About 20 years ago I felt sluggish; my tummy was bloated and my skin was blotchy – so it was time to do something about it. I thought I’d give a strict detox programme a go and, after a month, I felt like a different person. In fact, my firstreal Detoxchanged my life – more specifically my future lifestyle and my approach to food, eating and living.

Despite feeling so amazing that first time, I haven’t been able to do the full 30 day programme ever since. I’ve just found it impossible to find a whole month of not consuming any meat, fish, dairy, gluten or sugar and not drinking any caffeine or alcohol.  My life has been full-on and my will-power is quite flimsy when it comes to yummy temptations. So instead I’ve created some seasonal, 7-14 day detox plans, which I’ve found much more doable – not just because they’re shorter but because I’ve adapted the original “free-from-everything” programme to suitme. So I do include (oily) fish, eggs and healthy dairy (kefir, Feta and so on) –  with a couple of vegan &/or fasting days in the middle. So doing it this way, I find detoxing more achievable, effective and even enjoyable – most importantly, I always feel great at the end of it!

This year, for various reasons, I decided to do the 30 day DETOX programme again. Just like all those years ago, I don’t feel well in my skin; I don’t sleep well; and I have flabby bits around my waistline. But this time round I’m not going to restrict everything in one go, instead I’m taking a more gentle (or sensible) approach to it.  Anyway, as usual, the experts have changed their minds about certain foods during the last 15 years – some that were considered good, now arebad (such as fructose & grains);  yet other foods that were labelled unhealthy are nowcelebratedfor their amazing health benefits (such as coconut, prawns, avocado & eggs). Crucially, I have learned how properly to listen to my own body, its signals, likes and dislikes. This is because, over the years, I have observed – and can now recognise – the effects of certain foods on my body-shape, skin, mood and general well-being. So I take nutritional studies and expert advice with a pinch of salt (not literally!) – and neither do I care much about such temporary trends as “clean eating” and current weird, faddish diets.

So based on 15 years of regular, seasonal detoxing I’ve developed a Spring CleanDiet plan which I’m going to describe in detail and share here at CookTogether as a journal.