AdvoCare 10 Day Herbal Cleanse Review

This past Sunday, I completed the AdvoCare 10 Day Herbal Cleanse and I would now like to share my overall experience and thoughts on the product.  This is a long post so if you have no interest in cleanses, please feel free to move on. 

First things first.  Disclaimer. I am not a nutritionist, dietitian, or expert.  The information in this post contains my own thoughts and musings, along with a few facts I have read here and there.  I was not contacted by AdvoCare to do the cleanse and write a review about it.  I was not given this product as a freebie.  I did the cleanse on my own free will, after a recommendation of a friend, to give my diet a makeover and boost my metabolism.  If anyone has any further questions about the cleanse that did not get answered in this post, please feel free to contact me at loeffelholz34(at)gmail(dot)com      

Here we go.

I will start with a little cleanse information.  This 10 day cleanse has the user drinking a fiber drink that contains 10g of soluble and insoluble dietary fibers.  This is drunk in the morning of days 1 through 3, and again on days 8 through 10.  On days 1 through 7, the user also takes herbal cleanse tablets before bed each night.  The purpose of these tablets is to remove impurities from your body using herbal means.  Days 4 through 10, you also take probiotic pills 30 minutes before your first meal.  According to the AdvoCare website the probiotic pills, “help(s) strengthen and support our immune system, supports intestinal health and function, aids in digestion and enhances your weight loss program."

Besides taking these supplements, the product user is also given dietary guidelines/suggestions.  It is suggested that your diet is full of wholesome foods such as fruits and vegetables, and whole grains and healthy proteins.  Fried food, fast foods, oils, and processed sugar are to be avoided.  Finally, drink lots and lots of water…always a good idea.

That sums of the jist of it.  If you would like more information about the product itself, please visit the AdvoCare website.   

I know a lot of people do cleanses with hopes of dropping some mad digits on the scale in a short amount of time.  I will be totally honest, this hope was always in the back of my mind, but overall, what I really wanted to do was flush my system of all the bad stuff I had been putting in it for 25 years.  I have always had an awful sweet tooth that I have been in constant warfare with all my life so I was hoping to rid my body of some of those, or more correctly the damages caused by, those regrettably ingested Milkways, cupcakes, Skittles, donuts and cookies.  I was not expecting some huge loss on the scale when I finished, so I was a bit surprised that I did end up dropping 3.4 pounds over 10 days.  When I started the cleanse on 4/12/13, I weighed in at 166.4 and at my final weigh in Monday morning I was at 163. 

Here are the top four things I learned/was surprised by/discovered/was annoyed by.

1. Gulp down the fiber drink as quickly as possible.  If you take your sweet time, it slowly congeals and     becomes thicker.  If you read about the AdvoCare 10 Day Herbal Cleanse on other people’s blogs, you will find a common theme: the fiber drink is awful.  It really is as awful as they say.  Trust me; I am now one of them.  Just shoot it back, and get it over with.    

2.  You don’t poop as much as you think you would.  At least, I didn’t.  TMI, get over it.  I mean, I was drinking fiber drinks, taking probiotic and cleansing pills, and eating lots of raw fruits and vegetables.  I thought I was going to be on the toilet all day.  I made sure to start this on a day off so that I wouldn’t have to be in the bathroom all day at work.  Surprisingly though, I only had to go maybe an extra 3 or 4 times, over the 10 day period.  

3.  Be prepared to eat A LOT.  Sounds strange, doesn’t it?  You would think that being on a cleanse, you would want to eat less.  If you want to get the full effects of the cleanse, you need to give your diet a makeover.  I ate mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, and protein such as chicken, eggs, and fish.  I cut out processed fats and sugars.  Natural foods such as fruits and vegetables are much lower in calories so I had to consume a higher volume to hit my target calorie range.  If a person is not consuming at least 1200 calories a day, it leads to the risk of putting your body in starvation mode, which can actually lower your metabolism.  Thankfully, I LOVE EATING, so stuffing my face all day long was a dream come true.

4.  People lose their shit when they find out you are doing a cleanse.  By this, I mean every person you know suddenly becomes a health expert and will give you a million reasons why doing a cleanse is extremely bad for you.  I know that some cleanses really are extreme, and really are bad for you, but in my opinion, this one is not one of them.  While doing this cleanse, I still ate like normal, only I ate healthier.  Never once did I fast or starve myself.  This cleanse simply encourages healthy eating while taking daily herbal supplements.  It does not have you only drinking juice, or following some fad diet.  Instead, you create your own diet using suggestions and recommendation.

Now that the cleanse is over, I am going to try my hardest to maintain the healthy diet I created while using the product.  Actually, I don’t want to call it a diet.  I’m not on a diet.  Instead, I have created a healthier lifestyle.  I can’t fully function without cheese though, and it is just not possible to eliminate all sweets from my diet for the rest of eternity.  These items will be reintroduced into my diet, but I will be more mindful of portion sizes and the frequency in which I consume them.  

Overall, I enjoyed doing the cleanse.  It really tested my self-discipline, and I am very proud of myself for staying so strong over the 10 day period in the face of temptation.  I was not 100% perfect throughout the entire experience, but I still believe it was very beneficial.  This cleanse helped me become more mindful of what kinds of food I eating, and how they will affect my body.

As I stated at the beginning of the post, I am not an expert by any means, but if any questions have arisen, please do not hesitate to ask them!