Detox at your desk with the season’s hottest cleanses
THE mercury seems to be rising once and for all as May hoves near, and you don’t want to be caught in short skirts, dresses and camisoles with flabby skin, extra pounds and a clogged-up winter feeling from too many meat stews and bottles of red.
But most people are put off a spring detox because of the effort it takes to eat nothing and do a million push ups a day. When you’re working hard, the last thing you need is ravenous, fainting hunger at your desk, or having to get up even earlier to do special workouts.
Well, depending on your idea of detox, there is a good range of luscious, beautifully constructed products out there to help you look and feel clean and new for summer, with minimal discomfort. Most of them involve eating or drinking – so if nothing but a fast counts as a detox in your book, look away now.
The SoCal Cleanse range (pictured above) is scarily good. Having eaten and drunk far too much recently, I am using SoCal’s protein+detox formula (£55 at www.glowgetter.co.uk) to detoxify and soothe my ravaged digestive system. It’s primarily hemp protein powder, but other ingredients include dried lucuma, maca, bilberries, ginger and milk thistle. You mix it with juice (or water in my case) and down it. Once you stop thinking you’re going to be sick from its strong hay-like taste, it makes you feel clear-eyed, cleaner inside, less hungry and not bloated. Eco-friendly packaging will be a boon for some.
Radiance Cleanse (£195 for a three day cleanse, radiancecleanse.com), the brand new detox programme from Radiance juice delivery, is another option if you like a good juice detox and don’t mind eliminating solids for a bit. The signature cleanse combines protein-packed cashew milk and fresh organic juice. The purity and quality of each juice means you’ll feel more energetic by miles, your appetite will dwindle, your digestive system will rejoice and you’ll look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Raw Fairies (rawfairies.com) is another deluxe juice and raw food delivery service: The Mini B Cleanse™ (£295) is a Monday to Friday programme with beautifully balanced salads and juice, delivered to your door.
Another good option for the desk-bound detoxer is the ten-day programme from award-winning vitamin and supplement-makers Viridian (£24.75 for a month’s supply, www.viridian-nutrition.com), whose Detox Box zaps you with the triple whammy of milk thistle, cleavers and fibre. You take three capsules three times daily for 10 days, thereby loading up on cleaver (also known as goosegrass) tincture, a lymphatic tonic used to kickstart the metabolism; a milk thistle and seed blend; and a complete fibre capsule complete with organic linseed, psyllium and kelp. Your body will thank you, so long as you don’t go and wolf down junk food in between pills.
Weight loss artist and celebrity trainer David Kirsch has a good range of detox products at Space NK. His LemonAid 48 Hour Detox Diet (£20, www.spacenk.co.uk) is designed to turbo-charge your metabolism, increase energy and kick-start weight loss – it’s basically a nicely packaged combo of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper (said to be Beyonce’s magic weight loss drink). No other food on this one so only the hard-core need apply.
If you feel a reward for studious detoxing is in order, then book in for an Elemis Body Sculpting Cellulite and Colon Therapy course of six treatments at the City Point Club in Moorgate (£270 for six weeks; www.city pointclub.co.uk). It’s not quite at your desk, but it’s not far. A peel-off body mask is combined with a massage to stimulate circulation and reduce fluid retention, while reducting the appearance of cellulite.