Stave off the blah this festive season

As we head out the door this afternoon for a wee holiday break, we thought we’d send you a quick email with a super easy one day refresh plan to give your system a bit of a reboot between Christmas and the New Year. To make it easier, you can prepare everything the day before.

Start the day with hot water and lemon. This one is a habit for life that we highly recommend.

Breakfast detox juice (make at home or from a juice bar)
2 apples
1 carrot
Handful of flat leaf parsley (or mint)
Handful of fresh spinach (or other leafy greens)
2 sticks of celery  

Mid-morning super green smoothie
Small handful baby spinach
2 cos lettuce leaves
1 kiwi fruit
1 banana
½ cup apple juice
Optional superfood like spirulina
Optional chia seeds or linseeds
Some ice cubes
Wash/peel ingredients, blend, serve.

Lunch – healthy lentil salad
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
2 tbsp walnuts, roughly chopped
½ cup tinned or cooked dry brown lentils.
Season with sea salt, lemon juice and olive oil.
Minted yoghurt dressing optional (1 tbsp of yoghurt mixed with fresh chopped mint).

Mid afternoon snack
Hummus with cucumber and capsicum sticks.

Dinner – detox salad (serves 2-3 as a main)
150g red cabbage, shredded
2 small or 1 large carrot, grated
1 apple, thinly sliced
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 celery stick, thinly sliced
1tbsp toasted pinenuts
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp linseeds

Dressing
1tspn grated ginger
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp virgin olive oil
Little honey to taste

Serve with grilled salmon or on its own.

Dessert
Handful of fresh or frozen raspberries

Having only a juice and smoothie up until lunchtime will give your digestive system a really nice break. The lunch and dinner salad recipes are super healthy and packed with fibre, protein and good fat.

We hope you have a very happy and safe holiday season.

See you next year!

Green is the new black

We’re loving our superfoods at the moment and supergreens are no exception. Just like berries, our greener friends are highly concentrated sources of energising vitamins and minerals, not to mention jam-packed full of antioxidants.

But why go green? You’re probably thinking you would rather stick to berries. We love berries, don’t get us wrong, but each superfood has its area of expertise. Master healers, the greener of our superfoods help nurture an alkaline environment for our body to achieve optimal health in (an acidic body is the ideal habitat for disease).

A glass of supercharged green juice is also the perfect detox partner, with the added bonus of being low in kilojoules – we like. From the almighty spirulina, to the popular wheat grass, there’s a greenie out there for everyone.

Here are some of our more unusual faves:

chlorophyll \ this green plant pigment has a structure similar to haemoglobin, with magnesium as its central atom. Packed full of alkalising vits and mins, chlorophyll even freshens your breath!

barley grass \ a forgotten wonder, barley grass is charged with vitamin C, beta-carotene, and minerals such as iron, potassium, calcium and magnesium. It contains 30x more vit B1 than milk!

aloe vera \ this supergreen is the queen of healing. Anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory, aloe vera soothes the stomach lining and skin, promoting healthy circulation, immunity and digestion.

celery root \ also known as celeriac, this green superfood is loaded with alkalising phosphorous and potassium, and rich in vitamins C and K. Like celery, this little root is great for weight loss!

olive leaf \ packed full of antioxidants and phytonutrients, this leafy superfood is particularly rich in oleuropein – an antioxidant 5x as powerful as vit C and almost 2x as mighty as green tea!

Unlike their berry counterparts, supergreens don’t win in the taste department – the secret is in the mix.

Check out our blog for some great green juice and smoothie ideas. Time for a glass of green apple…

Get your superberry on

From the common strawberry, to the slightly more upmarket blueberry, all the way to the exotic and luxurious acai, we just can’t get enough of berries.

So what’s all the fuss about? Well for starters they’re deeelicious. They ward off infection and keep your immune system revving with bucketloads of vitamin C. As for the antioxidants in berries, they keep you looking beautiful by declaring war against ageing free radicals. Even better, these berries keep you thinking young – they ‘clean up’ your brain by removing toxins, boosting your memory and preventing mental decline.

Here are a few of our more luxurious faves:

acai \ this little amazonian is the king of berries. Royal purple and packed full of vitamins, minerals, omegas and more than sixteen antioxidants, the acai berry even helps shrink your waistline.

goji \ other wise known as the ‘wolfberry’, this red superfood was hailed as the fruit of longevity in Tibet and China. The goji berry contains 500 times more vitamin C than oranges!

noni \ this little berry has made its way from the Pacific islands packed full of antioxidants. Also knows as the ‘Indian mulberry’, the noni is rich in lignans, polyphenols and polysaccharides.

pomegranate \ this giant Persian berry is loaded with anthocyanins and polyphenols. Rumour has it pomegranate contains three times more antioxidants than green tea!

black cherry \ the last of our superberries is a powerful source of anti-inflammatory anthocyanins and sleep-promoting melatonin. It’s also nature’s richest source of vitamin C.

So get your berry on. They really are super, we think so anyway.

Ditch that sugar addiction

3pm sugar craving. After dinner dessert desire. Low energy sugar hit. The list goes on. Whatever your justification for having that sugary treat is, you should reconsider it. It's just not good for you.

The more sugar you eat, the more you crave; sugar gives you an initial high, and then you crash and crave more, and so on. It's a vicious cycle.

Practical tips to combat those cravings

Eat regularly to keep blood sugar levels stable. This will help to avoid feeling the need for a sugar hit.

Eat whole foods and chew well to bring out the natural flavour and sweetness of foods. Complex carbs like grains, legumes and vegetables become sweeter the more they are chewed.

Add spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom to flavour foods naturally.

Choose alternatives like fruit and treats sweetened with honey, agave, maple syrup, rice syrup, barley malt and stevia, but eat in moderation as they are still high in natural sugar.

Eat less salt as salty foods increase cravings for sugary foods.

Eat naturally sweet vegetables like sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots, and beetroot. Raw carrots have been shown to be particularly helpful with sugar cravings.

Do a detox to help your body to remember what it should be eating.

Think about why you want sugar and note if the reasons are emotional. For example, if you are in the habit of cheering yourself up with a sugary treat, try to find an alternative that makes you feel good, like taking a bath, listening to music or exercising.

Pay attention to how you feel when you don't have sugar for a few days. Notice the lift in energy and absence of blood sugar lows or 'hanger' (angry-hunger). This feeling alone should demonstrate that you are much better off without the sweet white stuff.

If you're finding it really tough to go without sugar, supplements containing chromium, manganese, zinc, and magnesium can be helpful. For very strong sugar cravings, l-glutamine can be added. 

Good luck!