Last week, I embarked on what was a rough but rewarding week of no dairy, refined grains, refined sugar, and caffeine, among other things. I decided to do this to cleanse all of the toxins and crap that I had been eating out of my system. As the second semester got busier, I got lazier and lazier when it came to eating healthy. I tended to go for the cheap fast option which wasn’t always the best option. A couple of my friends had done this particular cleanse and I had several friends do it at the same time as me, so with their encouragement and one final latte Sunday night, I began my 5-day smoothie cleanse! The cleanse consisted of two smoothies (breakfast and lunch) each day and a healthy protein (fish or chicken) for dinner. Healthy snacking was encouraged as well.
Monday: My first green smoothie was not bad at all, I love the way fruits and vegetables taste, so that wasn’t a concern of mine. The main issue was hunger. Not used to only drinking 32 oz of smoothing and a few snacks before dinner, I got quite irritable and was generally in a bad mood. Honestly, I didn’t feel much different but I was eager to see what the next day held.
Tuesday: After Monday’s “trial-and-error” style eating schedule, I had gotten a pretty good sense of when I needed to eat throughout the day to not be starving. Smoothie for breakfast around 9:00 am, 23 (yes, 23) almonds around 12:30, smoothie #2 at 1:00 and then celery with natural, unsweetened peanut butter for a snack in the mid-afternoon. Tuesday went much better, but I was still experiencing pretty bad caffeine withdrawal headaches throughout the day. I had a great dinner and played some tennis in the evening. It was really good to get active during this cleanse as well, definitely recommend it!
Wednesday: Wednesday I definitely had some hard core cravings. Cake, cheese, coffee, even almond thins (the “healthy” crackers) were foods I would have died to eat. This was just my body reacting to the toxins that were being removed from my body. I made it through, with my snack regimen and lots of water. That’s another thing that you MUST do during this; drink A LOT of water.
Thursday: By Thursday I wasn’t experiencing too many headaches and had a hold on my “hunger” problem. It was pretty smooth and I could tell my body was continuing to cleanse. One thing I noticed, was that I wasn’t experiencing mid-afternoon crashes like I had prior to this cleanse. I had steady energy throughout the day that was attributed to the healthy sugars and sources of good energy I was consuming. These wouldn’t spike my blood sugar and cause me to need an afternoon nap.
Friday: By Friday I was getting used to this schedule of smoothies and a lean, light dinner. I felt the worst Friday, however. My stomach was unsettled for most of the day and I didn’t have much of an appetite at all. By the end of the day, I was ready for the cleanse to be over, but I’m extremely glad I did it.
Some things I learned doing this cleanse are:
- I should stop eating dairy. I’ve kind of known this for a while, however, I have been in denial due to the fact that I love cheese and milkshakes way too much. Basically, my body does not love dairy and I need to just listen to it and use more nut-based milk.
- Starting my day with a green tea instead of coffee isn’t the worst. Don’t get me wrong, I missed coffee the most out of this whole experience, but maybe subbing a green tea instead of my second cup of the day would be a good implementation into my diet.
- Eating clean is really great. I didn’t feel sluggish or weighted down by any of the things I was eating like I do sometimes when I eat fried or fast food.
When it comes down to it, I would definitely recommend this cleanse. The cleanse I did was in the e-book “10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse” by JJ Smith, check it out if you are interested in doing your own cleanse! (Click the hyperlink to go to the e-book) Specifically, I only did the first 5 days, and I did the modified cleanse.
I hope you learned something from my journey through this cleanse and maybe this will encourage you to start trying to live a healthier lifestyle!
x Caleb Moushon
The Buzz 