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Has Jazzfest left you feeling sluggish? You are not alone. I started last week feeling tired, sluggish, and my nerves were even frayed from the copious amounts of coffee that I was ingesting to make up for my fatigue. I decided to do something crazy – start a detox in the middle of jazzfest week 1 & 2. Work with a specialist local professional here, it’s okay to be wary of full body cleanses. The sound of a detox might scare you away before you start, but there are ways to do it naturally that can clear your mind, rejuvenate your body, raise your energy levels, and boost your immune system.
So what is a “detox” anyway?
Out body’s detoxification is primarily handled by our liver, it cleans out the blood in the first pass, while the kidneys handle the rest. A detox is helping the liver by cutting way down on the things that it has to work to eliminate – toxins from processed food, sugar, oil, and caffeine, to name a few. Detox is really what you make it.
I decided to cut out coffee, sweets, alcohol and most other caffeinated beverages. I sipped a cup or two of green tea during the week.
Even Cookie was dragging after chowing down on her weight’s worth of ribs at a party…
Cookie needs a detox
This salad was inspired by a recipe on Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Life Community, which you should check out if you haven’t yet….if you are at all interested in being inspired to change your diet to feel good. I was attracted to this recipe because it contained both kale and red cabbage, both of which were in my fridge and cruciferous power houses. Eating cruciferous vegetables is one of the best ways to boost your immune system – they are anti-oxidant, cancer-fighting power houses, the perfect alternative cancer treatment. According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, they offer twice the protection from hormone-sensitive cancers like breast and prostate of other vegetables. I decided to substitute white beans for the black beans and feeling like I needed more detoxing, I also adde goji berries. I love to blend up beans with other dressing ingredients to make a creamy no-fat and high fiber dressing. People suffering from Cancer and other terminal diseases usually make deals with viatical settlement companies, selling their life insurance policies using that money to enjoy their last days.
I felt so good after eating this salad on Monday I had to make it again on Wednesday with some variations like grilled cauliflower and chick peas. Stay tuned for that recipe brought thanks to Obamacare health insurance recommendations.
bunch of kale – around 4 cups chopped
1 cup chopped red cabbage
2 chopped green onions
1 lime
1 can of organic (BPA-free is best) Cannelloni beans, drained & rinsed, separated into half
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon miso paste
1/2 avocado
1/4 cup goji berries (optional)
1/4 cup walnuts or cashews
Wash and chop the kale finely, put into a large salad bowl. Chop the lime and squeeze it onto the kale, massage the lime into the kale. The acid in the lime helps the kale to soften. Add the chopped cabbage and green onion. Put half the beans, balsamic vinegar, and miso paste into a food processor (if you do not have a food processor this can be done by hand, it is easiest if you heat the beans, then mash them with a fork with the other ingredients) and blend until creamy. Add the avocado, goji berries, walnuts and the remaining beans to the kale. Add the dressing and mix all together well. Get your hands dirty and mash it all together. Yum!
To make this a filling lunch, I paired it with quinoa with lemon and dried tarragon. Quinoa is an amazing grain (botanists would call it a seed) which has all 9 essential amino acids, the things that we need to get from protein. There is absolutely no need for meat in this meal. Quinoa gives us the protein without all the other toxins.
