You’ll no doubt have heard about intermittent fasting by now, whether as a time slot you block out daily to only drink water or black coffee, or as a few days a week where you consume a restricted number of calories. Either way, it can take a little help getting started which is exactly what we needed when, after a week in Istanbul, eating every piece of meat, bread and stew in the city, we were in need of a serious detox.
Detox Kitchen, a meal service that specialises in feel-good food, has put together a three-day vegan meal plan which takes any of the brunt work of healthy eating off your hands. The super nourishing kit has been designed in collaboration with nutritional therapist Phoebe Liebling and claims to increase metabolic efficiency, balance energy levels and give your gut a good reset. With each full day’s intake at just 1000 calories, we were prepared to faint, not be able to get out of bed or even need to break the fast – but we were pleasantly surprised. The meals are actually pretty hearty and left us feeling full of energy and life. So much so, in fact, that we even went to Yoga Home on our road, the same road we have lived for over 12 years and never visited before. A miracle one might say….
Since the food for each day is pre-planned and prepared, it’s very easy to stick to the schedule while continuing life and work as normal. The detox kicks off with a daily juice followed by a snack for when you feel the pangs, though we had the juice and the snack together every day because = breakfast. Then there were six different lunch and dinner dishes, which included the likes of satay noodles with tempeh, black bean & lentil stew, tofu ceviche and coconut dal. By the end of the three days, we realised that the only time we went outside the box was to have one plum on day two and one banana on day three (nothing too deadly).
We’ve all been there: a post-holiday (or even post-weekend) need for a reset, so finding a solution that doesn’t also have your brain working overtime is a good thing to have under your belt. We really recommend giving this IF plan a go if you’ve been indulging a little bit *too* much for work or pleasure and need to put the breaks on! Especially as we dive head first into the festive season, things are about to get messy….