Detox.

Your body works really hard to process life, including the physical and mentor stressors we go through, as well as to digest all of the things we put in and on our bodies — from the most nutritious to the most indulgent.

I like to help give my body a periodic rest (detox!) from life’s stressors and the more indulgent things I eat – looking at you, red wine and chocolate chip cookies – while simultaneously nourishing my body with whole, raw, fibrous and restorative ingredients to cleanse and balance my body from the inside out. The goal of detoxing is not to lose weight or trim inches, but to support cleansing, restoring and rebalancing of my gut’s microbiome and digestion, to nourish my organs, boost my energy and mental clarity, support better sleep, and help keep my immune system strong and metabolism humming.

I used to be quicker to invest in products that would impact the things I could see — like skin and hair care products, but I’ve discovered that giving my body self-care from the inside out is the ultimate love language. In the past detoxing for me largely meant periodic elimination of certain foods or food groups (caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol, meat, dairy, nightshades, etc.) and some of those detoxes have led me to making new lifestyle habits; I now eat largely plant-based and minimize refined sugar, gluten and most dairy.

But when I’m looking for a total body reset, which I try to do once or twice a year, the Sakara Level II Detox is my favorite way to holistically cleanse for 5 full days.

What it is

Sakara’s Level II Detox, in their words, is a “five-day intensive cleanse designed to heal your gut and reduce inflammation by eliminating all sweeteners, grains, nuts, nightshades, caffeine and alcohol in addition to gluten, dairy, and meat (which our Signature program excludes as well). This special program includes 5 days of meals, drinks, medical-grade supplements, and daily guidance. Over 98% of past Level II participants cited immediate benefits, including improved digestion, increased energy, clearer skin, and weight loss.”

Why to do it: Support the health of your whole body with this periodic rest and reset.

I discovered Sakara earlier this year and I fell in love with their mantras around eating whole, raw, organic, plant-based food and nourishing your body from the inside-out.

I dabbled with a few weeks of their Signature Nutrition Program, and it was so luxurious and delicious – completely meat, grain, dairy and soy free, Sakara prioritizes leafy greens and veggies, healthy fats and an extremely diverse whole and superfood-filled palette to keep your body humming. It’s pricey, but if you believe in food as medicine and want to invest in whole body wellness that’s beautiful and delicious Sakara comes with my highest endorsements. Use this link to save $50 on your first Sakara meal program or detox!

When to do: Once or twice a year.

Sakara recommends their Level II Detox program up to quarterly, but I’d venture to say most would find that fairly intense (and gouging to their back account). I’ve done it twice this year, and experienced some similarities and some differences in how I felt each time so I’ve noted those for you in my Detox journal below!

How to do it

The benefit of the Sakara Level II Detox is that it is completely guided. In addition to having every meal beautifully packaged and delivered to your doorstep (days 1-3 comes in one package and days 4-5 in another), you will receive a Detox guide that explains when and why you are eating each of the items in the detox.

One of my favorite parts of the Detox are the many rituals (mindful routines) associated with it – these help you establish a soothing cadence that gives you willpower, focus, and excitement to complete each step along the 5-day program. The Sakara Level II Detox rituals include:

• Morning and evening dry brushing to help with detoxification and circulation of your body’s largest organ – your skin
• Morning and evening vitamin and supplement packs to nourish your body during this period of cleansing, reduce bloat, support clear-mindedness, digestion and relaxation.
• Morning Beauty water (trace mineral) drops and evening Detox (chlorophyll) drops – start and end your day with a tall glass of water mixed a few dropperfuls of these wholesome drops.
• Morning and afternoon Digestion Tea to support organ cleansing and give you a nourishing cuppa’ something warm and soothing to sip on between meals
• Coconut Kefir as an afternoon snack. Bless this coconut kefir, it’s the only thing that got me over the afternoon hump of the first two days of the Detox, when detox symptoms and hunger pangs were the highest for me. This probiotic drink is creamy, delicious and satiating.
• Medicinal broth in the evenings of days 1-4. The Medicinal broth you’ll drink for dinner during days 1-4 of the Detox is, admittedly, my least favorite part of the detox, mostly because I’m not a huge fan of the flavor – it’s a bit bitter, in my opinion. Based on the fact that it’s made from a sachet of adaptogenic herbs and roots I thought it would have more of an umami mushroom flavor…which I would LOVE, but I can grin and bear it as is because it somehow gives me the satiety to make it through the night until breakfast the next morning (generally 12-14 hours of fasting) without being hangry.

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Below are pictures of every meal I ate on the Sakara Level II Detox, and notes about how I felt each day during each of the two times I’ve done the Detox this year. Note, detoxing affects everybody differently, and even the same person detoxing can experience different results each time!

Preparation

Because this detox eliminates so many common foods, including caffeine, refined sugar, dairy, meat and grains, you will likely experience detox/ withdrawal symptoms intensely if you go cold turkey – particularly with sugar and caffeine. I cut out refined sugar and caffeine for a full week before my first detox, and afterwards I never added caffeine back in (if I MUST have caffeine now I opt for one shot of espresso, a small cup of coffee, or cup of black or green tea) and I substantially reduced my refine sugar intake (I limit sugar in general and where it is required, replace it with honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar.)

Day 1

This day was the hardest for me during both detoxes. Breakfast and lunch are really yummy (if you’ve never had veggies for breakfast it might feel a bit odd, but I personally loved it and have taken to incorporating more veggies into my breakfasts as a result of how much I enjoyed it during the detox.)

I was starving by lunch time so lunch didn’t completely satiate me, and I found myself eyeballing the clock to make it to 4 o’clock, which was when I drank my coconut kefir. The digestive tea mid-morning and early afternoon were appreciated too, but I still found myself with a bad aura by late afternoon and a migraine by evening (which I generally get when I’m physically or mentally stressed).

I highly recommend heating the evening medicinal broth on the stove then frothing it in a blender as Sakara recommends; it maximizes the texture and flavors of this broth. Since this is the last thing you’ll eat each of the first 4 detox days, you’ll want to slow sip and savor this meal.

I went to bed by 9 PM on night one of both rounds of this detox, with a hot rice pack on my head to ease my detox headache, and slept soundly for a full 8 hours.

Day 2

During my first round of detox I woke up on Day 2 with tons of energy. While I was hungry through the day, I never got a headache and I found the ritualistic routine of the meals a fantastic way to mentally hurdle the hunger I still experienced. The second time I Detoxed I awoke to Day 2 realizing that I was coming down with the cold that my son had picked up at preschool earlier that week, so I was tired and still had remnants of my Day 1 headache that I struggled to kick all day. In spite of it, the hunger was manageable and I found myself again relying on the cadencing of the daily rituals to mentally grit out the day.

Day 3

Day 3 is one of my favorites. I love the meals, my body had adapted to the lower calorie meals (likely moving into a temporary state of ketosis at this point) and I had solid energy. Day 3 was full of a bit of apprehension for me the first go-round in anticipation of Day 4, which is the all-liquids day of the detox, but because I knew what I was getting into the second time around, Day 3 yielded zero anxiety for me.

Day 4

Day 4 was a shocking breeze, both rounds of the detox. Similar to Day 3, I think Day 4 felt breezier because I’d hurdled the worst of my detox symptoms and my body was humming on its new, temporary nutrition program. The green drinks you have for breakfast and after lunch are a little chunky (think of them like green juices but with all of the pulp intact) – but the mental awareness that this meant I was flooding my body with amazing prebiotic fiber to scrub my colon kept me level-headed.

The alkalizing carrot soup you get for lunch is truly yummy. Don’t skip the opportunity to heat this up and eat it with a massive spoon out of a bowl. It’s the closest thing to truly eating that you get all day on Day 4.

Even if you do feel hungry throughout this day, you get the sweet satisfaction of knowing that Day 5 is an all-solids day (dinner included) so I convinced myself during both detoxes that the Detox was really only 4 days long and that Day 5 was like a transition day. It really helps your mental game to think of this Detox as only being 4 days, believe me.

Day 5

I LOVE Day 5. It feels a lot more like one of Sakara’s days of Signature Nutrition meals, and because you get to physically CHEW all of your food for all three meals that day, you feel so satiated. I actually struggled to finish my lunch on Day 5 the second time I detoxed, which blew my mind.

Results and other thoughts

After both detoxes I experienced:

• Higher energy (I have ditched my regular caffeine habit altogether)
• Better mental clarity
• Clearer skin
• Less bloating
• Improved digestion
• Increased mindfulness about when, why and what I am eating
• Note, I don’t own a scale so I’m not sure if I technically lost weight, but I felt lighter, less bloated and felt that like I looked more toned after both detoxes, which supports the idea that I at least lost water weight and helped cleanse my body of anything puffing me up, ha!

Sakara’s Level II Detox is available about once a month, and it ships to you on days dictated by your zip code. For me, that meant the Detox ran Wednesday-Sunday. Part of me wishes I could detox Monday-Friday, because the distraction of work during the detox days and lack of weekend temptations would be helpful. However, the beauty of the Wednesday-Sunday detox is that you’re not tempted to begin your transition days after Detox with a weekend of indulging; instead you jump right back into a Monday and I think that helped me stay disciplined to eating super clean in the days after the Detox ended…which is highly recommended by Sakara so as not to shock your system and to maximize the benefits of the program. As part of the Level II Detox program, Sakara also sends you a Transition Guide with tips and recipe ideas for your transition back out of Detox.

I chose to order a week of Signature Nutrition meals for the week coming out of both detoxes I did so I had no excuses to deviate from clean eating. Use this link to save $50 on your first Sakara meal program or detox!

I plan to do the Sakara detox again once or twice a year as my schedule allows, given that it’s best to do on a quiet week (no traveling or social plans) and that’s partially dictated by which week each month Sakara is running the program.

What do you think, friends? Are you tempted to try this Detox or another one like it? I’d love to hear your questions and thoughts on detoxing in general!