Day 3: Yes I am glad this is almost over! Dr. Oz always talks about food as medicine. OK, I get that but I am ready to enjoy my food again. Drinking it just doesn’t cut it when it comes to enjoyment.

Starter: green tea, stevia and lemon slice. 

One thing I have noticed is that I am not waking up as early and getting better sleep. Really missing coffee. This must mean I am not a tea person! And this morning, I had a stomach ache after I drank the tea.

Breakfast: Ingredients: 1 cup water, 1 Tbsp flax seed, 1 cup raspberries, 1 banana, 1/4 cup spinach, 1 Tbsp almond butter, 2 tsp lemon.

My favorite drink of the day! Good thing or I think people would lose motivation. I now have a good, healthy shake that I can use at breakfast anytime I want to change it up. This shake is also the fastest to prepare and uses ingredients you might have without doing special shopping.

Lunch: Ingredients: 4 celery stalks, 1 whole cucumber, 1 cup of kale, ½ green apple, ½ lime, coconut oil, almond milk, 1 cup pineapple

I’m adding a bit more cucumber as I think I cut back too much yesterday. And I am adding a bit more apple–one very small green apple to give it that fruit bite I need. This shake is time consuming to prepare. So I cut up all the ingredients in the a.m. and put them in a tupperware so I could just dump them in the blender. This is not a drink I would fix on my own. So glad it is the last time I have to drink it!

Snack: Even though I like the breakfast shake, I’m tired of it. I’m losing energy this afternoon and ready to eat again. I feel tired but not sleepy and my stomach feels very full but I am now craving food. So Norm and I were ready to cook dinner tonight but decided we are one shake away from completion. We should run for the finish line.

Dinner: Ingredients: ½ cup mango, 1 cup blueberries, 1 ½ cup coconut water, 1 cup kale, 1 tbsp. lemon, ¼ avocado, ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 Tbsp Flax Seeds

Glad we are on the last shake.

Evening Bath: Guys are not really into taking a bath for 3 nights in a row! We both did it. I loved it!

Tips and Thoughts:

The shakes blended better when I put the liquid in first, then the almond butter or coconut oil and flax. This was especially true with the lunch shake. Putting the milk and coconut oil in first, helped to blend the coconut oil better. Yesterday I saw white chunks of oil in the shake, which turned me off as I think it looks like lard.

After the first day, I had no caffeine headache and I usually drink 2 cups of coffee in the am. I also wasn’t sleepy in the morning and had lots of energy. If you like tea, this would be a great way to start your day. I will confess that I love coffee too much to give it up.

It helps to have someone do this with you. We both wanted to give up at different times and each of us talked the other out of it.

Consider the cost if two people do it together. It was expensive, about $35.00 a day and I had to run to Sam’s or the store every day because I didn’t buy enough of everything. You have the menu and ingredient list so you can plan this out better than I did.

The issue with doing something like this is sustaining better eating. From doing this, I am going to include greens in my diet every day and make an effort to increase fruits and vegetables. It is easy to sprinkle flax seed on cereal or oatmeal and I am going to cook now with coconut oil.

I didn’t do this for weight loss so didn’t weigh myself before I started, but my husband did weigh in. He dropped 8 pounds from this cleanse and was surprised! I have no way to measure the reset that is supposed to happen internally but hopefully, it did some good. You won’t be hungry on this 3 day venture. You will miss the enjoyment of food but it is only a short period of time.

Overall, this was a good exercise to get me back on eating better. The 3 days is short enough to be successful and it made me think how much I need to increase the fruits and vegetables in my diet. So if you are game and give it a try, share your comments on this blog.