Biotta Wellness Week – Slavia Karlen's experience

Al­most ex­actly a year ago, I mas­tered my first Biotta Well­ness Week. I was very proud of my­self, be­cause I usu­ally never miss meals, but it’s healthy to give your gut a break every so of­ten. That’s why I re­solved to un­der­take the Biotta Well­ness Week every year. And now the time has ar­rived to do it again.

The Well­ness Week box is avail­able on­line or in spe­cial­ist shops – for ex­am­ple in Swidro phar­ma­cies and drug­stores. It con­tains every­thing you need for the one-week fast: juices, tea, flax seeds and a brochure with a daily sched­ule and help­ful tips. There’s also the Biotta Com­mu­nity where you can ex­change ideas with like-minded peo­ple. The en­tire fast lasts for eight days, five of which are juice days, plus a day to pre­pare your body for the com­ing week, and two re­cov­ery days for a slow re­turn to ‘nor­mal’ every­day eat­ing.

When my pack­age ar­rived, I soon re­alised that the Well­ness Week was dif­fer­ent from what I re­mem­bered. There are two new juices, spe­cially de­signed for juice fast­ing. You can also use them if you only want to fast for one day. The box also in­cludes al­ka­line bath salts. These help the body to elim­i­nate tox­ins through the skin more ef­fi­ciently. In ad­di­tion there are not only meal sug­ges­tions for the prepa­ra­tion day and re­cov­ery days, but also a set of recipes. Last but not least, three yoga tu­to­ri­als are in­cluded to help ac­ti­vate the detox­i­fi­ca­tion process. I was to­tally mo­ti­vated and more than ready to start.

To­day is all about get­ting my­self phys­i­cally and men­tally in the right mood for the fast. I take two tea­spoons of flaxseed in the morn­ing and evening for op­ti­mal bowel cleans­ing, as well as drink­ing the Vi­tal Di­gest juice. In the morn­ing I have some­thing light to eat, and at lunchtime I cook home­made gnoc­chi ac­cord­ing to Ralph Schelling’s recipe. There’s a first time for every­thing! I am so pleased not to be a food blog­ger and have to pho­to­graph the re­sults. But the gnoc­chi were de­li­cious! I find the quinoa salad in the evening eas­ier to pre­pare. I get through the day with­out any prob­lems and I look for­ward with some an­tic­i­pa­tion to the next five days.

The first day with­out solid food. For­tu­nately, I’m al­ready fa­mil­iar with this – I’m hav­ing a déjà vu ex­pe­ri­ence, so to speak. Through­out the day I drink a bot­tle of My Juice Day #1 and the herbal tea. At lunchtime I also have a glass of Vita 7 and in the evening I have the tomato juice, warmed up as a soup; that does me good. I was also phys­i­cally ac­tive, be­cause the first yoga class was on the agenda. Don’t worry, it was­n’t at all stren­u­ous and it was very calm­ing. Af­ter­wards I slept like a baby.

The sec­ond day goes well. Dur­ing the course of the day I drink a bot­tle of My Juice Day #2, which con­tains veg­eta­bles, aca­cia fi­bre (yes, I had to look it up, and in short it’s a di­ges­tive aid with 80% fi­bre) and gin­ger – it’s to­tally de­li­cious. The Vi­tal Di­gest juice and the flax seeds make their reg­u­lar ap­pear­ance on the menu, and I re­ally look for­ward to them. In the evening, I have an­other warm tomato juice and then the first bath with the bath salts. Once again, I go to bed com­pletely re­laxed and sleep for a long time.

It’s the third day and that means it’s half-time. Very good, my feel­ings of hunger are un­der con­trol and I have al­ready de­vel­oped a morn­ing rou­tine to en­sure I di­vide up the juices cor­rectly for the rest of the day. In the af­ter­noon, yoga ses­sion num­ber two is on the agenda. I could have done with­out the Navasana (boat) pose, but I demon­strate my stay­ing power and get through it.

Just like last year, I have my slump on day four, when I feel like throw­ing in the towel. I also know from last year, when I asked the Biotta Com­mu­nity for ad­vice, that I can drink an ex­tra 100-200 ml of juice if I have some avail­able. Prefer­ably veg­etable juices, too much fruc­tose from fruit juices is not a good idea. I can eas­ily arrange this, since I work from home. In the evening, I en­joy an­other al­ka­line bath, which helps me get over the stresses and strains of the day. The bath sim­ply works won­ders.

The last day with­out solid food. I am proud that this year too I have man­aged to get this far. I don’t think there is much dan­ger of any­one giv­ing up once they’ve reached the fifth day. I en­joy a long walk, the sun­shine, and the knowl­edge that the juice fast will soon be over. The in­struc­tions say you are wel­come to ex­tend it if you want to. I find that one week is enough for me.

Un­like the pre­vi­ous Well­ness Week, there are now two re­cov­ery days at the end of the fast, and thus four more recipes to fol­low. I im­pro­vise a bit with the veg­etable soup, as I don’t have all the in­gre­di­ents. The same goes for my din­ner; a Per­sian omelette. I don’t like dill so I re­place it with pars­ley – and hope it will still do the job. I treat my­self to the third yoga ses­sion af­ter­wards to cel­e­brate the day. The next day I make an In­dian curry for lunch and a sweet corn gratin in the evening. All the dishes are light and they taste great. I was in the kitchen so much, I al­most did­n’t no­tice the end of my Biotta Well­ness Week.

The Well­ness Week is not pri­mar­ily about los­ing weight, but about detox­i­fy­ing the body and be­com­ing more aware of food in gen­eral. I def­i­nitely suc­ceeded in this. Since my juice fast last year, I have eaten (even) more veg­eta­bles and have been able to main­tain my new eat­ing habits over the course of the year, de­spite some small lapses. It is im­por­tant to un­der­stand that lapses will hap­pen, but that it does­n’t nec­es­sar­ily mean falling back into old eat­ing pat­terns. The Well­ness Week is very well-bal­anced and Biot­ta’s know-how is no­tice­able in the brochure and the whole struc­ture of the week. This gives me ad­di­tional courage and the con­fi­dence not to in­ter­rupt the fast. I feel cleansed and free – both phys­i­cally and men­tally. It is an in­de­scrib­able feel­ing to have con­quered my weaker self and to know that I can ap­ply this to other sit­u­a­tions in life.