The Nosh detox diet

This is the first time I've tried a 'detox to your door' and I have to say I was a bit worried. I'm an eater. I love food, especially chocolate, and the thought of drinking smoothies and eating soups for four days filled me with dread, but with a holiday on the horizon I knew it had to be worth a shot. Thankfully detox diets work to clean out your insides and start to put right the damage done by too much eating and drinking, and let's face it, we could all do with that every now and again.

How it works

Nosh - Natural, Organic, Safe and Healthy - is a London based company that delivers detoxing, weight-loss programmes across the UK straight to your front door. Sangeeta Sidhu founded Nosh in 2005, after giving up her high profile career as a corporate lawyer to focus on caring for her ill son by creating nutritious, balanced, allergy free, organic meals and recipes. Now she has a whole heap of dedicated Nosh followers who crave her lush, detoxing recipes several times a year.

You can choose the day you want to start your diet, so I opted for the weekend in the hope that being away from the office lunches and chocolate shelf would prove easier, and I also took comfort in the fact that if I had a bad headache or felt hungry I could just go to bed! My meals for Saturday and Sunday arrived at my requested time on Friday night all packaged up, labelled and ready to go. Each meal was either sealed in a bottle (soups and smoothies) while the rest were vacuum-packed in plastic containers labelled with their contents and when they had to be eaten.

The menu

The food was well packaged and each day's meals came in a separate bag with its own menu, so I could see clearly what has to be consumed when. Breakfast was either a granola bar or freshly made breakfast oats smoothie which were thick and filling, mid-morning snacks were always a special detox smoothie packed full of vitamins and minerals and lunch was either a salad or homemade soup. There was another detox smoothie for an afternoon snack and finally dinner was fish - I'm a pescatarian - with steamed vegetables. The portions are small, well balanced, made with the most readily available fresh produce and, more importantly, fat, preservative free and perfectly balanced. It's like having your own Hollywood chef at home!

The positives

This was a really easy detox plan to follow and the smoothies and homemade soups definitely injected my body with a whole heap of goodness, my stomach was flatter and my skin radiant. This isn't so much about losing weight - although many people will - it's about cleaning out your insides which is perfect after a manic, food-fuelled December. The bottles and small vacuum-packed portions of food meant I could easily take the food with me for when I felt hungry. The evening meals were nutritious and tasty and the smaller portion sizes definitely taught me that I didn't need to pile my plate so high in the future. Portion control was what I got out of this - my body could quite easily survive on half of the food I usually eat. You can also work with Nosh to create your own type of menu depending on what your dietary requirements are and what kind of food you want, ie, smoothies, soups or balanced meals.

The negatives

I'm a big chocolate fan so I found cutting out sugar really hard and suffered from headaches over my first weekend, but having said that this is a side effect of most diets or detoxes. I would have liked one sweet treat just to prevent me from constantly longing for some chocolate. This is also quite a heavy duty detox so you really need to be focused and dedicated to last the whole four days without caving, which I found hard.

Did it work?

Yes, this detox is a great for those that are determined to kick start a diet with a detox. I felt lighter, my stomach flatter and my skin looked much clearer after two days alone. This is definitely for those that want a serious detox challenge and are ready to give their body a healthy overhaul. It's not easy - at times I was hungry and headachy - but it's worth the effort.

Prices start from £38.95 per day. For more information call 0845 257 6674 , email info@noshdetoxdelivery.com or visit www.noshdetoxdelivery.com