Recently, I learned what FOMO means.

“Fear of missing out.” I know I’m way behind the times on this one, but not quite as bad as that lady I heard about who texted her entire family “LOL” following the news of a relative who had passed away, thinking it meant “lots of love.”

Anyway, I’m blaming FOMO for getting me involved in this cleanse. Kelly and Morgan were both doing it, along with Aaron and some of our other friends. I figured Thanksgiving is coming up, so why not rid my body of a bunch of toxins so that I can (somewhat) excuse putting them all back in while in Camillus?

We did the GM cleanse, which has a lot of variations on the internet. I am in no way certified to recommend this cleanse to anyone, as a means to lose weight or otherwise, I’m just sharing my experience. Yup, all about me. As usual.

Day 1: Fruit only.

Not so bad. I went with cantaloupe, watermelon, apples, and blueberries. I tried not to pick anything too acidic, but I still ended up with a pretty bad stomachache late in the afternoon. I drank a ton of water too- probably 4 liters or so.

Day 2: Vegetables only.

You can start the day with a baked potato with a slice of butter (I roasted a Yukon gold with a little bit of olive oil) and then it’s all veggies for the rest of the day. There’s a vegetable soup “recipe” associated with the cleanse, which is basically tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, onion, and French Onion soup mix. I ended up making one with 2 onions, crushed tomatoes, garlic, spinach, and a Savory Garlic and Herb soup mix. If I wasn’t going to follow the recipe I’m not sure why I bought a soup mix, but it tasted pretty good.

Day 3: Fruit and vegetables.

Pretty self explanatory. You can eat as much as you want, as long as it’s fruit and veggies. No potato today. Keep drinking lots of water.

Day 4: Milk and bananas.

This might be weird, but this was my favorite day. I felt pretty full and satisfied throughout the day. 6-8 bananas and 3 glasses of milk. My only issue was doing jump squats while teaching Body Pump- the milk and bananas didn’t feel so good in my stomach then. Highly recommend blending 1-2 bananas with some milk, crushed ice, and cinnamon. Delicious.

Day 5: Beef and tomatoes.

Only red meat and tomatoes. (Okay, I threw a scallion into my tomato mix). Not too bad either, you can eat up to 20 ounces of meat and you must eat 6 tomatoes. I happened to find 2 filet mignon at Harris Teeter for $8, so frankly I felt like a queen on this day.

Day 6: Beef and vegetables.

This was the only day that I woke up feeling reallyyyy crappy. I’m not quite sure why, but I felt shaky and lightheaded. The thought of eating more meat made me want to gag. This was the only day that I guess I “cheated” in that I had a banana drink. I figured it wasn’t really cheating since technically it was allowed earlier in the cleanse. Better than cheating with cheese (ahem, Morgan.) And after I had that I felt better. Until I had to lead a food tour, that was just mean.

Day 7: Brown rice and vegetables.

Today you can eat as much brown rice and veggies as you want, plus you can drink fruit juice. Target had the huge Odwalla drinks on sale- 3 for $5. Also I had leftover roasted squash for breakfast and it wasn’t that weird.

 

I’ve been thinking about doing a cleanse for a while now. Most of them are juice cleanses but I don’t own a juicer and I like to chew my food. I also didn’t want to do anything that required a day of fasting, because I’d probably end up throwing back a bag of Doritos mid-afternoon and giving up. I like that you can eat during this one, and that you’re still allowed to drink coffee. (Must be black, but still). Drink lots of water, no alcohol allowed.

I wasn’t doing the cleanse to lose weight, but I did end up losing a fair amount. I’m sure I’ll put it all back on next week (or maybe tomorrow), but that’s okay. I do feel good, sort of like I hit a reset button on my system. I think if I were to do it again, I might stop after day 4 because I felt so crappy after the beef and tomato day.

I’m not really sure what the rules are regarding exercise. I still worked out every day and for the most part felt okay doing it, but if you’re not a crazy addict I’d recommend taking it easy. Yoga or light cardio.

It was good to prove to myself that 1) sometimes I definitely eat out of boredom and not because I’m hungry and 2) I can live without peanut butter and chocolate for a whole week. Do I still want to pound a loaf of bread and a batch of chocolate chip cookies tomorrow? Yes. But I survived without it.

If you’re looking for an explanation of why each day is structured the way it is, I like this blog post.

And I’ve never been so excited to eat Raisin Bran Crunch for breakfast tomorrow instead of steamed peas. Happy Thanksgiving week!