I have experimented with my body through dieting in more ways than you can imagine. Crash diets, low-calorie diets, ketosis, you name it, and I would have done it. Every diet should begin with a full cleanse of the body. Here we will reveal the ultimate cleanse and reveal how to detox with smoothies.
So, I am well aware that there comes the point in your weight loss regime when you feel a little low on the motivation to continue because the initial euphoria has died down.
To kick start my weight loss journey again, I found the wonder of Detox smoothies! When you learn how to detox with smoothies, you can healthily curb your cravings.
What is a Detox Diet?
Let’s be honest here – you don’t need to detox. Our bodies work on the detoxification process for us through methods like secretion and excretion.
Therefore, short-term interventions in the diet like detox work by eliminating the toxins in your body through sweat, sebum, or excretion. Typical detox diets involve a period of fasting and a strict fruit, juice, vegetables, herbal teas, supplements, and a water diet. However, as I stated before, long-lasting weight loss requires changing one’s lifestyle, and such diets that claim to ‘detox’ or ‘cleanse’ your body within a couple of days are not backed by reliable research (Klein and Kiat, 2015).
Like several diets that claim quick and easy weight loss, long-lasting weight loss requires changing one’s lifestyle to maintain the weight. Although crash diets might be decreasing your weight, since you can lose muscle five times quicker than losing fat (Courier Journal, 2020), it is the hard-built muscle mass that you’re losing through crash dieting.
Therefore, stringent detox diets deprive you of nutrients that will impact your muscle mass. Our smoothie detox will not only help you optimize your body’s detoxification system but also offer nutrient-rich calories that will make you feel fuller.
Here is a video of how to make a terrific Green Smoothie:
How does the Smoothie Detox Work?
Since your body detoxifies itself, a short detox cleanses with smoothies can help you feel fuller, optimize the natural detoxification system of your body, and give you nutrient-rich calories, which promotes weight loss. You can also include these smoothies in your breakfast routine for a more extended period of time.
Therefore, you can take it with eggs or a whole-wheat toast to make it a complete meal which can give you a great start to the day. A healthy tone at the beginning of the day will help you through the rest of the day as well!
Here are some of the ways a smoothie detox works:
Stimulate the Liver to get Rid of Toxins
Just like what regular detox diets claim, detox smoothies also stimulate the liver to get rid of the toxins. Since the body is already doing it for us, ingredients like ginger, spinach, and fruits high in water content help meet the day’s hydration goals (Source), soothe the stomach, and contain rich antioxidants (Lobo et al., 2010).
Nutrient-Rich Calories
The detox smoothies have nutrients of multiple ingredients. Therefore, they offer nutrient-rich calories that can make you feel fuller. Smoothies will curb your cravings throughout the day. You can also consume these smoothies when you feel hungry, so you don’t go to sweets or snacks that can disrupt your diet and mess up your calorie count.
Rid of Day-Long Cravings
The naturally sweet smoothies are perfect for crushing your sugar cravings throughout the day without any sugar intake, which is a great way to cut down on those calories that you additionally consume throughout the day because of these cravings.
Improve Circulation
Smoothies contain antioxidant-rich superfoods that improve your blood circulation, further improving oxygen and blood flow to every organ. With improved blood circulation, the efficiency of your organs increases. Organs such as your stomach and liver, which optimizes its detoxification function.
Improve Digestion
Even though the smoothie is blended, you might want to sip this slowly to ensure that you chew a little on the chunks left to get the digestive juices active to do their work. Furthermore, if you only consume the smoothie without water, you are not diluting the strength of the digestive enzymes, which further improves your metabolism.
Nutritional Information of Ingredients
You can mix and match a range of different ingredients to make smoothies. However, we recommend that you add at least one ingredient from each of the three categories, the information below:
Leafy Greens
One of the vital ingredient categories for your smoothie should be herbs and green vegetables. You can include cilantro in your smoothie, which is excellent for the digestion of fat, therefore, helps expedite weight loss. Some other ingredients in this category are:
· Avocado: Avocado is a vegetable rich in vitamins B and E. It is also abundant in monounsaturated fatty acids that help replace less healthy fats like trans fats and saturated fats.
· Celery: Celery is a rich source of Vitamin B2 and also contains Calcium
· Spinach: Rich in Folic acid and Vitamin K, Spinach is a great way to improve bone metabolism and regulate calcium levels in the blood
· Parsley: A great source of folic acid, iron, and vitamin C. It also provides antioxidant benefits that help improve the health of organs in the body.
Fruits
A second category that you should include in your smoothie is fruits. Numerous fruits provide excellent benefits and also help reduce unhealthy sugary cravings.
· Apples: Apples are one of the fruits with numerous benefits. It helps in improving digestive health. Also, if you include the peels, it gives even more fiber and nutritional benefits.
· Strawberries: Strawberries a rich in flavor, which is an excellent way of curbing cravings while dieting. Mineral buffers, omega 3-acids, and vitamin C makes this fruit high concentrated in antioxidants that help detox and digest.
· Pineapple: This tropical fruit has a protein-digesting enzyme that helps reduce bloating, flush out toxins, and stimulate circulation.
· Bananas: Rich in potassium, this fruit is excellent for the gastrointestinal tract.
Superfoods
Nuts, seeds, and other grains are superfoods rich in essential nutrients.
· Chia seeds: Rich in essential fatty acids and dietary fibers, these seeds are a great way to boost the nutritional value of your smoothies.
· Brazil Nuts: Rich in selenium which boosts the immune system.
· Almonds: Vitamin E, protein, and monounsaturated fats, almonds should be consumed individually as well as a great way to boost up your smoothies.
· Hemp seeds are also a great source of essential fatty acids and quickly digested complete protein.
· Camu Camu: Rich in powerful antioxidants and vitamin C.
Steps to Make a Detox Smoothie
Step 1: Base Liquid
The first step to making a detox smoothie is choosing the base liquid. This base liquid may include hemp milk, unsweetened coconut or almond milk, herbal or green teas. You can also select water-based fruits as a base liquid too. Fruits like fresh orange or apple juice serve as an excellent base for the smoothie.
Step 2: Base Ingredients
Here, you can add vegetables and fruits like beets, melon, strawberries, cucumber, apple, orange, or pineapple.
Step 3: Add in the creaminess.
What’s a smoothie without the creaminess, right? However, to stay healthy, some ingredients that you can add for creaminess is:
· Bananas
· Avocados
· Natural yogurts
· Almond butter
· Coconut meat
Step 4: Throw in the Greens
Out of the list of leafy greens in this article, you can choose any of these. Celery, parsley, spinach, etc., are a great way to expedite the weight loss process.
Step 5: Add in the Superfoods
The addition of Superfoods is how you can add that final nutritional boost to your smoothie for energy that lasts all day long and is packed with beneficial fibers, antioxidants, and vitamins that help boost metabolism and aids in weight loss.
Benefits of a Detox Smoothies
Detox smoothies are a quick (and tasty 😉 ) way to consume essential vitamins that help in aiding the weight loss journey. When I started with the Detox smoothies, I noticed that they boosted my energy. This effect was especially true when I consumed the smoothie with my morning breakfast routine. The smoothies also had me feeling fuller, which helped me restrict my intake of extra calories in snacks.
Also, it helped curb the sweet cravings that helped me stay on track with my diet. Here is a summary of the benefits that I felt and that which is claimed Detox smoothies do:
· Result in increased metabolism
· Aid in weight loss
· Improve the digestive system
· Curb cravings
· Reduces inflammation
If you are thinking of starting your Detox smoothie cleanse, I suggest that you begin with incorporating one in breakfast since the most important meal of the day could use some nutritional boost, right? But also because it leaves you feeling energized for the day and curbs sweet cravings.
You can also consume it when you are hungry in between meals instead of snacking. Rest assured, you will see a difference in a few weeks! I am sure the delicious goodness of the smoothies can leave you feeling satiated for a long time.
So kick up that blender, add all the goodies, and let’s get started!
