To kick things off right this year, I decided to try out the Wild Rose D-Tox. After a holiday season full of endless food and drinks, I thought it would be the perfect way to get my eating back on track and start the year off feeling my best. When I first told my family and friends that I was going to try a cleanse, I got a few skeptical responses – but I committed anyways, and you can too!

What is the Wild Rose D-Tox, anyway?

Foods:
The detox calls for no sugar, no dairy, no flour products, and no alcohol for 12 full days (so perhaps no fun either?!). You also have to avoid foods containing yeast like peanuts, dried fruit, and other fermented foods. But to make things easier, the detox kit includes a prescriptive list of foods to eat and foods to avoid.

Supplements:
The detox kit also includes 4 different daily supplements. Twice per day (with breakfast and dinner), you take 20 drops of “CL Herbal Extract” with water, 2 “Billiherb” tablets, 2 “Cleansaherb” tablets and 2 “Laxaherb” tablets. Right from the get-go, I decided to knock down the Laxaherb from 2 to 1 tablets. Full disclosure…since I work full-time, I didn’t want to take any risks!

How I Prepared

With such a specific list of foods, I knew I would have to dedicate tons of time to preparing my food if I was going to make it through the 12 days. I decided to start the detox on a Monday so I would only have to make it through one full weekend without my usual carb-heavy brunches and weekend wine. Starting on a Monday also meant that I had lots of time to meal prep on the Sunday before – this was my key to having enough food to keep me full and motivated.

Days 1 to 4

After spending my Sunday meal prepping, I was ready to go on day 1! I brought lots of snacks to work to make sure I didn’t get hungry.

My day 1 food diary:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with almond butter and blueberries
Lunch: Coconut milk chicken and brown rice
Snack 1: Carrots and hummus
Snack 2: Strawberries
Dinner: Baked salmon, asparagus with garlic, and baked sweet potato

Overall, I felt good on day 1 but days 2-4 were a bit trickier. I started to feel a bit more sluggish and on day 3, I got a killer headache. Knowing that these were symptoms of the detox, I pushed through—and consciously upped my water intake to try to speed up the detox process.

Days 5 to 9

The days in the middle were actually the easiest for me. After day 4, I started feeling better and better. The most noticeable change was how light I was starting to feel (goodbye bloating!). Seeing such quick results made it easy to stick to the diet and avoid cheating. But I’ll admit that without almond butter, I don’t think I would have made it this far…

My day 7 food diary:
Breakfast: Apple with almond butter
Lunch: Salad with spinach, baked chicken, sweet potato chunks, cucumber, and tahini
Snack 1: Pear
Snack 2: Brown rice cakes with almond butter
Dinner: Scrambled eggs, avocado, fresh tomato

Days 10 to 12

Unexpectedly, being so close to the finish line really started to test my willpower. I was also starting to dread taking the supplements. At the same time, I was so impressed with myself for having made it so far, so I knew I couldn’t let myself fail. The 3 day countdown was difficult, but I made it (and you can too)!

The Results!

Beyond being super proud of myself for making it through the 12 days, I felt amazing in the end. And through the process, I even managed to lose a couple pounds which was a great bonus! The diet is actually really easy to follow if you give yourself the time you need to prepare food.

The program encourages you to add the black listed foods back into your diet one-by-one so that you’ll be able to identify which foods your body can’t tolerate well (called an “elimination diet”). But to be honest, this is where I stopped following the rules…I had a heaping plate of French toast to celebrate making it to the end!

Have you tried the Wild Rose D-Tox? I’d love to hear if your experience was anything like mine!