Weekend Detox

The weekend detox gives your liver, bowels and kidneys a much-needed rest and allows these valuable organs to do two full days of house cleaning. You'll see an improvement in your skin tone and a sparkle in your eyes.

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Step 1: Preparation

A good cleanse needs a little planning. It would be a tragedy if you got all the way to Sunday afternoon only to succumb to that chocolate biscuit hiding in the cupboard. Solution? Clear your cupboards and your refrigerator of anything that you know in your heart is a poor food. Crisps, biscuits, cakes, oven chips, burger buns, and tinned custard have got to go. Remove all of the temptations so that you can focus on your detox.

Clean the house on Thursday night. Wash your sheets and air your bedroom so that you have a fabulous, clean bed to jump into on Friday. Make sure you have all your favourite clothes clean, especially some comfortable baggy pants and your favourite T-shirt. You are going to be a bit of a hermit this weekend so dress comfortably. The only time you'll leave the house will be to have a brisk walk in the fresh air.

Make sure you have all the props you need for a weekend of peace. Get some magazines and a few movies and make sure you have some candles to set the mood in your bathroom and bedroom. Turn off your cellphone and put on your answerphone.

A special note about breakfast: It is vital during the detox to start your day on the right note. Your body has been cleaning and detoxing during the night and so breakfast should facilitate this process. A good, healthy breakfast of pure foods helps the body to continue to clean out.

Step 2: Menu plan

Day one(see recipes)
Cleanse:aid smoothie (first thing in the morning)
Cleansing cocktail
Breakfast Berry fruit salad
Lunch Garlic grilled sardines with pomegranate salsa
Dinner Roast salmon and beetroot (beet) salad; and for dessert a piece of fresh fruit eaten half an hour after your main course
Before bed Max's detox herbal tea

Day two (see recipes)
Cleanse:aid juice Hot lemon and ginger
Breakfast Berry fruit salad
Lunch Ginger chicken skewers with quinoa
tabbouleh
Dinner Three-bean chilli with avocado salsa; and for dessert a piece of fresh fruit eaten half an hour after your main course
Before bed Max's detox herbal tea

Snacks and smoothies
Snacks are not banned on the detox, but restrict them to fresh fruit, raw vegetables, raw nuts, and seeds (such as sunflower and pumpkin seeds). Keep near you a small airtight container filled with vegetable crudités (such as cucumber, celery and apples), so that you always have something healthy to snack on. Try to drink at least one additional health-giving juice or smoothie each day.

Step 3: Action

Aim to do 15 to 20 minutes of Breathing, Relaxing, Stretching (BRS) each day during the detox.

Breathing Oxygen energizes the mind and body and helps to burn off toxins, neutralizing them through a process called oxidation, and preparing them for elimination. Spend a few minutes each morning in front of an open window, inhaling air deeply into your lungs.

Relaxing Stress robs the nervous system of energy and this in turn retards its ability to oversee the elimination of toxins. There is a difference between true relaxation (yoga, a deep bath, meditation and so on) and 'participation' (such as dinner with friends, or a movie show). True relaxation leaves you with a renewed sense of wellbeing, charged up for the detox. Schedule in some form of relaxation each day. I suggest a long bath or a walk in the park. If at any point the detox makes you feel edgy (this is quite normal), practise the whole body relaxation on the right.

Stretching Prepare your mind and body for the day by gently practising the following stretch to wake up your body. In particular the stretch opens up the chest, helping you to breathe more effectively. Stand with your feet wide apart and breathe in. Raise your arms straight up and lock your fingers. Moving from your waist, bend the body first to the right and then to the left, exhaling as you bend and inhaling as you come back to the upright position. Repeat five times on each side.

Step 4: Whole Body Relaxation

1. Find a comfortable position, either on the floor or in a chair. Dim the lighting. Take three deep breaths, breathing right down into your stomach. Breathe in relaxation through the nose, and breathe out all your tension through the mouth.

2. Bring your awareness to your right foot. Visualize your big toe, and relax it. Do the same with each right toe in turn - slowly and gently. Continue up your right leg, visualizing each part in turn then relaxing it to let the tension go. Do this slowly and purposefully. Don't hurry. Visualize the sole of your right foot, then the top of the foot, the ankle, shin, calf, knee, front of the thigh, back of the thigh, and right buttock. The whole right leg is warm and relaxed. Repeat on your left foot and leg. Slowly.

3. Imagine, and consciously relax, both buttocks; then slowly your lower back, mid back, space between the shoulder blades, shoulders, neck, scalp, forehead, space between the eyebrows, eyebrows, eyes, eyelids, nose and nostrils, mouth, tongue, jaw, cheeks, chin, and head. Your neck, shoulders, face and head are now fully relaxed and warm.

4. Slowly move on to visualize and consciously relax your chest, upper abdomen, lower abdomen and pelvis. Now visualize and try to consciously relax all your internal organs - your heart, spleen, liver, kidneys and so on.

5. Bring your awareness to your right arm. Relax the fingers, palm of the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder. Your whole right arm is relaxed and warm. Repeat on your left arm.

6. Your whole body is relaxed and warm. Enjoy the sense of peace. Imagine all your internal organs functioning perfectly, removing toxins from your blood and tissues. You feel cleaner, lighter, healthier.

Taken from Clean Up Your Diet by Max Tomlinson, 2007, published by Duncan Baird Publishers, London