Healthy Chicks

I get a lot of questions about dieting, cleansing and detoxing. While I think it’s important to cleanse your system out once in a while with a planned detox diet, you can incorporate cleansing foods every day of the week, no matter what type of diet you’re following.

Here are some of my favorite cleansing foods. Get ready to stock your fridge and cabinets!

Garlic: Garlic has natural antibiotic properties, making the perfect solution for pesty colds and allergies. Go with fresh garlic, and crush it into your salad dressings, pasta dishes, sauteed veggies and more.

Leafy Greens: Leafy greens like kale, spinach and collards are packed with antioxidants that help cleanse the body of harmful toxins.

Beans and Legumes: These protein-packed babies are loaded with fiber to keep you fuller, longer. They can also aid in lowering cholesterol and maintaining proper blood sugar levels.

Citrus: Lemons, limes and grapefruit boost the immune system with their high content of Vitamin C. They also aid in the detoxification process! Try squeezing fresh juice into your water, or incorporating into your homemade salad dressings.

Seaweed: Seaweed aids in removing toxins from the body like heavy metals. They’re also packed with beneficial minerals.  Snack on dried seaweed sheets, or purchase a blend like Seaweed Gomasio to shake on salads, pastas and stirfrys.

Avocados: Avocados lower your LDL (bad cholesterol) and help aid digestion, making things run smoothly through your system. Slice them up to make a salad with cucumber, lemon and mint or throw into a smoothie for a delicious, creamy texture.

Fresh Herbs: Fresh herbs like dill, oregano and parsley can help rid excess water weight and bloat, while giving your meals an extra kick.

Turmeric: A natural anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and digestive aid. Its exotic flavor will add warmth to your dishes!

Berries: Blueberries, blackberries, blackberries; take your pick! These bright fruits are an antioxidant powerhouse, great for anti-aging, disease prevention and a healthy immune system.

What are your favorite cleansing foods? Have you ever “gone on a cleanse”? If you’d like to kick-start your diet, but need a little help, check out my program options over at Zesty Living.

Good afternoon ladies! I am pleased to say I am now on Day 4 of my cleanse and feeling spectacular: full of energy, perky and renewed. I’m not going to lie; the first two days were a battle but it seems like the hard part is now over with.

Here’s a recap of yesterday’s menu:

Breakfast: Super Lean Green Berry Breakfast Smoothie

Snack: Handful raw cashews & almonds

Lunch: Large salad packed with spinach, collard greens, apple kale, cucumber, avocado, lemon, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and herbs

Snack: raw carrots & hummus

Dinner: Vegetable soup with carrots, celery, collards, spinach, onions, mushroom, and a dash of sea salt

Dessert: 1/2 a frozen banana

And now for a fun little surprise! Last week Boston Based business Stanz & Co. was kind enough to send me a package of satin elastic hair ties for me to try out.

Seriously, how cute are these? I am totally loving the pink to add a little brightness to a simple outfit and make my hair “pop.” You can shop for your own color combos here on Etsy for just $6.00 a package which is a pretty sweet deal if I do say so myself.

I love how soft they are, and how they don’t leave those annoying dents in your hair, yet still provide enough coverage for exercising and everyday life!

Oh, and now for the surprise part! Founder Maria Constanza Pizano was kind enough to offer 15% off to all Healthy Chicks readers. Simply enter promo code HCHIX for 15% off your oder. I encourage you to browse around her shop…I promise you’ll fall in love with the colors.

Have you ever done a cleanse? Which one did you try? How did you like it? What’s your favorite Stanz & Co. hair tie color? Share your thoughts here!

XoXo,

[taken via Instagram]

This breakfast smoothie is perfect during a cleanse, a hot summer day, or anytime you need to cool down and clean up your diet. Start the day right with a generous serving of vegetables, fruit, and TLC!

• about 1/2 c. coconut milk, unflavored
• 1/2 banana
• 5 baby carrots
• generous handful of kale
• generous handful of mixed collard greens & spinach (choose one if you don’t have both)
• 1/4 c. frozen wild blueberries
• 1/2 c. frozen berries mixture (mine had cherries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries)
• 1/8 c. frozen strawberries
• 1 celery stalk
• about 5 cucumber slices (or the equivalent of half a baby cucumber)
• 1/2 TB flaxseed

~Blend together in a powerful blender and serve immediately. Dust with cinnamon if desired!

After an entire weekend of pig roasting, boozing, desserts, and dinners out, my sister and I both agreed it’d be a good time to do a cleanse. You know, to rid our bodies of toxins, clean up and start fresh. Since we live together, and our fridge & cabinets were completely empty (no temptations!), there could not have been a more perfect time to hit the grocery store for cleansing eats.

We did a 3-day cleanse based off of the book Clean back in March, so were a bit more prepared this time. Basically, we’re cutting out caffeine, alcohol, wheat, grains in general, meat, dairy, starchy vegetables, added sugar, and packaged foods. And we’re stocking up on lots of leafy greens, seasonal vegetables, fresh fruits, super-green smoothies, juices, raw salads, and cleansing soups like Gazpacho and Carrot Ginger.

The idea is to give our digestive system a break, particularly in the morning and evening, and stock up on hearty raw vegetables during the day.

Here’s what Day 1 Looked like:

Breakfast: Green smoothie made with banana, kale, almond milk/coconut milk, carrots, leafy greens, cucumber and celery

Snack: Roasted  Seaweed Snack from Trader Joe’s

Lunch: Big ol’ salad with mixed greens, cucumber, tomatoes, celery, red apple, apple cider vinegar, liquid aminos, and olive oil

Snack: Handful raw cashews + an apple

Dinner: Easy Gazpacho

How We’re Feeling (Mood + Body):

Rachel: I feel a bit tired and drained, but my stomach feels great and the bloat from the weekend has completely vanished!

Krista (my sister): I’m feeling pretty tired but relaxed, and feel full after dinner!

To be continued…

Disclaimer: This blog post is meant to be an informative, fun resource for women and as a way to document my personal experience with this cleanse. By no means should this be used for medical advice or dietary guidance.

So…my sister, The Boy, and I decided to go on a 3-Day Cleanse. We may continue on longer, but thought 3 would be a good number to start with. We’re kind of making our own rules, with little bits and pieces taken from lectures I’ve listened to, videos we’ve watched, and some good ol’ fashioned research. Much of the inspiration came from the New York Times Bestseller book Clean, written by Dr. Alejandro Junger, M.D. We loved the fact that Dr. Junger provides “clean” meals that aren’t bland (blah!), all liquid (no fun!) and actually have flavor while giving your body the nutrients it needs. None of that boring cabbage soup diet / Cayenne Pepper with Lemonade crap. This cleanse is for real.

While his book outlines a 21 day cleanse with specific combinations of “clean meals”, nutrients, herbs and spices, we decided to stick to a 3 Day variation of our own. I do hope to do the 21-day cleanse in the near future, however. Maybe when the weather gets a little nicer? Baby steps, people, baby steps.

So what’s on our plate, you ask?: (mostly) liquid meals for breakfast and dinner to give the digestive system a break with a solid, green, nutrient-packed meal for lunch, TONS of water and herbal tea, lots of herbs and spices for flavoring, NO caffeine (holy headaches), NO dairy (yes, that includes my ultimate favorite – cheese!), NO meat, grains/ gluten, NO processed or packaged foods, NO alcohol, NO starchy vegetables, NO added sugar. At all.

We’re on Day 2 and we’re feeling pretty swell, minus the caffeine withdrawal headaches. I’ll post pictures and meal descriptions soon, but to give you a little preview:  today’s breakfast was a Green Smoothie with organic, plain almond milk, flax seed, kale, spinach, blueberries, raspberries, hemp oil and some raw vanilla. Lunch was a ultra-large raw salad made with kale, mixed greens, black beans, garbanzo beans, cucumber, chopped apple, mushrooms, avocado, and a drizzle of apple cider vinegar mixed with lemon juice and Extra Virgin Olive oil. To spice it up, we added cumin, thyme, and red pepper flakes which balanced the salad rather nicely. Dinner tonight is going to be Carrot & Ginger soup, and last night we made Natural Health Magazine’s Creamy Asparagus Soup sans the crostini garnish.

I’m surprised by how great I’ve been feeling! Yes, it was a little depressing walking through the North End yesterday getting whiffs of freshly made pasta and bread, but it didn’t phase me too much because the foods we’re eating are actually super filling, and get this tasty. Other than my killer headache, I feel fantastic – my energy levels, my concentration and my mood!

More to come soon..In the meantime, check out my super sweet giveaway going on this week!

XoXo,