Cleaning Up Your Diet: My Experience with a 7 Day "Cleanse"

In the beginning of this year I set several fitness and health goals. Many people around me were doing these crazy restrictive cleanses like the lemon, maple syrup, cayenne and water master cleanse or juicing for several days. While I understand these are helpful for some do provide benefits, these types of cleanses are not for me. I have always been under the moderation rule, especially when it comes to eating. In early spring, a friend of mine made a statement that stuck with me. He said, “you can mask poor fitness with a healthy diet, but you can’t mask a poor diet with great fitness.” I am not sure who said this originally, but I knew that I could probably do some things to clean up what I was eating. A Personal Trainer and friend of mine, Ty Sonaty, told me about a 7 day eating plan he gives to all of his clients when they first start training with him. The idea is to clean out the bad and put in the good and you actually get to eat! I was very intrigued, because I like to eat. He gave me permission to share the grocery list and the eating plan. At the bottom of this post are links to both. With the grocery list in hand, my girlfriend Meghann and I went to Sprouts and bought everything we needed for the both of us to follow this plan for 7 days for just over $200.

The plan starts out primarily vegan, sugar free, gluten free and adds in meat in days 6 and 7. There are 2 or 3 smoothies, a salad, and snacks of berries or nuts everyday. Also if you are still hungry you can eat as many vegetables as you want to get your fill. This was the part I liked. The first two days were pretty easy. I had enough energy, was full enough and all the food was pretty good and not too repetitive. The first challenge didn’t hit until after dinner on day three. I was full from a giant salad but for some reason was standing in front of the fridge with the door open looking for something else to eat; which was quite interesting, because as I said before, I was full. I found myself getting a little flustered because my mind and my stomach were arguing over something I did not understand at the time. An hour later I made the “dessert” smoothie and went to bed. What I realized the next morning is that I had not had any sugar for three days and was having a withdrawal. Oh, well. It passed.

The rest of the week went smoothly. I had more than enough energy and felt I was eating well and enough. On day 6, I decided to weigh myself. To my surprise, I had lost 15 pounds! That is 7% of my total body weight. Meghann weighed in too, she lost 9 pounds, which was almost 7% of her total body weight. We were both amazed. We went about our normal lives that week except for our diets and had some pretty amazing results. The best part of this though, is that it really did reset my eating habits. I have found may new and healthy choices that I actually like. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still eat some indulgent things periodically like pizza and cheese, but I now have the tools and knowledge of the information my body gives me to know when I have had my fill and how to clean it out again quickly. I still use the smoothies regularly and will opt to have a salad sometimes. I have been able to keep that same 15 pounds off for the last 8 months by eating sensibly and regular exercise.

Here are the links to the grocery list and plan:

Grocery List

Eating Plan

 Also be sure to check out Ty Sonaty’s Denver Functional Fitness Page. He is an awesome Trainer and Kettle Bell Specialist. Thanks for reading!!!