Raclette comes but once a year. It’s that time of year when most Parisiens pack up the kids and hit the slopes, the vacances d’hiver. We are forgoing our ski vacation this year in favor for an approaching trip to Japan. Does skipping the slopes mean I have a leg up on bikini season? Allez, fetch me my detox! Detox Delight, a high-end, mostly vegan delivery service asked me to give their Botanical Delight menu a run. Detox Delight delivers balanced meals and freshly pressed juices to any doorstep in Parisland. Freshly prepared and beautifully wrapped in ecological packaging, it is the easiest way to detox, while resisting the lurking French temptations. Since mon mari was out of town for the entirety of my 3-day detox, it was the ultimate luxury to liberate myself from food prep and dirty dishes. It was a stay-cation on the road to wellness.
As a detox rookie, I had no idea what to expect before my first pretty parcel arrived. I expected to have a little more energy. I hoped to feel lighter. But how would a self-diagnosed food obsessive hold up? The past weekend I made a bushel full of chocolate chip cookies. So my new regime was up to the ultimate temptation. Would I feel satisfied or would I fall into a bottomless pit of chocolate chip cookies? And let’s not forget small things like coffee, baguette, pain au chocolat, and entire cheese universe.
Nevertheless, my first detox parcel arrived bright and early. Unpacking everything into the fridge one-by-one, each beautifully packaged parcel was bursting with color and carefully labeled for a detox dummy like me. There was a vegan breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with two juices to ward off any tummy rumbling between meals. After a little drawing, hup I was onto my breakfast, a pineapple, avocado, parsley, and cucumber green drink. The blogging (undercase g) gods were with me. With a straw included I could easily drink and type at the same time. For lunch, a crunchy Japanese salad with tofu, cucumber, black sesame seeds, and a banging miso dressing. The portion was copious, but with a salad so tasty I missed bread just a little bit.
The afternoon was ok until about 6pm when my eyes were getting fuzzy. I was not plagued with fatigue, just obsessively thinking about dinner. Dinner was a raw pad thai with crunchy ribbons of carrot, peppers, mango, and a sweet and tangy curry/coconut dressing. Shortly after, something didn’t feel right. I needed to eat something else. Luckily the program comes with a list of friendly ways of cheating. I broke down and ate a few carrots, a forgivable offense. The rest of the evening, I had a headache, a common side effect when the body releases 5 years of pain au chocolat toxins.
Day 2
8am wake up call! It’s another day of Detox Delight. I was hungry. Secretly, I was relieved my day’s delivery was heavier than the previous day and full of enticing things after my first day in the raw. And muesli for breakfast! Pizza for dinner! How could this be?
Muesli for breakfast was a relief. Muesli is always muesli, nothing in disguise. Topped off the ever-mysterious gogi berries and rice milk, it was filling enough to give me hope to continue down the road of day 2.
Lunch was an avocado, pomegranate, gogi berry, apple, and beet salad. I was out the door to sketch at the Valentino show, packing along my beet and apple detox juice just in case. Taking advantage of the sunny day and buying some time from thinking about food, I got a chamomile tea with a friend in the Tuileries. The tea was served with both speculoos biscuits and dark chocolate, the ultimate afternoon pleasure. I resisted, turned my cheek, and sipped my chamomile.
Is self-control a side effect of detoxing?
That evening, I was so hungry I ate at the early bird hour of 6pm.
I bought some time breaking into my dinner’s tabbouleh, with the clever addition of parsnip standing in for the bulgur.
Dinner was a Mediterranean “pizza”. The crust was compact and crunchy linseed disk. Although there was no comparison to wood-fired oven pizza, but it had a satisfying textural contrast to everything else so far. And the mixture of roasted eggplant, tomato and olive was a flavorful wink to the real deal.
Day 3
8am delivery wake-up call. I was feeling clear-minded and ready to start my day. But looking at the menu, a breakfast of “pancakes” was a promise I am sure Detox Delight could not keep. But I opened up my breakfast parcel to find two small “pancake” sandwiches, full of cashew creme and berries. Looks were deceiving because although it did not have the warm hug from Aunt Jemima’s, the pancakes had a pleasantly clean taste, with a generous touch of vanilla. I threw back a green detox juice just to give me enough leeway until lunch. Lunch was a crunchy fennel and grapefruit salad. Dinner, a green Asian-inspired soup with linseed crackers.
Although I could not resist giving the evil eye to anyone walking by cradling a baguette and I missed the social outlet food and coffee play in my daily life, Detox Delight‘s Botanical Delight menu is realistic, easy to follow, and full of vegan and raw food discoveries. After the detox, I feel cleaner, clearer headed, and more aware of my food choices. So did I hop on a one-way train to steak tartare when it was over? No, it really made me question what I eat and how much I really need to consume. Other than retoxing on a long-lost cuban sandwich at Verjus Sandwich today for lunch, thanks to Detox Delight, I am taking smaller steps to cleaner eating.
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