The silly season
hasn’t even started and I’m already kicking off Monday morning with a
cleanse for my normally well-cared for temple. It’s currently the temple of doom. This party girl is coming off the back of four nights of eating crap and
drinking more champagne and red wine than I’d normally have in a month. It's been a similar story three weeks running, and up ahead is the week-long holiday with an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord and open
bar. God help me! This week is a little more commitment
free, so I’m making a commitment to self: A 5-day urgent body-repair workshop. That’s providing I can get through
Halloween without chocolate. I'm putting the Monday-Friday Detox Action Plan into, well, action. Here's how:
1.
HAVE A JUICE
DAY: Sometimes a juice fast is
exactly what you need to cleanse the bod.
That doesn’t mean going to Coles and buying as much Just Juice as you
can fit in your fridge, it means dragging out that massive contraption of a
juicer you spent $400 on three years ago and never use because it takes up too
much bench space and is such a pain in the arse to clean. Get it out, get out your veges and get juicing.
If you can manage two or three days, then bully for you – you’ll be feeling
refreshed and energetic again in no time!
And just a reminder, even though you’re juicing, keep
drinking your water in between; you still it to flush out your
system and keep yourself regular!
2.
SWEAT IT
OUT: For me this means a hot yoga
class, but it can be any exercise of your choice. When you’re all slugged out from the food/drink overload,
exercise is the last thing you want to do, but it makes a massive difference. Make sure you get at least three
workouts in. Sweat as much as you
can. Drink as much water as you
can. This will help get rid of the
toxins you so kindly dumped on yourself, and help restore the fluids you lost
in doing so.
3.
VEG
OUT: Make a commitment to veg out
for 5 whole days. That is, stuff
yourself with as many vegetables as you possibly can in every meal. Ideally, cut the proteins too,
especially meat and dairy. If you can’t live without carbs, have them only at
breakfast, and veg yourself silly the rest of the day. If you think this sounds limiting here’s a
selection of what you can have:
lettuce in every variety, cucumber, capsicum, celery, beetroot, tomatoes,
avocadoes, broccoli, carrots, fennel, eggplant, sweet potato, beans, sprouts,
squash, cabbage, Chinese greens, peas, spinach on and on… There’s so much to
choose from and tons of ways to cook them. If you’re stuck, check this gorge website for ideas: www.vegiehead.com.au.
4.
GREENER IS
CLEANER: (And generally leaner too).
If you’re veging out beautifully, then you’re already getting lots of
good nutrients and giving your bod a good internal clean out, but you can go
one step better. Use a green
powder like wheatgrass, barley grass, spirulina or a greens combo in your
juices to give an extra cleansing edge. Adding liquid chlorophyll to your
drinking water is another way to cleanse you blood, help remove toxins and
nourish your cells. You can get
all of this at any good health food store. Drink up pup. - you asked for it!
5.
GET A
MASSAGE: So you’ve eaten every
soft cheese on the market, at least four bags of Doritos, a few slices of pizza
and slipped in a sly Cornetto on the side. You drank too much, danced all night and maybe even rode the
porcelain bus home…do you really deserve to reward yourself with a
massage? YES! Wait till the end of your detox week
when your body has had the time to regain some of its former glory, and then
treat yourself to a full body massage and body brush. As you cleanse internally, the massage
action will help release even more toxins and the body brush will remove
any of the flaky gross stuff coming out through your skin. True story, this really happens.
By the end of the week
you’ll feel brand new. Or at least back to your old self. When Saturday hits and you have another
hen’s night/40th/kids birthday/ neighbours nibbles or all four of
them, you won’t feel so bad about tucking into the chocolate crackles and
caviar.
