So I did it. I tried a detox. I'm not usually into the diet fads that come around, but lately, I've been feeling gross, craving bad food, and just all around not eating great. I found the detox on Ox's website, and thought, why not? It's 3 days, it can't be that bad can it? Boy was I wrong.
Day 1
I woke up craving my usual coffee. Of course I couldn't have that, so I went with the green tea with lemon as directed. I added a bit of natural honey (it's not processed sugar, so it can't really be that bad, right?), and also made my breakfast smoothie to go. Since I work a 9-5, I usually would need to make things before hand, but I decided that I would make it home during my lunch breaks to make the lunch time smoothie.
The breakfast part was pretty decent: the green tea wasn't too bad (I'm not a huge tea drinker, much more of a coffee & latte type of girl), and it did give me the tiny bit of caffeine I needed. Next was the breakfast smoothie, which was actually pretty good. The consistency was fine and I was able to gulp it down over the span of an hour. I thought, well this isn't too bad... I think I'll probably be able to survive 3 days worth of this.
Next up was the lunch smoothie. This one had me a bit apprehensive. Cucumbers, kale, AND celery in one smoothie? That couldn't end well... and that proved to be right. I only put 2 celery stalks instead of 4 in (because I REALLY hate celery), and half a large cucumber instead of a full one, and the smoothie still was pretty terrible. My mom did the detox with me, and as she would describe it "it tasted like drinking someone's throw up". Gross right? Probably not something I needed to share, but there is no other way to describe the horrible consistency of this smoothie. No matter how much you blend it/mix water in, its somewhat of a chunky consistency that makes you feel like you need to chew it before you can swallow. I chased the whole smoothing down with big gulps of water. So far so good...
3 o'clock rolled around, and it was time for the snack smoothie as the detox recipe called for. Was I hungry? No. I was already tired of drinking my meals, and it was only about half way through the day. I ended up just chugging more water and skipping the snack smoothie.
Now on to dinner time. I got in a good workout after work, and all I craved was some solid food. Unfortunately, since that wasn't going to happen, I went on to make the dinner time smoothie. This smoothie calls for 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper. Unless you're big into spicy food, I would NOT recommend putting this much in. I put a pinch in and was still choking down the smoothie. Good thing I had tried a drink with Cayenne pepper before, because I knew how strong it was and if I had put the whole amount in that smoothie, there was no way I would have been able to drink it. This smoothie wasn't nearly as bad as the lunch time one, but not as good as the breakfast one either. I finished about half of it and climbed into bed.
Day 2
Day two went about the same as day one. The only change was that I couldn't finish the lunch time smoothie or the dinner time one. I drank about a half of each. I also cheated a tiny bit by eating some almonds around 3 o'clock (hey, one of the smoothies calls for almond butter, I didn't cheat that badly right?!). One thing I found interesting though, was that both days, even though I didn't finish my smoothies completely or have the snack smoothie, I still never felt hungry.
Day 3
Ok, I have to admit, by day 3, I was over this whole detox thing. I had pretty bad headaches both day 1 and day 2, I'm assuming from the lack of caffeine (as I said before, I'm a pretty big coffee drinker). I still went ahead and had my tea and breakfast smoothie. By the time lunch time rolled around, there was no way I could force myself to drink that green smoothie again. I instead ate some of the things that went into it (pineapple, mango, etc), and never made the smoothie. I know, BIG cheater here. I finished the day out with a spinach/turkey/egg white omelet. So day 3 was somewhat of a bust for me. Honestly, I didn't feel that much lighter/less bloated/clearer etc etc after 2.5 days, so I didn't feel like finishing it. I was proud of myself for completing two full days of this, so I wasn't mad that I couldn't finish the third.
All in all, I decided that if I were ever to try a detox/juice cleanse again, I would go with something like blueprint cleans. It's expensive, but the juices are all natural and delicious, and it would be much easier to swallow (unless you want to buy a juicer and make your own).
Tips
For all of you out there who want to try this, I think you should go for it. Even if it doesn't really change the way you feel (which I highly doubt it won't), it something that I think is extremely healthy and beneficial - just look at those ingredients you're putting into those smoothies! Here are some tips I would recommend if you plan on going through with this:
1. CHOP up those greens! Chop that celery and cucumber up so much that your blender doesn't have to do any work. If you don't, the celery makes the smoothie a bit stringy (which is obviously pretty gross to drink).
2. Do not put the called for amount of cayenne pepper into the dinner smoothie unless you can handle very hot/spicy things. I just put a pinch in
3. Drink a ton of water throughout the day - I know the detox never says anything about that, but you can never have too much water, and it helps you to feel full. It also helps flush toxins out of your body.
4. For the detox bath, I used lavender flavored Epsom salts - I think either way works really
5. Find activities to distract yourself from missing food - its a lot of mental work to complete this detox. Don't be weak. It's only 3 days of your life and you can do it (I know, coming from someone who didn't complete it, but I had my reasons).
6. I would use some frozen fruit (freeze the bananas, raspberries or blueberries) for the smoothies, or at least add ice. The smoothies are much easier to swallow if they're nice and cold.
Links
Below is the link for Dr. Ox's detox, and well as other helpful links to help you through this.
Dr. Oz 3 Day Cleanse
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/dr-ozs-3-day-detox-cleanse-one-sheet
Blueprint Cleanse
http://blueprintcleanse.com/
Blueprint Cleanse Copycat Recipes!
http://homefitnessmanual.com/diet-tips/hacking-the-blueprint-cleanse-how-to-get-the-same-results-but-at-half-the-cost/
Top 10 Foods for Detoxing
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7748/top-10-foods-for-detoxing.html
Top 10 Juice Cleanses
http://www.newbeauty.com/slideshow/161-top-juice-cleanses-for-2013/
Good luck!