Last week I tried the Sakara Level 2 Detox. My client does this once a year and raves about it. I really trust her opinion as she is someone that does a ton of research in the health and wellness field and she was really pushing for me to try it with her.
Other than 24hr-3 day water fasts, I have never done a detox. I am not one to typically buy into these type things, but to be honest it came at just the right time. I did my research, asked lots of questions, and decided to take the plunge.
Here are a few reasons why I agreed:
- The convenience. I have battled with my relationship with food for as long as I can remember. Tracking calories to under 1000 in high school, followed by years of bulimia & to this day, body dysmorphia. Through all of this it’s no surprise I have developed extreme anxiety around food. Shopping for it, cooking it, eating it. There is no ease around food with me. Every time I try to do a detox or even change my diet on my own I fall off due to the debilating anxiety that develops. This detox was a way for everything to be done for me. 5 days of meals were delivered to my doorstep with no shopping, thinking or cooking needed.
- The cost. I received a discount which brought the total for everything to $350. This was a lot for me, however, this added to the allure. If I was going to INVEST that much there was no way I would cheat as opposed to past attempts when I would. If there was ever a time that I would go all in, it was now.
- Things were getting out of control. Many of you know about my addiction to sugar, and I was at a point where I was starting to feel way too out of control. I would have 5 snacks at night before bed and NEVER felt satisfied and constantly felt so ”off”. I have done enough research to know that this had little to do with will power and more an imbalance in my body. My brother had sent us trainers a podcast to listen to Freely Rooted ”restoring your metabolism” and it was a wake up call for me in many ways. I needed to change my relationship with food because it was affecting me physically and mentally more than I realized. Time to UNDO years of letting diet f#@$ me up in the head and in the body. This detox felt like good timing.
I took the days leading up to detox to prep myself mentally. I journaled about what I was trying to get out of it and what I would do when things got tough (i.e. when I really wanted snacks I would go for a walk, paint, journal, go in the sauna, etc) I wanted to really make this worth it and come out of it better. It was not about trying to lose weight. It was about learning and changing. I was going to look at it as a way to learn the way I should be eating and get ideas for future shopping lists and meals.
Monday morning the first shipment arrived with my first 3 days worth of food. I was very impressed with the packaging, the presentation, and the quality of everything. The second shipment comes on Thursday morning. I won’t go into too much detail about all of the food, but here is a list of what you get:
Some key points about the detox:
- You are eating real food. There is one day that is all liquid (2 green drinks, 2 soups, and your daily coconut kefir) I did not feel like I was ”missing” anything during these 5 days even though it was dairy, nut, gluten, meat, sugar free.
- The meals are delicious. They are restaurant quality and the ingredients are all organic and incredible. You can find a list of every meal here as well as the ingredients. All you need to do is add them to a saucepan and heat up. So easy. You also take 12 Medical Grade Detox Support Supplements each day.
- Like I said in the beginning, I was pleasantly surprised with how similar the meals are to what I eat. I am not a ”foodie” and tend to eat very basic, so my meals did not have any of the extra fun ingredients, but the basics weren’t far off. It definitely made me feel like I am on the right track.
- The nighttime was what made the big difference. Days 1-3 all you had for dinner was a Medicinal Broth and then done for the night. This is where I know the difference was made. The key is going forward, I need to find a way to not snack so much at night. I think getting myself back in balance with some changes I will discuss will (and has) helped.
- NO caffeine or alcohol allowed. I had no issue with the alcohol as I do not really drink much, but the caffeine was a big issue. Thursday and Friday before I started I had a small cup and Saturday and Sunday I skipped it. I had major headaches for a solid 4 days! That was rough. Now that I have gotten over the withdrawals I am trying to mindfully go back to drinking. I had a small cup Saturday, skipped Sunday and a small cup today. I absolutely love coffee, but one thing I have learned is my usual routine of coffee first thing in the morning with no food is NOT helping my anxiety as well as my glucose spikes. So, I plan to either not have coffee on days I don’t have breakfast, or have breakfast BEFORE my coffee.
- You are not supposed to exercise while doing the detox, but I workout for a living, so….I did dial back my working out A LOT and I did feel a difference in my energy while running, finding it harder to keep a good pace. I am not sure this wasn’t mental, however. I also made sure to use the sauna a couple times to help with the detoxing.
- I did feel as though I slept better last week. I woke up feeling a lot more refreshed. I read/watched reviews and heard people say their skin, hair etc were softer…I did not see this. I was told I looked like I was glowing from one person, however!
- I did likely lose weight. I posted on my instagram story that one thing I learned was that you can’t outwork a bad diet. The 2 weeks prior to the detox I was working out 15-20 hours a week. My diet was good (I don’t eat bread, I don’t eat fast food EVER, etc) but I was still snacking at night (example: I would have a WHOLE BAG of the Inner Peas Pea Pods. So, not Snickers, but way too much of ”healthy-ish” snacks) but I was also going out on 4-5 hour runs. Well, this past week I worked out less than 8 hours and the difference in my body was very noticeable. Fitness is so important, but if you have a bad diet you can’t outwork that!
Someone asked me about negative effects I had from this. Besides the headaches, I wouldn’t say I had any. I posted on my Instagram story when I received my order and I couldn’t believe the interest, questions, etc so I continued to update, while a little unsure if I should be. I would say if you do want to try something like this make sure you have your ”why” and I don’t think it should be ”because I have 5 lbs I want to lose before my vacation.” I told someone today who messaged me about it that it is a LIFELONG journey, and we all are on our own path. I have a whole other post I could write about the emotional side of all of this for me and what I’ve learned, but I’ll save that for another day! If you have any questions please reach out, but I hope this helped!
The World is My Gym 