Don’t Talk To Me… I’m On A Cleanse

The 2014 Dr. Shulze 30 Day Detox has officially ended. I’m here to give you the down and dirty. The inside scoop. The nitty gritty details. What others won’t tell you about completing a cleanse. For those that are new around here, last year my husband and I completed the Dr. Schule 30 Day Detox along with a 30 Day Juice Fast (I posted about it here at my welcome to The *NEW* Tried and Tasty). We decided to give it another go this year and I’m here to tell you all about it.

My husband is a web designer by day, however his passion also lies within the world of natural health. He’s a major advocate for healing your body naturally, proactively taking care of your body with great nutrition, a well-maintained diet, and exercise, and steering clear of most modern practices and ‘solutions’. Over the years he’s educated me to a whole new world of ideas and methods using 100% all natural remedies. In addition, the small handful of health documentaries I’ve recently (over the last year and a half) found myself enthralled with, I have also broadened my views on the natural side of things.

In My Weight Loss Story of ‘How I Gained and Lost 40+ lbs’, I talk a lot about where the weight came from and what motivated me to get it off. With the education from Steve, the research, and documentaries, the evidence was clear: it was time to make a change. It was time to start caring about what I was putting in my body. It was time to start focusing my energy on becoming my healthiest me.

Truth be told, the reason we decided to do another cleanse so quickly is because we wanted to be at our optimal health before starting our family. I personally wouldn’t recommend a cleanse of this intensity more often than once every few years. Twice in two years was too soon for me. I’ll tell you that I’m glad we did it, but I’ll tell you even quicker that I’m glad it’s over. There are a couple of *key factors* that must be in place before even thinking about doing a cleanse of this nature. I’ll get to that.

So lets get this party started shall we? First of all, what is this ‘Dr. Schulze 30 Day Detox’ anyway? The Dr. Schulze “Incurables Program” is a HEAVY DUTY detoxification program for anyone who wants to help rid their bodies of toxins and fat and to simply gain greater overall health. Basically, it’s a month long program that consists of taking a number of different herbal formulas from Dr. Schulze, all while doing 30 days of raw food and juice, or simply just juice – which is recommended for an extra “deep” cleanse. The idea is that by consuming only juice and no solid food, you are giving your digestive system a chance to rest, which means your body will be able to use that energy to detox and heal. The Incurables Program focuses on cleansing your major organs, including your colon, liver, and kidneys.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, it’s no walk in the park. One of the key factors you’ll want to be sure of is: preparation is key. The ideal time to complete a cleanse and juice fast is at the peak of summer. For those that garden, it’s when your vegetables will be at their peak and readily accessible. For those that don’t garden, the farmer’s markets are in full swing. Farmer’s markets are perfect for buying locally grown organic produce at reasonable prices. If you missed it, you’ll definitely want to check out (and download) the Clean 15 vs. Filthy 15: When Organic Matters.

In addition to preparing at the right time of year to spend the least amount of money, another prep I recommend is cleansing your home. Before our actual detox began we deep cleansed our home. The first time we did this last year I did a major overhaul of all of the pesticide laden products we had and got rid of them. Another great resource for you is my post on Creating a Toxin Free Home. This time around I took an even closer look to make sure I had in fact gotten rid of any sneaky pesticide overflowing products that were still hanging around. Surprisingly I managed to find a few and quickly disposed of them. We rounded up many things we no longer needed or used and made a generous trip to the local thrift store. We organized our entire home from top to bottom during what I liked to call the #cleansebeforethecleanse and operation #declutter.

You will need to prepare mentally. I repeat. You will need to prepare mentally. The cleanse is not only physical, it’s almost equally emotional as well. You’d be surprised at how we as humans are emotionally tied to our food. Embarking on such a life-changing experience will stretch you. It will push you to places you weren’t expecting. It will challenge you. You have to be prepared for those moments (as best you can of course). Otherwise, you’ll be quick to break, give-up, and quit. Steve and I had the blessing of completing this together. We had the support of one another. We had each other to lean on.

Not only will you have the inner battle of the detox, you will have the battle of the outside. You’ll be questioned. I’d say the two most popular questions I received were 1) Ew, what are you drinking? and 2) Aren’t you starving? I will tell you right now – you will want to punch every person who asks either of these questions. When pairing the cleanse with a juice fast you’ve got to drink your nutrients. I shared many fluffy fruit juice recipes, but what it really comes down to is drinking the hard core veggies. The leafy greens. The beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, celery… and on and on. I’ll tell you right now when you throw all of that together in a juice it aint pretty. Plastics are another product we avoid, and rather drink out of mason jars. Mason jars = clear. Clear drinking container + awesome looking nutrient-filled juice = MANY questions.

Time. Clear your schedule, because this 30 days will require all of your time. Countless hours will be spent juicing, cleaning, detoxing, juicing, and cleaning some more. To get a good juicing routine I recommend my post on Juicing: Everything You Need. You have to make this detox a priority. You’re friends and family may not understand (or you could have awesome friends and family that are willing to accommodate). It’s almost impossible to have a social life during the detox. With all of the work that goes in to preparing your juice, having your juice, preparing your detox, and having your detox, it’s hardly possible to make the system mobile (believe me, taking it to work was hard enough). You are already putting your body through so much within the detox, adding the stress of going here and there to be at this social event or that social event is a recipe for disaster. Trust me, we hit that wall. Again, unless you’re going through it – it’s hard to understand. With that said, I highly recommend you clear your schedule. It’s only 30 days. Life can pick right back up after you’ve completed the detox.

This commitment is as much work as a full time job. It’s not like you juice here and there, you clean up here and there, you drink your detox here and there. You are doing this all day every day for 30 days. I’m grateful that Steve was our primary juicer, but trust me, standing on your feet juicing for hours at a time a couple of times a day is no easy task. Our goal was three quarts of juice a day. Each. That’s a lot of juice. We would hardly get through the batch of juice and then it would all start over again. Our system this time around was to do the juice fast for two of the weeks and raw food for two of the weeks. Raw food had its challenges as well. Although we were able to find a few recipes that were wonderful, some weren’t so much. You also have to keep in mind that preparing raw food isn’t as easy as throwing together a salad. You actually have to purchase RAW ingredients. Who knew? I do however recommend This Rawsome Vegan Life, Rawmazing, The Healthy Foodie, and Fully Raw for fantastic recipes!

Life is a temptation. Food is everywhere. Food. Is. Everywhere. Unless you work inside of the home, you will run in to temptation on a daily basis. I found that working in an office building, lunchtime was hard every single day. It’s a fast food nation. Everyone has got burgers, fries, and pizza for lunch. If you aren’t smelling their fast food, you’re smelling their home-cooked-heated-at-work food. Either way, you’re screwed. Everything smells good. In my normal every day life I wouldn’t touch McDonald’s ‘with a 10 foot pole’ (my grandmother used that phrase often) but during the cleanse? You bet your bottom dollar I’d be down for throwing down a big mac and large fry. Cravings will be intense. Stay strong. I’m known for my super human restraint, but if you aren’t: prepare for it.

Some days you will want to cry. Some days you will cry. I truly believe that this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life (twice now) and I 100% stand behind all of the benefits and good that it has done for me. With that said, it is hard. It is hard. It is hard. It is HARD. No one will understand. Everyone will question you. You’ll be called crazy. You’ll be talked about (I’m sure). You will wonder yourself why in the world are you putting yourself through the madness. Then you’ll remember that it’s worth it. Frankly, the program can be very taxing, both physically and mentally. Detox symptoms can be expected, which can include headache, fatigue, and nausea. It’s not the least bit easy to go from a SAD (Standard American Diet) to an all juice diet. Additionally, some of the herbal formulas are very strong tasting and they can be unpleasant to get down, but despite all of this I am personally convinced that it’s WELL worth the outcome. We can’t treat our bodies so poorly and not expect to put in some hard work to get them functioning optimally again.

So how did this round of Dr. Schulze 30 Day Detox end up? In all honesty, this round started out awesome and ended in nearly a train wreck. We made it three weeks, then felt like it was in our best interest to re-schedule the final week after getting our bearings. By week four we were unprepared, lacked all energy, and felt it necessary to discontinue and reconvene at a later time. As I mentioned earlier, if you aren’t prepared, you will not succeed. So what would we do different? For the raw food portion (which is where it all fell apart – as hard as only juice is, at least its predictable and you know what to expect), you will want to experiment with your raw food recipes BEFORE the detox. Make sure you’ve got at least eight tried, true, and loved recipes. We fell in love with homemade classic cashew cheese, raw lasagna with cashew cheese, and raw corn chips and guacamole to name a few. Which was the problem. There were only a few recipes we tried that worked. Plan on knowing what you are going to eat at least a day in advance. As many recipes require lengthy soak, prep and dehydration times.  It is true that you can stick to the basics of salads and raw fruits and vegetables without getting fancy with recipes. Looking back in hindsight, that’s probably what we should have done, with a fancier recipe thrown in here and there. 

To learn more about the program and Dr Schulze, you can visit herbdoc.com – for the Incurables Program specifically, head here. Be sure to read the “How it works” and “Why you need it” tabs.  

How amazing is this shirt? You can find this, and other fun options at Theblondeveganstore.com

Are you interested in doing a cleanse and have questions I didn’t answer?
Leave a comment or shoot me over an email, I’d love to chat with you!