Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
A good friend of mine asked me how he could shed a few stubborn pounds. He made a decision to work with a personal trainer for the past 6 months, and has seen a really great transformation, but has now hit a plateau. When someone has all other aspects of health in place ie. they don't have a thyroid issue or a digestive issue and their stress is very well managed, the first place I look to to help with the weight-loss plateau is LIVER SUPPORT.
I generally eat as clean as I can - lots of vegetables, avoid gluten, minimize dairy, and don't eat a lot of refined foods - however, there are always those things that we each have. Mine, for example, is ICE CREAM. I could eat it for days. Yours might be that glass of wine after work each day. Or the nachos every Friday.
Cleanse food from Day 2...eggs+zucchini+kale+onions and some cabbage slaw
Whatever it is, these things contribute to our overall toxic load. And our body certainly doesn't need any extra stress in this department, because there are so many things we don't even have control over such as air pollution and water quality (if you drink from the tap). Then the other things we have SOME control over but still remain a challenge, such as the amount of stress in our lives, the medications we take, and so on.
Your liver health depends on how much toxic burden (ie. the above-mentioned items) it has to deal with on a day-to-day basis. And if we can spend a couple weeks on the aspects that are within our control, then the liver will be happier and healthier, allowing our body to function more efficiently.
efficiency = pushing through that weight-loss plateau
I tend to do a 14-day cleanse 2x/year. No caffeine/booze/dairy/gluten/refined sugar. I decided I would join my friend for the next 2 weeks, and we are also adding some liver support supplements and probiotics to further support the detoxification pathways.
Here's what I've eaten today:
Smoothie: 1 frozen banana + 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk (the drinking kind) + 1/4 coconut milk (the thick kind from a can) + 1 TBSP. cocoa powder + 1 TBSP. natural peanut butter + 1 scoop PaleoCleanse powder (Designs for Health) + water to top it up (I ran out of coconut milk, the drinking kind :)
1 cup of gunpowder green tea - at a morning meeting
1 cup of organic green tea
bowl of: dried coconut, cocoa nibs, raw almonds, raw walnuts
beet salad: cooked beets, 1/2 avocado, green onions, dressing of EVOO, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard, salt and pepper
1 chicken breast - coated with avocado oil and a lemon/chile/salt seasoning rub
1 cherry tomato (today's garden harvest lol)
1 La Croix brand soda water - it's from the States, and says "only carbonated water, naturally essenced" as the ingredients...whatever that means.
3 cherries
It's 6:27 PM. I'm hungry and just took a break to make the following random smoothie which turned out much tastier than expected!...1/2 avocado, 2 mini cucumbers, 1 apple, the juice from 1 lime, 1 TBSP. collagen powder, 1 handful raw almonds, water.
I'll definitely eat more later on - probably more beet salad and yet again, more nuts.
VOILA! #whatnaturopathseat
*I promise to do a post like this on a "non-cleanse" day very soon...only 9 more days to go!