Saturday 18 May 2013

Life after detox.........

Wow, what an amazing experience - and that is not what you would expect to be saying after two weeks of not eating all the things you thought you loved and couldn't go without!
Yesterday was my final day of eating the cleanest diet I am ever likely to have consumed, having removed all foods that may be slightly toxic to the body, either because they are produced using chemicals (pesticides, mercury in fish etc), or may naturally cause intolerances (gluten, dairy, deadly nightshade family, soy).  And having cut out lots of foods, this meant I could increase the remaining food groups, and eat far more!
This was the interesting bit - to start with my weight started to drop, but I didn't want to lose weight, I just wanted to eat healthily and be sure to rid my body of unwanted toxins.  So each day I would weigh myself and if it looked like my weight was dropping I increased my intake of delicious foods that day - what could be better?!
And now I'm back to a 'normal' diet, I don't want any of those bad foods back, because I feel so great without them - more energy, amazingly smooth skin and very focused brain-wise!
This is what a detox should be, it's not about losing weight and starving yourself - for detoxification to work well it needs lots of nutrient support, so increasing your intake of colourful vegetables, fibre and plenty of liquid is hugely important.
De-stressing yourself mentally and physically also helps - taking long relaxing Epsom salt baths, having a massage, or even just going for a long relaxed walk in the countryside, all help towards a more relaxed you and hopefully a more relaxed digestive system.
Changing the way you eat also encourages you to try new foods and recipes, and even though I cook for a living (so you would think I had cooked pretty much everything!), I leant a lot having less ingredients to play with, but love some of the new recipes I have come up with.
My favourite of course has to be replacing the one thing I thought I couldn't live without - creamy natural yoghurt.  But guess what?  Creamy homemade coconut milk yoghurt is just as tasty and fits in perfectly with my thoughts on eating a dairy-free diet (we should all be doing it!).
Even entertaining became fun - the recipe below I cooked for a friend who is now converted to quinoa, and who knows, I may even get her to join me on the detox programme next year!
If you'd like to join us too, do get in touch.

Grilled Mackerel with Quinoa Beetroot Tabbouleh

Serves 4


225 g quionoa
125 g cooked beetroot, diced
1 carrot, peeled and grated
large handful parsley, chopped
large handful mint, chopped
large handful coriander, chopped
large handful chives, chopped
1/2 cucumber, diced
juice of 1 lime
1-2 tbsp good tasting extra virgin olive oil
seasoning
8 mackerel fillets

Cook the quinoa in simmering water according to the pack instructions.  Drain and refresh under cold water then drain and place in a large bowl.
Stir in the diced beetroot, grated carrot, chopped herbs and cucumber.
Squeeze in the lime juice and pour over the olive oil, mix and season well.  Leave to stand at room temperature.
Grill the mackerel fillets for 3-4 minutes each side and serve on a bed of the colourful salad.

Tip:  As with all my recipes, this is just an idea - change it to suit your taste - different herbs, chopped avocado, fresh anchovies, toasted seeds - the list is endless - have fun!

Happy Healthy Eating,

Joy x

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Time for a Spring Detox

Now, if you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I get very cross when, in the first week of January, every newspaper, magazine, radio and TV station are talking about detoxing!  You've just had the most stressful Christmas (I think that applies to at least 50% of the population!), it's freezing cold outside and all you really want to do is eat comfort food and snuggle up in bed.
Which is why, when spring arrives, the sun comes out, you feel like exercising, all the great spring seasonal foods are abundant, NOW is the time to detox!  This also doesn't mean fasting and starving yourself for a couple of weeks.  What is does mean is, removing all the toxins from your diet and your life, and supporting your body to help it detoxify more efficiently, using great foods and supplements that are based on supporting detoxification.
And what I love about doing this, is that each time I do it I learn more about how my body reacts to certain foods.  For instance, I 've been on the detox now for 3 days and my eyes are clear and sparkly!  This just shows that you really don't know how healthy you are until you change something, and then you realise how unhealthy you were before!  And I am somebody that could not be called unhealthy - I don't drink tea, coffee or alcohol (one drink a fortnight), and only eat fish (no meat), I hardly eat gluten, but do love natural yoghurt and have found this very hard to give up.  But now I realise I should.
One thing I do love to do is to snack, so finding a snack that would satisfy my sweet tooth was hard - no sugar is allowed - but then I started to play, and came up with these delicious and very nutritious seed crispbreads with raspberry jam - great whether you are on a detox or not!

Seeded Crispbreads with Raspberry Jam

200 g flaked almonds
100 g sunflower seeds
100 g pine nuts
3 tbsp ground flax seeds
75 g cooked red quinoa
75 g coconut oil, melted
150 ml water
pinch of salt
200 g raspberries
1 tbsp chia seeds

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4.
Place the almonds, sunflower seeds and pine nuts into a food processor and blitz until broken down, but not too fine.
Tip into a bowl and mix with the flax seeds, quinoa, coconut oil and water and mix well.
Leave to stand for 10 minutes (this allows the flax seeds to thicken and hold the mixture together).
Spread the mixture over a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, pressing it to the edges and making it flat.
Cook for 30 minutes then remove from the oven and cut into squares or fingers.  Cook for a further 30 minutes, then place onto a cooling rack to cool.
While the crispbreads are cooking, blitz the raspberries in a blender and place in a bowl.  Stir in the chia seeds and leave to stand - the chia seeds will gradually thicken the mixture to give you a jam consistency.

More delicious detox recipes to follow over the next few days.

And if you would like more support while you detox, just get in touch.

Joy x