By Kris Abbey

Eating clean and giving your body a good detox doesn’t need to be drab. Here are 10 things you can do that will make you feel fantastic:

1. Try to stay away from grain-based carbs for 4 weeks. These include flour, breakfast cereals, pasta, breads and all forms of sugar. If this is too hard, add small amounts of whole grains such as brown rice, oats, bread made from rye, oats or spelt, quinoa, amaranth, millet, and buckwheat.
2. Eat an abundance of fresh (preferably organic) fruit and vegetables every day. Non-starchy vegetables will be your main supply of carbohydrates for the next 4 weeks. Add small amounts of above if you are feeling tired.
3. Eat at least 1 big, colourful salad every day. Make it as colourful as you can get and add fresh herbs to give it zing. Sprinkle a good quality protein over the top (nuts, seeds, lean chicken, fish, egg or tofu) and voilà!
4. Cut out soft drinks, packaged fruit juices, cordials and alcohol. If you must have the occasional glass of wine, keep it to no more than 2 glasses of quality wine and only indulge once a week. If you can sustain for 4 weeks it’s worth it.
5. Use cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil, walnut oil, hazelnut oil and flaxseed oil on your salads. For cooking use butter (yes, that natural stuff that gets a hard wrap), coconut oil or olive oil (these don’t convert to trans fats when heated like many vegetable oils).
6. For your protein sources choose raw, unsalted nuts, seeds, free-range eggs and non-GMO soy products. For the non-vegos choose oily fish (no more than three times each week), free-range chicken and turkey and lean cuts of meat.
7. Stay as far away as you can from margarine (even those with added plant sterols that reduce cholesterol). Also avoid processed and highly hydrogenated vegetable oils and any sauces or dressings that contain them. Make your own salad dressings with natural ingredients, fresh herbs, cold pressed oil (above) and a good balsamic vinegar. Remember low HI, and that’s for all of your food choices.
8. Eliminate all sugars, including malt extract, corn syrup, and especially those artificial ones (which should be banned along with all those ‘diet’ drinks that contain them)! If you need a sweetener use Manuka honey, grade A Maple syrup or Stevia (a very sweet herb grown in South America).
9. Drink 2 litres of water every day. If coffee is a must-have, restrict to one cup a day and drink it unsweetened and black. Same goes for tea . If you do have a black tea or coffee, drink two extra glasses of water to compensate for the diuretic effect these have.
10. If you do succumb to temptation, DO NOT beat yourself up and shower yourself in guilt. Put it behind you and get back on track. Don’t use it as an excuse to throw in the towel. Even applying 6 of these tips is better than nothing. Get back to the why you are doing this, and get on with the doing.

If you’d like to take your clean eating further, you should try the Get Clean | Get Lean Program.