5 TIPS TO SPRING CLEAN YOUR DIET

Well it's May and I'm extremely excited.

I'll be done with the Spring 2014 semester this Tuesday and you bet I'm going to celebrate!

I'll also be getting my very first gym membership. I've been working out for nearly 4 years and I've never owned a membership. I've always worked out at the park, home, or the school gym.

Simon goes to Metroflex Gym in Fort Worth and I went there once as a guest....let me just tell ya right now that those men are some of the biggest and tallest men ever. Okay maybe the tallest part is a little biased because I only stand 5 foot 2. But still...

So I'll be training with Simon this summer and we'll be doing a ton of awesome workouts and I'm super excited about that! I really enjoyed my time there last time and I'm excited to be in an atmosphere such as this one. Plus, it's just more fun working out with someone else.

To celebrate May I wanted to give you a jumpstart into your nutrition goals! It's the perfect time of the year to rid your kitchen of the junk and replace it with healthy options!

Taking the first step towards change is hard.

Trust me, I know.

But luckily for you I have 5 super easy tips on how to spring clean your diet!

HOW TO GO ON A DAILY DETOX + GLOW DETOX SMOOTHIE

There are tons and tons of detox recipes out there. There are even 3, 5, or 7 day detox plans. The act of detoxing is great because you'll be getting rid of nasty little (and big) toxins in the body.

The concept of detoxing is daunting to some though because they think they'll feel deprived. Truth is that you will feel deprived if you approach it the wrong way. Quite frankly I think the word detox is thrown around so loosely that its lost its meaning, kind of like the word love.

I truly believe that a detox should be an everyday thing. Everything we ingest should aid in detoxification, that means eating foods high in alkaline & low in acid.

Our body functions on a pH scale, keep in mind these numbers 0-7-14. The lower the number the higher in acidic, the higher the number the higher in alkaline, and 7 is our natural balance of alkaline & acid. We want to keep our pH balanced and eat foods predominantly in the 6-8 range.

Don't get confused with acidic tasting fruits such as lemons, limes, or oranges. They taste acidic but are digested  as an alkaline.

Foods high in alkaline

• Fruits
• Sprouts
• Vegetables of all kinds (excluding starchy ones)

Foods high in acid

• Alcohol
• Animal Protein
• Artificial Sweeteners
• Caffeine
• Dairy Products
• Drugs (antibiotics, steroids)
• Nicotine
• Processed Foods
• Refined Sugar
• Soda

The benefits of one, three, or five, detoxes can be wonderful but the best kind of detox is the one where we constantly eat nutrient dense foods that will detoxify our body on a daily basis.

To help get you started on a daily detox I wanted to share with you my ultimate go to green smoothie.  This is my go to smoothie and like I tell Simon, I never go a morning without it.

I call it my GLOW SMOOTHIE.