I Survived a 5 Day Detox

I recently decided to do a 5 day clean eating cleanse and let me tell you it was crazy. It started innocently enough. I saw Rocco DiSpirito on a show talking about his new book, The Negative Calorie Diet. He was talking about all these delicious recipes, so when I saw the Kindle version was available from the library, I decided to check it out. Just to be clear, this is not a sponsored post for Rocco or his book. I just thought it would help me find some new dinner ideas.

The book is all about clean eating and cutting the crap out of your diet. When he talked about a 10 day detox cleanse, I was intrigued. The detox involves 3 smoothies and one meal a day. The point was to cut out dairy, wheat, alcohol, all processed foods and added sugars. I have never attempted anything like that, so I figured it was worth a try. I really just wanted to see if I could do it.

However, 10 days seemed way too long to live on mostly smoothies. I decided I would give it a go for 5. I told my husband and being the ever-curious dietitian, he decided join me. The book came with the plan completely written out, but the smoothies and meals were interchangeable. We picked out the ones that sounded the best and I went shopping.

My strawberry picking sweeties!

I lucked out since we went strawberry picking the day before we started the detox. They have a huge market with all locally grown produce, so I got almost all the fruits and veggies we needed right there. (& for way cheaper than what I would have paid at the grocery store!) I did have to go to Whole Foods for a few of the items, many I had never even heard of. (pea protein? acacia fiber?) I have never seen my fridge full of so many fresh foods!

This doesn’t include everything in my produce drawers!

We started on a Sunday. During the workweek, we decided to bring our one meal for lunch and drink our breakfast, snack and dinner. The whole thing took a LOT of planning. We made the first two smoothies of the day the night before, since my husband leaves for work pretty early so he needed everything ready to grab and go. We prepped as much as we could ahead of time and if we didn’t do that we definitely wouldn’t have been able to stick with it.

Green drinks for DAYS

Once I got going, it was pretty easy to stick to though. I never felt hungry, but I did miss regular eating. Drinking 3 smoothies a day is a pretty lame way to live, in my opinion. However, even though we only did this for 5 days, my husband and I noticed some definite changes. We both fell asleep faster and woke up earlier and easier. This was huge for me, since I am a very light sleeper and have issues falling asleep. I felt noticeably more rested, even though my daughter was still coming in and waking me up most nights. I also lost about 4 pounds, which was a nice bonus. (& I still haven’t gained it back!)

This dinner was my favorite! Totally making this again!

The biggest difference for me was my lower back pain was significantly less. I have had issues with my lower back for a few years now, and I usually go to the chiropractor to get it fixed. However, nothing was really helping and it was even preventing me from working out. Rocco touches on food inflammation issues in his book, but I was so shocked by the fact that I hardly felt my back pain, that I have been doing more research. I have since read the book Sugar Crush which is an eye-opening read, that scientifically explains the effects that sugar has on your body. It is very technical, but so interesting.

I have always been a fairly healthy eater, and thought my friends who cut out sugar and gluten and stuff like that were kind of crazy. However, I am finally starting to realize these foods really do have a direct effect on your body and the way you feel. Since doing this detox, I have dramatically changed the way I eat, and I
have been feeling fantastic. I am even thinking about giving the
Whole30 a try. (I am still reading that book) Have any of you tried it? How did it go?
Have you ever done a detox?