NaturalCounselor Health and Wellness Blog For Women

We all know that we should eat with the seasons to get more nutrients and feel better. But did you know that you can detox /cleanse your body with the seasons using seasonal weight loss detox fruits and vegetables?

I always remind my clients and listeners that everything we breathe, eat, drink, and even touch, contain toxins; in other words, we can acquire toxins from our environment by breathing them, by ingesting them, or through physical contact with them, and this is a bad news.

The good news is that we can detox with seasonal fruits and vegetables without waiting for spring. With fall detox you can not only boost your immunity, reduce stress, rebalance and rejuvenate your body, especially during Cold and Flu season but also avoid weight gain during the stressful Holiday season.

If you want to feel and look fabulous during the stress filled holiday season, try to incorporate more of these fruits and vegetables into your diet:

• * Apples to cleanse your digestion, liver and kidneys;
• * Pomegranates to detox your lymph;
• * Beans to detox digestive tract;
• * Broccoli, cabbage,sprouts to help detox the liver;
• * Garlic to eliminate toxic microorganisms;
• * Watercress to purify the blood;
• * Celery to flush your kidneys;
• * Onions and garlic to remove heavy metals and parasites;
• * Beets to purify the blood;
• * Grapefruit peel to help resolve mucus condition from the lungs;
• * Turnips to detoxify the body.

You can learn much more about simple detox with the seasons from my eBook “Detox -101 – Super Simple Detox”.

Let us be detox smart if we wish not avoid catching colds and to be happy and healthy during Cold and Flu and Holiday season, shall we?

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health Coach and Counselor

Summer can a good time to change your eating habits.  You can begin by eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and avoiding all foods that can make you sick by raising your blood pressure, triggering headaches and migraines, or add extra pounds.

Summer is also a good time to spend more time outdoors to burn calories and make your heart beat faster. Consider starting some enjoyable physical activities which you can turn into healthy habits.

But when it’s hot and humid outside, we all want to be cool, so here are some food for summer ideas that might help you feel and look better in the heat.

The most cooling food for summer is fruit, and that’s because fruits contain lots of water. Try to eat fruits grown in season, such as melons, apples, grapes, pears, cherries, apricots, berries, plums, peaches, mangos, papaya, tomatoes as well as all citrus fruits.

Fruit is both cooling  and can act as a laxative, which can help your body not only to cool off, but also help with your summer weight loss detox, and cleanse.

Leafy vegetables can also have a cooling effect on the body. You can make refreshing and cooling summer salads with slightly bitter-tasting, cleansing greens, such as dandelion greens, watercress and endive.

Other cooling vegetables include: asparagus, cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, zucchini.

As for roots vegetables, you can eat daikon and beets when you are hot.

Detox Turmeric Dressing is perfect match for your summer salads because it contains turmeric and yogurt – two cooling foods.

Have you tried sea vegetables? Summer may be the right time to experiment with them (kelp, spirulina, kombu, hiziki, arame, dulse) because all of them can help you feel cooler in the heat.

When you exercise more, you need extra protein. Healthy sources of protein that have a cooling effect on the body are: mung beans, grains such as rice, barley, millet, bulgur and couscous, tempeh, soy milk and fish.

Herbs and spices, such as peppermint, nettles, red clover, lemon balm, cilantro, marjoram can be a perfect addition to your cooling meals. They can also help simple detox of your body and boost your immune system.

P.S. You might also want to listen to our interview with award winning nutritionist and cookbook author Robyn Webb: Get Your Swimsuit Summer Ready.

Never forget to breathe, smile and be happy.

©Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition Counselor

Its getting hot outside.  To cool off, you can try some our warm weather leafy green vegetables, which can be purchased fresh and in season in the summer.  A daily helping of one of these leafy greens can be a great source and rich supply of vital chlorophyll, vitamin A, C, K, folate, calcium, iron, and intestinal cleansing fiber.  All the healthy leafy green vegetables below can be used as ingredients in your green smoothie recipes

You can also use leafy greens to help you detox naturally and cleanse smart from harmful toxins that can cause certain cancers.

Raw leafy green vegetables can also be used for natural weight loss and detox.

It takes 3- 5 minutes to steam leafy greens.

You can also oil saute/stir fry greens in olive oil or ghee with garlic.

• Arugula (raw or stir fried)
• Beet Greens (stir fried)
  
• Bok Choy ( raw or steamed for 3-5 minutes)
• Chinese Cabbage (raw or steamed for 3-5 minutes)
• Collard Greens (steamed for 3-5 minutes)
• Dandelion Greens ( raw or steamed for 3-5 minutes)
• Kale (steamed or stir-fried for 3-5 minutes)
• Mustard Greens (steamed for 3-5 minutes)
• Radish Greens (steamed for 3-5 minutes)
• Swiss Chard (raw or stir fried for 3-5 minutes)
  
• Turnip Greens (steamed for 3-5 minutes)
  
• Watercress (steamed for 3-5 minutes)

Leafy Vegetables are rich in fat-soluble vitamins such as A, E, D, K, so don’t forget to add some olive oil, ghee, turmeric dressing recipe or walnuts for better digestion.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health Counselor and Nutrition Coach