3 day detox

4th June 2008 10.00am
Today I embarked on a three day detox program which involves consuming only juice for the duration. I bought a juicer about a month ago and since then I’ve had a vegetable juice every morning for breakfast. Now I’ve decided to go all out and have nothing but fresh juice for three days.

The first thing I had to do was make sure I had everything I need. Yesterday I called into my friendly local fruit and veg supplier in the Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre. She sorted me out with plenty of carrots, apples, broccoli, spinach, peppers, celery, cucumbers, beetroot, ginger and lemons. The final thing I needed was a flask that I could bring juice to work in – preferably one that would keep the juice cool until lunchtime. Tesco helped me out in this respect and at the expense of only €10.

I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to drink alcohol for the three days either (tough when the last day is a Friday and the temptation will be huge!), so I hit the rooftop terrace of the Eagle House in Sandycove last night for a few creamy ones with Wig and Clare. I woke up this morning, not quite in the state of mind I had hoped for day one but nonetheless I dutifully hauled myself out of bed and began juicing.

My first juice of the day involved carrots, apples, broccoli, lemon, cucumber, celery, beetroot and half a yellow pepper. I made a double batch and had half for breakfast and transferred the other half to my new flask which had been chilling in the fridge over night. This is going to be my lunch however the detox program I’m following requires that you have another juice in the late afternoon between lunch and dinner (aka linner). So I made up this juice as well and stuck it in a 1L Ballygowan bottle although there was far less of it than the breakfast and lunch juice. The idea is to top it up with water to make a full litre which I’ll do at work.

So off I set this morning with my little backpack containing my flask of lunch juice and my bottle of linner juice. I’ve already spent an hour at work and things don’t seem to be going too bad at all. I’m glad I’m not a coffee drinker as I imagine this is the point where I’d be suffering from caffeine withdrawal symptoms. However, I am under no illusions that by 11 or 12 o’clock I’ll be in a very hungry place. I’ll let you know how I get on!

2.45pm
I’ve just had my lunchtime juice and I’m still alive! I’m actually feeling very refreshed and energised. As expected, I got very hungry around mid-morning. I feared for my ability to make it all the way to lunch without eating and so I headed up to the canteen and got myself a smoothie with strawberries, blackberries, a banana and some orange juice in it. That definitely kept me ticking over until lunchtime when I gladly consumed the second half of the juice I made for breakfast. I am also pleased to report that the tesco flask works a charm. My lunch juice was as cold as it would have been had it been in the fridge all morning.

It’s now approaching 3 o’clock and I’m in a great position to finish the working day without consuming anything that isn’t juice. I’m still full from my lunch juice and I also have my linner juice to go. So I reckon I’ll crack that out at around 4pm. My biggest concern at this point is whether I’ll have the energy to complete a workout when I get home this evening. I’m sure I’m getting plenty of nutrients from all the veggie juice however a lack of carbs could make for a difficult work out. I’ll report back later with my findings!

5th June 2008 4.00pm
Well I’m halfway through my second day of the detox and I must say I feel great! It’s definitely doing a good job of flushing out my system. Last night I decided that doing a full workout would do more harm than good and so I gave it a miss. Instead I made myself a smoothie for dinner that involved mixing veggie juice with an avocado in a blender. I was surprised at how good it actually tasted! Especially since there was an entire bag of Kale involved. It filled me up and I went to bed pretty content.

This morning I had a treat in store for me. The breakfast for day two of the detox program is a delicious fruit smoothie with raspberries, blueberries and natural yogurt among other things. This was far more filling than my breakfast yesterday and I made it all the way to lunchtime without feeling any pangs of hunger. I enjoyed my lunchtime juice and am just about to start into my linner juice for day two.

The curious thing about the detox is that although I’m not actually feeling hungry, I’m craving solid foods. Not necessarily junk food but just something solid. I find it odd that I want food even though I’m not really hungry. Still, I’ve decided to opt out of the detox slightly early. I will stay on nothing but juice until the end of work tomorrow at which point I will be meeting Fi for some food, a few pints and a gig. I’m sure cutting the detox short by just a few hours won’t reduce the overall benefit by much. In any case, I’ve only recently completed a one month abstinence from alcohol so I don’t feel a need to repeat that feat so soon.

5^th June 2008 4.00pm
Bloody hell! I was doing great until last night and feeling really good about myself. I was feeling very refreshed and flushed out and impressed with my ability to endure two full days without food. Until Emsy dropped over. The first thing I noticed before I saw or heard her was the smell. The unmistakable smell of a dominos pepperoni pizza. Not only that but she had under her arm a massive box of Belgian chocolates which were for me in return for saving her and her mum from a killer bird a few weeks previously.

The funny thing is, I wasn’t actually hungry. But as I said yesterday, I was craving solid foods and as I watched Emsy begin munching into her pizza, I started salivating uncontrollably. But then to make things worse, Wig decided that he was going to have a pizza too! So just as Emsy was finished hers, Wig started into his own. And as a final test of my discipline, a few cold beers were cracked open for good measure. I can tell you now that I resisted. It was tough, but I did it. Even when I heard that beautiful kh-ksh sound when a cool can of beer is opened, I still resisted. I can only marvel at my new-found willpower.

I woke up this morning in great spirits, delighted that I hadn’t given in to my cravings the previous evening. I made my way downstairs and made a bumper batch of juices to keep me going all through breakfast, brunch, lunch and linner. I’m currently enjoying my brunch juice but very much thinking ahead to this evening when I’ll be indulging in a good meal and a few pints.

8^th June 2008
I’m happy to report that the detox was a resounding success. I went from Tuesday morning to 7pm on Friday evening on nothing but juices. To celebrate, I met up with Fi after work. After a couple of pint in Bruxelles we hit Wagamama’s for my first solid meal in 3 days. I had a delicious vegetable and chicken noodle dish with the odd duck dumpling on the side. It was great! After the meal we headed on to Andrew’s Lane Theatre where Fi had us on the guest list for ‘Those Dancing Days’, an all-girl Swedish electro-rock group. It was a really good evening and I didn’t go too crazy opting for the last bus home. Sure I had to be up early the next morning to watch Ireland get beaten by New Zealand.

Although the detox was difficult in parts, it really does work and completely cleanses and flushes out your body. I recommend it for anybody who feels they need to detox their system. You could even just do it for one or two days if you didn’t want to do the full whack. I imagine it would also be good after a heavy period of boozing and eating such as Christmas or a holiday. Yep, if feeling good and a cleaned out system is what you’re looking for, juicing is the way to go.