Everyone knows that summer time always brings a slew of social events and social events usually revolve around eating. One great thing about summertime eating is all the amazing produce nature pumps out for us to enjoy! Summer is one of the best times to visit the farmer’s markets; every direction you look there are colorful displays of local organic goodies ranging from fruits like berries and peaches to my all time favorite natural delicacy, heirloom tomatoes. Normally with all the sunshine there is so much to do with work and fun that summer flies by. Luckily for me, this year I happened to have a bit of time on my hands.
I have always loved cooking and one of my favorite things to do is cook with friends. One of my dearest and closest friends Erica and I used to get together once a week or so and conduct our own Healthy Eating Class. We would read interesting facts about health, nutrition and foods and test out new recipes. Even after cooking all day at work I always looked forward to getting together and running our test kitchen on our family and friends. Erica has always encouraged me to get a healthy blog started to share our insights with others and finally timing has allowed this to happen!
Feeling a bit bogged down physically from extensive travel and summer festivities, (and momentarily on a long vacation) I was inspired. I had done a cleanse once by myself last spring and felt great when I was done. I convinced my boyfriend and parents to join me and we decided to get the cleanse under way. I created a loose plan of meals based off of dried grains and beans we had already. While I deviated frequently to adjust to my personal schedule, it always helps to have a loose idea of ingredients you need just to make grocery shopping easier. It also helps avoid purchasing produce that spoils before you can use it! It wasn’t until the second day of the cleanse that I settled on my decision to create recipes for all the cleanse food I was inventing as we went along. On the fourth day, I decided to get serious and start the blog!
As a trained chef, I have become accustomed to reading a recipe then using it as a jumping off point. When you are at work there is very little time to break out the measuring cups and meticulously measure each ingredient. You get to a point where you have a general idea of what various quantities look like and proper ratios of ingredients to create a tasty dish. Keeping that in mind, creating a good recipe takes even more time than following one…but it can be fun!
When I finally made the decision to start the blog, I was even more excited. The extra time on my hands made it the perfect time to launch and where better to start than with recipes and photos of body cleansing meals! Detox diets are all about removing environmental toxins from your body and giving your organs a chance to rejuvenate. Once you go thru the cleansing process, it is much easier to stick to your healthy diet because of the tangible results and improvements you feel in your body after a cleanse. Trevor made the soup the first night so there is no recipe but every other item I made over the 12 days has a recipe and after day 4, pictures. Please be patient, I have an old camera and will be getting another soon to get better pictures of the food. I also am experimenting with how to get the best angles and step by step pictures so comments and suggestions are welcomed! Now onto our first subject…12 Days of Detox Dieting!
Getting Started
Cleansing and Detox Diets are really trendy these days and people pay lots of money to have diet plans designed for them. Creating your own detox plan, however, is not nearly as daunting as one might think! The three most important things to consider when designing your meal plan are:
1. How much time do you have to focus on preparing your meals?
2. What is available seasonally in terms of produce? Late Summer/Early Fall and Spring are considered the best times to cleanse because of the plethora of delicious produce readily available.
3. If you are cleansing alone: How extreme do you want your cleanse to be? There are all kinds of plans out there and some involve no solid food!!
- If you aren’t cleansing alone: What kinds of food do all involved enjoy? Consider proper quantities needed for each person participating (i.e. age, gender, levels of athletic activity…my dad and boyfriend participated in my last cleanse and they need A LOT more food to feel satisfied than my mom or I need)
I recommend getting a friend, relative or your partner to cleanse with you. It is a tough adjustment to cut out so many items you consume on a regular basis. It can alter your moods and give you headaches so having somebody to sympathize with and keep each other on track is great. Cleansing can also be hard on your social life so some company helps that aspect as well!
To get started, below are the basic dos and don’ts while cleansing:
The No No’s:
- No Caffeine
- No Alcohol
- No Smoking
- No Meat
- No Dairy
- No Refined Sugars
- No Foods/Condiments/Seasonings with Food Additives
- No processed foods OF ANY KIND!! (in my opinion this is the hardest rule to follow and I made 2 exceptions: Ancient Harvest Organic Quinoa Pasta and Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust. The pasta contains only organic quinoa and organic corn flour and no additives or sulfites. The pizza crust mix did contain xanthan gum but all other
ingredients were organic)
- No snacking except one serving of nuts per day and celery sticks or cucumber and…
- NO EATING AFTER 8 PM!
The Do’s:
- Buy Organic whenever possible (see The Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen on the left of this page for more tips) Don’t forget to consider this when purchasing your spices, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and lime juice!! Whole Foods is a great source of organic seasonings and spices.
- Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Eat them raw or minimally cooked when possible as cooking removes many of the essential vitamins and minerals.
- Include nuts, grains and the occasional legumes (preferably walnuts/almonds, quinoa/brown rice and black beans) Think easily digestible with a high nutrient content!
The Daily Routine:
- Wash all fruits and vegetables with purified water and a touch of distilled vinegar (3 parts water to 1 part vinegar)
- Drink at least 8, 8 oz glasses of PURIFIED water daily (I tried for 12)
- Include organic, herbal caffeine free teas throughout the day
- Exercise daily, even if it is light exercise (we did lots of Wii yoga and rock climbing)
- Start every day before eating anything with a mug of lukewarm water with:
o ½ tsp cayenne pepper to stimulate metabolism
o 1 tb extra virgin olive oil to ease digestion
o Juice from half a lemon (1 tb) to stimulate cleansing of the liver
o 1 tb ground flax seed for protein and digestion
o MAKE SURE TO ADD THE FLAX LAST AND STIR IMMEDIATELY!!
- After drinking that delightful concoction, drink 1 quart of warm water with 2 tsp of uniodized sea salt. Called a “salt enema”, this was not the favorite of anybody participating in the cleanse but it certainly helps! You will not be able to leave the house for approximately 2 hours after drinking the salt water as it totally clears your digestive track. It was hard to swallow (literally) at first but got easier as the days went on. It also had less of a drastic effect on the body (or we were just very “clean” as the days went by :) After the salt water, immediately consume your high fiber breakfast!
Preparing to Shock the System
In the week leading up to the cleanse, you should start trying to cut down on anything you consume in excess that might lead to withdrawal headaches or grumpy moods. Main things to consider are soft drinks, coffee, high sugar snack items, smoking and alcohol consumption. Immediately cutting these things out of your diet can cause painful side effects dependent on your level of use so preparing your body gradually is always a good idea. My mom and Trevor are heavy coffee drinkers and they both had pretty bad headaches for the first two days of the cleanse but it went away and now they are both down to one cup of coffee per day!
Cleansing Time!!
The night before you begin your cleanse, try and eat your last meal before 4 pm. Around 10:30 pm, prepare a glass of 3/4 c grapefruit juice and a ½ c of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Let it stand for 30 minutes, drink it all quickly and go to bed immediately. I will warn you, not only is it not pleasant to drink, but it is extremely uncomfortable during digestion. I ate past 4 pm (and had a pre-cleanse last glass of wine) and woke up to get sick in the middle of the night. Trevor and my mom did better than I and held it all down but didn’t sleep very well. My dad passed on all strange drinks (lemon/flax, salt water, olive oil juice) but at least he made the effort to stick to the rest of the rules!
The First Three Days
Besides your flax-lemon and salt water, consume ONLY fruits and vegetables, natural juices and purified water on Day 1. Day 2 add a little starch with one meal and Day 3, throw in some nuts!
For the first three days, at breakfast eat:
7 grapes (approximately ½ c)
1 serving banana
1 serving pear
½ c papaya
½ c sliced strawberries
3/8 c all natural grapefruit juice
For your other two meals, make one a vegetable crudité platter (cut raw vegis) and for the other choose between a hearty vegetable soup, stir-fry or mixed salad. It’s not important which you have for lunch and which for dinner; pick whatever is easiest for your schedule! We had vegetable crudités for lunch each day because it is easily prepared a night ahead and easy to take to work. For dinner it was nice to gather and enjoy a warm meal followed by a little fruit for dessert.
After the first three days, eating got a little more exciting…stay tuned!
DAILY 2: Produce Tips
- When you choose vegetables to eat while cleansing, think high in fiber like dark leafy greens, spinach and broccoli.
- Don’t be shy, load up on the onions and garlic!! Both members of the onion family, they contain chemical compounds believed to have anti-inflammatory, anti-cholesterol, anti-cancer, and antioxidant properties. Besides their health benefits, members of the onion family can be prepared in a myriad of different ways to add depth to your food.
SEASONING/PREPARATION TIPS FOR CLEANSE FOOD:
- Use lemon/lime juices, sea salt, pepper, organic spices, extra virgin olive oil, pure/organic vinegars and raw honey to add flavor to your food. For the first three days only, NO HONEY!!
- Remember not to cook your vegetables to death! You want to keep as many nutrients as possible while still producing something interesting for your palate. Be mindful of the order in which you place the vegetables in the pan to minimize over cooking.
- Try different types of chiles to add a little spice to your food
- And remember...don’t be scared of the onions and garlic!!
Up Next…
- Day 4, Finally Some Substance To Our Meals!
And Some Recipes!!
- Cleansing Diet, Day 2: Southwest Vegetable Sauté
- Cleansing Diet, Day 3: Peppery Almond Pesto and Vegetable Soup
- Cleansing Diet, Day 4: What’s for Breakfast? Assorted Fruit Smoothies!
- Cleansing Diet, Day 4: Vegetable and Quinoa Pasta Soup
- Cleansing Diet, Day 4: Crispy S.E. Asian Quinoa Cakes served with Spicy Chile Lime Dipping Sauce, Charred Ginger Corn and Chilled Sesame Broccoli
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