Nicky Park: A taste of the latest one-day detox

A delicious salad for dinner.

Goodness knows my body deserves a little TLC from time to time. While I'm mostly good to myself, I tend to have the wholesome buzz Monday to Thursday then by COB Friday I slide in to a world of wine and canapes. This is a wonderful world which I love to pieces, but I equally love feeling fresh, nourished and revitalised.

So I was very excited to hear about the latest project from the healthy nuts at Little Bird Organics - the one-day Spring Clean cleanse. Little bird co-founder, Megan May, has been living the raw food life for a while now. The fast-moving food company she created with her husband has extended from pre-packaged raw goodies to two "unbakeries" in Auckland and a "cooking" school. (Read my brunch review from little bird unbakery in Summer Street here.) The latest brainchild has come at a perfect time as the social agenda starts to heat up and the body needs a little more lovin'.

WIN! The kind hearts at little bird Organics are giving one lucky Life & Style reader a chance to win their very own one-day spring clean. Enter below (only Auckland residents, sorry!)

I took her new cleanse for a test drive:

Morning:

Juices all packed up ready for delivery.

I woke up feeling pepped up for my delivery of six fresh juices and a light salad for dinner. I'm already a regular at the new Summer Street unbakery so I knew that it was going to be tasty. Just before 8.30am I was called down to the mailroom to collect my two hessian bags of goodness. I unpacked everything, got a few weird looks at my green juice collection from around the office, took a snap for social networking, set aside juice number 1 and fridged the rest.

The Morning Lemonade with Coconut Kefir is meant to give your cells a slightly alkaline environment for peak performance. Plus it's packed with a potent probiotic so all the good bacteria in your gut can regroup. It's a simple combination of fermented coconut water with lemon, bitch xylitol, and one of my least favourite flavours of all time - cayenne pepper. Despite the cayenne, I guzzled this baby down and got the day underway.

It's suggested you try and get through a smoothie every two hours. Next up was the first greenie of the day, the Cold Pressed Green Juice made of seasonal greens, lemon and ginger. This method of juicing is said to retain more nutrients as it's slowly ground down. This guy was thick and murky, but it was tasty and mega nourishing. I finished it off as I bounced off to yoga.

Noon

The new little bird Unbakery, Summer Street, Ponsonby. Photo / Natalie Slade

After working up a sweat I felt like food - and I started thinking about my next meal. My lunch meeting tomorrow, my lady date on the weekend. But I drank heaps of water and popped the cap on juice number 3 - the Antioxidant & Immunity Boosting Berries and Bee Pollen Drink. This was the thickest of all the smoothies so far and its rich purple colour made it feel like a meal. It is made of six berries - macqui, acai, mulberry, camu camu, blackcurrant and blueberry - and is heaving with vitamin C and immune boosting bee pollen.

I usually sip on a cup of green tea after lunch, but today I substituted in a liver detox tea. This little brew is made from organic fennel, St Mary's thistle, globe artichoke, peppermint, calendula and dandelion root. I'm not going to lie - it was not as tasty as my usual herbal brew - but its promise to rid me of toxins gots it down. Plus it was nice to have a warm drink.

It was hard to keep up with my smoothie schedule - before my brain could even latch on to its 3pm distractions it was time to crack open the most alluring looking drink - the Maca & Cacao Hemp and Almond Milk. This protein drink promised to get me through the afternoon lull - and it certainly worked a treat. I hadn't heard much about maca - but it's a potent Peruvian superfood that was used by warriors to increase stamina, balance hormones and combat fatigue. All that teamed with the feel good chemicals in cacao, and I buzzed through the afternoon - a seriously good energy boost.

Evening:

The latest one-day Spring Clean cleanse.

Juice number 5 was the one I was most intrigued about. It was a strange purple/green shimmering elixir like nothing I'd seen before. This was the Organic Coconut Water with Blue Klamath Crystals. Not only will this baby hydrate the heck out of you, but the electrolytes help make all your cellular processes happen more smoothly - fluid balance, oxygen exchange, digestion, muscle function, nerve condition, blood clotting, bone formation ... The unusual colour of the drink comes from the crystals which are a blue green algae - not the most appetising sounding ingredient. I actually found this a bit hard to drink. If I had my time again I would have sipped it while exercising and hoped for the benefits of hydration.

I didn't really pace myself very well at the end of the day so when it came time to get in to the final juice of the day I was ready for dinner. So I skipped ahead and plated up my massive kale salad with sprouts, beetroot noodles, avocado, kraut and korengo spiced seeds. Eating the plate of fresh, nourishing goodness, not only tasted awesome, but made me feel good for eating it. Soon after, I drank juice number six, another cleansing green smoothie, for dessert. The grapefruit and herbs (parsley, coriander, mint, tumeric and ginger) made it a little tangy for my tongue, but it was still totally drinkable.

The point of the one-day cleanse is to give your digestive system a bit of a rest and fill up your body with a high density of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes to keep it operating at optimal performance.

This is the kind of cleanse that I would love to add to my life, maybe weekly or monthly. It's delivered (or you can pick it up) fresh on the day, the drinks are varied and awesome so there's no getting bored, it's not a total fast and it's just one day so there's no hangry dreams about what you won't be eating for the next week.

Try it yourself: The little bird alkalising and revitalising spring clean pack costs $110 ($10 additional for delivery) and is only available in Auckland. For more info visit the website here.

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