The opinion, experience and advice expressed in this article are solely of my own.
Last week I did a 3 days detox for the first time in my life.
For the whole 3 days I was not allowed any food. I used a certified organic dietary supplement called FAST by Miessence.
A good friend of mine did it before me and recommended the product. She was incredibly satisfied with the result, so I thought: “Why not? I have nothing to loose!” Besides that, I had indulged myself excessively during the Christmas and New Years holiday so I thought I could definitely do with a detox.
The ingredients in FAST are all organic plant and herb extracts and are to be blended to make a shake 3 times a day. It is basically your substitute for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don’t worry if you do not have a blender. I don’t have one myself so I put the powder in a small bottle with water and shake it.
The flavour is… let’s say interesting. Quite herby and minty. It is not totally bad but it is not great either. The first day I found it hard to drink. But I got used to it and the following drinks were not as hard as the first one.
During the course of the day, you are only allowed to drink water or herbal teas. My drinks of choice were homemade soda water with lemon, peppermint tea and lemon & ginger tea.
Day 1 was hard. Towards the end of the afternoon my head filled up with all sorts of thoughts and questions about life, past, present and future and my power of concentration dropped significantly.
I had a very bad night sleep, in fact I was awake for most of it.
Day 2 was not too bad at all. I got used to the drink, I felt positive and I was looking forward to the next day. That evening I even made dinner for Dom. I made him a cottage pie and I watched him eating it. He said he tasted delicious (and I believed him cause he had 3 portions!). That made me quite proud of myself because I was able to cook a tasty meal without even tasting it!
Day 3 was the hardest. We had a family gathering in the evening with lots of delicious food and I could not eat it. I could have broken the fast but my will power won over my love for food and I made it. Needless to say that I was very much looking forward to breakfast the next day.
In summary, the 3 days detox has been a success. I did not loose any weight (I do not need to as I am already quite fit) but I lost lots of water retention, my skin looks and feels better, my mind has been much clearer, I feel more relaxed and positive and finally my chronic cough has also improved (I do not cough much anymore).
All in all, it was a very positive experience. It was hard, I do not deny it but I am very glad I did it.
Following my experience, I came up with 6 tips to help you get through the fast:
1) Stay hydrated – drink lots of liquids as in water or herbal teas. It is very important to keep yourself hydrated at all times, plus drinking could ease your feeling of hunger.
2) Stay positive – it can be easy to feel down if you feel hungry. Keep your mind focused on the end result. You might suffer a bit but it will be worth it. Try to think about things you like.
3) Do not leave your last drink too late in the evening – FAST has some herbs that give you energy, if you drink it too late during the day you might have troubles sleeping. This happened to me on day 1 so I made sure to have the last drink no later than 7pm on day 2 and day 3.
4) Think about the delicious food you will have at the end of your FAST – it worked for me, whenever I felt a bit hungry I would think about something I would have liked to eat when the detox was over.
5) Keep your mind occupied – work, read a book, practice your hobbies or have a nap. You might feel a bit low on energy which is perfectly normal, so you can indulge yourself on an afternoon nap.
6) Keep an open mind – do not have expectations about the end result and embrace the detox. Each person is different and the detox has different effects on each one of us. Allow it to work on your mind and body.
Please leave a comment or drop me a line if you have any questions or if you want to share your detox experience.
