Like any good detox, Carr recommends I slowly wean myself off foods that are off-limits on her plan: caffeine, wheat, dairy, sugar, alcohol, eggs, and meat. Ideally, I'd take a couple weeks to slowly cut these foods out of my diet so that Day 1 of my detox isn't so shocking -- both physically and emotionally.
I mostly followed the prep period of this plan but to be honest, if you're starting out with a relatively healthy diet -- and you're not totally addicted to caffeine -- you can jump right into Carr's 21-day "adventure cleanse" (as she likes to call it in her book) without a whole lot of prep work. Some things I do recommend you get in place before you start:
• Buy a juicer. And take the scary-looking thing out of the box so you can test 'er out. When it comes to juicers, you've got a few options, which I'll go into in more detail later.
• Rid your pantry of junk. Is it heartbreaking to toss all of that delicious food? You bet. But I'm telling you -- if those chocolate covered raisins are in your pantry, and the frozen pizza is sitting on the shelf in your freezer, you will reach for them in a moment of weakness. And those moments of weakness will happen.
• Stock your pantry with "Crazy, Sexy, Diet" staples. You'll get handy lists of foods, as well as recipes, in the book. But here's the rundown of the staples that will get me through this detox: brown rice cakes, almond butter, agave nectar, steel cut oatmeal, organic nuts, organic raisins, avocados, every kind of organic vegetable and fruit you can imagine, tofu, and tempeh.
To get a sense of my skin health and overall well-being before embarking on the "Crazy, Sexy Diet," I visit the Murad Inclusive Health Spa for a skin evaluation. (I'll have them check me again the end of this 21-day detox, in case you're curious about the beauty benefits of this cleanse.)
Murad esthetician Lori Cahitas checks my hydration levels, along with wrinkles and pore size (both indicators of skin hydration), sun damage, redness, and more. While I feel OK about my percentiles on the wrinkles and pore size front -- I'm in my 30s, so being in the 70th percentile on both felt about right to me -- I'm horrified by my UV spots. I'm fair-skinned (my mom was born in Ireland) and spent the summers of my youth on the beach, so that number makes me nervous about my chances of getting skin cancer. My sobering UV percentile is making me even more excited to start this detox, which I'm considering my prevent-cancer plan thanks to Carr's amazing story.
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Buh-bye, chai -- hello green juice
It's Day 1 of my "Crazy, Sexy, Diet" detox and I'm feeling pumped. After my appointment at Murad, it's obvious that my sun damaged, dehydrated skin can use a little love. And I have to admit to being a little disappointed by that number on the scale. My happy weight is about 135, so I'm 10 pounds too heavy for my liking. Drunk on daydreams of my svelter, sexier self, I don't even flinch as I drive by my go-to coffee shop on my way to work, where on most mornings I order a large chai.
Instead, I make a pitstop at Mrs. Winston's, a little organic grocery store right next to my office, and head straight for the juice bar. While the berry smoothie is practically calling to me, I order a make-your-own juice with the following ingredients: romaine, spinach, celery, cucumbers, and apple. Yep, you read that right. The plan is to drink my veggies this morning -- and every morning for the next 21 days -- and when I stroll into work with a 24-ounce compostable cup of green juice, the reactions are priceless. "Ewwww," cry Anna and Sharon. "Does that actually taste not disgusting?" says Alexis. And my favorite: "Well that looks ... toxic," mutters Kirsten as she strolls past my desk, Starbuck's cup in hand.
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Bagel Fridays will be the death of me
It's 10:42 a.m. on Day 2 and I head into the kitchen to load up on water. After sipping my green drink all morning, I'm feeling peckish.
OK, I lie. I'm feeling ravenous. As in, I want food and I want it now. I think part of the reason why I'm feeling so hungry -- and why I'm having such a hard time fighting the urge to eat -- is due to the scent wafting out of the office kitchen. It's "Bagel Friday," and it seems everyone in the office is enjoying a toasted doughy-licious bagel with cream cheese. Except me. I walk back to my desk with my liter carafe filled to the brim with plain, old, boring, no-carb water and proclaim to my co-workers: "If heaven has a smell, it's something close to the scent in our kitchen at the moment."
How am I going to make it through the next 21 days -- including two more "Bagel Fridays" -- without cheating?
Kris Carr, author of "Crazy, Sexy Diet" offers me some advice on how to "ride the wave of a crave":
• Have a snack that's high in protein and some fat, such as nuts, seeds, and avocado
• Sip some almond milk with cocoa and stevia
• Snack on a cup full of low-glycemic fruit salad (pears, apples, blackberries)
• Eat a rice cake with almond butter or a baked sweet potato
• Floss, brush, and gargle with natural minty mouthwash. It sends the signal that the office of eating is temporarily closed for business
I head back into the kitchen, breathing through my mouth to avoid the delightful scent of toasted carbs, and grab a handful of almonds. They don't taste as good as that cinnamon raisin bagel would. There's a shocker.
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Gettin' juicy with it
It's Day 3, and while I've been too time-crunched the last couple of mornings to make my own green juice, it's time to put my juicer to work. My tried and true machine is the relatively inexpensive Sharper Image Super Juicer, which is a centrifugal juicer I bought for about 80 bucks. This type of juicer uses a fast-spinning grater to shred fruits and veggies; the juice then gets flung through a strainer and out the spout, while the pulp flies up and into a catch basket. Carr says she swears by her Breville centrifugal juicer (which runs about $150-$300, depending on what model you choose), and while I've seen the most expensive Breville in action, I think mine does the trick just fine for a fraction of the cost.
However, I decided to try a new kind of juicer for this detox -- the Hurom Slow Juicer -- and I'm impressed. It's a centrifugal juicer, which uses a slow-turning screw-shaped grater that chews up the veggies and squeezes the juice through a stainless-steel screen. This action gently tears open the cell membranes in order to release the nutrients. The result? More juice than my other juicer produces, which is a great thing considering how much money I'm shoving into it every morning in the form of organic veggies.
Detox. It's a word that carries so much hope -- and so much fear. Detox the smart way and you're in for clearer skin, more energy, and a smaller number on the scale. Detox drastically (Master Cleanse, anyone?) and you're likely to do more harm than good. But with so many detox plans out there, and so much conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of each, how's a girl to choose the cleanse that's right for her?
To get that answer, my co-worker Sarah suggested a few of us Total Beauty editors follow different detox diets and write about our experiences. And when the idea was a go, I was on the assignment like white on rice. Full disclosure: I'm not a detox newbie. I've tried a couple detox plans in the past and think of them like an old friend you can always count on for a kick in the booty when you need one.
And boy, do I need one right now. Lots of work, not enough time to shop for (and prepare) healthy foods, and a jam-packed social calendar has caused me to rely on caffeine, sugary snacks, and takeout dinners more frequently than I care to admit. I'm hoping "Crazy, Sexy Diet" -- a detox created by cancer survivor Kris Carr -- will lure me back to my healthy-living ways (and OK, get my skin glowing and tighten my tush while I'm at it).
