Detox For Summer

Now is the perfect time to detoxify your body just like spring cleaning your house to help you feel refreshed and energised for the coming summer action!

Have you ever noticed that many people treat their CARS better than their bodies? They would never ignore a warning light for an oil change or regular maintenance, but they often ignore the tell-tale signs that their body is in desperate need of a tune up. An unfortunate fact of our modern life is that even the healthiest body struggles with inferior nutrition, pollutants in the air, water and food supply, and A lack of healthy activity. It’s no wonder that most of us don’t feel like the Formula One racing cars that we should!

Some Of The Body’s Warning Signs:

• Do you feel less healthy and energetic than other people your age?
• Do you struggle with your weight or fluid retention?
• Do you have digestive disturbances (wind, bloating, flatulence, constipation, heartburn)?
• Do you have dark circles under your eyes, post-nasal drip or hayfever symptoms?
• Do you have bad breath or body odour?
• Do you have sore, aching muscles or acne?

Detoxing at least once a year will help to keep you feeling and looking great!

• Add Veggies to...Everything: Load up your meals with vegetables so there's less room for starchy grains and nutrient poor white flour products. At lunch, you can stuff a wrap with lettuce, rocket, tomato, grated carrot, sprouts, capsicum, avocado and bulk up your dinner meals with extra veggies thrown in. The rise in the incidence of asthma has been linked to diets low in fresh vegetables. We need a serve at every meal!
• Start with Salad or Soup: Starting with a salad or soup can help you eat less over the course of meal, says researchers. It also ensures you get your 5 portions of colourful vegetables per day and is visually satisfying to think you can have 2 plates of food rather than only half a hamburger.
• Juice It! Freshly squeezed juices flush your system with antioxidants and aid detoxification so rather than getting an afternoon coffee to pep you up, head for the juice bar. Carrot, celery, beetroot, ginger are particularly effective, while watermelon, pineapple and mint give a little summer zing.
• Green Smoothies are all the rage! Rather than juicing, buy a blender & simply blend your green veges with water for a quick antioxidant-rich, filling snack in itself: kale leaves, spinach, half a cucumber, half a lemon, 1 green apple or a banana for taste: bon appetit!
• Elixir of Life: Drink at least 2 litres of water every day, carry a bottle of water with you wherever you go, always keep a jug of fresh water on your desk or at home. Contrary to popular belief, the more water you drink, the less fluid retention you will hold. If exercising a lot, add a little salt to your water to replace your electrolytes.
• Going Herbal: Make some iced herbal tea by adding ice cubes, slices of lemon/lime and a sprig of fresh herbs. Herbal teas can even be frozen into ice blocks for your children with added honey.
  Green tea and roasted dandelion coffee help the liver detoxify, while lemongrass and spearmint teas have a refreshing zing for summer.
• Dessert Selection: Half a cup of natural yoghurt has fewer calories and improves digestion rather than half a cup of ice cream. Choose fruit such as pineapple or melon rather than cake or biscuits to fill up on fibre and water. 1 Tim Tam is equivalent to 2 cups of watermelon or 1.5 cups of pineapple! Avoid dried fruit which is high in sugar and sulfur preservatives: 1/4 cup of sultanas contains the same calories as 1 cup of grapes. Add a bag of apples or oranges to your weekly shopping list so you've always got some fruit on hand.
• Glycaemic Index Load: If you eat a bowl of ice cream, your blood sugar level goes through the roof, but if you eat a bowl of white rice or white pasta and measure your blood sugar again, it will be exactly the same! So it's not just about the amount of sugar or fat content but how quickly foods breakdown to sugar and are absorbed. Another example is broccoli has 4% carbohydrate and strawberries have 5% carbohydrate, while white bread has 75% carbohydrate content. As a result, 1kg of strawberries is the equivalent of 1 slice of white bread. Always eat wholegrain breads or crackers, brown or basmati rice, try Quinoa for a nutritious change (cook just like rice but only 10 minutes!) and combine these with lots of vegetables and some protein to slow down your digestion and make you feel full faster so you don't overeat. 
• Snack it! Everyone gets caught out on snacks but rather than be tempted by the quick fix of the biscuit jar or chocolate bar, keep a bag of almonds in your desk drawer, dip vege sticks rather than chips into humus or salsa, eat hard cheddar cheese rather than soft Brie or Camembert, head to the juice bar, keep a few hard boiled eggs in the fridge for emergency snacks or a quick breakfast with a piece of fruit on the way to work, keep some sachets of miso soup in your desk drawer, a fruit smoothie (with yoghurt rather than ice cream) is healthier than a milkshake or Cherry Ripe. By adding 1 commercial muffin to what you normally eat each day, you increase your "bad" trans fats by 2%, but your risk of a heart attack increases by 93%!
• Dressing Up? Topping your salad with a creamy dressing will clog your system so keep it simple with extra virgin olive oil or flaxseed oil combined with apple cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice. 
• Detox Your Mind: A good detox also includes some decluttering of your mind and your life to make space for the new to unfold. Take some time out for yourself to relax and rebuild your energy stores - there's plenty of summer parties ahead so you won't miss out! Consider what no longer serves you in your life....and let it go. Spend time doing what you love and are passionate about rather than wasting your time worrying about what everyone else is doing. Surround yourself with those people that genuinely care and bring out your best rather than simply boosting your ego.

There are no dress rehearsals and no one can play your life for you. This is your time to SHINE. Breathe in the life and beauty all around you - it's your own reflection shining back at you. Go for it!

Fit Into Your Summer Bikini

Summer is just around the corner but shedding your extra winter weight can be easy with these healthy tips:

• Get Moving! Regular exercise is essential - put it in your diary so it becomes a daily habit. Choose something you enjoy, that is close to home or work and arrange to meet a buddy so you won't talk yourself out of it.
• KIS - Keep it simple with meals based on a protein e.g. fish, chicken, eggs, meat, beans and salad or vegetables e.g. wholegrain sandwich with roast beef, mustard, avocado and rocket.
• Don't skip meals! Eating every 3 hours boosts your metabolism so you burn through calories faster and have higher energy levels.
• Snack it - Keep a jar of nuts e.g. almonds and fresh fruit at your desk or carry with you so you don't get tempted by the biscuit jar or chips.
• Late night dinners - If you arrive home late rather than having a quick fix like instant noodles or a microwaveable dinner, try having boiled eggs on toast or a tin of tuna/salmon with salad.
• Healthy takeaway - When time has got the better of you, some healthy takeaway options are Thai stir fry, sushi, grilled fish from your local fish shop, BBQ chicken with salad.
• Drink it - Drinking 2-3 L helps flush out toxins, keep your bowels moving and decreases hunger cravings. Green tea helps weight loss and to detox your liver - rather than a milky coffee!
• Ordering out - Ask for rice or salad rather than chips or mash 
• Get some shut eye - If you don't get enough sleep, you crave sugars for energy and you make poor decisions regarding your food choices. 7-8 hours sleep every night aids weight loss!
• Hidden sugars - Sugar is highly addictive and it is in so many products nowadays e.g. cereals, muesli bars, flavoured yogurt so it's hard to avoid but eating excess sugars only contributes to weight gain and long term health problems. Throw out anything in your cupboards that has ingredients that your grandmother would not recognise and rather than eating packet products, eat fresh food.

If these tips are not working for you, consider seeing a qualified Naturopath such as myself to investigate other underlying causes e.g. underactive thyroid or insulin resistance.