Detox Diaries: Cooler Cleanse - Page 2

TESTER #2: Colleen, 24

I consider myself to have the normal lifestyle of a twentysomething living in New York City. I'm very active when it comes to exercising (I just completed my first marathon in the fall!) and when it comes to my social life you could say I'm very active in that as well. This means I definitely enjoy a cocktail (or seven) on any given night. So when I decided to do a 3-day cleanse challenge, I kissed my coffee cup goodbye with a single tear rolling down my cheek and made my roommate promise to hide all wine bottles until further notice. Read how my cleanse is going below.

P.S. I should also mention that my diet is pretty poor. I tend to have the mentality that I can eat whatever I want and as long as I work out regularly, I'll be fine. This may be true now, but there will come a day when my metabolism puts its foot down to tell me otherwise, so learning to treat my body right in the nutrition department is definitely something I can benefit from in these next few days.

DAY 1

Anxiously awaiting the delivery man like a little kid on Christmas, I opened my cleanse, complete with three mini coolers (one for each day) with six juices in each. If you're thinking, "Wow, that's a lot of juice," you're correct. I'm supposed to drink one juice about every two hours in addition to drinking plenty of water. Needless to say, I might have to move my cubicle closer to the ladies room until Thursday to cut down on travel time between pee breaks.

I have to admit that my first juice, Essential Green, took a little getting used to (it's primarily cucumber and kale, two veggies I don't often get on my pizza and beer runs on Friday nights). But after awhile, I started to warm up to the taste, and I really warmed up to all the nutrients I know my body doesn't normally ever get to see. After my initial juice, I spent the rest of my day drinking Pineapple and Ginger, Essential Green (yes, again), Young Coconut Water, Essential Red (a concoction of carrots, apples, and beets), and Almond Nut Milk (taste on this one TBD but in my head it tastes like a milkshake. I hope I'm right).

Surprisingly, aside from the occasional cubicle fever (noon is my time to check out the cafe! What's a girl to do now?) I felt perfectly fine when it came to my energy and concentration levels. I rarely felt hungry, and when I did start to feel a little ancy, it was time for another juice.

So as day one of my cleanse wraps up, I'm pleasantly surprised. Yes, I miss chewing, eating, and all that fun stuff, but three days seems like an achievable goal at this point in my cleanse. I'm interested to see how I hold up through the night and how I'll feel tomorrow morning, so stay tuned!

DAY 2

Last night might have been the longest night of my life, and it was totally self-inflicted. Instead of hitting the sheets at an early, reasonable hour like the Cooler Cleanse tells you to do, I decided to stay up until 1 a.m. I realized this was a mistake at 11 p.m. when my boyfriend started to heat up macaroni and cheese. That's right, macaroni and cheese. I could feel myself drooling on the floor and had to immediately remove myself from the premises. Did I want to shovel in with a fork and go to town with him? You bet I did. But when I walked away I realized it wasn't because I was hungry (because I really wasn't), it was just...because. These past couple of days have made me realize that I often nosh for no reason. Of course everyone snacks, but I tend to do it when I'm bored or need a break in my day, not because I'm actually hungry. This cleanse is really teaching me to listen to my body, not just shove anything in it.

On a normal day, my eating schedule would have gone a little something like this — egg whites for breakfast, a turkey burger for lunch, probably a candy bar from the vending machine (I love a gooey Twix at about 3 p.m.), and then dinner could go either way, a huge slice of pizza or a skimpy salad if I'm throwing something together. Today, I had two Essential Green Juices, Grapefruit and Mint (a new juice for me and very yummy), Young Coconut Water, Essential Red (also pleasantly surprised by the taste with this one), and Almond Nut Milk. Typically, I would feel sluggish and tired around 3 p.m., hence my vending machine drive-by but today I feel energized and alert without cramming my system with all that sugar.

I should also note that I've already lost two pounds. Though not the goal of this cleanse for me personally, that was an added bonus as well. That on top of the fact that I drank Essential Green today and actually liked it makes day two of my cleanse a huge success!

DAY 3

I've made it! After three days of straight juice and no solids, I'm nearing the final two juices of my cleanse and feeling great. Though last night I once again stayed up too late, I found it much easier to resist temptation then I did the night before, and as I watched my boyfriend dig into two slices of pizza at his usual 11 p.m. feeding time, I didn't even want to reach over and grab it out of his hands. All in all I feel extremely centered. These past few days have given me the chance to listen to my body instead of mindlessly eating my way through the day. Today's juices consisted of two Essential Green, Watermelon and Lime, Young Coconut Water, Essential Red, and Brazil Nut Milk to wrap things up.

I did come the realization however that I am freezing. When I say freezing, I mean shivering in my chair freezing. After some research from fellow cleansers I realized this is a common side effect of cleanses, as your body is using the nutrients you're fueling it with to tend to restoring your organs that you've been neglecting/abusing (editor Ariana joked all my nutrients are tending to my poor liver, but honestly she's probably right). So the energy your body once used to heat you up is now busy doing other things, which explains my grandma hands that are ice cubes and always 20 degrees colder than the rest of my body.

BREAKING THE CLEANSE

I told myself once this cleanse was over I'd be running to the nearest pizza joint to eat a slice the size of my face. Now that I'm here however, my body feels so good that is actually the last thing I want to do. Instead, I plan to eat smaller portions several times throughout the day and give my body good things it needs, not junk that I see everyone else eating and think I want too. Will I eat pizza again? Of course. But instead of relying on it as a source for energy and an easy eat, I'll do it in moderation and figure out how to balance it out with healthier options.

OVERALL

In the end, I didn't lose any more weight, which for me was fine (again, fresh off of a marathon and heavy workout routine I didn't have much to lose in the first place). This actually made me feel better about the cleanse because it proved to be a healthy system instead of causing me to drop pounds I didn't need to lose at the speed of light. And though it took some serious mental commitment (and a lot of understanding friends who didn't care that I had to bail on them for a few days) I would do this cleanse again without a second thought.