I tried Dr. Oz’s three-day detox cleanse that everyone’s talking about

The freshman fifteen is very real. In my case, it was only the freshman eight, but there was no doubting the awful dining hall food and the even worse alcohol had adverse effects on my body.

I’m usually not an advocate for quick-fix weight loss regimens. It’s hard to believe that adjusting your diet for a few days would yield healthy, long-term results. But I was desperate.

My friend was the one who told me about this cleanse. She said she lost six pounds in three days, her skin cleared and her stomach was flat. Although I was skeptical, I was in. It worked for her, why wouldn’t it work for me?

Source: The Dr. Oz Show

The day before my three-day detox

I actually didn’t have a lot of these things at home, so I ended up having to do some grocery shopping. An hour and almost $80 later, I finally understood why it’s cheaper to be overweight than it is to be healthy in America.

I saved $12.24?! WOOOOOOO

Since the bill was already so high on just produce, I decided to ditch what I thought didn’t seem important to the cleanse, like Stevia, multivitamins, omega-3 and probiotics.

Day 1

Let’s start with the detox tea – green tea and lemon. I could do that. I casually sipped on it, until I realized I was running late for my shadowing job at the dentist’s office. So I did what any self-respecting human would do if she didn’t want to waste her drink: I chugged. I promptly made my breakfast smoothie afterwards, carefully following Dr. Oz’s instructions. It looked a little funky but it tasted fine, so I couldn’t really complain.

I usually don’t eat breakfast, so I was pleasantly surprised to notice I wasn’t starving by noon. I really wanted to stick to this plan, so I made and drank my lunch smoothie anyway. There were two things I couldn’t get on board with – the celery and the cucumber. Celery is gross, and an entire cucumber? Really? The recipe called for way more than my Magic Bullet could take, so I had to split the ingredients and blend them separately. The green mush just wasn’t appetizing, and it tasted as bad as it looked. I had to wonder if I did something wrong, just because it was SO bad.

The detox allows you to have a snack smoothie between lunch and dinner, but I personally didn’t find it necessary. Lunch held me down for so long that I just went straight to dinner, which was actually really good.

Throughout the whole day, I was pretty full. It only got tough when someone had “mojito night” at her house, and I had to reluctantly pass on drinks.

I completely forgot about the bath until I came home at 2am. I decided to try it anyway, but for me, it did absolutely nothing, so I decided against doing it for the other two days.

Day 2

I was told it would probably be best if I did this when I didn’t have any plans that would interfere. Of course, I did the exact opposite of that.

The tea and breakfast were good, especially because I had the time to sit down and enjoy it this time. I remade lunch, and it’s actually supposed to look like that.

Things began to get complicated when I had to go to a concert in Miami. I knew I wouldn’t be back in time for dinner, so I just prayed that my lunch would hold me down. It might have just been concert adrenaline distracting me from my hunger, but it worked.

Morale was high until I saw my friends with their chicken tenders and fries. But I made it this far, I couldn’t just stop. I ended up getting home at 1am with only two smoothies in my system. I was a little light-headed, but at that point, I was in no mood to eat — just sleep it off.

Day 3

FINALLY!

My Sunday routine is almost always the same: go to church, have lunch at a restaurant, go shopping with mom. Tea and breakfast were fine, but knowing that I was missing out on great food for lunch while I was supposed to sip on a putrid smoothie was what got me.

I ended up skipping it. I actually slept through lunchtime and woke up around 5pm, so I figured I might as well start on dinner. Unlike in the past two days, dinner actually didn’t keep me as full, probably because I skipped the heaviest smoothie of the three. So I caved – I had solid food for the first time in two days. I ended up eating an entire package of seaweed strips, which were 100 calories (compared to the ~350 calorie smoothies), hoping it wouldn’t affect my cleanse.

The rest of the night I was hungry, and excited to fall asleep because it meant that I could finally eat in the morning. I fell asleep scrolling through food porn Instagrams.

The day after my three-day detox

When I woke up the next morning, I weighed myself.

I dropped five pounds in three days – not bad. Although I still had the fear that the weight would quickly creep up on me the way it usually does post-fad diet, I was motivated to keep the weight off. I was pretty proud of myself, and I rewarded myself with some real, healthy food for the first time in days.

After this detox, my mom noticed my stomach was flatter. My skin also cleared. At the gym, I felt way more energized.

Dr. Oz’s website claims that, “By removing artificial flavors and chemical substances from your diet, you’re helping prepare your body to live a healthier and more natural lifestyle. Detoxes like this one can help you lose weight, treat acne and other skin conditions, and even more.” That’s exactly what happened.

As unappealing as living off liquid may seem, I would definitely recommend the detox. It yields almost immediate results, but what happens after is entirely up to you.

Related stories recommended by this writer:
● I tried a banana cleanse and self-destructed 
● I tried Beyoncé’s strangest diet trick and it actually kind of worked 
● This vlogger says you can cure cancer with happy thoughts and juice – and she’s making money doing it