Detox Delight

Last night my mother reminded me that lent had started last Thursday.  Admittedly, she was not too impressed that she had to remind me.  As for I, I just can’t believe that I missed Pancake Day!

Regardless of the religious connotations, I always try to give up something for lent or change my life in some way.  I’m not the good (not-so-little) catholic girl I once was, but I do it because I love a challenge.

Normally, I give up chocolate, sweets or promise myself that I will get fit.  But this year, I am thinking something different.  I say this because I decided yesterday to give up chocolates and sweets, but realised that I am sat in Starbucks, writing this with Iced Mocha…  An epic fail clearly.  After quite a bit of though, I am thinking that this year I will do a whole body cleanse.

Throughout the whole of 2014 I read about detoxing through juicing.  I even went so far as to buy a juicer - although I did tend to stick with Orange and Carrot juices, maybe throwing in a handful of spinach to make me feel like it was harder work than it should be. I certainly didn’t fall in love with it the same way some of my colleagues did.  I used to get updates on ‘the juice of the day’, “Today I have beetroot, spinach and apple,” Becs would proclaim one day on entering the office.  Another, it would be some awful concoction that looked a tepid brown…

With hindsight, I was glad that I listened to my taste buds.  A juice diet long-term has been proven to be bad for your health.  High in sugar and low in essential fatty acids and protein, they should be used purely as a boost to your health and not as something that you should engage in long term.  Regardless of what it could do to your health, your teeth and your overall mental wellbeing, it has been proven that these juices should be consumed in a three day cleanse and not as an alternative to a meal.

So for me, with ladies night this week coming up, plus a couple of dinners with my girlfriends, should I engage in cleansing right now or leave it until the following weekend?

Alternatively, I could do a digital detox.  This is sweeping across the UK at the moment, with tourist companies enabling those who feel as though they are addicted to their smart phones, to leave them behind for a weekend.  You basically book yourself on to a retreat (think Glastonbury with the teepees and fields, but without the huge name bands to accompany the mud fest with music), and you hand in your cellphone at the door, only getting it back at the end of the day.

Another detox I could do is a detox of the mind.   One of my best friends is a life coach and swears by the fact that she had counseling, as it was the best thing for her.  She gave up her high-powered Human Resources Director role with a multinational company, studied and became a life coach herself. 

Or I could soup it up.  An alternative to juicing, I could soup.  This would enable me to get all the nutrients I need and be fit and healthy. 

Personally though, I don’t want to lose weight, but I do desperately want to tone.  So, instead maybe a 30-day squat challenge would be beneficial whilst I try out every type of detox that I can find.  

Decisions, decisions…  Right now, I don’t really want to take anything away from my life so I think I will do all of these and more.  Starting with squat challenge.