Glow on a detox
If the late onset of summer means you’re still sporting dull, pasty skin and winter excess baggage on your body, look to your larder for a seasonal change of gear.
As a Hollywood nutritionist and author of Beauty Detox Solution, Kimberly Snyder’s (right) philosophy is that you can eat your way to radiant skin and an enviable body — no faddy diets or silly fasts required.
Having helped countless high-profile celebrities prepare for the red carpet, her quick fixes could transform you into a summer star too.
“What we eat affects not only our weight and our overall health, but also our hair, skin and nails — all the features that make us beautiful. To unlock that beauty, one needs to cleanse from within,” Snyder says.
So head to the supermarket and stock up on ingredients for a beautiful summer.
Forget calorie and carb counting and look to the foods that affect how you look and feel.
“The skin is our largest organ and functions like a mirror of what’s going on inside the body,” Snyder explains. “Fruits and vegetables have powerful minerals and enzymes that promote beauty from the inside out.”
The fibre-packed glowing green smoothie (see recipe below) is one of Snyder’s beauty detox foundations. It’s an easy way to incorporate a large amount of greens into your diet — just one serving contains more than three cups of dark leafy green vegetables, which is more than most people eat in a week.
Snyder says: “All the nutrients and vitamins and minerals get into your system and the fibre cleans you out. Even if you don’t change the rest of your diet and have this smoothie instead of your usual breakfast, this can make a real difference.”
A beauty detox is about making progress, not perfection, according to Snyder. She suggests drinking hot lemon and water in the mornings, swapping dairy cheese for goat’s cheese, and if you can’t resist chocolate, try good quality dark stuff.
You won’t wake up looking like a supermodel after a day of healthy eating but there are quick fixes to help kick-start your body beautiful mission.
Snyder says: “If you’re gearing up for summer there are speedy tricks to give you a boost but often people start to feel and look good and want to continue.”
She suggests aiming to consume the juice of two lemons a day, whether it’s with water or squeezed onto salads or spinach: “Lemon supports your liver and has lots of vitamin C so it will assist with your beach body goals.”
Aim to order your meals light to heavy, throughout the day, avoiding a big lunch you will struggle to digest. If you’re feeling bloated, drink natural cranberry concentrate an hour before bedtime, diluted with water.
“A lot of people hold ‘water weight’, which makes you look puffy, especially if you consume a lot of salt,” Snyder says. explains. “Cranberry concentrate makes your kidney push out the excess salts and water.”
A Just a few tweaks to your daily diet and you should see results in as little as three days, according to Snyder: “The combination of losing the water weight and getting the energy from the glowing green smoothie — your skin starts to glow, your eyes look brighter, and extra weight starts to fall off.”
Certain foods and ingredients have beautifying properties that you can incorporate into your everyday diet. Snyder recommends:
Pumpkin seeds are a major beautifying food, as they are loaded with our beauty minerals zinc, calcium, potassium and magnesium, as well as B vitamins and collagen-repairing vitamin C and vitamin E.
Leomn is an amazing cleanser with more than 200 enzymes. It is one of the most restorative foods for the liver.
Parsley is rich in beauty vitamins A and C, folic acid and has flavonoids that act as antioxidants to help stop free radicals that can damage cells and speed up ageing.
Tumeric is an ayurvedic spice that has amazing antioxidant properties. It inhibits oxidation and protects from free radical damage, and also helps clean up metabolic waste and supports the liver.
Red peppers are bursting with vitamins A, C and K. The important antioxidant vitamins A and C help prevent cell damage and premature ageing, and reduce inflammation. They can also strengthen collagen, helping to reduce cellulite.
Snyder swears by the GGS (Glowing Green Smoothie) to make a difference. “It’s an amazing thing to do for summer and bikini season. You get a lot of energy and your skin starts to glow.” Here’s how to make one using a blender:
500ml water
1/2 head of organic spinach
1 head organic romaine
Juice of 1/2 organic lemon
3-4 sticks organic celery
1 organic banana
1 organic pear
1 organic apple
Fill the blender with the water, spinach and romaine and blend until smooth.
Add the celery, apple and pear and blend until smooth.
Add the lemon juice and banana for the final blend and enjoy.
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