My sister has recently gone healthy. She's eating cleaner, going to the gym a few times a week, preparing for a short marathons (she just signed up for 2!) To help her slim down and also trigger the body to 'clean up', she's also gone on juice detox two times over the last 6 months. She paid quite a huge amount of money because she said that will motivate her. When I told her, I was offered to try a juice detox, she and my wife said that I should try it. I have been eating too rich a diet.
I was skeptical about juice detoxing. Are you sure? So, I didn't say yes to the offer.
I love my food and I am sure many of you know it.
That said, I tried out their juices earlier. PunchDetox invited some folks over for (healthy) drinks, before they offered me to try the full thing. I had about a quarter a glass of each of their juices to taste, it tasted quite nice frankly.
Anyway, here's a short brief about PunchDetox:
PunchDetox is the first and leading Hong Kong based juice detox program. It has been around since 2010. PunchDetox uses a combination of raw, unpasteurized, vegan and organic juices. The difference that PunchDetox has compared to other juice detox program in Singapore is that it uses 'superfood' in every single of its juices. Amazonian Acai Berry, Himalayan Goji Berry etc.
They came over to Singapore in August this year and brought over their experience in juice detoxification to Singaporeans. If you want to find out more about them, there are tonnes of Q and A and other info at http://punchdetox.com.sg/ I think I have clicked on almost all of the questions and read the answers.
So a few weeks later when I was asked if I would like to try, I said yes.
So here goes, my experience. I asked different people who have gone through it and they all had difference experiences. It's interesting how different body reacts to it.
I did the cleanse on a weekday. Some people prefer weekends as they feel more relaxed and detoxification is all about doing it slowly. Weekends are days with family and also extended family. We have gatherings etc, there's too much explanation to do if I excuse myself, so a weekday is good for me.
The delivery of the juices:
The juices are delivered a day before your juice cleanse starts. This was for the 3 day cleanse. They would have told you earlier that these juices needs to be kept cool, so delivery is preferably to a place where you can keep the juices in the fridge as quick as possible.
Each bag comes with 6 bottles which is a day's worth of juice. They have ice pack in this cold pack, so your 'living juice' as they call it, stays cool and alive.
There are two levels that you can choose from. Level 1 for beginners and Level 2 for the more advanced detox, or those that have done detox before.
I chose Level 1. The juice from breakfast to supper!
I stored them in the bar fridge in my office. Fits in nicely! All 18 bottles of it!
I took home my breakfast (drink 1), dinner (drink 5) and supper (drink 6), because I will be at home when I drink them.
Like other Juice Detox programs, you get emails to guide you along. You can see that I have been receiving emails. Since I already had a sister who have gone through it twice, she's telling me what to do, so I won't waste the effort.
Basically, for maximum benefits, you start to eat clean and reduce your 'unhealthy' food intake. My sis when she was doing it, had almost a week of clean eating. I only had ahem, 1 day of clean eating. You know there are many people who are experts and have read up about a lot of things.
Since I did the detox during the weekday, I still had lunch with my colleagues. One colleague who is well read about health issues said, it takes around 3-4 days for all the food you take to be passed out from your system. He should have told me earlier, then I would be more discipline to eat clean longer.
Pre-Detox:
In the pre-detox email that they sent, it's recommend that the following be eliminated from my diet:
caffeine, meat, dairy products, alcohol, nicotine, sodas, refined sugars, gluten, processed foods, fast foods. Not too difficult for me. I think the most difficult for most people would be caffeine!
So, I was having Yong Tau Food for my meals. Sis said I should not even eat tofu and fish, but I ate it because I was hungry.
Pre-detox day was actually the most difficult day for me. I was constantly hungry and I could not snack like I usually do. I have a headache almost the whole day and that night I went to bed early.
Detox Day 1:
I woke up at 6:15 am. It's the day that I have personal training with my trainer and he was teasing me. Sure or not? Protein shakes gives you more muscle lah. Why do you want to detox?
I thought I felt weaker but I did have energy to do the burpees and strength training exercises for 1 hour. I just felt slighter weaker lifting heavier weights.
Proof that I had walked a lot that day. I was surprised that I could last the first day!
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I had my 'drink 1' before going to the gym. It lasted me till 10 am when I had my 2nd drink. I was feeling 'hungry' because it was mostly liquid. How shall I put it? It was not really hungry, but more of 'lacking satisfaction' as it was only liquid. The above was 'drink 3' which was my lunch.
Since lunch was already available, I thought I would stay in the office and take a nap. After the drink, I was feeling very cold. The drink was cold, and the office temperature was at 24 C. Somehow the 24C seems colder than usual.
I decided to take a walk to the library, it was warm outside according to colleagues who later came back from lunch. Guess what? I was not feeling warm at all. I felt like I was thawing. I borrowed books about food. Those scientific ones that tells you about the technical details of Mailliard Reaction, too geeky eh?
The day went past quite OK. I was very sleepy by 9 pm. I had my 'drink 6' and went to bed.
Detox Day 2:
Like my usual 'after personal training' day, I feel tired and was not as active. I felt lazy and didn't take steps and mostly used the lift. The body was ok. Passing motion was about normal, just that there was nothing much coming out.
I felt the absence of real solid food in my diet. The Hokkien saying of "No eat meat, no strength!" came through my head. Since I was determined to complete it successfully, I did not cheat.
Throughout the day, I did not feel as strong as the previous day and I felt cold too. I was drinking warm water in between my drinks. That made me go many rounds to the toilet to 'dispose water'. I did notice that the urine was not really clear. The various juices did make the urine seem 'yellowish'.
When I got home in the evening, it was time for 'drink 5' which is their GazPUNCHo. I was feeling cold and did not want to have another cold drink. I read in their literature that you can warm up 'drink 5' if you want. Heating it slightly made it so easy to drink and it was like a instant relief. Body felt warmer.
The soup is made up of tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, cilantro, cayenne pepper, sea salt, apple cider vinegar, extra virgin cold pressed olive oil. Yes, it tastes like tomato soup. I love this soup! I met someone who went on as well and she said she hated this soup to the max! She said she hates tomato to begin with. I love it because I love tomatoes!
I fell asleep watching TV and decided to just go to bed after 'drink 6'. I love Drink 6 because it's a nutty and filling juice. It's made from raw cashews, raw almonds, agave nectar, sea salt and filtered water. With this, you don't go to bed feeling hungry.
Detox Day 3:
This was a horrible day, it started when I woke up.
Whatever these juices are suppose to do, it's working. It's making me run to the toilet! There are slight churning in the tummy. Oh man, and the liquid substance that came out stank through the roof! It was so smelly and sis was saying on our home whatsapp group, it's working, you are being cleansed! Ya right.....
Day 3 seems to have more steps recorded on my pedometer. Well I think it's because there was at least 5 trips to the toilet to 'ka-boom'! It also happened to be a super busy day at work. Meetings, Kaboom, Meetings, Kaboom. Meetings, Kaboom.
It was a busy day and after meetings that went into overdrive, by the time I came back to the office for my lunch, I was behind in the timing. I drank 'drink 3' and 'drink 4' within 2 hours to catch up.
By the end of Day 3, I didn't feel hungry and there was no more runs to the toilet. It's totally empty!
You feel your stomach capacity shrunk, you already don't feel hungry. Each bottle has 500 ml of juice, you do really feel very full and I didn't really want to finish it all because I don't feel hungry.
I was glad it was over after 'drink 6' on the 3rd night. I slept early because it's Personal Training day the next morning.
Day after Detox:
Woke up at 6:15 am, so that I can go for my 7 am personal training session.
Somehow felt really lighter, less stress too. The whole detox is over and I don't feel hungry!
If you start the day with cardio and strength training, you feel stronger and more energized. You can tell from the pedometer records the walking I did and the floors I climbed.
I still avoided the list of banned foods that was stated before the detox. It's kind of back to the usual food I have. I usually buy fruits and chocolate milk for breakfast. I just skipped milk. I ate half the fruits and you felt full already. Stomach capacity has shrunk so fast?
For lunch, I had 3 different veggies from the Vegetarian rice stall. First taste of real food. I didn't really eat the rice. The rice was to soak up the oil and saltiness of the veggies! The veggies did fill me up without having the rice.
I usually have the ABC at the drinks stall. This tasted weak and lousy.
The 'drink 3' for the last 3 days has been organic and high quality ones. Beetroot, Carrot, Red Apples, Ginger, Orange and Goji Berries. I am beginning to miss the wonderful taste of cold press juices. As I typed this, sis has got a new cold press juicer at home and we have had quality juices now.
In Summary:
I didn't lose any weight, the most was probably 1/2 kg. I stand on the scale daily anyway and it's recorded digitally via wifi to the cloud and I access the graphs via my phone. I look at the statistics and charts and there was no weight loss. Weight fluctuate daily anyway depending on what time you stand on it.
The body fat seems to have decreased 1.5%. A week after the detox, the 1.5% came back to me!
I didn't feel hungry during detox days, it was only the pre-detox day that I was hungry. During the detox days, with 500 ml of liquid every 2 hours, I don't really feel hungry. Just a feeling of 'non statistaction' on the first and second dat. I also drank water because it was recommended. Try drinking so much liquid daily. You won't feel hungry at all.
The juices tasted good. The 'potions' were slightly sweet because of the fruits in it. The juices always have a slight 'heat' element in it. There's either ginger or cayenne pepper in it, so you feel a bit 'hiam' in the taste.
I felt lighter inside, you feel more relax as your body don't need to process food. It's hard to describe this. Your body is not working so hard, so you don't feel stress. This can only be felt if you go through this. Then maybe you can explain it to me.
I felt really cold for the days when I was on detox. It was only when I was in the gym doing exercises that I didn't feel cold.
I did have energy to even go to the gym. I was told by a lady friend that she could not move and felt so drained and had to lie in bed. Maybe it works different for ladies?
I feel guilty when I see 'bad' food and I want to eat it. I somehow managed to refrain, I don't know why, but it did not last long. After a week or so, I felt less guilty and started to indulge again. You need a great will power to stay clean for a longer time.
I did not have the urge to cheat. My wife and sis was showing me my favourite food when I was drinking tomato soup. I resisted and felt good!
There's a cheat sheet where you can eat cucumber, celery sticks, mashed avocado, miso soup. I didn't need it.
Would I recommend it?
If you have strong will power, and want to have a change, do it! I don't feel much change, but someone people said my skin did look different, there was a glow. I am not sure about that. The wife says, I should eat healthy and don't eat so much rich food. She says I need to live longer than her!
Get someone to do it with you, it might be easier. I am always curious so I talked to different people. A couple who was getting married decided to do it together as their one of their projects. He, I was told could do it, she (the person who told me) said it was tough for her.
If you think you would only do it half heartedly, don't waste your money. It's not cheap and you are wasting the juices.
Ok, that's all.
If you want to read about PunchDetox, go to the website at http://punchdetox.com.sg/