Tuesday 28 June 2011

How to earn your health halo

If you've been following my blog series on detox and making some healthy changes you may be ready for a full blown detox. Right now I'd absolutely love to do one but finding a weekend that's free and detox compatible is proving difficult.

When I do find the time I'm going to do a four day fruit and veg detox. I'd possibly do longer if I didn't have a day job, but most city jobs are quite demanding and hard to deal with on a diet of carrot sticks.

However four days over a weekend are manageable and I've done this before starting on a thursday night with a dinner of steamed veggies and brown rice with some olive oil.

Friday is then fruit and vegetables only, either eaten raw, cooked or juiced. Fruit smoothies are ok too as long as no dairy is added. Pret's vitamin volcano and carrot juice are handy for this day as is the Leon superfood salad (don't eat the feta) or Pod's superfood salads (have the ones marked Vegan). I also buy punnets of berries to snack on and keep cravings at bay. Dinner will be a vegetable juice - usually the superjuice from Jason Vale's Slim for Life
which contains a huge range of fruit and veg in an unlikely combo (pineapple, avocado and broccoli all in one drink?!) that's actually pretty tasty and filling. If i'm still peckish I'll also have some raw veg crudites. Friday night or Saturday morning I also like to do the grapefruit liver flush from Dr Joshi's Holistic Detox
to kick my liver into action.

Saturday and Sunday will then be fruit and veg juices and water only. A juicer is essential, but doesn't have to be super pricey - my Philips juicer
does a good job and has lasted for years. Once you're used to juicing, making up palatible recipes is easy, but any of Jason Vales Juice Master recipe books are a good place to look for inspiration and guidance (don't ever make the same mistake as Ms Haribo and try and juice cauliflower).

I make sure I drink plenty of water throughout the weekend and have a proper rest, not doing any demanding exercise (yoga or walking or a gentle swim are fine) and avoiding all music, radio and tv (reading is fine) as stress impairs detoxification so you won't get the full benefits. This is probably what I find hardest about the detox, but once you finally switch off mentally you feel totally relaxed so it's worth making sure you do this.

Monday is back to work and back to solid food but I'll stay on fruit and veg only just like Friday until dinner time when I'll have some brown rice too.

Ideally for the rest of the week I'll avoid the usual toxic nasties to maximize the benefits - no caffeine, alcohol, sugar, sweeteners, additives or preservatives, wheat, meat or dairy. By the end of the week I feel I can polish my health halo!

Ps - you should only undertake a detox if you're in perfect health, if you have any illness chronic or short-term do not undertake a detox regime without consulting your doctor and/or nutritionist first.

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