3 Day Fruit Flush Part 1: Will I Survive?

A couple years ago I stumbled upon Jay Robb's 3-Day Fruit Flush Cleanse, that supposedly allows you to lose up to 9 pounds in just 3 days! I've never been able to commit to any sort of restrictive diet (with the exception of the 2 weeks I tried Atkins back in 2002), so I thought 3 days might be doable. Most cleanses I've read about are long (21 days! Who am I kidding?) or extremely restrictive (lemonade for 2 weeks?!). But with the Fruit Flush I get to eat fruit for 3 days and lose weight? Let's give this thing a shot. 

I decided to give it a try because I just recently recommitted to working out again with the Firm Express, who offers a 4 day diet kick-start, but I wanted more of a cleanse than just a jump-start on my diet. I know how to eat for health and weight loss, it's just a matter of committing to it. I felt the need for a cleanse of toxins and impurities to really prepare me for a diet overhaul. 

The interesting thing about the 3 Day Fruit Flush is that Jay Robb touts it as a cleanse you can do once a week for 12 weeks, or 1-2 times a month, forever. I like the idea of incorporating a healthy cleanse into my lifestyle on a regular basis, or for those times I need a tune-up. The other thing that sold me on the Fruit Flush is the fact that you do get to consume one meal of raw veggies and protein (!) on days 2 and 3, so you can spare your body's lean muscle mass during the cleanse. Read on for details!

3 Day Fruit Flush Basics:

You can go to Jay Robb's website to download a $5 e-book (or hard copy) of the Fruit Flush "rules." It's an easy read, about 50 pages, that explains his theory behind the flush, including improvements in skin, attitude, and weight loss in just 3 days. (We'll see about that Mr. Robb). But it is cheaper than that bottle of Cab I'll be giving up, so here we go. Basically, day one is protein shakes every 2 hours (a total of 4) followed by a dinner of raw veggies (as much as you like!) plus a protein of your choice, with a little lemon and olive oil. I can totally do this. Days 2 and 3 consist of one serving of fruits every 2 hours, followed by the same dinner of raw veggies plus protein. How bad can it be?

Fruit Flush Shopping List

So with my list in hand, off to the grocery store I went to stock up on fruits and veggies. The challenging part for me is that I eat lunch out with customers almost EVERY day, so it might be kind of odd that I'm passing up a meal for fruit. Oh well, it's only 3 days. All the more reason to be prepared. Here's my list:

bananas (yum!)

apples

spinach

red bell pepper

carrots

oranges (blah)

strawberries

blueberries

tomato (yuck)

cucumber

lemon

avocado

melon

This isn't sounding so bad, right?

The only things I didn't need to buy were olive oil and protein powder. Robb recommends using organic everything, plus a protein powder that doesn't contain any additives like sucralose, casein, etc. but I was not about to buy a new protein powder for 3 days. So I went with my Body by Vi shakes (love them -- as much as one can love protein shakes) and whatever olive oil I had on hand. I also didn't buy organic produce because I don't feel the benefits outweigh the cost (my hub works in the ag industry and this is a heated topic in our home), but you can certainly do all-organic if you choose. 

Stay tuned for my daily reviews in Part 2 and Part 3, I have high hopes!