If you’re looking for a way to feel energised, positive and generally healthy then a 7 day juicing cleanse is the place to start. By ditching fatty, processed foods in favour of a plant-based, nutritional drink you can give your body a much needed kick that will leave you feeling better than ever before.
While a juice cleanse relies primarily on healthy vegetable drinks, it doesn’t rely completely on liquids and is categorically not a fasting diet. It’s simply a reworking of your daily routine that refocuses your food intake on the greatest sources of nutrients – plants.
Planning your cleanse
Try not to think of your cleanse as a diet, but more of a booster to work alongside your long term goal of achieving a mostly healthy diet. Diets have lots of negative connotations and you need to remain positive if you are to stick with it and achieve that healthy glow that you crave.
The best place to start is to plan out your diet for the week. Your routine each day should involve a juice to start your day, followed by a raw food salad or piece of fruit and then finally a warm healthy meal in the evening. Consuming only raw fruit, nuts and juices until 4pm is important. If you eat a cooked breakfast and then have a super healthy shake at lunch time then your body is diverting its attention towards breaking down that heavy breakfast, rather than soaking up all the goodness from a juice or smoothie. Planning your day this way will keep everything moving properly through your system.
It’s important to be prepared and to plan out a diet for the week which covers all the bases, making sure that you are getting enough of everything your body needs. Try and prepare a diet which is based around macrobiotic foods like oats, barley, rye, millet, corn, buckwheat and brown rice and locally sourced vegetables. Be sure to incorporate essential fatty acids from foods like flaxseeds, walnuts, avocados, tofu, kidney beans and kale. Fatty acids like Omega-3 bring balance to your hormones, prevent blood clotting and do many other important jobs around the body. You also need to try and cut down on some of the toxicants that you might be consuming such as caffeine, tobacco, unfiltered water, unrefined sugars, etc.
Now once you have prepared what you will have for your meals, you need to decide what juices and shakes you will begin your day with. Here are some of our favourites which we recommend you rotate:
Dark Beet Juice
Beetroot accounts for 50% of your recommended daily allowance of manganese, a vital component in creating healthy bone and sinew. It also contains folate, a chemical which lowers the risk of major killers like heart disease and cancer and regulates normal healthy brain function. To feel the benefits mix together two beetroot, an apple, some blackberries and an inch of ginger.
Tummy soother
Unrefined processed foods like white bread, chips and fizzy drinks can wreak havoc on your stomach. Now add coffee, artificial sweeteners, spicy food and alcohol and you have a real problem on your hands. To bring your stomach acids back into balance mix up one cup of pineapple, an inch of ginger, fresh parsley, avocado, banana and a squeeze of lemon to taste. This is a guaranteed way to flush out toxins and aid your digestion.
Citrus wonder
For a refreshing kick start to the morning mix together 1 lemon, 2 oranges and some grapefruit. Add some grated ginger for an extra kick. While citrus juice may have little nutritional value it is an excellent way to boost your metabolism which means you can convert carbohydrates quicker and lose weight.
Green Machine
Lots of juice and smoothie recipes you find will have bananas as their ingredient. However if you’re not a fan of bananas then this shake is for you. Mix together a handful of kale, a quarter of an apple pre-chopped, a quarter of peeled cucumber, some fresh lemon and some grated ginger. Blend it together with some water and then add some maple syrup to taste if you find it needs sweetening up.
Experiment with these recipes and adjust them to your tastes. For further recipes take a look on websites like Pinterest and be sure to tweet us @TimeForYouGroup and let us know which one’s you’ve enjoyed the most.
