Category: Detox

Detox Day 2: A Simple Sample Detox Day

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Green Machines!: Believe it or not, the worst part is over! Day 1 Survival is a REAL accomplishment, especially around the hours of 9 and 10pm…. CONGRATS! Even if you went off-course a tad yesterday, steer yourself back on that gravel mountain path. You can still do this!

So, for Day 2, I thought I’d post for you MY Day 1. Use this is a guide for upcoming days when you don’t feel like tackling another new recipe or if you’re rushed with food prep. A couple disclaimers before you see how the dietitian detoxed yesterday: 1). I’m 5 months pregnant with baby #4, thus the AM avocado, 2). I fought a nasty stomach bug this past weekend and wasn’t able to shop for all the ingredients I wanted, and 3). While juggling Day 1, I was taking care of my 4 year-old (the one with type 1 diabetes) who got the aforementioned nasty stomach bug, which involved doing TEN loads of laundry—thankfully, I don’t work on Mondays! So, believe me, I know how hard all this food prep/ detox concentration can be in a busy world. Hoping to get to the store after work today!

Photo by: The Press Democrat

Photo by: The Press Democrat

Simple Sample Detox Day
(Filtered water throughout)

Upon waking
Water with lemon (skipped the cayenne for fear of going into early labor)
Peppermint tea

1 Hour Later
Green Juice: 2 organic cucumbers, 6 leaves lacinato kale (pictured, and my favorite to juice with), 1 large green apple, 1/2 lemon (peeled)

Mid-Morning
1 avocado with a touch of iodized sea salt
1 orange (not organic)

Lunch
Giant (HUGE!) green salad with: mixed greens, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 block cubed tempeh (uncooked, rich in gut-healthy probiotics), 1 tomato, shredded carrots, raw pumpkin seeds, 1 cucumber, and dressing of rice vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and iodized sea salt

Mid-Afternoon
Hummus (lots) with celery and baby carrots (lots of those too)

Later-Afternoon
2 rice cakes with raw almond butter
1 large honeycrisp apple
Leftover green juice from the morning

Dinner
2 large bowls of “Refrigerator Soup”: water, vegetable bouillon, organic frozen mixed veggies, red potatoes, garbanzo beans, dash of thyme, oregano, salt, and pepper
10 rice crackers

Later Evening
Large handful raw almonds
Chamomile tea

Enjoy Day 2 and the new and improving you. One of my FAVORITE recipes is for dinner tonight: Carrot Ginger Soup. Perfect for a record low temperature day! xoxo

Detox Day 1: The Green Juice Formula

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Happy Day 1, Detoxers! How was that cayenne pepper water this morning?!? I bet you’re already feeling like you can move mountains, right?

As you jump into Day 1, I wanted to jump into a couple quick and easy juicing tips. Here’s last year’s Day 1 post where you can see my Green Apple Juice-making video from a few years back, and also learn about juicing vs. blending. In addition this year, I wanted to throw you Kris Carr’s Green Juice Formula pictoral (click on it for a bigger brighter view). It sums up juice recipes so beautifully.

Formula by Kris Carr

Formula by Kris Carr

Now put on your lab coat and create some winning juice combos. Let us know which ones you love! And for a great juicing and smoothie e-guide, check out this one. See you tomorrow! xoxo

Grab Your Garbanzos! 7-Day Detox Starts on Monday!

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Detox Begins!Calling all ladies of the lettuce and men of the maca! Join us as we celebrate 2014 by saying good riddance to the lingering goo of 2013 and hello to more energy, clarity, and green supremacy in the New Year. The Skinny Dish 7-Day Detox will start—rain or shine—on Monday, January 6th. Make room in your fridge, stock up using the shopping list, and warm up your Vitamix. It’s time give your body a real party!

Look forward to new quick recipes, tips, and a long-term plan that will keep you detoxified all year long. See you Monday! xoxo

Raw Food 3-Day Starts Tomorrow!

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Image by: Manitoba Harvest

Image by: Manitoba Harvest

A totally raw diet has been on my to-do list for a super long time. While I eat lots and lots of raw foods every day — sometimes 75% of what I eat is raw — I’ve never gone completely 100%. Actually, after looking at this raw meal plan, I know why I’ve waited so long! But, you can do anything for 3 days, right? This time around, I’m not going to do anything fancy or extreme. No sprouting or specialized products beyond hemp hearts for making raw hemp milk, and no specialized equipment beyond my juicer, Vitamix blender, and oven to act as a dehydrator running at 115 degrees. I *am* going to try and replicate those pricey kale chips that are coated with “cheesy” raw cashews. Keep an eye out for that final product. So, here goes: Starting tomorrow! With me?

Breakfast: I plan to start the day with herbal tea and a hearty Green Smoothie containing fruits (banana, berries), veggies (greens), raw almond butter (newly found at Trader Joe’s), and raw hemp milk (see recipe below). I’ll continue my philosophy that a healthy high-calorie breakfast will bring you nothing but glory throughout the day. Many raw foodists eat an entire watermelon and 15 bananas for breakfast. That sounds dreadful. Other ideas that sound way better (to me at least…):

Snacks: I plan to chow on raw nuts, fruit, veggies, and my Pulp Crax dipped in raw hummus or spread with mashed avocado. Perhaps some dried fruit or a Larabar.

Lunch: Large fresh veggie salad topped with raw seeds, cold-pressed olive oil (raw foodists like this brand, although I’ll probably stick with the cold-pressed one in my pantry for this 3-day experiment), a teeny tiny bit of apple cider vinegar (can’t find any other easy-to-find vinegars that are raw), and sea salt.

Dinner: Raw soup, warmed up with the spin of the Vitamix. Check out all these raw soup recipes. The Carrot Ginger and Cream of Mushroom look especially tasty. Or, I may go for Skinny Dish’s very own Gazpacho a la Shepherd Street using apple cider vinegar instead of red wine vinegar, omitting the croutons, and doubling up on the avocado. Plus, some raw almonds on the side or crumbled on top.

Dessert: 1 or 2 dates stuffed with raw almond butter. Divine! I tried this recipe for Raw Cookie Dough SHAPE Magazine a while back using raw agave instead of honey & maple syrup. It totally rocked!

Night-time Snack: I have one of these every night, and I can’t imagine that that urge is going to go away with the powers of a raw diet, although I’m totally open to being surprised. I will *plan* on having some fruit and a mini “trail mix” of dried fruit and raw nuts along with my herbal tea.

Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Raw diets claim to give you more energy, better clarity, greater euphoria, better sleep, and even better sex.

For today, happy green foods and St. Patrick’s Day! I’ll see you tomorrow for more green and more raw 🙂

hemp milkRaw Hemp Milk

1 cup raw hemp hearts
4 cups chilled water

Blend for 30-60 second until milky white and smooth. Store in fridge for up to 7 days. Makes 4 cups.

Detox Day 7: More Superfoods

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Can you believe it’s the last day FINALLY? What a super journey this has been! Now that you’ve graduated from inhaling so many of nature’s powerfoods (berries, quinoa, broccoli, kale, spinach, beans, lentils…), I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce the next class of the not-so-common ones so you can consider taking your newly found health one step further. What you’re already eating/not eating is HUGE, and these extras might just help you be even MORE superpowered!

Blue Green Algae: Superstar immune-booster. Basically flavorless and comes in powders, flakes, or frozen. Can be tossed into smoothies without changing the flavor. The TJ’s Very Green Dietary Supplement contains spirulina, a popular blue green algae. But, lots of folks swear by E3 Live.

Chia Seeds: Loaded with antioxidants, essential fatty acids (more than salmon), protein, and fiber, these little guys help keep you energized and help reduce unhealthy cravings. They are easy to digest and don’t need to be ground like flax seeds. Add them to breakfast cereals, muffins, cookies, smoothies, pancakes, anything really! Find my recipes for Chia Blondies and a Chia Colada here.

Maca Root Powder: Helps to balance hormones and battle stress by strengthening the adrenal gland. Has proven helpful in treating fertility, poor libido, and menopause. Can be added to oatmeal, smoothies, or rice dishes.

Raw Cacao: Helps elevate mind and mood, and is skyhigh in antioxidants. It contains theobromine which promotes alertness without the side-effects of caffeine. Add it to smoothies, or use it in baking or for puddings. Find it at your local health food store or check it out online as seen here.

Congrats on all you’ve learned, changed, and become this week. Cheers to energizing food and living life to its fullest! I’d love to hear how you benefited from these 7 days–please share! XOXO

Detox Day 6: Thinking About Days 8, 9, & 10….

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Mmm! A half-plate of veggies

Happy Day 6! What’s the latest? Still feeling good? Sleeping well and feeling energized? Now is a perfect time to start thinking about what happens the day after tomorrow. Will you go back to your pre-Detox eating? A modified version? Take today and tomorrow and make a plan for what you’d like to do long-term. Here are some popular, healthy, and realistic post-Detox modifications to consider:

1. Go back to drinking the morning cup of coffee you missed, but with vanilla almond milk instead of cream and sugar. Try this creamy, dairy-free concoction. Or, enjoy green, white, or black tea as your morning caffeinated beverage.

2. Continue eating the level of fruits and veggies with a giant heaping of cooked veggies at either lunch or dinner, and a giant serving of raw veggies at the other meal. Shoot for HALF your plate being veggies (either raw or cooked) at mealtime.

3. Continue with shakes or smoothies in the morning, but add a protein powder such as this hemp seed one from Trader Joe’s or Planet Fusion’s Vanilla Plant Fusion. High in protein, fiber, and essential amino acids, and makes your morning drink more filling.

4. Add a more substantial morning meal such as gluten-free oatmeal (Trader Joe’s has amazing gluten-free oats that seem exactly like traditional rolled oats) with a handful of dried cranberries for sweetness, raw cashews, cinnamon, and cooled down with a dash of unsweetened non-dairy milk. Or heat up a cup of cooked quinoa from the previous night’s dinner with dried fruit, nuts, cinnamon, and non-dairy milk.

5. Enjoy a raw food bar in the afternoon to satisfy your sweet tooth–they’re easy to keep on hand, easily survive life in the bottom of bags, and can be stepped on without changing shape. Examples: Larabar, Pure Energy, and KIND. These can all be found in any old grocery store, TJ’s, or Whole Foods.

6. Continue with the Detox as your constant (developing your own menus using the guidelines), and veer from the Detox for special weekend days, when you go out to eat (trying your best to keep with the guidelines, but allowing yourself those treats you may have been missing), have potlucks, or attend parties.

7. Do the Detox 1-2 days per week or 7 days a month, and a modified version on the other days.

What else will you do to carry on the healthy changes you made once the Detox is done? Hopefully you’ll all continue drinking all those energizing fluids!

Enjoy this day and the new, healthy you! XOXO

Detox Day 5: Alkaline is Super Fine

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Tahini Dressing for Veggies, in SKINNY DISH!

Woohoo to Day 5! Can you see the bread at the end of the tunnel? You’re so close!

Since it’s so so so important, here’s a recycled post on alkalinity from last year’s detox. pHabulous!:

You may or may not have caught the acid/alkaline breeze info in the Detox wind. Well, here it is again: Our blood and tissues love to be at a pH (measure of acidity/alkalinity) of about 7.35-7.45, which is slightly basic/alkaline. This is where your immune system is an immediate bad-guy destroyer and your overall health is sky high. As you loved learning in high school chemistry, the pH scale ranges from 0 to 14 with 0 to 6.9 being acidic, 7 being neutral, and 7.1 to 14 being basic (alkaline).

Contrary to what you may think, foods that are more acidic do not make your blood and tissues more acidic. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Oranges, tomatoes = acidic. But shocker, they make your blood and tissues more alkaline. As you could have guessed, pretty much all veggies, fruits, dark leafies, unprocessed grains, and other healthy foods help to make your blood and tissues more alkaline, while meats, dairy, eggs, sugary goods, highly processed foods, coffee and alcohol make your blood and tissues more acidic. One reason loading up on healthy fluids, fruits, and veggies, and avoiding all the other foods is so good at helping you detox, is because you’re working the alkalinity. For more on pH, check here and here and here.

Now for some extra credit: Want to check your very own pH? Using your SECOND urine of the day, pee on one of these test strips (or ones similar). Is the Detox working? Hurrrahh!

You never thought this would be so much fun! Keep truckin’ and Happy Weekend! XOXO

Detox Day 4: Treat Yourself with a Raw Dessert

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No doubt you’re feeling pretty excited that it’s Day 4. You’re now officially a detoxing professional!

To celebrate, treat yourself with this yummy chocolate pudding. You may not have appreciated or tasted all it’s wonderfulness on Monday, but today you definitely will! Add a splash of agave nectar on a non-detox day for more sweetness. Mmm mmm mmm!!

Chocolate Chia Pudding

Chocolate Chia Pudding

Chocolate Chia Pudding
Serves 1

1/2 of a banana, mashed
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened soy)*
1/2 teaspoon raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes to let the pudding thicken. Enjoy!

Nutrition Info: 196 calories, 9.5 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 23.5 g carbohydrate, 10 g fiber, 7.5 g sugar, 6.5 g protein, 9% vitamin C, 7.5% vitamin D, 22% calcium, 11% iron, 8% zinc.

*Non-dairy milk is really truly only raw if you make it yourself from raw nuts or seeds. Cocoa powder isn’t raw, but it works well here and is more readily available.

Many of you have asked about calories. Check last year’s Day 4 post all about calories. Each Detox day has about 1500 calories at a minimum, 60-80 grams of protein, and around 50 grams of fiber. Adding extra servings of nuts, seeds, avocado, fruit, etc. increases all those numbers.

Today’s Plan including a 2-cup serving of Purple Nurple, a 2-cup serving of Curried Lentil Stew, and all the other recommended serving sizes has 1459 calories, 61 grams of protein, and 49 grams of fiber. The average American gets about 12 grams of fiber a day. You may or may not have been the average American prior to this Detox. Regardless, you are moving some serious crud out of your system. Cheers to crud movement!!

So, March On!, and clean, cleanse, and recharge your core some more. Just a few days left!

Detox Day 3: The Skin in the Skinny

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Morning, Sunshines! We’re almost at the hump, folks! Enter, Day 3. Howzit going?

Speaking of, anyone have pimples? If so, congrats! Another wonderful sign that your body is getting rid of toxins. Woo hoo!

Your skin will be amazingly healthier by the end of the week, but may be extra dry or oily at this point. One fantastic outer body detox thing to get in the habit of doing now, is DRY BRUSHING. Read all about it here. Before you get in the shower, use a coarse ‘dry brush’ to slough off the dead cells that are clogging your pores and keeping toxins in. Your skin will be softer and much healthier after each shower, and it’s also a great way to get rid of cellulite. Here’s a video that helped me learn how. It may not be Oscar-winning material, but it’s better than I could do!:

The fun never ends, does it?! Enjoy every sip of the green smoothie today. One of my all-time faves!!

Detox Day 2: Groovin’ Along, My Day 1, and Juice Pulp Crackers

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Ladies of the Lettuce and Gentlemen of the Greens! Ah, it’s Day 2.

How did you sleep last night with less caffeine and more delicious water during the day? Better, I hope. And your willpower and “groovin’ it” mentality are improving, right? Hurrah.

For a fun read, check out last year’s Day 2 post on Why Detox, and Why SO MUCH Raw.

So here was my Day 1. I veer from the exact plan and make meals based on the guidelines. You can too!:

MORNING
Water with cayenne
Peppermint tea
Green juice (kale, celery, green apple)
Cucumber white tea (mild caffeine)

LUNCH (STARVING!!! Didn’t have time for morning fruit)
Dried green beans
Organic mixed green salad
1/4 cup raw almonds
1/2 block tempeh
rice vinegar, salt, olive oil dressing
Lots of water

SNACK
Hummus
Bell peppers
Juice pulp crackers (recipe below)
Peppermint tea
Water
More green juice (in hopes of arresting the mild headache)

DINNER
Lots and lots of sauteed Brussels sprouts
(olive oil, garlic powder, sea salt)
1/2 cup cooked lentils
Raw celery
Rice cake with raw almond butter
2 large glasses water

SNACK
Apple slices
Chamomile tea

Crashed out at 10pm.

Juice Pulp Crackers

Juice Pulp Crackers

Now, if you juiced yesterday, chances are you had a whole lot of weird vegetable waste. Nothing pains me more than throwing out anything even remotely resembling vegetables. In the past, I’ve tossed that into the garden, saved it in the freezer (and later tossed it in the garden), and one time I had a tremendously horrible experience turning it into crackers.

Yesterday, however, because one of the Detox benefits is that you develop a superhuman chef sense, I SUCCESSFULLY made juice pulp crackers. The recipe:

Pulp Crax
1 cup juice pulp, stems & other large chunks discarded
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon raw sesame seeds
1/2 cup water

Combine all ingredients and then smoosh out onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 200 degrees for 4-6 hours with oven door opened a crack. (Or put in your food dehydrator for 4-6 hours).

Surprisingly good! Surprisingly UNBELIEVABLY good dipped in hummus.

Keep up the fun and enthusiasm, and let me know how you’re doing! xoxo