As I was savoring my cup of coffee, I finish my makeup and I notice that my skin was glowing. Not like after a $90 steam extraction type of facial but like I was well rested and happy. Sort of ironic for the stabby mood I was in the other day. I will mention my eczema is still the same, I'd need my regular medicine to keep it under control.
Okay so let's investigate day 2 before I share my thoughts about this cleanse.
I get to work and I look forward to my morning drink. I sip slowly, in fact I take so long that thirty minutes pass by the time I am done drinking. I don't even eat actual food this slowly. I am retraining myself to take time out and savor everything that passes my taste buds. I feel the acidity on the sides of my tongue and I feel experience a slight sweet after taste, albeit diet like, but I'll take it.
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| The Cleansing Trio |
Within minutes my stomach growls and that's my cue to sip my first of many orange spice herbal teas. It's soothing and calms my stomach. When it rumbles again, I drink as much water as possible. Yes, I occasionally think of food but not as much as I did on day 1.
I test my lack of coffee induced alertness at a weekly staff meeting. What? I'm not sleepy? I'm actually taking coherent notes? I know what's going on! This is just crazy.
Lunch time and I happily go through the ritual of drinking my cleansing pink lemonade concoction followed by orange spice tea and gallons of water. I let it settle, use the bathroom and go window shopping. I try not to obsess over the hot dog/pretzel carts I walk by (3) but I now have an intense craving for a soft pretzel and mustard. I successfully, don't cave into my desires and I also don't buy anything either. But that's just because I ran out of time!
A few hours later I have my drink again. I'm doing just fine. Day 2 is so much easier, no surprise there really. I don't have any caffeine headaches and despite my loudly growling tummy, I'm pretty happy. The countdown to a morning cup of coffee is within hours.
I get home, make myself a cup of red roobois tea and count down the hours till my very last pink lemonade drink. I get distracted by the scent of my husband and daughter's dinner - pasta swimming in butter and parmesan cheese. In due time, I'll be able to eat with them again. I get really anxious to have my last drink. I happily go to bed knowing I'll be reunited with my favorite beverage, coffee.
Fast forward to this morning. I decide to wear my slim, skinny ankle pants that have been a bit tight in the waste band. They are still a bit snug but not as bad this time. This makes me think I didn't lose a thing. Until I weigh myself on the scale in the gym at work - I lost 4 lbs. But I'm skeptical since the scale tends to be wonky. I decide to weigh myself at my gym later and I'll take an average if that scale says otherwise.
The entire day, I'm afraid to eat. I don't want to undo what I just did - I lost some bloat I couldn't seem to lose over the past five months. I have a protein shake and about an hour and half later I snack on some apple slices. I eat a small chinese chicken salad. I have a cup of orange tea when my stomach grumbles and I continue to drink as much water I can. I then go to the gym for a quick circuit training workout.
The moment of truth, the scale at my gym is conclusive with the scale at work - could I really have lost 4lbs. in two days just cleansing? I think it's pretty generous, if anything I probably lost 3lbs. Whatever, I dropped water weight and I'm not going to complain. I keep the momentum and eat a banana and carrot sticks when I get back to my desk. I am still frightened of gaining it back, especially since I know my husband is treating me to a taco and tortilla chips. I'm proud to report that I only ate one taco and I didn't finish all of my chips but I came close.That's when I threw the bag at my husband and he happily finished it for me. I think I enjoyed the act of eating together with my family than the Mexican food itself. I can't lie, I also had dessert - 3/4 cup of chocolate cheerios with a 1/2 cup of 2% milk. Yes, I have to measure everything I can now just to keep myself honest. I am feeling a little guilty but I'm happy.
So what did I learn? When given the choice of a mug of coffee vs. a plate of bacon, I'd happily take the coffee. Knowing that, I must discipline myself to just one cup, especially now that I experienced clarity without any caffeine in my system. I also am trying to eat at a slower pace like the way I had to savor each pink lemonade drink I took. The cleanse does what it says if you are faithful. It's tough work but if you stick with it you will drop some water weight (the amount will vary depending on your starting weight) or you might not lose anything at all. But you may learn self control and think differently about what you put in your body. The main reason I did this, aside from de-bloating, was just to see if I could do it. Yes, like testing myself by running a half marathon, I wanted to see if I could survive a 48hr. cleanse. The cleanse claims to kick start your new diet plan. I can attest to this because I am scared of regaining what I lost. I'm not planning to cleanse again anytime soon but I will try to stay away from the danger foods - fried chicken, grilled cheese sandwiches, fries, cake, lots of booze - you know everything that's fun! I won't deprive myself completely per se, but I do have a better gauge on my intake now.
Yes, you do pee..A LOT! I didn't mention in earlier because you probably figured that out already. You don't however, poop but you don't feel backed up because there isn't any food in your system.
Do I recommend this? Sure but you have to be ready for the challenge. You also have to be ready for the responsibility of keeping up the good work afterwards. I guess that's my next challenge - losing the next ten pounds.
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