Can Detox be a Solution to How to Lose Weight Fast? (Part 3)

Week 2

The first week of my detoxification diet is now behind me. To be honest, I haven’t really noticed any results of it so I decide to check my weight and I am nicely surprised - I have lost 3kg! Realizing it helps me carry on although I do feel a bit bored by having very similar food every day. That is why in the second week I have a more liberal approach to my detox.

I follow the directions regarding breakfasts and having soups twice per day. But when I cook them I sometimes add either organic vegetable stock cube or a bit of salt. And when I have my proteins for dinner, I occasionally have it with salad rather than cooked vegetables. I also every now and then swap fruit mousse for fresh fruit and have walnuts or hazelnuts instead of almonds.

I carry on drinking lots of liquids but not only green tea, I often choose herbal or fruit tea or even just water with lemon juice. And if I cannot run and do endurance exercises every day, then at least I go for 30-minute walks.

The good thing is that I don’t feel sleepy in the afternoons any more though I cannot say I am full of energy as promised in the article.

Conclusion:

Being on this detox diet for 2 weeks was difficult at times. The biggest problem for me was that food in general didn’t taste that great due to lack or only a tiny amount of added salt. Although the taste of my meals suffered because of it, I am happy I did it as I know I had to cut down on salt. I have read it takes only a few weeks for taste buds to adjust so I hope the detox put me on a straight route to achieving my goal.

Another issue – having very similar meals. In theory I could have different soups twice per day every day but in reality to save time I made more of one type so it lasted me 2-3 days. If I was to be on this detox again, I think I would still cook bigger portions but I would just have one on a day and freeze the rest to have it at a later point.

Combining cooking for my family and myself was something I also had to deal with as – however much I love cooking -  I really didn’t want to spend whole days making so many different dishes with different ingredients. I solved that problem by cooking similar meals for all of us e.g. I would cook soup in two different pots so I could add the forbidden ingredients to the one pot meant for my family.

And what about the benefits? The main goal of any detox is to eliminate toxins from one’s body. Honestly I have no idea whether I have achieved it but I am sure that eating very healthy food for 2 weeks must have had positive impact on my body. And there are two benefits I was able to notice: I lost in total 4.5kg and my cellulite is almost invisible!

Would I follow this detox diet plan again? Probably yes, but I am not sure if for the whole 2 weeks. I think one week of this cleansing diet can be a great start to improving your lifestyle and eating habits. Or it can be “a purgatory” after eating feasts when you want to get back on the right track and possibly pretty safely lose some extra weight!

Read More

Lemony Soup with Kale

I am still a novice as far as kale is concerned. I have started to use it fairly recently after I heard how healthy it was, and my brief research has confirmed it. Kale has many health promoting properties but I would like to focus on only one, very important to me right now: support in the body’s detoxification process.

Plant food contain lots of different chemicals called phytonutrients that help protect these plants from various threats like bugs, fungi, etc. but they are also supposed to be beneficial to human health. Kale is a great source of one group of phytonutrients called glucosinolates that - after the vegetable is eaten and then digested - transform in our body into isothiocyanates (ITCs). Majority of toxins that may be harmful to us must be eliminated from our body by our cells through a two-step process and it is ITCs that positively influence both of these steps. Knowing how exposed we are nowadays to toxins coming from either the environment, or food we eat, makes kale an even more important component of a healthy eating plan and health promoting diet.

But it is also tasty although not in an obvious way like let’s say a tomato that you can enjoy without any additions. In kale’s case I think you need a distinct flavour added like e.g. lemon in the below recipe.

INGREDIENTS (for 4-6 portions):

2+1 tbsp rapeseed oil,

1 onion, roughly chopped,

500g cauliflower, cut into florets,

500g broccoli, cut into florets,

1.5l vegetable stock,

3+1 tbsp lemon juice,

1 garlic cloves, thinly sliced,

100g kale torn into bite-size pieces (without stems),

salt and pepper,

smoked salmon to serve (optionally).

METHOD:

1. In a big pot warm up 2 tbsp rapeseed oil, add the onion and fry for 1-2 minutes on a medium heat.
2. Add the cauliflower and broccoli and fry for another 2 minutes.
3. Pour the stock, bring to boil and cook for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
4. Add the lemon juice, check the seasoning and liquidise in 2-3 batches.
5. On a big frying pan warm up 1 tbsp of rapeseed oil, stir in the garlic and kale, fry for approx. 3 minutes, season with salt, pepper and 1 tbsp lemon juice.
6. Serve the soup in bowls with kale, optionally garnished with strips of smoked salmon.

Read More

Detox - what are the benefits and what should you eat? (Part I)

Spring has always meant for me spring cleaning at my home and this year, I decided to extend it also to my body and go on a detox diet. Detoxification in general means having high quality (preferably  organic) unprocessed food, drinking lots of water or green tea and complete elimination of bad food for a certain period of time to allow your body to get rid of those toxins.

I have read articles about cleansing diets and opinions on their effectiveness vary. Some sources promise you will feel better and lighter after toxins are removed from your body, others claim there is no scientific proof detox diets really work. So I decided to check it out myself. I think eating only healthy food and banning solid fats and added sugar for some time will certainly do no harm to me and maybe there will be positive results after all.

Through my research I have found a few different options: short detoxes lasting only 2-3 days, very strict ones or detoxes that require spending long hours in the kitchen since they give very precise directions as to what and when to eat. I decided at the end to implement a gentle detoxification that I found in an old Elle Magazine article. I liked it because it gave overall guidelines and it was not too detailed like some other ones that make you weigh each and every ingredient.

For clarity and simplicity I divided the products/recommendations into 3 groups:

Banned products:

• sugar and sweets,
• acidifying products that intensify production of free radicals: dairy products, simple carbohydrates (e.g. white bread, rice and pasta), saturated and trans fats (butter, fatty meat, sausages, processed food), alcohol, coffee, ready-prepared meals, fried food.

To be kept under control:

• animal proteins as they should be limited to 150g per day,
• salt.

Recommended:

• Ecological, high quality food,
• Alternative sources of calcium: almonds, whole grain wheat, green leafy vegetables,
• Products with favorable alkaline: green vegetables, sprouts, seasonal fruit, brown rice, rice milk, quinoa, eggs.
• Olive oil – source of unsaturated fats.
• Drinking lots of water and green tea,
• Daily physical activity – at least 30 minutes of walking or running.

And here is the suggested detox diet plan for 2 weeks:

Just after waking up:

• 1 glass of warm water with juice from 1 lemon,

Breakfast:

• Green tea with ginger and lemon,
• 1 slice of spelt bread with almond butter OR 1 mushed avocado with sprouts,

Lunch:

• 1 bowl of cream soup made only with vegetables,
• 1 portion of brown rice or quinoa with vegetables cooked al dente,

Snack:

• 1 portion of fruit mousse,
• a few almonds,

Dinner:

• 1 portion of vegetable soup,
• choice of 1 portion of proteins: fatty fish e.g. salmon (3 times per week), poultry (twice per week), 2 eggs (once per week), goat’s cheese or mozzarella (once per week),
• cooked vegetables.

So with all the research sorted and shopping done, I am ready to start my detox!

Read More

Spinach with Raisins [vegetarian]

Unlike many people, I really don’t have any bad “spinach memories” from my childhood. And it is not because I liked it, it is because I didn’t have it at all for the first several years of my life. When I finally tried it, I wasn’t impressed as it looked and – probably - tasted like boiled grass. Luckily I was wise enough to give it a second chance so when I tried pancakes with well-seasoned, slightly garlicky spinach filling, I felt it was the beginning of a long-term relationship.

This relationship evolved slowly because at first I would just have a variation of the pureed spinach with béchamel sauce and garlic served either with pancakes or even - simply but so yummy – with mashed potatoes and a fried egg. After a while, to my tiny repertoire of spinach recipes I added a spinach soup. And that was it for quite some time. That was it until I spent more time researching spinach attributes.

Probably we all have heard that spinach is a very healthy food but what does it really mean? Due to a wide variety of phytonutrients, spinach provides excellent anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits, especially in case of stomach, skin, breast and prostate cancer. It also has anti-oxidant properties that prevent (or at least lower the risk) of blood-vessel related problems like atherosclerosis and high blood pressure. Spinach is an excellent source of Vitamin K, Calcium and Magnesium that are key for maintaining healthy and strong bones. And no wonder that this green leafy vegetable is on top of the list of nutrient dense food as apart from the 3 listed earlier, it is also a very good source of 16 other nutrients: Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C and E, Manganese, Folate, Iron, Copper, Potassium, Fibre, Phosphorus, Zinc, Protein and Choline.

Realizing how healthy spinach really was, I decided to use it much more often. These days I include it in soups, dhals, pastas or salads. I know that addition of a few handfuls of spinach to a dish is so easy and will make it healthier and prettier. But I also know that spinach deserves to be a main ingredient like in the recipe below in which I re-created a wonderful meal I had a few years ago in a restaurant. It can be served either as a warm starter or a side dish perfect with baked/roasted fish.

My spinach story is clearly a love story. If you haven’t started yours yet, please give spinach a chance with the below recipe. It is highly likely you will fall for it just the way I did.

INGREDIENTS (2 portions):

75g raisins,

1 tbsp butter,

1 small onion, finely chopped,

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced,

250g spinach,

100 ml double cream,

1-1.5 tbsp honey,

Salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Soak the raisins in hot water.
2. On a medium heat melt the butter in a big pot, add the onion and garlic and fry stirring for 2-3 minutes, till translucent but not burnt.
3. Add the spinach and fry it stirring constantly until almost wilted; add the cream, honey, raisins and the seasoning.

Read More