Every summer season comes with all the new miracle creams and pills that are supposed to help you lose that belly fat and achieve your #summerbodygoal! If one of their benefits is to help your skin get more toned and smooth, let’s be realistic, neither of them will help you get rid of these extra pounds before summer. So what are the other solutions? Well, if there is not a good thing such as a healthy diet and exercise, you can still switch a little thing or two in your daily routine, to quick your metabolism like juicing, detox or intermitting fasting. Before starting any of these diets (« diet » as eating lifestyle, not a weight loss diet), make sure to run a blood test with a doctor and see if you’re thyroid and cortisol (a stress hormone) are on point and if you’re not suffering from any deficiencies. And don’t hesitate to talk about the new eating lifestyle you want to begin, as your doctor will always be the right person to give you a good recommendation about it. So let’s begin with one the deliciously easy way to give your body a quick, and get it ready for summer…
JUICING. Instead of your morning coffee or cereals, switch for a delightful and tasty juice. And don’t be afraid to read kale, spinach, or ginger in the recipes, as you won’t even be able to taste them in these delicious mixtures. From nutrients to mental alertness and happiness, to disease prevention and immune system boost, the benefits of juicing are well known. In fact, 95% of all the vitamins and enzymes that our body needs come from the juice of raw fruit and vegetables. Not forgetting that they are the perfect source of plant-based cells restoring nutrition since they retain nutrients that would normally be lost by cooking. There are many recipes available for targeted needs (energy, flat belly…) and you can add superfoods to boost even more your daily juice, with Chia seeds (for omega 3 and fiber), spirulina, chlorella (rich protein sources), turmeric (reducing inflammation), ginger, maca and so many more.
INTERMITTENT FASTING. For most people, the word fasting brings up the notion of prolonged periods without food and drink. If we already know them in their religious or medical (before a procedure for example) form, lately there’s been a new trend getting all the attention, it’s the intermittent fasting. Contrary to popular opinion thoughts, intermittent fasting is not a diet to lose weight. As a fact, it’s not much focused on what you eat, but when. It is based on a time-restricted feeding (TRF) which involves eating only during a certain number of hours each day. The most common form consists of 16 hours of fasting, and 8 hours eating per day. But you have various TFR, going up even to 23 hours of fasting a day. As you might understand, the focus is to give your body enough time to digest and reset, before going for another window of eating. So what a typical day of intermittent fasting consists of? Usually, it’s recommended to start your morning with a glass of water with lemon or a green tea with a little bit of ginger, good to maintain the pH balance of your body. Then around noon, it’s time for the first meal. Breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner are all included in that diet, as intermittent fasting is not about skipping a meal. But given enough time to your metabolism to reset.