Easy Weekend Detox: Banana Island Diet

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How would you like to do an easy and incredibly sweet weekend detox called banana island diet to help your body cleanse itself and boost your energy levels?

We all want to feel are very best and have lots of energy to do everything that we want to in our everyday lives. But many of us struggle to reach this level of health and there is a good reason for this.

In today’s world, it is all too easy for your body to accumulate toxins from many different sources, including the eating of unhealthy processed or refined foods, leading a sedentary lifestyle, experiencing stressful living conditions, and being exposed to environmental pollution.

This accumulation of toxins places a large burden upon our bodies, which they can then struggle to deal with.

Toxins damage the normal functioning of your body’s cells, and so prevent you from reaching your optimal level of health.

As a consequence low energy levels, ill health and even disease can result.

Just some of the warning signs that can indicate that you need to detox include:

  • Susceptibility to colds and infections
  • Feeling run down all the time
  • Skin issues, such as acne or eczema
  • Exhaustion after light exercise
  • Indigestion
  • Bad breath
  • Bloating
  • Constipation
  • Weight gain

Detoxing your body is a necessary step to take if you want to achieve vibrant health, shed extra weight and help your body heal faster.

One great way to help your body detox itself is called a “banana island diet”.

Now, it may sound like you have to travel to some faraway tropical destination to do it, but in actual fact you can go on a banana island from the comfort of your own home.

So what is this detox all about? Well, it is a phrase that is used to describe someone who eats only bananas for a certain length of time, which can be anything from around just several days up to 30 days, and even longer.

Why bananas? Well, there are a good number of reasons why bananas are a great choice of food to do your detox with and these are just some of them:

  • Very easy to digest
  • Contain a multitude of nutrients, including proteins, fats and carbohydrates
  • Completely satisfy your natural sweet tooth
  • Perfect source of simple sugars that your body needs to fuel themselves
  • Are a whole food, so ideal for creating great health
  • Normally easy to get hold of in sufficient quantities and are cost effective

Conventional diets take a lot of your body’s energy to digest the food you eat, but when you eat only bananas (as they are so easy to digest), then a lot of this energy is saved and so this extra energy then gives your body the chance to cleanse and detox itself more quickly and efficiently.

Personally, I have gone on several banana island diet detoxes, from just 3 days to 14 days and I’ve experienced great results, including:

  • Feeling more energetic and positive than ever.
  • Even more shiny and silky skin than I have with my regular fruit-based raw vegan plan.
  • Great athletic performance (I continued training for my marathon, covering 30K in our day, then also cycling 80K and setting a PB for my 5K running during the 12-day banana challenge).
  • My body felt more flexible than ever.
  • I experienced very sharp clarity of mind, which allowed me to restructure tasks and activities in my life and set goals for new projects.

I have also led several banana detoxes and coached people on doing them the right way, with great success. This plan is also a great way to transition to a healthy raw food lifestyle and overcome cravings.

So what can your day on this plan look like?

Morning:

– Meditate or do some deep breathing for at least 10 minutes to get into the right state of mind.

– Drink some water.

– Exercise for at least 30 minutes before your breakfast.

– Drink more water before having a breakfast of bananas. You can blend them with water or coconut water and add some optional greens to your smoothie, if desired. So you will need to eat the same amount of calories you usually eat for breakfast. If you are used to an 800-calorie breakfast, that would equate to about 8 medium bananas.

Afternoon:

– Drink more water before your banana meal.

– A lunch meal of whole bananas, a banana smoothie or bananas blended with greens. Eat until you are satiated.

Evening:

– Drink more water before your banana meal.

–  A dinner meal of whole bananas, a banana smoothie or bananas blended with greens.  Again, eat until you are satiated, which can mean anything from 5 to 20+ bananas if you are very active.

–  Engage in a 10-minute meditation or relaxation to calm the mind before going to bed.

–  Go to bed by 10PM to rest and allow your body to work on its restoration.

Ready to jump in and do it this weekend?

Make sure you stock up on bananas and ripen then in time. A ripe banana will typically be yellow and have brown spots on it when ripe and most importantly pass the squeeze test, which is when it should give quite easily when you squeeze it gently between your thumb and forefinger

Happy banana island-ing and share your comments below!

Sources for this article:

1. http://rawsomehealthy.com/bananaisland

2. http://www.rawsomehealthy.com/12-day-banana-island/

3. http://authoritynutrition.com/foods/bananas/

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About the author: Yulia Tarbath is a Nutritionist, parent, fitness enthusiast, and a world traveller who writes, speaks and coaches on the raw food lifestyle. Along with her husband, Paul Tarbath, they are the authors of several books, including Thrive On Raw and Thrive On Raw Recipes. Paul and Yulia are followed by tens of thousands of people around the globe and they enjoy helping them in transforming their health the natural and holistic way. You can find their work at: www.rawsomehealthy.com

Yulia Tarbath
Yulia Tarbath is a Certified Nutritionist, author, international speaker with over 7 years experience on a raw foods, vegan lifestyle. With over 60,000 followers around the world, Yulia and her husband Paul are authorities on living a balanced, nutritionally sufficient plant-based lifestyle. Through their videos, blogs, coaching and online programs, they are supporting both women and men around the world in cleansing and healing their bodies naturally, as well as achieving the shape and health of their dreams! Sign up to their FREE 5-day raw food menu plan here: www.rawsomehealthy.com/rawmenu. Learn more about them at: www.rawsomehealthy.com