I’ve been doing a liver cleanse diet for the month of January, relaxed the diet a little in February but still kept drinking the liver detox drink and eating clean during the week and so far I’ve lost 2.5 inches off my waistline! But get this – I’ve only lost 5 lbs! At the end of January I was only down 3.5 lbs! (This is your reminder to keep going even if the scale isn’t budging!) I posted my morning liver cleanse drink on IG one day and a lot of people asked what liver cleanse I’m doing and I do have to warn you, it’s not for the weak! If you’re looking for a quick 3 day drink cleanse diet, this is not it. This liver cleanse requires that you completely clean up your diet for a few weeks.
The diet is based of Dr. Linda Lancaster’s book Harmonic Healing. I personally have not read the book and really did the diet based off all videos this TikTok user @freddie.1111 created but this is gist of the diet that I did:
- Drink the liver detox drink in the morning on an empty stomach. Let it digest 2 hours before eating anything else.
- Meals should be 20% protein and 80% vegetables. I just eyeballed it and made sure there was a lot more vegetables than protein.
- Cut out all processed foods, sugars, grains, and dairy.
- All fruits are ok to eat, just no added sugars.
- Olive oil and avocado oil are ok, but fried foods are not.
Drinking the liver detox drink was the hardest because it does NOT taste good. My husband refused to drink it, but after a week I just chugged it and got used to it. Be sure the completely peel remove the pith from the grapefruit or it will be so bitter! I still make the drink out of habit and I honestly don’t even think it’s that bad anymore.
THIS DIET IS HARD! Even if we were eating pretty healthy 5/7 days of the week! Add on top of that that I do not like leftovers and I had to get pretty creative with the meals. The first week or two is the hardest and honestly, I thought I was dying the first 2-3 days. I didn’t realize how toxic my body was, but the first few days I felt like I was coming down with the flu. My body itched like crazy all over, I had a massive headache, just felt miserable, and all I wanted to do was sleep.
But within a week, I was slowly losing the inches off my waist and I started getting my energy back. 6 weeks later and I’m waking up well before my alarm, the night sweats are gone, and the white coating on my tongue is barely there. I still itch on occasion but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was before. Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve only lost 5 lbs but my weight fluctuated a lot and the scale did not show much progress the first few weeks. I have been lifting heavier in the gym, getting 10k+ steps everyday, and taking my vitamins so I definitely think everything combined contributed to the 2.5 inch loss on my waist.
I want to explain what pushed me to do the cleanse. Before our wedding last year, we tried to lose a few pounds by changing our diet and we did, but not as much as I would hope to. We tried to continue eating clean during the week and working out regularly but I just wasn’t seeing the results that I used to. I knew it had to be my diet. We ate pretty healthy during the week, but would have heavy cheat meals on the weekend and I had a hard time practicing self control when it came to drinking.
I started getting the feeling like there was something wrong with my body. I had trouble falling asleep, I felt so tired in the mornings, I’d constantly need naps during the day. I felt bloated all the time and literally just felt uncomfortable in my own skin. I felt itchy on different parts of my body all the time.
Then I saw a random TikTok by @freddie.111 – in the video, said she noticed she was consistently gaining weight even though she didn’t change anything in her diet so she went to see a holistic doctor who told her that the years she spent on hormonal birth control probably backed up her liver and she should do a liver cleanse. She did it for 6 weeks and ended up losing 13 lbs, her skin cleared up, and overall just felt so much better.
I realized that I’ve been on hormonal birth control pills (specifically Blisovi Fe and Junel Fe) for the past 3.5+ years and I drink regularly. My liver hates me! I started doing more research on liver congestion and I had soo many symptoms:
- fatigue
- itchy skin
- weight gain
- white coated tongue
- hormonal acne
- night sweats
The itchy skin and weight gain bothered me the most. I’d itch all over my body throughout the day but never in the same place. I even went to the doctor a while back to find out what could be causing the issue and she told me that it was probably just allergies and to take an allergy pill everyday! I was already planning to get off birth control in 2023 but ended up deciding to get off this past December and start tracking my ovulation instead. I didn’t see results right away so I knew that I needed to make the full diet change, but there were too many commitments we had in December and too much temptation around me so we made a decision to do Sober January and completely overhaul the diet.
We’ve relaxed the diet once January was over but definitely noticed that when we had carbs or sugar, we felt slower and more sluggish. We’ve decided to continue eating like we’re on the diet during the week and relax it during the weekend. We’re not going to be as restrictive but seeing the results we got and how great we felt during the 4 weeks is enough to keep going, but keep it balanced.
