Dr. Oz Three Day Cleanse - My Tips and Thoughts

For about a year, I have played around with the idea of doing a three day cleanse. I first got the idea when I "pinned" a two-day cleanse on Pinterest. At that time I was nursing Annadee and I didn't feel like I should mess around too much with my body in case it could affect her negatively. Last week, my friend Beth was talking about how she wanted to do a cleanse and I said I would do one with her, so I went and got all of the stuff for Dr. Oz's three day cleanse.

I wasn't particularly overwhelmed with the whole idea of only drinking fruit and veggie smoothies for three days because I actually already have a smoothie here and there in place of breakfast or lunch. My usual smoothie's consist of vanilla flavored protein powder, carrots, avocados  spinach, almond milk, and some type of frozen fruit.

My main goal in attempting a cleanse was just to give my body a break and give it some really good stuff for a few days. I really tried to not overdo the whole overeating bit throughout the Holidays, and I generally don't eat a lot of unhealthy stuff, but I know I don't eat the healthiest of diets all of the time.

I started my cleanse on Wednesday morning and ended it Friday night. Thursday was probably my roughest day because Annadee was up for three hours straight the night before. On this plan you are allowed one snack smoothie during the afternoon - whatever smoothie you like best. I had the snack smoothie on Thursday and Friday, but didn't feel like I needed it on Wednesday.

I never "felt" like I was going through some major detox cleanse. My bowels never went crazy, I didn't have horrible headaches (probably because I read that you needed to drink lots of water to combat this) and I didn't feel starved all the time. I did take the detox baths for three nights in a row, which by Friday gave me a pretty wicked crick in my neck. My bathtub isn't meant to lay in for 30 minutes three days in a row! By Saturday morning I was 7 pounds lighter than I had started out on Wednesday morning! This was a definite plus, as this wasn't really my goal in doing this.


Changes I made:

• I did not buy almond butter, but instead used sugar free peanut butter in my breakfast smoothie.
• I did not include the celery in my lunch smoothie. This probably seems like I cheated, but I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the celery taste and so I just left it out. 
• I did not include the cayenne pepper in the dinner smoothie. I didn't want to ruin it. I guess my philosophy is, if something is going to ruin the whole smoothie, and that is all you are eating, leave it out! Just don't leave out everything!

Tips:

• Blend your smoothie as much as possible. I used the liquefy setting on my blender and got everything pretty smooth. However, I did strain each of them to get out seeds and pulp. Again, I can't sit there and be chewing on seeds and pulp and try to "enjoy" drinking my meals!
• I always try to use something frozen in my smoothies just to help with the whole taste aspect. It really does help!

After the cleanse, I did notice quite a bit more gas going back to "normal" foods. I have tried to stay away from dairy as much as possible, but I haven't completely cut it out. I am sure the 7 pounds will not stay off, although I will say that I feel like my self-control has been strengthened throughout this whole process. I didn't eat when I was slightly hungry, so hopefully I can continue that practice. Also, I would like to do this every January just to clean out my body for the new year. :)