Dr Oz Three Day Cleanse Detox: Day 2

This is my series about my experience with the Dr. Oz Three Day Detox Cleanse.  Check here for my post on why I decided to attempt the the cleanse and how I prepped the ingredients beforehand and here for my experience on Day 1.

Lunch Smoothie

I won’t lie.  This smoothie is a doozy. It’s veggie heavy (Kale, cucumber, celery) making a thick, fibrous drink.  Before I started this cleanse I read some reviews from others equally crazy detoxers. The biggest complaint was regarding the lunch smoothie.  By day 3, most people had manipulated the recipe to make it more palatable.  Here’s what I did to make it drinkable.

•             Add more almond milk.  There was NO WAY my blender could process all the ingredients without more liquid.  The recipe calls for ½ c of almond milk but I needed a full cup more to help it blend.  Otherwise, it would have been more salad than smoothie
•             Trim and peel the celery. I cut off all the celery leaves and the thick white bottoms. I also peeled the top layer which is where most of the stringiness comes from. I only used three stalks instead of four. 
•             Peel and seed the cucumber.  Cucumber skin is super bitter, so by peeling it you greatly enhance the flavor of the smoothie.  I’m sure there’s some benefit to the skin, but I would have been unable to drink the smoothie and given up on the cleanse if I didn’t peel and seed.
•             Use tiny pieces of pineapple.  If you are using store bought frozen pineapple, this is less of a problem, but I cut and froze my own.  My blender had a tough time blending the pineapple so I found smaller chunks helped the process. Also, I added a few more chunks of pineapple to the mix to help along the flavor.
•             Just add the lime juice/pulp.  Dr. Oz just says one lime and doesn’t specify how to prep it.  Some people just threw the lime in whole.  No thanks.  Lime peel is bitter. I juiced my lime, getting as much pulp as I could into the mix. 

Despite all those tips, my blender still had a tough time processing all the food.  I few times I had to get out a spoon and manually mix to help it along. 

This makes a TON of smoothie.  I had trouble drinking the whole thing and I read some people saved half of it for a snack. Despite the complaints from others, with the tips I mentioned above, I didn’t find the flavor all that bad. With the pineapple and coconut oil it had a tropical feel.   My three year old actually liked it and requested his own small glass!

Drinking in a smoothie in beer glass didn't make me feel any better about not drinking beer. 

How I felt on Day 2

Day 2 was a bit better than Day 1, until evening when my detox headache got the best of me.  I did get a decent workout on Day 2 and then spent the afternoon pushing Max around the steep hills of the Cincinnati Zoo in the blazing sun. Despite drinking mass quantities of water, I’m sure that didn’t help.

I managed to avoid all of the tasty zoo treats, even when Max was given a free Icee.  In the heat, that fluorescent blue Icee looked damn delicious.  I did accidently cheat later in the day when without thinking, I popped some Chex Mix into my mouth while making Max a snack.  I did it again when cutting up some broccoli. That was an eye opener.  How many wasteful calories do I consume by mindlessly popping food in my mouth just because it’s in front of me?  It’s a serious concern and I need to get better at being aware.  Has anyone combatted this issue before?  I’d love suggestions on ways to be more mindful.

Free things have no calories

I still spent the day craving real food.  I had half a breakfast smoothie as a snack (Max drank the other half when I wasn’t paying attention) and it helped the afternoon hunger binge.  Like yesterday, I took my detox bath while my guys ate a proper dinner. Despite being upstairs engulfed in steamy lavender/Epsom salt bliss, the aroma of burgers and roasted broccoli still made it’s way to the bathroom to taunt me. I don’t know if this was part of the detox or not, but I sweated like crazy during the bath.  This didn’t happen the night before.

I sucked down a dinner smoothie around 7:30. By 8:15 I fell asleep on the couch wrapped in Brett’s arms, hoping that by day 3 I would have the amazing energy all the other reviewers experienced