can kind of follow and go through that and then you can do the colon cleanse. This is like an intermediary cleanse to focus deeper on the colon. And then there's the liver cleanse which focuses specifically on the liver and goes into like a liver gallbladder flush protocol. And my goal is to not only optimize those, but then build out another remaining sort of series of I want to launch a kidney cleanse, a parasite cleanse, a heavy metal cleanse, and even a home cleanse. Like I have so much info about EMFs and blue light and air quality, water quality, mold. Like how do you make a non toxic home environment that's so important. So I basically want to build like basically an ecosystem of cleanse cleanses so that people can go through this journey. Because ultimately I totally understand that a lot of people may not have the finite, you know, they may not have the finances or the resources to invest in like a one on one program. And ultimately my goal is to bring this work mainstream. So how do I do that? Well, there's probably many ways, but to start out, I think like an ecosystem of digital offerings that allow people to embark on this journey at their leisure is the way to do that. So there's that. And I mean I have so many ideas for different things that I might want to build and I'm kind of in a place of trying to figure out like what route do I go because there's so many different areas of opportunity and I just, I'm sitting with like what makes the most sense or how can I make the greatest impact. But like I It's so I just want to take a step back and not make sure that people don't feel overwhelmed. Like, if you're just starting this journey and you're overwhelming. Yeah. If you, if you don't, if you don't know where to begin and you're just like, what can I do day to day to feel better? It's like, it's so simple. Like, again, remember that you want to support your body in the removal of waste. So if you really, if you eat high fiber whole foods, you know, 80% of the time, if you hydrate, if you, you know, drink cold pressed green juice, if you sweat, and if you remove those, you know, toxic foods from your diet and you will probably feel so much better. And so those are just like practical, simple tips. But again, just remember that healing, again is about subtraction, not addition. So it's not about like adding in the peptides and the, and the protein powders and the protein bars and the drink mixes and the gummies and all these different things. It's about how do I actually get my body back to its original state? If someone's listening to this episode, that's what I want them to remember is like, how do I get my body back to homeostasis?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cool.

Yeah.

To start to wrap a little bit, the. We didn't talk at all about masculinity, femininity, manhood, womanhood, all that, which is not the intention of today's episode. We always end by asking though, what do you think it means to be a man nowadays? So as it relates to detox, how would you answer that question?

Yeah, wow. Do I have to answer as it relates to detox?

Let's hear your original answer regardless. And then if you have an idea how it relates to detox, we could try that too.

True man is someone who can balance, I think, like the healthy masculine and the divine feminine. You know, that's like to me what a true man is. And you know, when I think about the healthy masculine, it's someone that can provide and protect and be the, you know, the woman is the weather and the man is the mountain and can hold steady and be there to support her. But I think in today's day and age, like, you know, especially with all the toxic masculinity we've seen, I think, I think a true man is someone who is in that healthy masculine, but also very much knows how to oscillate and be in the divine feminine, so knows how to feel, is caring, is empathetic, can Listen, can, can be there to support and just like be a shoulder to cry on, you know, like to, to be in that energy. And I think a true man is someone who can oscillate and dance between those two states very fluidly. Cool.

How can people find you online?

How can people find me? So, I mean, anywhere I'm on, I'm very, very active on LinkedIn, LinkedIn influencer over here. I'm on Instagram. I have a very big sub stack called the Detox with Megan Swidler. And then if you go to my bio on any of those platforms, you'll find my link tree which has access to my sub stack, my, you know, my social media presence, my, my digital cleanses, my one on one consultation link. And you can just DM me and reach out and say you listen to the pod. And I'll also be speaking at eudaimonia in November in Palm beach. So I'm really, really excited about that. I'll be speaking about cleansing and detox there. So yeah, hope to see you there. And yeah, if I see you around la, please say hi.

Cool. Thank you. Yeah, this was good.

Yay.

That flew by.