Happy New Year!

The first day of my cleanse has been going well. Rather than posting about certain foods that I will eat each day during the cleanse, I will cover some of these foods in this post. Each day, I will be having a fruit smoothie for breakfast.

The recipe for the fruit smoothie is:

1 banana, 1 cup of mixed fruit (I generally have frozen strawberries lately), 2 scoops of rice protein based liver cleansing powder (such as mediclear/selekta clear/ultraclear - this powder provides protein for the smoothie and support for healthy liver cleansing and digestive tonification), 350 ml of rice (or other non dairy based) milk

Place all ingredients in a blender, blend until smooth, and drink!

I also add probiotics powder to help support healthy gut flora balancing, which supports healthy cleansing, and vitamin c powder to support healthy immune function to the smoothie each day.

I will also be drinking 8 cups/2 litres of water each day to help properly hydrate my system and support my body in cleansing toxins (I may also add the juice of 1/2 a freshly squeezed lemon to 1 of the cups of water I drink to offer further liver cleansing support).

To make the cleanse feel less overwhelming, I always make an extra amount for supper and have leftovers for lunch. Today I had leftover hummus and raw veggies (carrots and cauliflower) for lunch.

The recipe for the hummus is:

2 cups cooked chickpeas, 4 - 5 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed, 2 tbsp tahini (sesame seed butter), 2 tbsp olive oil, 3 garlic cloves, minced, 1/4 cup green/black/purple kale, chopped, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp sesame oil (optional), 3 - 4 tbsp water

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until desired consistency.

If you prefer to not have leftovers for lunch, you could consider making soup or a bean dip on a day when you have extra time and eat it for lunch over the next few days.

I will also be having a salad each day as part of my supper. I generally use green or red leaf lettuce (it is hard to find other greens during the winter!) for the salad and add carrots, cucumber, and walnuts.

The recipe for the salad dressing is:

1 lemon, freshly squeezed, 1 tbsp flax seed oil, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, and sometimes raw garlic and/or ginger

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and apply to salad.

This makes enough for 4 salads and stores well in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days.

Here is a picture of the salad I had tonight for supper:

I also aim to have certified organic ingredients for all of my meals to reduce the amount of toxins that I take in through the food I am eating (to see a list of the fruits and vegetables that are most important to have certified organic see www.foodnews.org).

In addition to the salad, for supper tonight, I also had a simple supper consisting long grain brown rice (place 1 part brown rice and 2 parts water (i.e. 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of water) in a pot, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 40 minutes and serve), cooked chickpeas (initially soaked in water for 4 hours, then drained, covered with fresh water in a pot, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 60 minutes, drain, rinse with cold water, and serve), and vegetable stir fry (using a small amount of olive oil and additional water as needed as vegetables are being cooked and including onion, garlic, leek, shitake mushrooms, portabello mushrooms, green string beans, zucchini, cauliflower, green kale). I also added a sauce made of 2 tbsp sesame oil, 1 inch of freshly grated ginger, and juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed, to the rice for extra flavor (this made enough for 2 1/2 cups of cooked rice). I also season my food with sea salt.

Here is a picture of the simple stir fry I had tonight for supper:

For some people with high levels of candida/yeast in their system, mushrooms, fermented foods (like balsamic vinegar) and fruit are also best eliminated when doing a cleanse. Most other people though can effectively reduce their candida levels during a cleanse by removing refined sugar (white sugar, brown sugar, and artificial sweeteners) and possibly unrefined sweeteners (brown rice syrup, pure maple syrup, honey, cane sugar etc). As well, for people with eczema, citrus fruit is also best eliminated when doing a cleanse, although this mainly includes oranges and grapefruits, rather than lemons and limes.