I think that we all go through cycles of being healthy and a little less healthy, which is often driven by what is going on in our lives and how we are feeling. My general rule of thumb is to follow a healthy diet most of the time but allow myself to indulge one day a week. However, I have noticed that since Christmas this rule has been slipping and I have been 'indulging' just about every day and feeling sleepy and lacking in motivation as a result. I decided it is time to have a 2 week blitz to get me feeling on top form again - and I'm looking forward to it, after a quick trip to a local fresh veggie shop I am ready to begin (tomorrow!)
Breakfast to be replaced with fruit and natural yoghurt (soy yoghurt for those who are non dairy)with a sprinkling of linseeds (flax seeds).
Big fresh salad for lunch with plenty of green leaves home made coleslaw (see earlier blog), alongside some protein in the form of grilled turkey, chicken, fish or eggs if you're veggie (or try a bean salad from earlier blog). I challenge you to include salad vegetables that you don't normally eat e.g radishes, chicory or kohl rabi!
Always get some steamed vegetables into the dinner and avoid processed foods, try to make everything from scratch and include brown rice or quinoa if you can for added fibre. Remember your protein from poultry, fish, beans, dairy or eggs.
Unhealthy snacks can be replaced with chopped up vegetables and hoummous or skipped all together
If you can then try avoiding coffee altogether or just have one black coffee per day with a meal - this depends on how upset you would get to avoid it! Green tea, dandelion tea or crushed up ginger stem in hot water are fantastic cleansers. If you have many coffees per day, it is not advisable to cut out suddenly but should be done gradually.
Challenge yourself to not eat any chocolate, crisps, muffins, cakes, biscuits etc for 2 weeks. The cravings will go away eventually!
Limit Alcohol - a couple of small glasses of red wine with a meal once per week if you need to.
Plenty of water - try and drink 2 litres per day to help the cleansing process
And most important of all - eat really slowly and enjoy the tastes!
Once you have completed the 2 week challenge, you may even find that you'd like to eat this way on a more long term basis - well most of the time anyway