Diet & Fitness 

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Diet your way to party perfection

Want to look like a goddess at the New Year's Eve party? If so, you need a party 'pretox' - a diet and workout detox plan that promises to get you in peak condition and ready to wow!

The month before Christmas means party, party, party. Sounds fun, but there's always a flip side, a ying to the yang, a rise before the fall. In this instance it's likely to be a cold, pasty skin, aching liver and lacklustre attitude. You've committed the cardinal sin; you're officially partied out before New Year's Eve.

The answer is the 'pretox', the brainchild of wellbeing manager Paul Lubicz. Speaking to The Sunday Times, Paul says he realised the benefits of pretoxing while at a juicing camp in Thailand. A week-long juice fast is not my idea of fun or particularly practical for those of us who have to take care of kids.

So instead, we enlisted some more experts to see what they would recommend to give you a week-long pre-party diet and fitness plan.

• Drinking
• Eating
• Snacking
• Cleansing inside and out
• Exercising

Drinking

Ian Marber, aka The Food Doctor, is a staunch advocate of starting the day with a glass of hot water and lemon to stimulate your digestion and liver function. In his latest book, The Food Doctor Diet Club, he suggests spicing it up with some ginger or cinnamon. Cat Deeley is a fan, and says: 'I always drink a cup of hot water and lemon. It's odd, but I feel sick if I don't. I've read that it detoxifies your body.'

Ian adds: 'Keeping your fluid intake consistently high is vital if you want to lose weight. Water is the best and the most effective way of staying hydrated through the day. You should aim to drink at least 1.5 litres (3 ½ pints) or more of water a day.'

Eating

Naturopath Max Tomlinson believes in harnessing the power of food to generate outstanding health. His 'seven steps to a clean diet' all centre around eating organic, seasonal, additive-free, unprocessed, fresh foods. Vegetables should be eaten lightly cooked by steaming, dry-frying, stir-frying, oven-roasting or even raw. In his book, Clean Up Your Diet, Max explains: 'Over the course of a normal day, the average American consumes more than 180 chemical additives as a result of eating processed food, or unwashed fruit and vegetables - that's more than 65,000 separate doses of chemical in a year!'

Penny Povey a nutritionist at Farmacia is all for abstaining from processed foods. She says: 'The basic philosophy behind any effective detox program is to identify, remove, and restore.' says Povey. 'When these body toxins are removed, your body can then restore a healthy balance.'

So it's time to ditch the white bread, sugar-laden cereals and biscuits and load up on fresh fruit and vegetables, sustainable fish and wholegrains. Come on, it's only for a week!

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