DIY 6 Week Detox - The Basics

What better place to start when embarking on a mind-body-soul detox than with your health? I'm definitely no pro when it comes to nutrition and exercise (check out Joanna Hall or Miranda Kerr's Kora Organics blog if you want some better advice) but I have read enough to know what works for me. Don't for a second think I would embark on some ridiculous lemon water diet - let's face it, no one is fun to be around when they're hangry (hungry + angry = hangry). And what joy in life is there without good food? (surely I'm not the only person who structures their whole day around their next meal?).

Anyway, I did up a little collage of the health 'basics' for the six week detox. I guess the point of the basics is to just be consistently healthy - no crazy rules or regulations. To be honest - this is how you should live every week, and not just six weeks in a row. But baby steps, right?

Exercise - cos you know you have to. The four sessions I listed above are what work for me, but some people prefer more cardio or yoga or pole dancing or whatever. The point is to do 4 formal sessions of exercise per week. When I say 'pump' I mean anything that works your muscles and core - be it a class, TRX session, monkey bars, rock climbing etc. In addition, you want to maintain a certain level of activity on a daily basis - I like to walk everywhere I go so that's the easiest thing for me to commit to. Aiming to do 1km of walking as part of getting to work, 1km at lunch and 1km on the way home will have you almost there. May sound hard but its a conscious choice to make - leave early on the way to work and walk to the next tube stop, go up the stairs instead of the lift, get off your desk and do some errands at lunch.

Nutrition - Again, not rocket science. Pack your diet full of fruit and veges, lean meats and fish, and cut down on all the good stuff (booze, salt, sugar, fats). Swap your nightly starchy foods - like rice, noodles, pasta, bread, potatos etc, for beans, lentils and more vegies. This is a tip I picked up in one of Joanna Hall's books. I'm not usually the diet and lifestyle book type, but I found it in a North London jumble for a quid and it turned out to be the best pound I ever spent! I don't agree with the whole Atkins no carbs thing (Jessica Simpson looked wayyyyy hangry when she was on it) but limiting nightly intake makes sense. Luckily the bf is pretty handy in the kitchen and I got him onto making lentils, beans and veges as sides to fish or meat at night - and haven't looked back! If I get a chance I might post a few (of his) recipes here over the next 6 weeks.

For snacks, I'll be eating roasted unsalted nuts like almonds as well as fruit and crackers. Cutting down on alcohol is also a key element of the detox. I don't mean becoming teatotal, and it will all be relative to your current drinking levels, but having none during the week and only a few over the weekend seems to me to be a good approach (by ohhhhh so hard!).

I guess I failed to mention not to eat take away junk food, as in, ever. Its shit. I'll leave it at that. Although... one small cheeseburger may be allowed if you are incredibly hungover and stayed out until 4am the previous night. However if this is the case you probably already drank your weekly calorie intake in one night so a cheeseburger aint gonna kill you... (the detox sounds like its gone off the rails already!).

Hope you like and agree with my basics for the next 6 weeks, feel free to comment and add any of your insights! As a disclaimer, I'm definitely no pro in this area, but thought it might be nice to share some ideas. Sorry for the interruption to the usual fashion-related posts. Normal programming will resume shortly.