I always assumed only strong-willed people did cleanses/detoxes/fasts or any activity that involves not eating for a long period of time.
I convinced myself I could not go for more than 12hrs without food, that was until I decided to try the Arden’s Garden 2 Day Detox on a whim. Ok, so I didn’t really decide on a whim, I gave it some thought and even picked the date but I approached it with a little unease.
Since there aren’t any Arden’s Garden locations in my area; I used the recipe on their website.
On Friday, I went to the new Whole Foods on Cambie and 8th and loaded up on grapefruit juice, orange juice, lemon juice and distilled water.
I trusted that I could at least make it through a day; I’ve tried fasting before, although my most memorable foray was a disaster and possibly the reason why my parents aren’t still together.
When my sister and I were kids, two very pious Christian women, friends of my mom visited from Ghana. They insisted that we pray together every morning before starting our day. So” morning devotion” (as we called it) became a routine in our household for the duration of their visit.
My parents were fighting a lot around this time; my dad had been brazenly carrying on with his affair and my mom was just angry and hurtful. I guess the women were on my mom’s side, they decided one morning that we would all fast and pray for one whole day. The purpose was to get the devil to leave my dad and bring him to his senses. For a moment, the adults seemed hopeful; I guess they believed it was going to work. On the day of the fast, I went to school without breakfast and didn’t take lunch with me – no one asked me if I wanted to join in this fast. We were going to break the fast at 6pm with prayer and praises but it turned out I couldn’t wait that long, I don’t remember exactly how it happened but my BFF Deborah ended up sharing her lunch with me, and then I went home with her after school and her stepmom fed me. I came home and pretended I had fasted all day just like the rest of them.
And… back to the present: I woke up Saturday morning ready to go! The thought of not eating for the next two days made me hungry. I mixed my first jug and realized that it didn’t taste as bad as I’d imagined – it didn’t taste great either. It tasted like watered down lemonade, like something I wouldn’t drink under normal circumstances. The thought of drinking this solely for the next two days made me even hungrier.
Because I wasn’t sure what to expect I took things a little easy, I lounged around and watched tv, – there’s a lot of food on tv… at one point I thought to myself “even Serena and Blair are eating, shouldn’t this be a sign that I should eat?” granted they had three grapes between them (yes, I counted!)
I had a glass of the juice every hour on the hour. By mid afternoon I’d resigned myself to my fate, if only I could say the same for the frequent bathroom trips. I peed so much; I actually checked my blood sugar levels just to make sure that I don’t suddenly have diabetes.
I took a nap, woke up and realized that unless I doubled my efforts I wouldn’t get through all 128oz (16cups) in that day. I felt little hungry, I rushed to the bathroom to pee and drank two glasses more.
I spent the rest of the evening trying to finish off the jug. By 10pm I had drank it all! I went to bed feeling a little accomplished and dreading going through it all over again.
I woke up at 11am the next morning, Whoa… I’d slept like a log! I actually felt refreshed, not hungry at all and little energetic. I mixed my second jug and started chugging…
I had this sudden urge to do stuff, I tackled tasks I’d been putting off for month, I made a batch of my awesome ’shea lotion’, made bread (in the bread machine), and helped my mom select pictures to send to her nieces (she’s been on me to do this for months!).
By evening I found myself hoping I could do this for a couple more days, I actually felt good.
I finished drinking my second jug by 6pm, I ran around for a few more hours getting ready for work tomorrow. I got ready for bed and put stuff in the slow cooker for breakfast.
I had another amazing night; I woke up rested, refreshed and surprisingly not hungry. I felt light and breezy on my walk to work, had meeting in the morning and didn’t eat my first solid breakfast until after 10am. It felt good to eat again, except a few minutes later I felt a little sluggish, I had some tea later and felt much better.
I had a big lunch, had more tea and I feel amazing! It’s incredible; I think I’ll go for a long walk tonight if it doesn’t rain.
In all, it wasn’t an unpleasant experience, would I do it again? Yes, probably in a few months, I like that feeling of lightness that comes with it. A plus, I lost 5.6lbs – probably water weight but it’s quite amazing looking at a scale that said I was 5.6lbs heavier on Saturday morning.
