Before I rain on your parade I'd like to say that getting your diet in order is a great idea. You'll definitely feel better and you'll be better for it. Plus, health is one of the most important things so it's a great idea to optimize for it. Lastly, while you can make an argument that both coffee and alcohol can actually be healthy in very small doses and some 'fatty' foods (like peanut butter or avocado) are actually super good for you if you count calories I think you made a great list and giving up the things you wrote above is a good idea.

That being said 'detox' is a ridiculous idea from a medical standpoint. Your kidneys, liver, and skin are very efficient at removing toxins from your body and those toxins can't 'build up' like some peddlers of the 'detox' idea would suggest. Detox is a term fitness industry came up with to sell you products/diets that don't work. It's especially brilliant because it suggest that it's a process with beginning and end like 'diet'. You just detox for a week or two and boom, those pesky toxins left your body and you can go back to your old ways which will inevitably lead to the build up of toxins...

So yeah, you have a good idea, I just wouldn't call it a 'detox'. Just remember that just like hitting the gym for two weeks wouldn't get you ripped for the rest of your life 2 weeks of healthy eating won't make you healthy for the rest of your life. It's a good start though!

Thanks @MattVIP. Each response is very appreciated.

I don't know how else to call it.

For me this is first time I will do something similar. To be honest, I have no idea what kind of stuff we are going to eat or not. But I know that my wife is checking everything and preparing things for us. So we will do it more or less properly.

Also this wont be only two/tree week thing, and then back to old habits. After this (we hope) we will continue to eat more healthy, drink less, smoke less and do more sports.

At least from my point of view, this should be some kind of starting point for a changes in long run.

No point in arguing semantics. What's really important is the fact that you're making a positive change in your life and assuming you won't automatically revert to your habits at the end of those two weeks you're going about this the right way! As for the name, you can call it 'optimizing my nutrition', it's less catchy of course, but closer to the truth.

I'm just kinda mad at the fitness industry for preying on people using aggressive marketing strategies and often doing more harm than good. I lost 30kg in the last six months or so, but I know how to go about this. Many people who don't have time to research the topic extensively would fail in my situation often precisely because of the fitness industry tactics. That's why I felt compelled to explain that detox is a buzz word and not a medical term. I'll take any chance I can get to shame the fitness industry for bad practices

I would have been 100000000% down for this but I have just been joined by @Jamie and we basically have tons of shit to shoot and this will have to involve rum.

However i might be down for this later in the month!

Oh, and I'm in btw! At least for the next 15 days. My nutrition is in a good place and I eat like 95% clean but let's make it 100% clean so I can drink some coke and order takeout guilt free when the season two of Daredevil hits the web!

A couple of tips:

1. I agree with Matt re: "fatty" foods. OP prob meant just junk food/cheese/ramen noodles, but just in case, you NEED some fat, like nut butters, avocados, olive oil. I'm a "raw before 4" person (usually, and completely ignoring coffee/tea in my equation), and I can't imagine pulling this off on a mostly fat-free diet.

2. Have some non-junk junk food available. My go-tos when I need sugar but don't want to go on a cookie binge are dates and figs. They're pricey, but they're both fruits (dried), dates especially have lots of natural sugar that should hit the part of your brain that is used to an evening jolt of sugar from alcohol or dessert. Don't go crazy with them, but I'm a guy who will crush a bag of cookies in one sitting, so 4 dates and a couple of figs is a massive improvement when I think I'm about to lose it.

3. In general, have lots of ready-to eat food handy, or make sure to prepare a bunch of food in advance. The biggest challenges will come when you are tired and/or emotionally drained, and you will have no desire to make a fancy salad. Hummus and veggies (carrots, peppers, tomatoes, in the Middle East they also use sliced onion) is one of my "I am cranky and want to binge but still be healthy" safe havens.

4. Expect to spend some money. Fresh fruit, veggies, prepped hummus, etc all cost, and you may be hit with a wee bit of sticker shock. But then remind yourself how much money you blow on alcohol and take-out. I've been mostly healthy most of my adult life, but I still have a wee mental block about spending $8 on a green juice, yet think nothing of dropping $100 at the pub.

5. You need activities to distract you when you are jonesing for some sugar. A lot of our bad habits are literally, just habits. You need to replace them with something else. Since you're doing this challenge with your wife, I assume you two can find suitable alternative activities. But plan it in advance, almost like a contract. "Honey, after din when I want some beer, we need to do ... instead."

I'd recommend BEFORE you start, prepping some great soups and freezing them, so you can pull them out mid-week. Also have more or less your whole 2 week menu planned out, cuz if you ain't used to eating like this, you may find the emotional drain of trying to be "perfect" is as tough as the actual eating part.

Also BEFORE you start, depending on your caffeine intake, you will need to taper off of it. Going cold turkey can be really hard, the headaches can be brutal. I'd actually recommend you get off of caffeine before you begin the actual cleanse.

What we can not EAT, DRINK:

- Heavy/Fatty foods


Looks into freezer:




We are going to do this for at least 2 weeks

Yeah I'm...

@CycleVancouver thanks for sharing you tips!

I especially like this one number 5

@Harvie
Yeah, this was my previous approach, but in some weak moment I said yes for this. Now there is no way back

@Harvie haha that is one hell of a freezer bro! Which is your favorite out of the 3?

Day #1

Everything went fine until I came to work. Because I skipped my morning coffee I am sleepy as hell. Trying to fight it with water with fresh squeezed lemon.

This should be fine after couple of days.

You can get used to the lack of coffee. I've certainly been there. It's not pleasant and it takes time so if I had to do it again I wouldn't! There's a better way and it's called green tea. It has some caffeine (not nearly as much as coffee so it's a nice, mild 'pick me up' without making you hyperactive), and it comes with so many health benefits that including it in a healthy diet makes a lot if sense. In fact, coffee kinda makes sense as a part of a healthy diet, yeah it has a bunch of downsides but those are outweighed by the positives in a healthy individual (it sucks only if you have some specific medical problems like high blood pressure, caffeine sensitivity, some skin conditions and auto-immune diseases etc.). For me, that benefits to disadvantaged ratio was a bit too close for comfort so I'm not drinking it anymore and green tea turned out to be a perfect substitute.

I am going to get one green tea right now. I guess "classic" green tea from supermarket is not that good as one bought in "tea shop" but have to do the job now

Just don't buy the dust in teabags. Buy leafs. Don't worry about the 'ritual' of making green tea, but don't leave the leafs in your cup for like 15 minutes while you drink it (that's no bueno, leafs will open up entirely releasing all of their goodness which might be overpowering resulting in very bitter taste and worst case scenario - some digestive tract irritation). Here's how you do it, put like 2g-5g (a generous pinch) in a small teapot, add 70-80 degree water (add a splash of cold water to the water that you've boiled and you should be good) to it for like 2 minutes and pour the tea to your cup. You can use the leafs in the pot up to two more times depending on the tea. Those are hard and fast rules of brewing green tea 'western style'. It's not about the ritual, it's about the efficiency (realising just the right amount of substances from the leafs).

Feelings after day 2 are fine.

Unfortunately I am a bit sick. Eating lot of vitamins hopefully will be fully recovered until Saturday..

@mattusko removing coffee altogether puts your body into withdrawal mode and you'll get headaches and the like. You should taper off, for example take 50% of what you normally have, then go down to 40%, 30% and you won't feel this withdrawal. Not only is it much safer to do, but a higher chance you'll be able to get off the stuff.


@Jon-PokerVIP strawberry cheesecake for sure.

@Harvie I know about this, but it doesn't work for me at all. I tried this reducing method when I was smoking but always fall back to normal. But when I did cut from day to day I was able to stop.

Now after 3 days without coffee I don't feel that bad as in day 1. I don't feel sleepy.

Also i had no coffee, alcohol, sweet waters, fatty foods, smoke (weed) last 3 days. Lets do the day 4 now.

1st real test will be today after work. We have a party in the office starting at 5pm with lot of food and alcohol. probably will just leave sooner :D:D

1st week almost behind us. Lets do one or two more!

So... how's the detox going? I basically managed to keep up with you till the season two premiere of Daredevil on Netflix which in my mind warranted some junk food consumption.

I buy a lot of DETOX juices and it is really good, but staying out of cofee and grind is really really hard.

coffee is really that bad ?