The Company Team's January Challenge: BeautifulBreak Detox

BeautifulBreak Detox

After a tres Zen Christmas in Bali and the Gili islands which included a rather life changing visit to the most amazing healer in Ubud (seriously, best thing ever, e-mail me if you want details) I had, in a rather cliché manner, a bit of an epiphany. Why do we live the way that we do - so stressed, so busy, no time to look after ourselves? After 3 blissful hours of a herbal massage a (with four Balinese men, four I tell you), reflexology, cures of different varieties, an amazing meal, a palm reading (am in my 6th afterlife and my ex boyfriend left me for another girl after 2 years and 2 months. Seriously, how does she know that??) I decided to come home and change my way of living. So, 1 week and 2 days since my return, I\'ve caught up with many a friend (got to show off the tan obviously) and several glugs of vino to accompany the chin wag and dinner (of course) I have gone back to my old dangerous ways. That is, until, I heard about BeautifulBreak Detox....

When I first heard about BeatifulBreak Detox, it sounded hardcore, but hardcore is what I need. I, embarrassingly, can sit here and say I have never ever seen any detox through to the end. How pathetic is that? So, sign me up. The only weekend that I don\'t seem to have a 30th, hen weekend or wedding is a lonesome weekend in January. January\'s so rubbish as it is, why not combine it all?

BeautifulBreak Detox has never before been available in the UK. It comes from a tried and tested ancient detox diet first developed in Germany over 180 years ago. The ethos makes perfect, simple sense: your body is like a sponge absorbing caffeine, alcohol, and fatty foods as well as all the stress through our lifestyles of stress, quick meals and toxins that we feed it and it is never, well, rinsed out. BeautifulBreak Detox is a combination of unique (already prepared and delivered to your door and, best of all, filling) diet and daily thermal wraps. The results are ones that will make you sit up and take note: better sleep, less sluggish, clearer skin - sparkling from the inside out and you loose a few pounds to boot.

BeautifulBreak Detox doesn\'t want to just churn out standard detox practice, they really care about you and what is best for you. So much so that you get sent for a proper all over medical on Harley Street before you start. Amazing, I can assure you that your Dr at your local NHS doesn\'t give you this thorough a run down - everything gets tested for from body fat percentage to how much alkaline you have in your blood. Surprisingly, I came out okay. Apart from cholesterol, but hey, that is no massive surprise, but at least my liver is still intact. Who knew?

For more information log on to beautifulbreak.com

Click through the gallery and see how Kirsty got on...

BeautifulBreak Detox: Day 1

So, day 1 after my surprising health check results. I saunter up to the BeautifulBreak Detox spa in Notting Hill to be wrapped up to the max. I arrive and meet the lovely Ilona who has brought BeautifulBreak to the UK. With such a warm and endearing manner it is hard not to be relaxed around her. After a talk through what is going to happen over the week, it is time for the wrap. So, donning nadda apart from some paper pants I hope onto the bed. The idea behind the wraps is to raise your body temperature and circulation thereby stimulating your metabolism which allows waste and toxins to start leaving your body. The wrap is a combination of hot and cold wraps and heat packs that you get all bundled up in for anywhere up to an hour and a half and sweat it out, literally, sweat. The sweat it does come a-pouring down your face. Quite therapeutic really.

The idea behind these wraps is to increase the body\'s defenses, encourage the growth of good bacteria, help with muscular pain and has a calming and balancing effect of internal organs, reduces acid in the body and regenerates the skin. All that in one little wrap. Amazing. Stay tuned to my week of the wraps and see how I get on with the pre-prepared meals that they have for me. Oh, and not drinking - yikes!

BeautifulBreak Detox: Day 2

After session one I feel smug and fairly happy with myself. I have boxes of food and the thought of not having to worry about what I\'m going to eat for the next week makes me instantly less stressed. Although I have been warned as the diet is salt free, alkaline free and practically fat free the food I\'d bland at best. Day 1 seems kind of okay! Rivetta for breakfast. Yup, just dry rivetta. Okay, slightly like eating cardboard, but not awful. Lunch is vegetable broth. I can like, I mean, it\'s hardly steak and chips, but it fills the hole. Then, here\'s the hard part. Birthday drinks that evening. So depressing and embarrassingly difficult to go to a party and not drink and, well, not generally feel able to have fun because of the lack of drinking. Luckily there are some other incredibly dull people who are detoxing for January, so we kind of huddle together in boring bond.

What is also hard with this is the fact that other people can carry on eating what they like. My boyfriend gets the most amazingly smelling fishcakes for dinner after our stint of being party poopers. I, on the other hand, have plum gunge for dinner. The idea is that plums clear out your colon and give you a good clean start to the detox. Will keep the results to myself shall I?

The weekend is hard as there are no distractions. My weekend is generally made up of food milestones. It adds structure to my weekend. My structure now is the cardboard boxes of food and a wrap booked in for 4pm. The same daily breakfast of rivetta followed by a yummy vegetable bolognaise and brown rice. You certainly don\'t go hungry and, best of all, you can add herbs and spices. So, with practically a wholw handful of chili flakes, this is delicious.

I\'m on a dry day. So, I have to drink my usual water intake plus an extra litre. You also get some tea to carry you through the day. Well, the tea doesn\'t carry you through the day as much as the honey in the tea. mmmm, sugar!

Yesterdays wrap was an introductory 45 minutes. No more of that. In the wrap for an hour and the last 15 minutes are hard work. Your body really is working trying to get all of these toxins out of your body. The longer you do this for, the more you sweat. Basically, your body has to get all of the salt out of your body before it can get the toxins out. However, after sweating that much I feel like I shouldn\'t have any water left in my body.

But, it sets me off for a saintly Saturday night in. With a yummy fruit rice pudding. I think I can get used to this.