Testing of willpower in new ways: detoxing

When racing, competing,  and training hard, your willpower and self discipline are put to the test all the time. You reach a point where all muscles of your body scream at you to stop or slow down, but you still push yourself to continue. Two months ago, I tested out something quite different that also puts your willpower and self discipline to the test: body cleansing, or detoxing. During three days, I only drank freshly pressed juices, herbal tea, and water. I ate or drank nothing else! Although the experience was totally different from competing and training, the feeling of accomplishment at the end of it was quite comparable to the feeling after a successful race.

During our personal training sessions, Ketil and I regularly discuss nutrition and weight control issues. When I learned that he had tried out a three day cleansing and was quite happy about the experience, I immediately wanted to try it as well! There are probably many producers that offer these types of products, but I tried the same as Ketil, delivered by essentially.no which is situated in Oslo. Essentially offers three day cleansing products for those who live in Bergen. The juices are freshly cold pressed just before you receive them, and they have to be consumed within three days. When I ordered, the next delivery in Bergen was at the end of September, the day after I was coming home from a five day trip to Italy. I thought this was perfect; I knew that I would be eating and drinking a lot during the trip, and a cleansing right afterwards seemed to be well timed.

We arrived home from Italy late evening on a Monday, and already at 8 am Tuesday morning I was at the pick up point and got my juice package. The idea is that you pick it up early in the morning and start immediately the same day. My package consisted of 3 x the daily 6 juice bottles which you can see in the picture above.  I was to drink them with about 2 hours in between every bottle: three green juices (mainly containing cucumber), two fruit juices, and a cashew nut milk. The pickup point, to my surprise, turned out to be Barry's Bootcamp Bergen, and I learned that one of the instructors, Annelin, was also going to do the cleansing at the same time as me. This turned out to be really useful for me, and I think it helped Annelin as well. At the start and end of each day, we would send each other messages and share our experiences about the day to come or the day that passed. Here is how it went:

Tuesday: I picked up my juice package and went back home. At that time I was writing a big project proposal, and I was working at home several days a week to be able to concentrate without being disturbed. Working at home and being alone on the first day of the cleansing was quite perfect, as I think I would find talking to people quite hard at this point. As soon as I got home, I drank my green juice. Not too bad, but not very good either. I sat down to work. After a couple of hours, I was really happy that it was time for the second juice, this time a fruit juice. Oh, this tasted so much better than the green juice; happy happy! In the meanwhile, I was getting a serious headache and I was feeling really tired, both of which I think were due to lack of coffee. Still I found it surprisingly easy to concentrate on work. Actually, as the day progressed, I felt more and more "sedated" by fatigue, hunger and headache, which made me very uninterested in many things, like checking emails. So I found it easier and easier to concentrate on my main work. Surprising consequence! During this first day I drank a lot of herbal tea, because I felt cold all the time. In the afternoon I went for my weekly personal training session. The cashew milk was supposed to be saved until the end of the day, because it is the most nutritious, but since I was going to train, I took half of it before the workout and half of it after. Oh heaven! The cashew milk was delicious! I felt so full and happy, and the workout went surprisingly well. When I got back home, all I had left was a green juice, which did not feel that good at all at that time. I figured out it was a good idea to go to bed early,  to stay away from all temptations. I was very happy to have completed day one without a single thing outside of the cleansing schedule.

Wednesday: I went on the bathroom scale, and I could register that my weight was back to where it was before Italy. Very happy! I drank my green juice in the morning, took three juice bottles with me, and went to work. The summary of day two was that I felt less tired, more awake but also more hungry than the first day, and I had less headache. The day went surprisingly well. I could work and talk to my colleagues normally, and I could concentrate on all things as usual. I only had a slight feeling of having a thin veil in front of my eyes, and was slightly distanced from everything. I was also much calmer and more neutral than normal, which was an interesting experience for me, as I am normally quite energetic and enthusiastic. I managed also this day to avoid eating or drinking anything else than my juices, water and a lot of herbal tea. And most importantly, I managed to avoid taking headache pills. We are, after all, being cleansed, right?! No workout this day, and after exchanging experiences with Annelin and Ketil, I went to bed early. Simple life.

Thursday: One more kilo gone on the bathroom scale; yeay!! Same procedure as yesterday, I took my green juice in the morning, and brought my other juices to work. The headache was almost gone this day; I was slowly getting rid of my coffee addiction, and I felt almost no hunger. This day I went for the regular Thursday Stoltzekleiven and Rundemanen workout with Melkesyre, and I did the same trick as Tuesday, with the cashew milk before and after the workout. At this point, I was really fed up with the green juices, and felt that their taste got worse and worse for every bottle. The other juices, though, tasted better and better, so I had always something to look forward to. Knowing that this was the last day of the cleansing made it really easy to get through the day, and towards the end of the day I started feeling really really happy that I would be able to eat and drink normally the day after.

Friday: It's over!!! I woke up with this thought (and no headache!), feeling intensively happy. Bathroom scale showed yet another kilo off, which made my spirit even higher, and I was so much looking forward to my cup of coffee and my bowl of oat meal. It was great, but in the end I could not even finish my normal portion of oat meal. The intense feeling of happiness and being high lasted throughout the whole day. Surprisingly, I could eat only very moderate amounts of food this day. My stomach shrank quite a bit during these days. In the morning, before I had my breakfast I took this picture and sent it to Annelin and Ketil with the note: "my tightest jeans" :-)

All in all I was quite happy about this cleansing experience. Mainly because I managed to complete it without resorting to anything outside of the plan, which resulted in a feeling of success. The loss of two extra kilos, in addition to losing the excess from Italy, was also great, but one of the lost kilos came back over the next two days. When it comes to cleansing, I did not really feel any effect like being more energized than before. I think, since my regular diet was anyway pretty healthy, maybe there was not much to be cleansed from. I did shrink a quite bit during these days, though, and the shrinking effect has stayed on. The above jeans are still loose and require a belt :-) If you are eating healthy most of the time, I think you do not need such an experiment. However, it could be a nice boost at the start of a diet, or after a holiday with lots of food and drinks, or perhaps after the Christmas celebrations?

The first delivery to Bergen after Christmas is January 6 :-)