Remember the Grapefruit Diet? The Rice Diet? The Master Cleanse? The Cabbage Soup Diet? They seem pretty crazy now, don’t they? I’ve done the Master Cleanse twice and I will never do it again.
Today we have 3-day, 5-day or 10-day juice diets and detox cleanses….which, in my opinion, are just as crazy. Here’s why:
1. If you breathe, drink water & metabolize every day, you need to cleanse every day.
2. Isolating a time period when you eat very differently is shocking to the body system and the psyche. This often makes the detox experience miserable which is why no one can sustain eating this way every day for extended periods of time.
Crash Diet Fail
3. As soon as you begin to restrict your food & liquid intake, the mind starts to play games of fear and scarcity. You start thinking of (and obsessing over!) all your favorite foods at the opposite end of the food spectrum: “This vegetable juice makes me want German chocolate donuts.” You might even feel driven to “junk out” a little before the detox start date begins.
4. Fad or crash diets are defined as diets which are extreme in their nutritional deprivations, typically severely restricting calorie intake. They are not meant to last long periods of time. They are offered as “quick fix solutions” and we know by now that when it comes to health & wellness, there are no quick fixes.
5. The benefits gained during a crash or fad diet are usually lost quickly after “normal eating” resumes…because the two usually differ greatly. This is also quite dangerous for your metabolism which you’re training to become less responsive to this sort of back and forth treatment.
While I think the new versions of crash & fad dieting are more healthful…juicing dark green veggies instead of eating white rice…I believe that they are creating the same sort of trouble for those seeking true health.
Here is what I recommend instead: detox & cleanse every day. Work vegetable juices & fruit smoothies into your every day routine. Eat clean foods and so-called “super foods” every day. Stay away from processed food, fried food, sugar, caffeine and alcohol every day. Reduce or eliminate meat & dairy intake. Eat more whole fruits & vegetables for snacks daily.
You won’t need to a crash detox program if you’re not over-toxifying your body each day.
Feeling compelled to use a crash or fad diet to “get back on track” or undo some weekend or holiday damage means your daily diet needs serious attention. Don’t send yourself to “food boot camp” but rather make small incremental daily corrections to your diet until you’ve reached a point where you’re detoxing and cleansing sufficiently every day.
It’s how I eat & drink. You can read my very honest & ongoing food diary here. I can help you learn to love to eat this way too during my 90 day Golden Eighty20™ online book group.
You deserve to take the best care of yourself every day. Stop with the crash and fads diets as they will not serve you as well as a clean daily diet. I mean, who wants to look and feel their best for only 10 days at a time?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Carla, in reading this post as well as your food diary I am a bit confused. In particular, you advise to “Stay away from processed food, fried food, sugar, caffeine and alcohol every day” which is all great, however in looking at your food diary I see that you drink 4 cups of matcha every day. If it was 1 or 2 cups I would not have taken notice, but as someone who is caffeine sensitive, this really jumped out at me. I understand the benefits of matcha and drink it myself in much smaller quantities and am wondering your thoughts about so much caffeine? One day you journal that you had EIGHT cups!!!! I would have to make a trip to the emergency room!! Thanks for any enlightening words about this.
Very observant Nancy! I probably should clarify on my Food Diary how it is that I make my tea. I have a 3 cup measuring cup (it’s like a big glass mug) that when filled to the very top is closer to 4 cups (32 oz). I put in the amount of matcha powder that most people use for 2 cups, so my matcha is highly diluted.
Additionally, while the caffeine content is lower than coffee (which gives me the jitters), the caffeine in matcha is absorbed more slowly because it’s a whole food. The caffeine is not fractionated and just flavoring the water. The whole pulverized plant is ingested.
One cup of matcha is equivalent to ten cups of brewed green tea in terms of nutritional value. It is rich in nutrients, antioxidants, fiber and chlorophyll. I do not sweeten my matcha at all…just drink it “green”…LOL! like “black” coffee! LOL!
So while, yes, matcha has caffeine, it has less than black tea or coffee and packs a punch nutritionally while not sabotaging the body with an adrenaline producing hit of caffeine, so this is one source that I can justify and recommend.
More about the matcha I drink here: https://www.carlagoldenwellness.com/2012/11/23/matcha-green-tea-oh-how-i-love-thee/
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