Christmas party pre-tox

Our plan gets you eating well but will even help you lose a bit of weight along the way.

14:18 03 December 2010

Trying to keep eating healthily over Christmas can be difficult, so instead of missing out on all the egg nog and mince pies why not try this festive party pretox plan?

Our plan gets you eating well but will even help you lose a bit of weight along the way.

The Rules

There are a couple of things you need to stick to along the way in order to achieve our healthy party pretox state. Make sure you:

• Drink at least two litres of water a day
• No caffeine or alcohol - fruit tea is allowed
• Stick to the meals planned out below - one breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack
• Follow the plan for two consecutive weeks
• If you feel hungry, have seconds! This plan is not meant to starve you, it's main aim is to get you eating healthily; weight loss is a bonus.

Breakfast

Kick-start your metabolism and flush your system by starting every day with a cup of hot water, the juice of a whole lemon and a pinch of paprika

Then, choose a smoothie for your breakfast. Pick from:

• Pineapple and passion fruit, made with natural yoghurt
• Blackberry and cranberry, made by blending the blackberries with cranberry juice and ice
• Beetroot blitx, made by blending cooked beetroot, orange or pomegranate juice, ginger and de-stoned red plums until smooth
• Tropical pineapple, mango, passion fruit, banana, live yoghurt and orange juice blended together
• Oaty goodness, made by liquidizing the zest of an orange, orange juice, the juice of some root ginger, mango, a spoon of porridge oats, a spoon of cinnamon and a couple of drops of vanilla extract until smooth
• Superfood, made by blending oen avocado with natural youghurt, pineapple juice and a spoon of honey
• Soya smoothie is great for digestion and is made by blending a peeled pear with banana, 2 spoons of linseeds and soya milk

Lunch

Try and diversify your lunches by having two meat, two fish and three vegetarian ones a week. Try:

• Chicken and tomato couscous
• Spinach, egg and tomato salad
• Mackerel and chickpea salad
• Salmon and broadbean salad
• Tuna and bean salad
• Gazpacho soup
• Mushroom, lentil and wild rice salad

Dinner

Alternate your evening meal so that you have a soup every other day and a bigger meal on the in between days. Why not try:

• A watercress and potato soup, flavoured with ginger to aid digestion
• Seabass with beetroot, full of omega-3
• Salmon stir fry
• Hoisin chicken with mushrooms and peppers
• Salmon, spinach and broccoli bake
• Tomato soup
• Beetroot and pomegranate soup

Snacks

Between 11am and 3pm have one of the following snacks to stave off hunger pangs. They will also top up your five-a-day, which can only be a good thing! You'll be in your LBD in no time.

• A piece of fruit
• Celery and peanut butter
• Fat-free youghurt
• Walnuts
• Carrot and cucumber sticks with a tzatziki dip