The Guys’ Guy’s Guide to Organic Detox Juicing
Dandelions taste as bad as they look.
But that’s a small price to pay for the overwhelming benefits your body and mind will reap from a week of detoxification with a diet of fresh-squeezed organic juices, water with lemon, and rooibos tea. After binging on lobster and French champagne on New Year’s Eve, I’m kicking off the new year in a healthy mode.
A few summers ago my wife and I participated in a weeklong master cleanse program consisting of consuming only water mixed with a powdered version of maple syrup, cayenne pepper and lemon. It was the hottest week of the year and because it was my first time fasting, it was tough watching all the people eating and drinking in outdoor cafes around the city. We followed our fast by attending a weekend spiritual seminar. The following weekend, she conceived. Coincidence? Who knows? But we now have a son. I’m not saying that detoxing and fasting are the keys to conception. However, I can clearly state that in both cases of fasting/detoxing, I felt much better physically and mentally. Here is my guide to organic juice cleansing, Guy’s Guy style.
The tools: Forget about dropping $50 a day on a high-end designer detox kit that comes in fancy plastic bottles. All you need is a good juicer that extracts the juice while separating the pulp. I used the Solo Star II and it performs well. You’ll need your teakettle also, and a knife. That’s it.
The plan: The concept begins by emptying your insides out after drinking copious amounts of a saltwater solution. Over the course of the program you also eliminate metals, toxins and just about everything else stored in the folds of your colon. Your diet consists of freshly squeezed organic juices, lemon water, kombucha (for the probiotics) and decaffeinated tea. It sounds easy, but sticking to liquids with no solid foods gets old fairly quickly. You need to be mentally prepared to hold the line for a set number of days—3, 5, 7, 14 or 21, or else it’s too easy to say grab a bag of Doritos from the pantry and say the hell with it.
The food: Unlike the master cleanse, the detox organic juice program provides variety. You can drink the juices from any organically grown vegetable or fruit. That said, you want to limit the sugars, so limit your fruits to apples and lemons and possibly oranges if you have a manual juicer that can squeeze out the juice. Then toss the skins into the power juicer along with the veggies. I enjoyed the juice from kale, lettuce, collared greens, daikons, carrots, dandelion, cilantro, broccoli, red beets, ginger and cabbage. Most of them tasted pretty good with the exception of the dandelion, which although is a great blood cleaner, tastes bitter. I started each day with a large glass of water with lemon to help balance my body’s alkaline levels and ended each night with a hot cup of rooibos tea. You’ll feel lightheaded for a few days, so I’d advise easing up on your workouts.
The response: The first day is relatively easy, although by evening you’ll feel hunger pangs because your stomach needs to shrink. On the second and third days you may get headaches, a coated mouth, dry eyes, and a foggy mind. Don’t fret; it’s part of the process. Your body is saying sayonara to a lot of built up junk clinging to your insides. For some reason I binge–watched Man vs. Food, but never considered marching into the kitchen an attacking my refrigerator. By day four the fog begins to lift and your energy level rises. When you step on the scale you’ll feel lighter and see that you’ve lost multiple pounds. Keep going. By days six and seven, for me at least, I started thinking about solid foods. By day seven I had it in the bag. My stomach had shrunk and I’d lost thirteen pounds. Not bad for a week. I could have extended it if not for the boredom of being regulated to only drinking juice during the dead of winter. To prevent the yo-yo effect and keep the pounds off, I shifted into the Dr Oz’s Two Week Rapid Weight Loss Plan that allows solid foods in moderation. Heck, I can do that!
The Guy’s Guy of the Week is me! Hey, I started the year by doing something good for my health and well being.
Have you considered a detoxification program for you body and mind?
