Tip With all yogic positions, listen to your body. If it hurts, don’t push yourself; some positions may take some time to master. Yoga will help to build your flexibility and strength, so be patient. Time and practice will help you to improve. If you are unsure about any of the positions, I would recommend seeking the advice of a professional yoga teacher.
De-Acidify Your Blood
Boost the detoxification of your blood by adding wheatgrass and spirulina to your diet. Cut out toxins such as caffeine, dairy, wheat, sugar and alcohol for two entire weeks.
As we have discussed, many of the ‘toxins’ and ‘poisons’ we consume turn our blood acidic, which makes it thicker, gloopier and energy-sapping. In order to correct this, try the following during the two-week challenge.
Before you eat your breakfast, have a heaped teaspoon of wheatgrass and spirulina mixed into water. Swallow one Omega-3 tablet and one acidophilus tablet.
During this challenge, none of the following should be consumed:
- Caffeine. If you must drink coffee or tea, try water-based decaffeinated products, such as Nepresso coffee capsules, and Clipper instant coffee or teas. Redbush tea is also a great, naturally caffeine-free tea, as are herbal teas like lemon and ginger, peppermint or detox blended teas.
- Dairy produce.
- Wheat – that means no bread or pasta, unless it’s gluten-free rice pasta.
- Added sugar.
- Alcohol.
- Carbonated drinks.
Tip Add lemon to the water you drink, as this helps to turn your blood back to its ideal state of a slightly alkaline pH.
Eat Food that Energises You
Eat an energising breakfast, a lean lunch bursting with nutrients, plus one protein meal or one carbohydrate evening meal per day. No dairy and no bread allowed!
For Westerners, breakfast is the most difficult meal of the day because it typically consists of starchy carbohydrates and fatty proteins. The truth is that ideally we should aim to have breakfasts like broccoli! But I am going to go easy on you, because I can’t cope with that idea either.
Start the day right and have hot water and lemon to drink, as this will help de-acidify your blood.
For breakfast, have some fresh fruit (fresh, not tinned) plus one of the following:
- Omelette (with something like spinach).
- Unsweetened porridge.
- Kippers/salmon and poached egg.
- Low-sugar, wheat-free breakfast cereal such as cornflakes, with a small amount of good-quality granola, for example, - Lizis Low Sugar Granola 500g
Or Rude Health Cereal-
and milled seeds to make it taste nicer. Add orange juice or almond / soya milk instead of cow’s milk.
- Porridge with almond / soya milk.
- Good-quality, ideally homemade muesli with almond / soya milk or juice.
- Other low-sugar cereals with almond / soya milk or juice.
- Scrambled eggs (no milk or butter added).
For lunch, have one of the following:
- A salad with a lean protein such as oily fish (e.g., tuna, salmon, mackerel) or chicken. Whichever you chose, 80% of the content should be raw vegetables: Avocado and beetroot are particularly good for you, so try and get those in too. Dress the salad with a little extra virgin olive/rapeseed oil and a small splash of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. I recommend the ‘Gift of Oil’ products:
,
I particularly like their infused pomegranate and fig balsamic vinegar. Remember, don’t add any bread or diary.
- Soup, such as pea and mint, butternut squash, Thai beetroot, mushroom, tomato or vegetable. Again, if you are not making it yourself, buy good-quality soup and avoid the diary and the bread! If you need something solid with soup, have a rice cracker.
For dinner, try one of the following types of meals:
1. Protein Meal: Anything with white meat or fish, with plenty of vegetables – but no starchy carbohydrates (i.e., potatoes, rice, pasta or bread)! Replace these with sweet potatoes, butternut squash or, my favourite, courgette noodles. A few meal examples could be:
- Gluten-free pesto on top of poached salmon with a splash of white wine (the alcohol will be cooked off), served with steamed broccoli, French beans and roasted sweet potato.
- Chicken with roasted vegetables and roasted butternut squash (spice up the chicken with something like jerk seasoning).
- Curried chicken and vegetables with cabbage instead of rice.
- Prawn stir-fry with vegetables and bean sprouts, using tamari rather than soy.
- Steamed or baked fish with plenty of fresh vegetables.
- Turkey cottage pie, replacing potatoes with sweet potatoes.
- Gluten-free sausages (good-quality and at least 80% pork) with sweet potato, thyme and olive oil mash and red onion gravy.
2. Carbohydrate Meal: Carbohydrates and protein should not be eaten together. Therefore your carbohydrate meal should not contain any meat, fish, nuts or protein-rich pulses. Avoid bread, wheat and potatoes and use rice or gluten- free rice pasta instead. Lose the butter and cheese. Examples of these meals could include:
- Asparagus, lemon and mint risotto.
- Vegetable curry.
- Vegetable stir-fry, ideally with rice noodles, using tamari rather than soy.
- Mushroom risotto.
- Vegetable rice pasta with a tomato sauce.
- Vegetable chilli with rice.
Tip You can choose which type of meal you have each day; you don’t need to have them in a certain order. However, to keep you interested in your food, I wouldn’t recommend that you have the same type of meal back-to-back for days on end! If you tend to eat your main meal at lunchtime instead of dinner time, simply switch the above meal suggestions: Have a carbohydrate or protein meal at lunchtime and your salad or soup in the evening. Try to balance the number of carb meals and the protein meals in the evenings, if you can.
Here are some great websites to help you find some delicious recipes that work for you:
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.co.uk
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/special-diets/gluten-free/
https://simplygluten-free.com
http://www.epicurious.com/
Here are some great recipe books for eating this way are:
- Dr. Gillian McKeith’s ‘Ultimate Health Plan’
- Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall’s ‘River Cottage Light and Easy’
- Gizzi Erskine’s ‘Skinny Weeks and Weekend Treats’
-Sarah Wilson’s ‘I Quit Sugar’
If you need a snack between meals, try a handful of nuts, seeds or dried fruit or a piece of fresh fruit. I recommend Munchy Seeds
Remember, though, if you feel hungry there is a fair chance that it is actually because you are dehydrated, so drink water first. Make sure you build up to drinking your recommended amount each day, and remember to add a slice of lemon!
Remove Toxins
Avoid using toxin-filled products such as deodorants and shower gels, and don’t cook using anything in plastic containers.
The build-up of toxins over many years is shown to cause an array of medical problems. Many medical professionals also believe that toxins may one of the main culprits of the increase in cancer cases in modern times. Whilst this will take longer to correct than two weeks, you can start now with the following:
- Use aluminium-free deodorant.
- Use paraben-free shower gel and other products.
- Don’t cook anything in plastic or foil, or drink water from a plastic bottle that has got warm.
As with anything, you’ll go through a lot of trial and error to find products that work for you, are sourced from sustainable reliable sources, and are priced reasonably. After four years of living this way, we have also managed to identify products that fit these criteria. If you go to www.dream-retirement.com/products you can see our latest preferred choices and learn from our mistakes.
