It’s strange how time flies here, or feels like it does. Before you know it, it’s Fall and Winter in other parts of the world but in Singapore it’s heat and humidity, year after year. I’ve been in another of those ruts much like this weather. Post green smoothie/Diwali sweet coma you could say. Nah, I’ll just blame it on season-less Singapore:).
So I thought about embarking on a full “cleanse” after all that sugar and fried stuff from Diwali. I bought the 21 day cleanse from Simple green smoothies along with 2 other friends and we had our own little community of sorts – sharing recipes and our daily hits and misses. But then I realized that the 100% cleanses where you have a skinny diet for a week or two was not for me. A menu where you live on a certain calorie diet or deprive yourself of something only to crave it later wasn’t going to work. My two other fellow cleansers started it and reported a loss of energy the first week.
I have always believed that a good diet is when you eat well, eat right and feel energetic first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. If you feel like a ton of bricks and just want to curl up and go to sleep it’s not the diet for you. Of course if you have been on a high processed, high sugar, caffeine diet then the first few days of weaning are the toughest and the symptoms may last a day or two. But once you are past that phase you should begin to see a spike in energy that lasts all day without the need to starve yourself. So here’s what I have been trying to do for the past few weeks:
- Eat salads, soups, juices, fruits, greens, smoothies, whole grains, fermented foods, nuts and seeds – foods that are easily digestible by the body. You will find that when the body doesn’t need much energy to digest food the energy can be expended towards other bodily functions. This is what will give you more energy.
- Eat small regular meals even if you have to eat every 2 hours but not because you have to, because you want to and when you feel hungry.
- And most important of all, be mindful of what and when you eat. When you are conscious of what and when you eat you absolutely will not over eat and you will eat only what your body needs.
And so armed with that mantra, a couple of us have started this what’s app community of sharing salad recipes. Smoothies for breakfast, salad for lunch or dinner and then a regular meal, rotis, brown rice or anything non processed, fresh and home made. And of course a vigorous 30 minute workout 4 times a week at least. Try this and watch that energy spike.
This salad is a favorite of a long time family friend. I call it the everything salad as it has a lot of ingredients. But that’s what makes it filling enough to last through lunch or dinner. Thank you Suja for your contribution to this new series — Snappy Salads:)
Ingredients:
1 lebanese cucumber
1 red pepper
11/2 cups spinach & rocket mix
1 bunch baby asparagus (nuke them in the microwave for a few minutes. They should be crunchy)
½ avocado diced into cubes
12- 15 roasted almonds, crushed (roast them in microwave for 5 minutes)
some pitted black or green olives.
½ cup of boiled chickpeas
2 tbsps chopped basil
1 tbsp fresh rosemary
You may also add Mung (green gram) or alfalfa sprouts if you wish
Dressing
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
black pepper to taste
Add the dressing & toss the salad – a healthy salad is ready to crunch away.