Time For a Detox? by Helen Scott Taylor

I don't know about you, but winter always gets me down. The dark dreary evenings and cold weather do not nourish my soul.

Normally about this time of year I start to feel much better with the brighter evenings, spring bulbs popping up in the grass, blossom on the trees and the birds starting to nest. This year things haven't gone as usual—this year I'm still feeling weary, lacking in energy and short on enthusiasm. I wake up tired often with a headache.

My poor health has even started to affect my writing. With a muzzy head the ideas aren't flowing like they normally do. When that happens it's time to take action. Searching for a way to feel better I came across Carol Vorderman's 28-day detox diet. (She is a British Television personality, so you might not have heard of her, but I'm sure there are many similar detox books available.) I'm not sure if this diet is the answer for me, but from the positive accounts I've read of people who've tried detoxing, it sounds promising.

The claims of success include better sleep, increased energy, waking early full of enthusiasm for the day, sharper mind and better memory. (And I so badly need the last!) Oh and shedding those extra pounds—always a welcome benefit.

So on Monday I started a detox diet. It's too early to say if it is having the desired effect, but in case any of you would like to try a 28-day, Spring detox, here are the basics.

What to Eat

Fresh Fruit & Vegetables & Salad

Nuts & Seeds

Fruit Juice & Herbal Teas

Oats/Brown Rice/Millet

Non Dairy Milk Alternatives

Beans/Lentils/Peas

Non-Wheat Bread, Pasta or Crispbreads

What to Avoid

Tea & Coffee

Alcohol

Wheat & anything containing gluten

Sugar

Artificial Sweeteners and Food Additives

Meat/Fish/Dairy/Eggs

Salt

The recommendation is to drink 6 to 8 glasses of water per day to help flush out the liver.

For breakfast I've had strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, chopped nuts, seeds and soya yogurt. This is delicious!

For lunch I have made soup from fresh vegetables. The soup has been tasty, but the preparation time is eating into my day. I also had a blender disaster the first time I made tomato soup. I took about twenty minutes to clean off the walls and cupboards. I won't make that mistake again!

For dinner I have so far prepared two meals that I normally make with meat, Peanut Chicken and Cottage Pie, but I used tofu and quorn as meat substitutes. The dishes worked remarkably well without meat. I can see myself using a lot less meat once my twenty-eight day detox is over.

It is too early to know if I feel any different, but I am hopeful that eating natural fruit and vegetables and drinking plenty of water will cleanse my system, give me back my lost energy and fire up my stalled brain to work on my stories.

I'd love to hear if you have tried a detox diet. If so, how did you get on?

Helen lives in South West England near Plymouth in Devon between the windswept expanse of Dartmoor and the rocky Atlantic coast. As well as her wonderful, long-suffering husband, she shares her home with a Westie a Shih Tzu and a burmilla cat. Helen's latest book is the sixth in her Army Doctor's series, The Army Doctor's Honeymoon Baby. Find Helen on FaceBook and Twitter, or visit her website.