One Day Cleanse: A Healthy Way To Kick-Start The New Year

Are you in need of a quick detox? So you spent the weekend indulging– a few more cocktails than usual, maybe a frozen pizza, a few too many cookies? It’s natural to think that in order to counteract all that binging with a day of deprivation. But I have good news for you. You can still do a one-day cleanse without doing anything crazy because your body is designed to detox for you! This guide is going to offer support for your body to do all the work.   

While tabloids may tell you that “detoxing” by sipping cayenne pepper water all day can give you a body like Beyoncé, there are healthier, more practical ways to get back on track after some binge eating and calorie spending. (And trust me, we’ve all been there.)

After years of helping women get on the right track for a healthy lifestyle, here’s my foolproof plan to naturally cleanse your body and cleanse in a day so you can get back on track after an indulgent weekend.

Step-By-Step Guide For Your One Day Cleanse

I know you might think you need to cleanse and detox after binge eating by drastically cutting calories but the focus for your one-day detox should be about replacing nutrients and eliminating toxins.

The key to a post-weekend detox is not to go from one extreme to the other, but to adopt these five simple tips. Ease back into a healthy week by following these guidelines for one day and detox your body:

1. Drink Water with Lemon Or Apple Cider Vinegar

First thing’s first: it’s time to go into hydration mode.

If you overindulged, chances are you consumed at least a few treats that were high in sodium. (Or maybe just one too many margaritas!) To counteract that, start your day with a big glass of room temperature water with fresh squeezed lemon in it. It will balance your pH levels and stimulate the natural enzymes in your liver, which helps your body flush out toxins. You can also choose to dilute a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar in your  water. Both of these methods will help hit “reset” on your body!

2. Sweat It Out With A Short Workout

You can’t go from binge eating or overindulging all weekend straight to running a marathon, so today just focus on sweating it out in a simple way. Ease back into your healthy routine by doing one of the following:

• Alternating between jogging half a mile and walking half a mile, for as long as you like
• Trying one of these no-fuss 10-minute workouts
• Doing 10 minutes of yoga, like this 10-Minute Yoga Flow

All of these options can help you sweat out toxins and give you a much-needed boost of energy after a weekend of binge carbo-loading. A short but sweet workout at the beginning of the week also helps you get into a good routine so you’ll be ready for more exercise throughout the week.

If you’re doing yoga, try to incorporate some twists as well. (Our 10-Minute Yoga Flow has a few!) Twists help wring out the organs and are a natural method of detoxification.

Related: How To Use Yoga To Detox

3. Eat A Bountiful Breakfast

Remember: today is not about skipping meals, it’s about eating clean and flooding your body with nutrients. Breakfast is the most important meal of day, so make it your biggest. Be sure to get some protein which will help keep you full, and if you can, add some probiotic-rich foods like greek yogurt or kombucha. (You can also take probiotics in supplement form.)

These will help re-establish a healthy gut flora, which can be thrown off balance by a weekend of binge-eating. Our sample 24-hour meal plan at the end of this blog has great ideas for how to start your morning off right and incorporate probiotic-rich foods throughout your day to start the debloat process.

4. Choose Fiber-Rich Snacks When You’re Hungry

After a weekend of binge eating, your body will want to eat as much as you have been eating. To keep yourself full and satisfied, allow yourself to fill up on fiber.

Many fruits and veggies naturally have fiber in them, as do oats and legumes. While juicing is never a bad idea, eating fruit in its whole form maintains more of the fiber.

You get the natural sugars from the fruit (which we think are just fine!) paired with the natural fiber it produces; this makes your body absorb the sugar more slowly so you don’t get an insulin spike.

So if you find yourself extra hungry today, choose a fiber-rich snack that will make you feel full while still being healthy. Here are some great ideas:

 5.  Get A Solid 7-8 Hours Of Sleep

You’ve made it through your day of healthy detoxing! You might be tempted to unwind with a glass of wine, but for tonight, treat yourself to a solid night’s sleep instead of Chardonnay.

Alcohol can mess with your sleep, and when you don’t get enough sleep, levels of two key hormones that control your appetite—leptin and ghrelin—get thrown out of whack.

This hormonal fluctuation makes you naturally hungrier the next day and can cause you to crave saltier, fattier foods than you normally would. So it’s safe to say that one of the best things you can do to reset your body after a binge weekend is to get enough sleep.

6. Flood Your Body With Nutrients

One of the best ways to flood your body with nutrients is juicing. You can buy delicious healthy fresh juices or you can make your own. Check out my juicing for beginners guide that has all the recipes and tips to get started! 

7. Cleanse Teas

Tea is a wonderful option when you want to detox your body because it not only helps eliminate toxins, tea supports your body’s natural detoxifying process. 

Types of teas that support your liver, kidney, and aid in detoxing:

Dandelion

Milk Thistle

Lemongrass 

Tumeric

Ginger

Some of my favorite blends are Yogi Detox Tea and Traditional Medicinals Tea, Organic Dandelion Leaf, and Root Tea. 

Sample Meal Plan for Your One Day Cleanse

So what’s the best plan to reset your body after a few days of indulgences? You can’t just go from tons of rich calorie-laden foods all weekend to a sad desk salad that’s supposed to last you the entire day.

Use it as a guide to get back on track with your food choices.