I have decided to take on a cleanse. It might not be the “right” time (when is it really??) but I haven’t done a cleanse in years and the one through my boot camp gets serious results. It’s in two parts, a 10 day cleanse and a 14 day Max phase. It’s by Advocare and their supplements are recommended by Dr. Oz. So here I am–day one almost done. Let’s go into what I will be doing, eating and not eating.

I am giving up:

• coffee
• sugar
• dairy
• white flour
• alcohol
• fried foods/fatty foods
• soda/pop

Let’s just take this in for a moment. No coffee. This was the one rule that I was unsure I could follow. I am a serious Starbucks addict. I love my skinny vanilla latte’s like a crack addict likes, well crack!! I am a self-admitted addict. Ok so, we are now taking in the lack of coffee. Let’s move to sugar. So now no coffee and no sugar??? Really? *cries* It’s not that I eat tons of it the way I used to, but I sure as heck like it!! I will have a frozen yogurt every weekend, or something with sugar everyday. So that’s gone. Alright. Next, dairy. So no cheese in my eggs, no smoothies with my 1% milk and yogurt. Not a big loss, I can deal without that for ten days. No white flour, no white rice, etc. I like to have water crackers with my hummus snack in the afternoons, so that was a bit of a “boo hoo”, but with a bit of creativity, I can make it work. I also like to have white rice, but cooking brown rice is no big deal.  No alcohol? I only drink socially. I have a bottle of wine in my fridge that I haven’t touched in months. I honestly just need to throw it out. No fried foods? Don’t care! I don’t eat that crap. No pop? Meh! I drink Sprite once a month, max.

So what can I eat??

• fruit–that is high in fiber and low glycemic (aka berries, apples, grapefruit)
• veggies–preferably steamed so it’s cooked clean and they recommend having a salad for lunch
• healthy fats–avocado (gross), nuts/seeds, olive oil
• clean proteins–tuna and salmon are highly recommended then chicken, eggs, beef
• clean complex carbs–oatmeal, hummus, brown rice

I don’t eat enough fruit, I admit this. So this is good!! I now have it at the beginning and end of my day. Veggies, not an issue, I mainly eat broccoli, green beans and salad. Healthy fats are also fine, minus avocado. That could be the most disgusting food ever. No way I am eating it!!! I love a handful of almonds in the morning, as a snack and I always cooking with olive oil. Clean proteins, ahhhh oh Advocare, you want me to only eat tuna and salmon for ten days?? Not happening!! I am not a fan of salmon. I don’t mind tuna, I can do that, but I can’t eat it for every meal for ten days. So yes, chicken and eggs will be eaten during this. And lastly, I like oatmeal but usually with sugar, so that will be an adjustment!! I love hummus, so that’s fabulous!! And again, brown rice and I are friends.

On top of these eating rules, I also have a supplement schedule as well. Here is what I will be ingesting during my cleanse:

• Spark Energy Drink
• Catalyst
• Fiber Drink
• OmegaPlex
• Cleanse Tablets
• Restore Tablets (starting day 4)
• Herbal Cleanse Tablets

It sounds like a lot but it actually wasn’t too bad. I start my morning off with Spark and 3 Catalyst pills. Then a half hour later I have the fiber drink with fruit. I thought I would feel like something was missing in my morning ritual (which is usually eggs and a Starbucks), but I didn’t mind this at all. In fact, I thought both Spark and Fiber Drink were pretty tasty!! My Spark drink was fruit punch flavoured and my Fiber drink was peaches and cream. I liked both! And it wasn’t too grainy or anything. I am a picky person when it comes to flavour and texture and it passed my test. And I tell you, I was nervous. Then I have lunch all on its own. Then an afternoon snack of veggies and hummus with 3 catalyst pills again. Then I have dinner with 4-6 Omegaplex pills. Then right before going to bed I have a Herbal Cleanse Tablet. I also have a handy checklist, that I have referred to about 7 times today!!! I actually check each one off as I go, so I can stay on track.

I am surprised how easy it was to stay on track. Having the checklist was invaluable! Plus I was super surprised at how much I liked the drinks I had to have in the morning. My big thing is being able to adhere to the morning schedule of having the fiber drink and fruit exactly 30 minutes after my Spark drink. Working in retail makes this a huge challenge, as I can’t be sure I will be able to do this, as I am called to help in certain areas quite a bit. I am hoping the cleanse won’t be too thrown off if it takes me maybe 45 to an hour to get to the fiber drink and food. It just can’t be helped.

Today I found that I was peeing even more than normal, that I was full after drinking the fiber drink and that I was ready to eat 7 dinners when I got home!! Other than that, I don’t feel too different and I didn’t miss my coffee. I think I like the ritual more than the coffee itself.

Tomorrow or the next day I will write about how it’s going. I am sure the sugar deprivation will kick in and I bet I will be missing the coffee. We will see!!