3 Day Fruit Cleanse: Believing the Hype

Typically, as a fitness professional, I am very skeptical of fad diets, restrictive eating regimens and general guidance that sounds too good to be true.

However, this time, I leaned in.

And it was worth it. I must say, I am shocked.

This week was quite possibly the wildest week of 2024 for me. And I took the MCAT in 2024! I went from supporting 0 births as a first time doula, to 2 births within 48 hours by Wednesday morning. Juggling studying with working my full-time job with not sleeping on behalf of my side gig.... was a lot. To say the least. But somehow, I stuck to the fast and I had more energy than I've had in the past weeks. Here are my takeaways before I break this fast and go make some fried eggs and cheese.

Mental Fortitude

Physically, your body can survive off just fruit for 3 days. Chemically, the energy likely came from all the carbs readily available for my body to burn in the form of fructose. However, it still took me deciding to stick with it, being prepared enough to have the fruits packed to snack on like I used to do as a student, and being able to focus my mindfulness on other things when I got hungry. I didn't have to think about what I would eat or where I could grab something. I was always prepared and I always knew what to make.

Perfect Timing

I am grateful for the timing of this event! During periods of intense stress, my go-to is powdered donuts, pizza, fried cheese or french fries. And those make me feel good in the 6 minutes it takes to eat them, but bad for the remaining digestion period right after. I got to experience 3 really long, tough days, all without the crash of a sugar overload! Additionally, I was able to spend my evenings catching up on school work, because I didn't have to worry about cooking. What a time saver!

So, I've learned two things I will be taking into the future: ready-made meals will be the go to until class is over and during periods of stress I will do an all day fruit fast or however long the period lasts. Maybe I will do this again during finals season. This will help me immensely in med school as a lot of tough times are ahead, and I now know a tool that can assist me.

Run That Back?

Would I do this again? What a question. Not for no reason. I am grateful for what this period has taught me, but I really do prefer a balance diet. I typically would've eaten more veggies by this point in the week. However, I would not have eaten this much fruit! So, I can definitely commit to incorporating more fruits into my daily routines. Especially, now that I am working from home most of the time, I need snacks during the day and I need to make my own breakfast and lunch.

Intentionality

The cleanse was supposed to provide your body the opportunity to heal itself. Open space in your mind and spirit to to focus on other things. During this period, I was able to focus more on school which I actually enjoyed. Yes, class sucks. I'm a grown woman. Each birth I had to attend this week concluded between 5-9 am and the moms would say, "thanks for everything, I hope you can go home and get some rest now!" Something that had never even crossed my mind. I already had my Apple maps routed to the next destination. Heading to class or heading to work. Nonetheless, I appreciate class. I enjoy being there. It gives me purpose! It makes going to work seem worth it, because I know right after I leave work I am going back to grinding towards my goals. The true testament of these efforts will be seen next week as I have exams for both classes, so I will check beck then for sure.

I've also been struggling with energy and digestion issues. Never feeling really cleansed. As if the food I eat is just sitting in my body, not being processed, not being flushed. Everything has a season, even our food. It is not meant to be anywhere for too long. While I think a longer, different lifestyle change would be needed to fully cleanse me out, this was a great start and I can continue being mindful of my choices over the next few days. I can say I don't have an affinity to sugar right now, so I will continue trying to avoid as much added sugar as possible until I can feel cleansed again. Overall, though, this was a really great start.

I am happy with the results, I am proud of myself for sticking with it (because I surely wanted to quit after my first fruit breakfast), and I am grateful for the lessons learned.

In this vast, great, adult life, we are only responsible for ourselves. Which is madness, actually! I am not qualified for this. But at the same time, only I am qualified for this. I know the path I am on, and I am taking the steps to get there. Tonight, I celebrate my births, my fast and my future.

-Syd.