(Nosh Breakfast Fruit smoothie)
My worst vice is sugar – chocolate, cake, pudding and alcohol. Sugar and I have a long, complex relationship, one I totally enable.
Occasional “treats” very quickly become habits and then before I know where I am dependent on my next sugar fix and carrying 2-3 extra pounds, which I find hugely irritating.
I don’t like to diet as that feels like denial to me. The minute I tell myself I can’t have something – that’s all I want.
Detoxing, on the other hand, feels more productive and beneficial – like a reset. So about ten days ago I did a 3-day detox. The primary goal was to break my sugar habit and to hopefully shift my extraneous weight (!)Over the years, I have done 48 hours cleanse type things where all you drink is a balanced potion diluted in water, I’ve done longer 10 day detoxes where you eliminate a lot of food groups and then reintroduce them gradually over a week and a half, and I have done juice cleanses.
But I didn’t have the time to devote to a longer detox and I like food, so I thought I’d look for something that had a food element but was short.
After a little research I settled on the 3-day "Body Smooth & Tone Fast Weight Loss" (BST) programme from Nosh Detox.
Now I know these programmes aren’t cheap but having done some investigation, Nosh seemed reasonable and as I was busy I liked the idea of everything turning up for each day freshly prepared and all I had to do was eat it!
So here’s a sample menu:
This is what I can tell you. Everything I ate and drank was delicious. The breakfast smoothie was a great way to start the day and more filling than I had anticipated, lunch was enormous (see below) and I was very grateful to have a something served hot in the evenings. My only criticism is that I would have liked to have known all the ingredients in the juices and smoothies - but I was forewarned by Nosh that the Chef's descriptions were very brief.
(Day One and Day Three lunches - I can assure you this is a LOT of salad)
There was definitely less food overall than I would ordinarily eat, but I am pretty sure there are days when I overeat, and searching for something “extra” or a treat to eat after my meal is a really bad habit of mine.
Day One was fine, though I was clock watching till my next allotted meal or snack.
Day Two felt easy and I thought I had adjusted to my new regime but funnily enough Day Three was the hardest day. For some reason my body was testing me and wanting more food than I was giving it, which was different to the first two days.
Having said that, I didn’t get any headaches or other untoward side effects. I slept well and woke up each day feeling energised.
So a week and bit on, I have stopped craving sugar and I seemed to have broken the conditioned reflex I had for looking for something sweet at certain times of the day, I have become much more aware of portion control …and I have lost two kilos and it’s still off.
I’m not saying I am off sugar - when I am out in the evenings – pudding and alcohol seem to feature quite heavily, but right now I feel in control to pick and choose, what I want and if I really want it – and that feels like a good place to be.
A quick word about Nosh – in my experience they were thorough (checking likes and dislikes, allergies etc.), efficient and helpful - and just to reiterate - the food was delicious.
I’m not sure I would manage a longer, 6-day programme but I would definitely do another detox from Nosh.
