While I love food, I must admit that it can sometimes be hard on the stomach. Recently, I haven’t been feeling so good and I kept wondering if I should maybe try a cleanse, like every other Los Angeles resident. I began doing my research and finally decided to go with the Dr. Oz 3-Day Detox Smoothie Cleanse, for many reasons. Three days later, I have to say I feel a lot better!
Sorry, there aren’t many photos of the smoothies, because I was more concerned with not breaking cleanse than making the cleanse look pretty. So, why Dr. Oz’s cleanse and not a juice cleanse from somewhere? Well, juice cleanses are hella pricey and after researching them, I decided that $100+ for juices was too much for me right now. I began to look into alternatives and I had recently gotten inspired during a recent raw food cooking class at SunCafe Organic to buy a blender, which is my new best friend. Add in a bout of late-night googling cleanses and suddenly, I decided to give Dr. Oz’s cleanse a shot. And no, he didn’t pay me to write this, even though I’ve been a fan for awhile.
Pre-Cleanse
I found a stretch of a week in which I didn’t have any food obligations nor food in my fridge, but lots of professional writing work, so I would be too distracted from crying at my fridge, wishing to chew something, anything. I had already cut out sugars and caffeine in the month before the cleanse, due to my indigestion that wouldn’t quit. And because even Nexium wasn’t working, it was cleanse time.
What I like the most about it is the smoothies are super easy to make at home, the ingredients are all available at Trader Joe’s, and each smoothie has a purpose. What I didn’t like was how expensive it is ā Dr. Oz says it should cost no more than $16 a day ($48 total), while mine cost $26 a day, but it was still better than $300 for a 3-day juice cleanse. For the record, I skipped the detox baths, because I really don’t have time for, nor like baths. Also $26 a day without buy the bath stuff. Ahem.
Okay, so here’s how it went.
Day One
I had the green tea with lemon, but no Stevia (I take my teas without sweetener) and this is one of my favorite drinks, so it’s great.
The breakfast smoothie formed a kind of brown-ish top since I prepped it last night. So this might not be one you should prep in advance. In any case, it’s delicious.
The lunch smoothie is one I nursed for awhile. Maybe because it’s so green? Maybe it’s because it’s so hearty? I’m not sure. But the reports about this one being tough to drink might be right.
Of course, this is also the day during which Uber Eats decides to offer me two free meals. I decided to save those for post-cleanse.
Before starting the cleanse, I read on a blog that these
smoothies will make your mind race and didn’t think too much of it.
It’s true. By the middle of lunch smoothie, my mind was going a mile a minute. I was being
very productive at work. I felt like I had a jolt of caffeine, but you know, without the caffeine. I had the breakfast smoothie again as the snack smoothie.
Dinner was tough. I wound up staying late at work to help my boss and then I got home and gulped up the dinner smoothie, which was fine. The cayenne pepper is very strong, but it adds a nice spicy flavor to it. After the dinner smoothie was tough – I was so hungry and wanted to eat (chew) something. It was a strong urge, but I fought it by cheating and having some more tea and distracted myself by doing some work.
Day Two
For the first time in a long time, my indigestion was GONE. It was a victory many antacids could not claim, but Dr. Oz’s smoothie cleanse could. But let’s not get too excited now; I still had two more days to go.
My experience with the smoothies was the same as Day One and I drank the lunch smoothie as the snack smoothie. But now that my gnarly indigestion was gone, my appetite was full-force and I was seeing temptation everywhere. I went to a friendly non-food-related get-together to distract myself and got tempted by chips and salsa. I was even tempted by the extra kale in my fridge. I took this as a good sign that I was feeling better, but kept up the will power to reject these temptations.
I also ended this day with an additional tea to calm my stomach.
Day Three
I was feeling really good. Food photos began to tempt me. Luckily, I was working all day, including at night to cover the
Olympics opening ceremony on Eastern time, so I would be fully distracted from cravings. I had the dinner smoothie as my snack smoothie.
Alas, by 10:30 p.m. I decided to break cleanse, by making kale chips (gasp) and a salad made with left over ingredients from the cleanse, so I’m not exactly sure it counts as breaking cleanse, since I was continuing its “spirit.”
Post-Cleanse
It was definitely a positive experience for me. I feel a lot better than I did pre-cleanse and I’m having fun experimenting with all of the leftover ingredients.
It’s only been a few days, but I can already see how I’m looking at food a lot differently. It dawned on me that I do a lot of eating because I’m bored or procrastinating writing for work (which happens when you telecommute like I do). I celebrated breaking cleanse by going to a food event and even there, I noticed I was making better choices for myself. Sugar tasted almost too sweet. I really loved the fruits and veggies. And I saved a cookie for later.
Conclusion: I can see myself doing this every few months as a reset.
