12 delicious detox salad recipes to help lighten up your diet and your life. Each salad is vegetarian so take a break from the meat and embrace the detox!
With the new year inevitably comes new diets. New diets that are normally kicked to the curb by January 31. Although, I fully support using this momentum to kickstart new habits, creating long-term changes is the real goal. Its better to eat reasonably all the time, rather than eat super clean for two weeks a year. Ya feel me?
If you really want to make a big dietary change in your life, you need to think long-term. Make changes that you can sustain over time. Even if these changes happen gradually, you’ll be creating habits that can last a lifetime.
Sure, you can do a juice cleanse for a week, but its just going to leave you under nourished, craving carbs, and apologizing for all of the b*tchy things you said while you were hungry. Trust me. Been there, done that.
The word “balance” is pretty overplayed, but I really can’t think of anything better to sum it up. If you’re doing the whole new year’s resolution thing, don’t throw in the towel if you eat a rice krispy treat. Just prep a smoothie, some hummus, and veggies for the next day to make sure you’re prepared to snack healthier.
Eating healthy isn’t just for looking good on that next vacation. You’re creating your future. If you eat nothing but junk food, your body isn’t going to be healthy enough to be active at 70, let alone 60. That might seem old to a lot of you, but seeing how quickly my 20’s flew by, I’m convinced that age sneaks up on all of us eventually. While its never too late to change, it does become harder and damage to your body becomes less reversible as time flies by.
The real kicker? Its not even that hard!!! You don’t have to be a vegetarian, let alone a gluten free, paleo, vegan that hashtags #blessed on the daily next to perfect looking smoothie bowls and yoga pics. Screw that. Do you, stay authentic, and just improve little by little over time.
Once you become conscious of the way you eat and the way you want to eat, you’ll start recognizing the bad habits you have. From here, you can start replacing them with better habits. Not perfect, but better.
You can still eat your favorite foods, just add a whole hell of a lot more veggies and start making little changes as you go. Make your healthy food taste fabulous so that you don’t get sick of it. If your new diet tastes absolutely delicious and you feel great, you won’t want to stop.
So, let’s kick off the new year a detox salad or two (since everyone is doing it), BUT don’t go crazy! Instead of doing a salad for every meal, pick a few of these that look good to you and aim to do a salad for lunch every other day or a couple times a week. Real change happens over time. Don’t rush it!
12 Healthy Detox Salad Recipes
- Summer Salad with Blackberry Vinaigrette from yours truly
- Lime Peanut Sweet Potato Noodle Salad from ifoodreal
- Green Goddess Detox Salad from Pinch of Yum
- East African Mango Cucumber Salad from Wanderlust Kitchen
- Berry Arugula and Quinoa Salad with Lemon Chia Seed Dressing from the Floating Kitchen
- Chickpea Salad with Tomatoes and Basil from Feasting Not Fasting
- Autumn Quinoa and Kale Salad with Spiralized Apples from Inspiralized
- Cucumber Peanut Salad from Naturally Ella
- Power Brown Lentil Salad Recipe with Pomegranates and Swiss Chard by Mediterranean Dish
- Herb Cucumber Salad by Lexi’s Clean Kitchen
- Mexican Quinoa Salad from Fit Foodie Finds
- Simple Kale Tahini Salad from The Healthy Maven