Day One: Monday

The first day went surprisingly well. I weighed myself and was astonished at the number I saw reflected back at me, but the cleanse is supposed to help get rid of extra water and toxins, in addition to helping jump-start your metabolism.

I was really hungry initially, but as I drank my water and sipped on my smoothie, I didn't feel as hungry! The urge to physically eat something was really strong throughout the day, and I had a really bad taste in my mouth, so I chewed some sugar-free gum.Once I was home, around dinner time, it was really hard to not cook or eat dinner, and when I did finally get hungry, I snacked on almonds and 2 hard boiled eggs.

Today's smoothie actually tasted really! It didn't look good, or smell good, but it was delicious!

The hardest part by far was the insane caffeine headache that I got around 9 am. I'm used to drinking three cups of a coffee every, day, so the complete shock of having nothing was alot for my body to handle. I've heard it can last up to a week, but I'm going to cross my fingers it's gone tomorrow!

My period made a surprise visit (hooray?) so I did have a slip-up by having Tylenol, but I lasted as long as I could!

Overall I am really proud of myself for having the self-restraint and will-power to push through and stay on it. I feel good knowing that I am putting good things into my body, and taking back some control.

Day Two: Tuesday

I woke up with another headache, which I think is pretty normal for a detox. I'm craving coffee and the actual process of eating real food like nobody's business. It's not even that I'm hungry, I just want to eat!!

One thing I have noticed is that I am breaking out, which is not normal for me. Usually I will have one or two hot spots, but I feel like my entire face is covered with pimples right now!

I was able to get in a small workout today, but I didn't notice anything different. I wasn't extra hungry, I didn't have low energy, and I seemed able to exert the same amount of effort.

I have been obnoxiously tired the last two days and I ended up taking a 45 minute nap after I got home. I love takings naps, but this felt like an actual need to sleep instead of just an "it would be nice."

I have also noticed that I have this God-awful taste in my mouth! And my breath is so gross! I've been relying on gum ALOT because I can't stand the own taste of my mouth. I really hope I'm not screwing up the detox, but there are certain things in life I just can't handle.

Day Three: Wednesday

Today was much, much harder! Right around 9 am my headache was back, although not as intense. Maybe that means my caffeine addiction is going away??

It was definitely much harder to resist food, especially when I had to cook dinner for my sister! All I could think was "Eat it, eat it!" I actually ended up having a mini-meltdown because I WANT food. I definitely had to work 10 times as hard to stay on track and keep going.

I'm really second-guessing my ability stay on this for the full 10 days - the thought of only having smoothies for 7 more days make me want to just crawl in a hole and die.

The smoothies so far have tasted good, but the texture is weird and today's was overwhelmingly banana, which I'm not a fan of! Also, all the smoothies look the same! I want a bright colorful tropical smoothie, not something that looks fresh out of a baby's diaper.

Today was a very emotional day as well. I was having these emotional highs and lows, but it did give me a chance to do alot of self-reflection, which is another part of my internal detox process. I am super proud of myself because I made brownies for a friend and didn't even smell the bowl or lick the spoon.

I'm not really noticing any other detox symptoms, like bathroom problems. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I guess we will see when I weigh-in on Saturday morning!

Day Four: Thursday

Yay for no headache! I've gotten so used to having them this week, that I was relieved and super grateful that I didn't have one today!

It's still weird to not be eating regular food, and I still have the desire to eat, but only because I want real food. With that being said, I have not been super hungry! I have no idea what is in these smoothies that is keeping me full so long, but it's working.

I've noticed that night time is when the craving to eat gets the worst; I can go the entire day just sipping on my smoothie and having nuts. I have gotten into the habit this week of having two hard-boiled eggs as my "dinner," I hope this isn't negatively impacting my detox, but I think I should be okay.

I've been thinking about how I want to transition out of this, since the book says that you can't just go back to regular food. I think I could live with having the smoothie during the day and having a balanced dinner and maybe a snack that is not nuts. I am definitely going back to coffee though!

Overall I am slowly trekking through this process, and I feel pretty good. I'm still trying to adjust to the fatigue, but I don't have any new break outs, and the ones I did have are finally starting to go away. I'm glad that I'm nearly half-way through though.

Day Five: Friday

Thank you Jesus for no caffeine headaches! I felt great all day despite the fact that I had a blueberry smoothie (I hate blueberries!). I was still super tired but I think that can be attributed to alot of stress in my life right now.

I had alittle more stress than usual tonight, and like the true stress-eater that I am, I went searching for food. I increased my two servings of nuts to three, and I had an extra hard-boiled egg to snack on. What I really wanted was real food, but I will just have to stick with what I can have right now.

I wish I would have done measurements before I started, because I feel like my stomach feels smaller, and maybe there's a difference in my cheekbones. Maybe I'm just imagining it? Either way I'm excited to weigh-in tomorrow to see what kind of results I've had so far.

I definitely am not looking forward to going to the store to buy more green stuff and fruit, or looking forward to nothing but smoothies for food, but I am proud that I stuck through the determination.

Weekend Updates:

So I woke up Saturday morning to weigh myself, and to my surprise I had lost 15 pounds in five days on the cleanse! This is a huge milestone because not only was my weight really high when I started the cleanse, but my weight-loss progress since January has been stalled and non-existant. The other thing that came to mind was alittle bit of fear: that is NOT a healthy amount of weight to lose that quickly! I know that some of it was probably water and the fact that I was on my period, but the number was still alarming. I started to consider continuing the celanse on the modified version, where I sip on the smoothie for two meals and then have a well-balanced small meal with protein for dinner.

As I went about my Saturday, I noticed that I was really light-headed and dizzy. Nuts, water, and the smoothie was not helping. My mom insisted I take a break for the weekend, especially with how quickly the weight had come off and my tendency to have low iron. I took things slow on Saturday, but ended up lapsing back into my habits by Sunday, especially with a good morning coffee (I did limit myself to one!).

I spent most of the weekend reflecting on how I wanted to move forward with my diet: continue incorporating one or two shakes during the day and a good meal? Afterall I wasn't hungry on the shakes. Should I try to push through and continue the last five days of the cleanse - if five days had taken away 15 pounds, could I hope to lose another 15? Then I remembered that I had just ordered a booty-ton of IT Works! Products that should arriving soon. All of the products I ordered corresponded to a Keto diet - the very diet I had been on for months and not lost a single pound.

I remembered the reasons why I bought the products in the first place, and resigned myself to give the Keto diet a new chance with the products I had ordered. I scoured my recipe books, meal-prepped, and am anxiously awaiting my delivery. I want to try my hardest to incorporate more greens into my everyday diet, only eating when I'm hungry (because now I know I can), and not having coffee every day - occasionally as a treat, but not an everyday occurrence.

At least now I know that this is a great way to detox my body. It is definitely something I will go to in the future, perhaps in a safer, modified way. I feel better on the inside, but also on the outside as well. I feel like I was able to detox some of my internal toxins, and get in some much-needed self-reflection, while also getting the physical toxins out of my body.