9 Easy Ways to Improve Your Health with a Real Food Diet

green smoothie detox

1. Cut out the tap water and start drinking fresh spring water or water from a purified source. Use a shower filter and protect yourself from absorbing chemicals from tap water. This is one of the biggest culprits of additional toxins that can be easily avoided.

2. Drink more fresh water instead of coffee or sugary beverages. Instead of coffee or tea first thing in the morning, have at least 2 cups of fresh water first. This helps wake your brain up and hydrate your body before you dehydrate it with caffeine. Wherever you would normally drink a fruit juice, a pop, or a sugary hot drink, have water instead. This will improve mood, boost weight loss without changing your diet, and improve your skin quality. It’s absolutely incredible what can occur when you make this one change in your lifestyle.

3. Have green veggies every day. Instead of having starchy carbs or sugary root veggies (which can still be enjoyed), make sure your plate is filled with green vegetables on a daily basis. Be sure to rotate your greens, cook your cruciferous vegetables if you have a thyroid condition and enjoy them with a healthy fat like coconut oil to improve your bodies ability to absorb the nutrients.

4. Get rid of pre-packaged foods or frozen dinners and go for home-made fresh food as often as possible (or always!). Many of these products are either loaded with sugars, soybean oil, preservatives that suck, or they are lacking nutrients or all of the above. Fresh is best, and the more you eat fresh organic foods that more your body will be able to utilize food as fuel, and focus the rest of the energy on healing, shedding unwanted weight, or keeping you looking healthy and happy.

5. Try swapping your coffee for green tea, a green smoothie or a juice. If you’re addicted to caffeine and you also have adrenal fatigue or a hormonal imbalance, this could be a problem that’s stopping you from achieving a state of health and relaxation in your body. Go green or just drink more water and you will slowly break the addiction and find you have more energy without the coffee.

6. Avoid eating corn, wheat, dairy and soy and see if you notice a difference in your health. Corn, wheat and soy tend to hide in either alone or together in most packaged foods. These are common allergens that contribute to inflammation, poor skin, eczema and other  imbalances. Eliminating these foods from your diet could literally transform your health. Even the smallest amount could be the culprit to something that’s consistently coming up for you and causing discomfort (like a rash or skin outbreak).

7. Make your own nut milks. Store bought nut milks are loaded with sugar and other preservatives and gums. It’s crazy how much sugar you’re getting in one cup of store bought almond milk, up to 16 grams! Add that to your green smoothie and you’re sort of missing the point. Make your own nut milks from almonds, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, brazil nuts, cashews or even walnuts. Here’s a recipe.

8. Start your morning off with a green smoothie or take a 30 day green smoothie challenge. You can either gather recipes from Young and Raw on Facebook, here on the blog, or you can grab our 30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge App with 120 green smoothie recipes here. Inside the app you can set timers for yourself to keep yourself on track. A green smoothie a day has changed the lives of thousands of people and resulted in lower inflammation levels, weight loss, clearer skin and even an impact on mood. Get the app here.

9.  Sugar in small amounts is ok, but we’re way over doing it. Aim to avoid sugar in as many ways as possible to lower your intake drastically. Eat green veggies, drink more water, opt for fresh first, unpackaged and home made meals. Even coconut sugar is still sugar, so if you’re healing or trying to lose weight, it could be beneficial to reduce your intake for a while to get into balance. If you’re in iPhone, check out the 7 Day Sugar-Free Detox App that maps out all of your meals for you including shopping lists and daily alerts to keep you on track.

Sheleana Aiyana

Sheleana is passionate about getting back to nature through real food and empowering women to walk the feminine path of self-care and deep self-awareness. She's a birth doula in Vancouver, BC She's an avid reader, intuitive culinary goddess and cat lady in the making.