How to Create an At-Home Cleanse for Cheap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrtEt8AC5qk

Welcome back to the collaboration between Mint and Brewing Happiness. I’m Haley, the girl behind Brewing Happiness – a blog about celebrating the small healthy choices we make in our lives, complete with recipes for everybody! I’m here to give you tips on living a healthy, happy life on a budget.

January is the season of juice cleanses, detox meals and gym memberships. We all want to start the year feeling happier and healthier than ever. While the intentions are great, the prices of these “cleanses” can be hefty.

The truth is that even if drinking juice for five days makes you feel great – it’s not necessarily the best thing for your body. There is no need to under nourish your body in order to feel your healthiest. A true cleanse should look less like a diet and more like a boot camp to help heal your gut, digestion, nutrition, and overall wellbeing.

That’s what this program I’ve put together is all about: nourishing yourself in a way that can heal damage caused by holiday eating habits. It is a two day program, although you can feel free to extend it into a week-long program if you want! I’d even recommend adopting some of these habits into your life long-term. This will help your body feel it’s best at all times!

Below I have provided a meal plan for a two day cleanse, along with a cost breakdown for you. First, however, I thought I’d provide you with some “detox” guidelines, so that you can educate yourself on the benefits of the plan or even for you to make your own cleanse based on these rules!

How to Create an At-Home Cleanse for Cheap

#1 Cut out the three biggest inflammatory foods – gluten, dairy and sugar.

All three of these categories can cause inflammation in the gut, erode the lining of your stomach, cause digestive issues, agitate allergies, and more. It’s no surprise they are also the foods we tend to eat most during the holidays. So taking a break from these three categories will give your gut time to heal itself naturally, making digestion easier.

#2 Change the way you caffeinate.

I’d suggest giving up caffeine completely, especially if you are only doing a two-day cleanse. However, if that isn’t an option for you, I recommend that you only drink coffee AFTER eating a breakfast full of healthy-fats. This will help stabilize your blood sugar so that caffeine doesn’t drastically affect your blood sugar and hormones.

#3 Amp up your healthy fat intake.

Healthy fats are a great way to stabilize blood sugar and keep you feeling fuller for longer. Since this cleanse isn’t a diet, there’s no need to feel hungry all the time. Healthy fats can help prevent that and help energize your body and make you feel healthy and happy!

#4 Add ferments to your daily regiment.

Fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar, and kombucha are full of probiotics and therefore can aid in digestion immensely. I highly suggest eating or drinking a small glass or 1 tablespoon of ferments about 30 minutes before each meal. This will allow your body to digest your food and soak in all of the nutrients during mealtime.

#5 Eat ALL THE GREENS.

Since your body is primed to be able to digest and soak in all of the nutrients you are ingesting during this cleanse, it’s a great time to amp up the amount of greens you eat. You’ll end up getting more iron, folate, potassium, magnesium, etc. than you would normally and you’ll come out feeling like a million bucks.

Example Menu

• BREAKFAST – $10.84 total / $5.42 day
  • Warm lemon water, 30-minutes before breakfast
  • Blueberry Almond Overnight Oats
• LUNCH – $12.33 total / $6.17 day
  • 5 Minute Faux Kombucha, drink 30 minutes before meal – $5.98 total, $1.50 per drink
  • Super Greens and Fennel Soup – cut recipe in half recipe for 2 day cleanse – $9.33 total, $4.67 per bowl
• DINNER – $27.10 total / $13.50 day
  • 5 Minute Faux Kombucha, drank 30 minutes before meal
  • Sweet Thai Chili Lettuce Wraps – $24.02 total, $12.01 day OR Crispy Orange Tofu Collard Wraps – $24.17 total, $12.10 day

TOTAL COST : $50.27 total / $25.14 day

The pricing estimates on each recipe are based on prices at my local Whole Foods in NYC, so they can vary depending on your location. They do not include the price of “pantry staples” like olive oil, spices, honey, etc. The exact cost will change depending on those elements. I have also budgeted out this “cleanse” to last two days, but realistically this would make enough food for one person for 3 days, if you want.

When you compare this meal plan to a $100 dollar juice cleanse that will leave you feeling hungry and sad, the choice is obvious! It’s much easier and cheaper to create a healthy detox for yourself at home.

Wishing you health and happiness this new year!

Follow along!

Over the next few months I’ll be covering a variety of ways to be healthy on a budget. Keep an eye out for those and head over to Brewing Happiness for healthy recipe inspiration in the meantime!