Chances are you’ve feasted on delicious, scrumptious food through ramadan. Did someone mention crispy pakoras? Yum! Oreo cheesecake calling your name? Yeaaaah! In this post I’ll share with you 9 ways to detox your body and mind to feel your happiest and healthiest inshaAllah. Even though this blog post is about post-ramadan it can be used for any time of the year.

Let’s begin!

1) Green Tea + Apple Cider Vinegar + Raw Coconut Oil

I’ve mentioned this countless of times on my blog, to my friends, on social media and to anyone who listens! This combination of green tea + raw apple cider vinegar + raw coconut oil has been life changing for me – my health and body isn’t the same without it. Of all the health trends that I’ve been following and practising for years – long before kale became king, this is one of the few health habits that I’ve committed throughout. Find me in any part of the world and I’ll always have a cup of green tea with me (I’ll pour you a cuppa too 😉 ) – that’s my absolute health minimum.

2) Your Thoughts Matter

I ate more fried, unhealthy foods during ramadan than I ate the entire year. Do you know how much weight I put on? Zero. That’s right. ZERO. If you told me that a few years ago, I would have never believed you. I used to think what you eat was the most important factor to your health, but I was wrong. What you think matters too.

When I was piling up my plate with chicken biryani, vegetable pakoras, fried vegetable slices (sooo good!) and Oreo cheesecake for dessert, I ate like the happiest girl alive. Because I was.

After an 18 hour fast, trust me that last thing on my mind was roasting sweet potatoes, sprinkling pomegranates and chopping up kale. Here’s what I’ve learnt from eating unhealthy for almost everyday of ramadan….

Your body can handle it. Your body can handle eating processed foods (here and there) but the stress/ guilt/ regret/ torture that your mind puts you through for eating those ‘guilty’ foods is much more harmful. Happily eating your meal guilt-free is key to a happy, functioning body.

Which bring me to my next point…

3) 80% Healthy 20% Indulgent

What you do most of the time matters more than what you do once in a while. My body was able to handle eating fried, oily foods everyday for a month because I’ve been eating pretty clean, whole foods for the last few years. A month off in the mix didn’t make much of a huge difference.

What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while. How you eat for the entire year matters so much more than the 2 weeks of dieting you force yourself through. This is where the 80/20 rule comes in – eat healthy majority of the time and the save the treats/ indulgences for 20% of the time. If that’s too much for you, aim for 60/40 – eat healthy 60% of the time and indulge 40%. Find the balance that works for you.

4) HIIT Is Your New Bestie

HIIT training has changed my life. It revved up my metabolism like nothing other. All you need is 20 minutes a day – it’s exhausting! But it works. My favourite workouts are the HIIT workouts/ Tabata training by The Body Coach – you can find him on youtube and none of his videos have music in them, which is great.

5) Start With A Healthy Breakfast

Start your day on a positive note. Who would have thought that notching up a healthy breakfast can make you so much happier and productive? I love eggs + mashed avocado + rye bread + sauerkraut for breakfast – that works for me and my lifestyle. The key is to find out what works for you. When you make a positive, happy step, first thing in the morning, your more likely to continue that momentum. How you start the day, sets the tone for the day.

6) Detox bath/ Cold Showers

Cold showers is a fairly new trick that I’ve been practising. Before you jump into the shower, rub coconut oil all over your body and take a cold shower. The longest I’ve managed and built up to is about 10 minutes (not a second more! hehe). Your tush is going to be freezing once your done but the benefits are huge. Like reducing stress, stimulating weight loss, improving immunity, circulation, speeding up muscle recovery (needed if you follow No. 4) and even feeling energised. The after effects make it so worth while.

7) Body Brushing

Spend 5 minutes a day (preferably in the morning) dry body brushing your entire body. This is a great way to assist your body to release toxins, boost circulation, exfoliate your skin (hello smooth, soft skin!), possibly even reduce cellulite* and it feels amazing! You can read more about the benefits and how to here. There are days where all I get time for is to dry body brush my legs and that’s okay – a little is better than nothing.

8) Detox Your Soul

You’ve come out from the most wonderful time of the year. You’ve lived through an entire month of pure devotion to Allah. You’ve cried and poured your heart into strengthening your relationship with Allah. Keep that momentum and spiritual detox going. No amount of kale, HIIT training, detox baths, Himalayan salt lamps, green juices, fermented veggies will change your life if you don’t have an open, vulnerable relationship with Allah. Not even the healthiest green juice could make me happy on the days where my soul was hurting.

9) What’s Your Healthy Story + Vision?

When I first started on this health journey, I would trek across London to find these cute little health shops stocking up on raw cacao/ organic raw coconut oil/ hemp seeds/ brown rice pasta and so forth – items which weren’t available in conventional supermarkets. At the time, nobody even knew kale was a vegetable.

I remember I would shop twice – once for family buying conventional foods like cereal, snacks, yoghurt etc. And the other for myself because health foods weren’t available locally. But today, so much has changed. It makes me so happy that I can walk into a local supermarket and buy kale, organic maple syrup, chia seeds, raw cacao powder, almond butter, raw coconut oil and all those wonderful produce/products to support you to great health.

That’s my journey – one that I’m still working on. What is your healthy story? What got you excited about health? Were you the classical fad dieter that’s tried every diet on the planet and finally gave it up for a happier relationship with food? What’s your journey like? Along the way you’ll have some memorable experiences like having a caterpillar hang out in your fridge for the night because someone didn’t wash the kale properly – oopsy!

Connecting with that story and my vision for health makes it so much easier to gently pick myself after a day of not eating my best. 3 out of the 9 points in this blog post relate to your mind and soul. That’s because no amount of healthy eating and exercise can out do a weak relationship with Allah or surpass a negative relationship with yourself.

So there you have it darling! 9 ways to feel your healthiest and happiest. Let me know in the comments below what you’re eager to try out. Or do you have any holy grail health tips? Let me know!! I geek out over that stuff! There’s a community of gorgeous Muslim women who visit this blog and I know they would love to hear your not-so-secrets tips, so share away! 😉