There are tons of cleanses and fasts out there that people use to try to lose weight quickly. Some of them work, but the trouble is that they’re not a long-term strategy. Usually, after the cleanse you wind up going back to old habits and gain back the weight you lost.
Not only that, but losing weight too quickly isn’t healthy. You can do permanent damage to your metabolic systems and you risk not getting enough nutrients to nourish your body when you crash diet.
If you go in with the right approach, though, a cleanse can be an excellent way to kickstart your long-term weight loss plan. The right approach is to think of a cleanse as a way to release some of the toxins and bad habits or addictions that might be holding you back from shifting to a healthier way of life.
Doing a cleanse can help you see that you can actually survive a healthy diet, and hopefully shows you how much better you can feel.
A cleanse should be short – 3 days or maybe up to a week – and should involve a lot of nutrient-dense fresh vegetables and/or fruit. You can add an herbal cleansing product to make your cleanse more effective.
You can do cleanses every so often on a regular basis. In fact, that’s one of the best ways to keep your healthy habits going long-term. They help you shift your eating in and out of the seasons, and remind you of how healthy you can really be.
Cleansing Plan
Here’s an outline of a simple cleanse you can do to get you started on your weight loss path.
You should aim for about 4-5 cleansing meals during the day, and they can be pretty big if you want. Just make sure you chew your food really well. The idea here isn’t to starve or fast – it’s to maximize antioxidants, nutrients and fiber while minimizing toxins.
A cleanse meal consists of fresh greens, other green and non-starchy vegetables, root vegetables and some grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. You can experiment with whatever vegetables and greens you like. You can have your vegetables raw, steamed or pureed into a smoothie, soup or sauce.
Drink lots of water in addition to your food, aiming for 6-8 cups of filtered water throughout the day. You can also drink some herbal or green tea, but avoid caffeine since it pulls water from your system.
Add These Foods
Here are some good options to make up your cleanse meals:
- Green & non-starchy vegetables – broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, zucchini, tomato, celery, cucumber, etc.
- Green plants – lettuce, spinach, parsley and other fresh herbs, kale, collard, dandelion greens, chard, watercress, cabbage, micro-algaes, barley grass & wheat grass, kelp & seaweeds.
- Starchy vegetables – carrots, parsnips, etc.
- Grains – millet, roasted buckwheat groats, rye, oats, barley, amaranth, spelt, quinoa are the best ones to go with. Sprouted versions of these are even better.
- Beans and legumes – aduki and mung beans are the best ones to choose. They’re detoxifying and drying. If you can sprout them, it’s even better.
- Nuts – almonds, filberts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and butters from them ok. Have them in small (1-2 Tbsp) servings.
- Seasonings – herbs, spices, garlic, ginger – as much as you want.
- If you want milk, use unsweetened rice or almond milk. Check the ingredients and avoid salts, sugars and preservatives when you can.
- If you need sweetener, use small amounts of unrefined sweeteners (sucanat, coconut sugar, maple syrup, brown rice syrup or stevia).
- Vinegars, especially apple cider vinegar that has the mother culture.
Cut These Foods
In order to maintain your cleanse, eliminate these foods:
- Concentrated sweeteners
- Any yeasted food, breads, etc
- Wheat and wheat products, including malt
- Salt, condiments and pre-made sauces (i.e. mustard, ketchup, soy sauce, relish, mayonnaise etc)
- Animal proteins and dairy
- Peanuts or peanut butter
- Alcohol, coffee or tea (herbal tea ok)
- Carbonated sugary beverages
When you’re on the go, most places offer green salads. If you need a little drizzle of dressing, go for a balsamic vinaigrette, but ask for it on the side so that you can use as little as possible.
Grocery stores are a perfect place to get fresh veggies, and you can usually find a ready-made chopped salad, but again be careful of the dressing.
After 3 or more days of these nourishing and cleansing meals, you should feel ready to take on the world.