How does detoxing help your skin?

You've undoubtedly heard that detoxing is good for your skin. In fact, healthy and radiant skin is the top detox benefit reported by our cleansers. Cleansing helps give your skin that sparkly, dewy, fresh look, and it also helps ease common skin conditions such as acne, dermatitis, psoriasis and eczema. But why and how?

The role and functions of your skin

The skin is the largest organ in your body. It protects you from external pathogens, regulates temperature, facilitates vitamin D absorption, enables tactile sensation, and importantly plays an active role in detoxification.

Its detoxification function has the biggest connection with skin appearance. If you’re overloaded with toxins – playing too hard, eating too much (or too much of the wrong things) and sleeping too little – it all takes its toll on your skin. Dehydration lines, breakouts, rashes and skin irritations are all signs your skin needs some serious TLC, and your body could do with a cleanse.

Detoxing and its impact on your skin

When you detox, provided you are avoiding all the right foods (our cleanse does just that), you are naturally eliminating skin aggravators and inflammatory agents such as dairy, yeast, sugar and gluten.

Juice cleansing gives your digestive system a rest, stimulates detoxification (gently clearing out all those skin-clogging nasties), and floods your body with delicious nutrients all at the same time. It's a recipe for skin success!

If you think a juice cleanse might be for you, check out our spring/summer menu. Our Fruit & Greens and Zingy Uplifter six packs are also a perfect skin-friendly supplement to a healthy diet. More info here.

Your Spring makeover bestie...

Supercharged Green 6-Packs:

Take your cleansing that bit further with our limited edition Supercharged Green 6-Packs. These bad boys are the ultimate cleanser – packed full of alkalising green veggies, immune-boosting parsley, revitalising ginger and tummy-flattening mint, they are the perfect ally to get your body in tip-top shape for Spring.

These 6-Packs of green goodness contain 6 x 450ml of our 'Supercharged Green Juice' – a recipe intricately designed by none other than wholefoods chef, foodie and health entrepreneur Lee Holmes. When it comes to changing your body and mind from the inside out, Lee is a shining example, and she absolutely swears by green juice. It goes without saying that we do too – in fact, green juice is our detox bestie; there really is no other juice or smoothie with quite the same potency.

How do these 6-Packs differ from our normal cleanse?

1. Put simply, they are more intense. We don't recommend doing more than 1 day of them on their own. If you do more than a day, the best way to enjoy them is with some super healthy snacks alongside the juices.

2. They are SUPER low-carb – perfect for those of you suffering from candida or diabetes, or if you are fructose-intolerant.

3. The 6-Packs are designed to be enjoyed in two ways:

• As a green cleanse: a 1-Day cleanse (yep, just the six green juices!) or 2 days+ accompanied with healthy snacks (think miso soup, avocado, raw nuts, veggie sticks, brown rice cakes, light salads, grilled/baked fish and veggies)

• Alongside a healthy diet: just grab a juice whenever you feel like it – up to 3 a day!

More info on the Supercharged Green Juice here. Or simply give us a call!

Let’s get green together.

Our Supercharged Greens 6-Packs are just what they say on the label: 6 x 450ml Supercharged Green Juice, designed by Lee Holmes, wholefoods chef, author and creator of Supercharged Food.

The recipe is fruit-free (yep, nothing but veggies and a dash of lemon in this bad boy!)... so if you're not used to drinking green juice, we suggest you try a fruitier option, or our Level 1 Beginners Cleanse.

You can order our Supercharged Greens 6-Packs to accompany a detox, to enjoy as an intensive green cleanse, or simply to complement a healthy diet.

What’s in the juice?
8 lovely ingredients are all it takes:
• Spinach
• Cucumber
• Cos lettuce
• Celery
• Parsley
• Mint
• Lemon
• Ginger

Why go green? 
Green juice is a master healer. Lee swears by it, and so do we. It looks how it makes you feel: vibrant and alive. Just one big glass (or bottle) a day can help bring your body back to an alkaline state (an acidic body is the perfect host for disease, so alkaline is where it’s at). Leafy greens support the detoxification process; they’re also great for your skin and help combat ageing (bye bye free radicals). Mint and ginger enhance digestion and help combat the dreaded bloat, whilst lemon provides a kick-start to your metabolism. Parsley contains anti-oxidising vitamin C and spinach gives you a lovely dose of iron.

A juice with some serious benefits
It’s quick, it's easy. But this juice is in for the long haul.

Our Supercharged Green Juice helps to:
• Enhance digestion
• Reduce inflammation
• Brighten your skin
• Improve energy levels
• Support detoxification
• Alkalise the body

Like all of our juices, these little green beauties are easily absorbed thanks to our cold-pressing method, which breaks down the cell walls of those lovely veggies, delivering them in a pre-digestible state, and helping those nutrients reach your system as quickly as possible.

Our 6-Packs of Supercharged Greens are the easiest way to get your nutrient hit of alkalising green veggies without any fuss (leave that to us). We know this one will leave you bright, bouncy and super clean from the inside out.

Our Supercharged Greens are available to order online now.

Breaking up with booze

It’s Dry July this month and we’re almost three weeks in at the Urban Remedy HQ. Surprisingly enough, it hasn’t been that hard – okay, so we’re lucky enough to have lots of yummy juice at our disposal (that definitely helps) but interestingly the real challenge has been other people’s reactions. Ranging from “Really, no booze for a month?”, to “Kudos but I wouldn’t” or simply “Why?”, we had quite the range! On the whole though, friends and family have been very encouraging and the motivation of supporting such a worthy cause (adults living with cancer) has really kept us going.

This week, we wanted to share a few of our thoughts surrounding alcohol by asking 3 simple questions…

1. How does booze affect you?

We all know that alcohol hits our livers hard. This poor overworked organ can only process ½ an ounce of ethanol in an hour – that’s one beer, one shot or a small glass of wine. Any more than that and it goes into overdrive, and you get… well, inebriated. What’s actually happening is the alcohol your liver can’t handle is circulating throughout your body; yes, we know… not the nicest of thoughts. It therefore makes sense that our other detoxification organs (namely the skin) feel the strain when our liver can’t keep up with our drinking. For a full breakdown of the physical effects, check out our blog on alcohol and the liver.

But the effects of booze are not just physical. Alcohol affects our mental state and mood as well. The immediate repercussions of drinking include increased confidence, elation and (cough cough) stupidity. Not to mention beer goggles. But what about the day after? When we’re hung over, we feel less than joyful and are definitely not functioning at full capacity. It’s not rocket science; our body is still playing catch up and trying to clear the toxins from the night before.

2. What place does alcohol occupy in your life?

When it comes to drinking, it’s pretty simple: most of us do too much of it too often. But why do we do it? We drink out of social custom, peer pressure, habit, boredom… We also drink to relieve stress and increase confidence. The problem is that alcohol is such an integral part of our social fabric that we sometimes fail to examine the place it occupies in our own lives, or whether our relationship with it could do with a little tune-up.

Are you drinking alone? Drinking too fast? Drinking too often? Drinking without thinking? Drinking to drown sorrows? Most of us are guilty of one of the aforementioned charges. Does that mean that we are all alcoholics? Probably not. What it does mean is that it may be time to look at the role alcohol plays in our lives…

3. How can you improve your relationship with alcohol?

There are many ways to improve your relationship with booze. If you’re already asking yourself this question, you’re on the right track. We’re not about extreme views at UR, so we’re not suggesting you never have a glass of wine or beer again. BUT… ask yourself how rich your life is without alcohol. If the canvas is looking rather blank, it could be time to add some other activities in! The best way to take stock of this is to have a mini-break from alcohol. Split up for a little while; you can always get back together, on your terms this time. There are so many organised ways to take a vacation from booze – FebFast, Dry July and Hello Sunday Morning are our faves.

So bottom’s up to Dry July! Green juice in hand of course.

Time for a little coaching?

When it comes to health and wellness, we’ve got your back here at Urban Remedy. So much so, that we are taking cleansing to a whole new level to keep you healthy, well and of course happy!

Drum roll please! Introducing our brand-spanking-new...

Urban Remedy

Health Coaching Programs

What is health coaching, we hear you say? Well, we’ll let Claire answer that.

Meet Claire Obeid, our very own Resident Health Coach, who just happens to be a little bit (okay, a lot) keen on health and wellness:

“Health Coaching is a fantastic opportunity to work one-on-one with a knowledgeable (certified and trained) advisor who will provide you with the support, guidance and information to set health and wellness goals, but also help you achieve them in a sustainable way!”

Think about this. Have you ever wanted to change something in your life – your relationship with food, your fitness level, your overall happiness, your lifestyle habits – but you didn’t know where to start, how to make it happen, or even what change really looks like?

That’s where a Health Coach can help. Our delicious and nutritious (if we do say so) cleanses are an amazing way to kick-start new healthy habits, but sometimes we need a little push and shove to stay on track and build the healthy habit momentum. 

Claire will devise a personalised program – based on your needs and where you are at on your own wellness journey – that will radically improve your health, wellness and happiness. If you’re not ready to launch into a full blown program, Claire can start you off with an individual session and you can take it from there, no strings attached.

Want better skin? More energy? Less stress? Would you like to feel balanced? Learn how to cook? Understand your body? Be aware?

Do we hear a YES? Well then, get in touch. If you would like to check out our individual sessions and health coaching packages, or just want a little more info, it’s all here.

Are you ready to sizzle at the races?

Preparation

Depending on how much preparation you want to put in, do the following for 3-7 days prior:

1. Eat dinner before 7pm
2. Get to bed before 10pm: more sleep = less fat
3. Cut out sugar and refined carbs (if you haven’t already) – wholegrains OK
4. Avoid yeast in food to beat the dreaded bloat
5. Do a mini-detox (and a tan) for glowing skin!

On the day

Make sure you’re on a winning streak (not just a streak) with these handy tips:

6. Support your liver with a milk thistle supplement in the morning (we like Flordis Legalon)
7. Eat a hearty breakfast: think poached eggs on sourdough or bircher muesli
8. Eat a light meal before you head out – include wholegrains, healthy protein and good fats
9. Drink a glass of water for every glass of bubbly
10. Place your bets sensibly!

Glowing skin smoothie

In last week's blog, we gave you our five easy steps to clear, radiant skin:

1. Avoid skin aggravating foods

2. Maximise skin enhancing foods

3. A simple, effective skin care routine

4. Experiment with skin healing supplements

5. Try a juice cleanse

This week, we're dishing up a recipe for a yummy, skin-friendly smoothie to kick off your day.

Glowing skin smoothie:

• Almond, millet or brown rice milk
• ½ medium-sized banana
• Handful of mixed berries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 heaped tbsp of a superfood powder* of your choice
• 1 heaped tbsp of LSA (Linseed, Sunflower and Almond) powder
• Optional: Sun Warrior vegan protein powder

Superfood powders*:

• Green superfood powder – we like Vital Greens
• Acai powder – we like Rio Life
• Raw cacao powder – we like Loving Earth

For candida/dysbiosis (overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut) sufferers, swap the fruit (banana and berries) for egg yolk, cashews or avocado. Coconut oil and cinnamon are great bacteria-fighting smoothie boosters for candida – add natural vanilla extract to enhance flavour and/or manuka honey for sweetness (manuka honey doesn’t feed the bad bacteria in your gut).

Smoothies are a great breakfast option for individuals prone to breakouts or skin irritations, and for people with weak digestion or digestive disorders – they deliver a burst of vitamins, antioxidants, and phytonutrients in a form that is super easy for your body to break down (most of the work has already been done by the blender) and draw goodness from straight away.

Enjoy! xx

Food for your skin

The skin is the largest organ in the human body. It protects us from external pathogens, regulates temperature, facilitates vitamin D absorption, enables tactile sensation, and boosts detoxification.

Its detoxification function has the biggest connection with skin appearance. If we’re overloaded with toxins – playing too hard, eating too much (or too much of the wrong things) and sleeping too little – it all takes its toll on our skin. Dehydration lines, breakouts, rashes and skin irritations are all signs our skin needs some serious TLC.

To get your skin in tip top shape, we recommend these 5 nice and easy steps:

1. Avoid these skin aggravators:
- Dairy
- Sugar
- Yeast
- Alcohol

2. Eat lots of these super healthy foods:
- Fresh fruit and veg
- Oily fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines)
- Healthy oils: olive, coconut, flaxseed
- Nuts
- Water!

3. Maintain a simple but effective skin care routine:

Skin products often promise to fix your every skin problem; they won’t. That said, choosing a brand with pure, natural ingredients, or at the very least free from the nasty stuff, is key. We recommend Simple if you’re on a budget or, if you feel like treating yourself, here are some of our faves: Aesop, Origins, Aveda and Kiehl’s (all stocked at Myer, except Aveda).

Rather than getting a whole heap of products, just get a few really good ones – a great cleanser (this one doubles up as gentle exfoliant), a supercharged moisturiser (still looking for one, tips most welcome!) or soothing face oil, and a gentle make-up remover.

4. Supplement (if you can afford the extra splurge on your skin):

For acne and breakouts – as these are often linked to bacterial overgrowth (dysbiosis) in the gut, we recommend taking a high-strength probiotic and, if you can get to a naturopath or health store, ask them to mix you up a liquid herbal formula to support adrenal health and immunity, and combat dysbiosis.

For dry skin, inflammation and recurring skin irritations (such as dermatitis or eczema) – we recommend a high quality fish oil supplement.

5. Try a juice cleanse: 

We have had excellent feedback from customers with skin conditions. If you think about it, it makes sense – by doing a juice cleanse you are eliminating all of the aggravators, giving your digestive system a rest, stimulating detoxification, and adding in a whole heap of goodness!

What are your skin secrets? We’d love to know.