The Vegetarian Times 7-Ingredient Cleanse

Hello, hello!

Here’s a little tidbit about me: I love to read hard copies of things, and I get tons of magazines delivered to my house. I know that I can read things online, but there’s just something nice to me about having a real magazine (or book) in hand and getting away from technology. My favorite places to read are at the gym while I’m cycling or doing the stair master (because it makes the time go by fast!) or while I’m relaxing at the beach.

One of the magazines I love checking out is Vegetarian Times. I’m always tearing out pages from the magazine of things to note or recipes to try. Last week as I was reading their June issue, I came across an article called “The 7-Ingredient Cleanse” and was intrigued.

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With summer’s stellar lineup of naturally detoxifying fruits and vegetables, there isn’t a much better season for a cleansing tune-up. And no, we don’t mean fasting; and you won’t be drinking green juice morning, noon, and night. This easy three-day plan is meant for people who love food – real food, in its purest state. 

I always have found cleanses interesting, but have never tried one because… well, I obviously love to eat. The thought of fasting sounds pretty torturous to me. But when I read the above opening sentences of the article, I thought I can totally do this! I knew that it’d be a good test of willpower.

The article explains that the cleanse will give your liver a rest by providing it with tons of antioxidants and not forcing it to process heavy, inflammatory or stressful foods. Here are the 7 superfoods that the detox revolves around, and a few of the reasons why these are the chosen ingredients:

• Broccoli: high in antioxidants, helps regulate toxin removal in cells
• Beets: full of minerals and vitamins and high in betalain antioxidants, which reduce inflammation and purge harmful toxins
• Spinach: offers tons of immune-boosting flavanoids, balances pH levels in the body
• Blueberries: packed with anthocyanins, boost brain power and heart health
• Avocado: provides the body with healthy monounsatured fat, omega-3s and tons of other nutrients and fiber
• Lentils: high in soluble fiber, easy protein for the liver to digest  
• Almonds: lots of vitamin E and flavonoids

So, I bought lots of each ingredient and planned to do the three day detox this week. Yesterday, when I planned to start the cleanse, I woke up feeling sick. My hubby had a bad cold all of last week, and I thought that I had come out of it unscathed, but I unfortunately caught it as he was feeling better. I wondered if this was a bad time to cleanse, but then decided that I had already bought all of the food and that perhaps the abundant antioxidant intake would help me get over the cold faster – so I just told myself to suck it up and go for it. Plus I had drank multiple glasses of wine three nights in a row, so I knew that my liver could use a rest!

It’s important to note that the cleanse isn’t strictly 7 ingredients. You can add other ingredients in when necessary, as long as it isn’t processed food, added sugar, dairy, gluten, coffee or alcohol. I wanted to focus on the main ingredients as much as I could, but also knew that I’d need to add in a few things like honey, olive oil, and unsweetened almond milk in order for me to not be completely miserable. Here is what day 1 of the cleanse looked like:

The 1 ingredient out of these 7 that I do not really like is beets. I bought already steamed ones since I’m iffy about them and used a few for breakfast: a blueberry beet avocado smoothie, a recipe that the magazine included in the article.

The smoothie was….definitely beet-y. Not a big fan.

To prep for lunch, I cooked and horribly burned lentils. Whoopsies.

I combined my charred lentils with a bit of tahini and olive oil, sea salt, lemon juice and garlic in my food processor to make lentil hummus. I ate some with carrots and celery, and even though it resembles dog food, the taste was not bad at all.

For a snack a few hours later, I had some raw almonds and blueberries: 

Dinner was a broccoli salad tossed with lentils, red onion, & slivered toasted almonds, with a dressing of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey and mustard (also per the magazine’s recipe suggestions).

The first day was definitely a detox success, and I’m proud that I didn’t cheat one bit. My hunger levels were fine in the morning and afternoon, but then I was hit was a feeling of FEED ME!  before dinner and I got momentarily hangry (hungry + angry). The feeling subsided after my broccoli salad. I did feel hungry last night going to sleep, but I wasn’t in the mood for more blueberries and almonds (the only snack-like ingredients to me) so I just toughened it out.

I had planned on doing low-impact exercise during the cleanse simply because I didn’t want to feel famished after hard workouts, and this idea was solidified once I got a cold and didn’t feel like working out in the least bit. Yesterday’s exercise included a 30 minute walk with my dog + 45 minutes of yoga and stretching.

I’ll be back tomorrow with an update on how the rest of my detox went!