So the 5-day detox was just as rough as I thought it was going to be! However, it felt so incredible to have cleared my body of the everyday toxins and to have pumped it full of an incredible amount of fruits and vegetables!
My usual daily routine consisted of something similar to this-
Breakfast Snack- Glass of water with ½ lemon juice, 1 cup fruit
Breakfast- Shake (either a lemon-lime shake, see recipe below, or a shake from Karyn’s Raw)
Mid-morning Snack-banana with raw almond butter
Lunch-dehydrated kale chips or sprouted sunflower seeds, glass homemade nut milk (I prefer almond milk) with 1 cup Karyn’s raw/vegan granola OR-raw “yogurt” with mango puree from Karyn’s Raw
Dinner- big salad (my favorite is a mixture of spinach, red cabbage, romaine, mango, jicama, fresh corn, strawberries, grape tomatoes, sprouted sunflower seeds, halved snap peas and a raw cashew “ranch” dressing)
Dessert- you guessed it. Fruit!
Now the challenge that I ran into is that it is the nature of my chosen career path that I am super active an on my feet 10-14 hours per day. In addition to that I work out almost every day. So, I found myself feeling a bit sluggish at the end of day three most likely because I am actively burning calories and the raw/vegan diet provides few complex carbohydrates from whole grains. So, one I found karyns raw granola I did feel a tremendous amount better that I did before adding that to the diet.
Another challenge I could foresee many people having is that if you lead a busy lifestyle and would like to prepare most of your detox food yourself you really have to prepare it all from scratch. Our food products sold in the grocery store are pasteurized and are therefore heat processed to be so. Hence-not raw as they are heat treated during the pasteurization process…..so even though almond milk is indeed a vegan product unless you are making it yourself it isn’t raw. Good news=its super easy to make! Just takes a bit of planning and forethought. And that seems to be the theme of the detox, lots of planning.
In the end I am glad I took the plunge and cleansed my body. I would recommend weaning yourself off coffee prior the detox. Going cold turkey on that in addition to the cleanse itself led my body to many migraines, which could be prevented had I cleared myself of caffeine prior the 5 days. So, next time you feel motivated feel free to contact me with any questions you are looking to have answered or any advice you are seeking. Happy cleansing!
Lemon-Lime Shake
- 1/2 avocado
- ½ frozen banana (I break them in half prior freezing)
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1 T. flaxseed meal or chia seeds
- juice of 1 whole lemon
- juice of 1 whole lime
- 1 packet stevia
- 5-6 ice cubes
Put all ingredients in a blender and puree until it is a beautiful light green, silken drink.