What is the Best Way To Do a Spring Detox?

-- By Dr. Jason Queiros

Detoxes or cleanses are often misconstrued as a quick weight loss mechanism. I treat a detox like hitting the reset button on the modem or restarting the computer. In this case the computer being my diet.

​It's an easy way to get back on the healthy track when you've strayed.  I chose to do this detox after my son was born, a time of both extreme happiness and stress. I was getting less sleep, and my eating habits definitely took a temporary dive. This was a stressful time and I'm sure my decreased nutrition and changes in hormones had me feeling less energized, sluggish even. Making me less productive at home and work. This then carried to even occasional feelings of gloominess at times. At this point I knew it was time to hit the rest button.  

I asked a colleague at work about a detox she was purchasing and I thought, "Why don't we do it together." We referenced other popular cleanses and customized them to our preferences and to add more nutrients. We also decided that we would be making our drinks using the entire fruit and vegetable, not just the juice.

This was important to me since most juices are sugar and water and lack valuable minerals, nutrients and fiber. By making the smoothies at home, it costs only a fraction of what it would if you were buying the juices at the store or smoothie shop. For a total of $75, opposed to paying $65-80 per day for juices, I was able to buy organic fruits and vegetables and make enough shakes for 2 people for 5 days.

The amounts of each ingredient may vary, adjust to your taste! I made the shakes at home with my Nutribullet.

The organization of our cleanse consisted of 4 smoothies (3 hours apart). Coupled with a large salad consisting of lettuce, mixed greens, spinach, mixed nuts, seeds, finished with a drizzle of olive oil & vinegar to complete the day and keep from late night snacking!

The Schedule

​7 AM - Green
10 AM - Orange
1 PM - Yellow
4 PM - Red
7 PM - Salad
​

GREEN SMOOTHIE
-Green Apple
- Spinach
- Kale
- Celery
- Lemon
- Ginger
​- Kiwi

ORANGE SMOOTHIE
- Orange
- Carrot
- Lemon
- Mango
- Turmeric
- Dash of Cayenne Pepper
- Teaspoon of honey

YELLOW
- Red or Green Apple
- Pineapple
- Cucumber
- Peach
​- Ginger
- Mint

RED
- Beet
- Apple
- Carrot
- Lemon
- Ginger
- Collards

Experiment with recipes and discover what you and your family like! Enjoy your smoothies, and send your questions to [email protected] for our next Q&A!