Pertinent background information: roughly 8 years ago (I was 22 at the time) I started noticing a significant decrease in energy. It was nearly impossible to get through a workout and every aspect of my life was suffering. I was soon diagnosed with an iron deficiency and began to supplement. The results were mediocre at best. Fast-forward 5 years: general lethargy is a part of daily life, despite my iron being back up to acceptable levels. New test results reveal that I have low testosterone levels. Fast-forward to present day: I am currently taking medication to stimulate the release of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), which are precursors to the production of testosterone. General fatigue continues to dominate daily activities.
What is Isagenix? Find out here.
Nutritional cleansing has been used by hundreds of thousands of people and has been used for many purposes. Some claim that it stimulates fat burning and can jump-start weight loss. It supposedly stimulates the release of stored fat-soluble toxins which can in theory reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, decreasing the risk of chronic disease. As you may have guessed, it can also help increase energy levels, which was my end-game for trying this program.
Before beginning, let me be clear: I don’t agree with everything that Isagenix claims. There is little to no scientific evidence that says we need to cleanse our bodies, nor proof that any type of cleanse truly works. Isagenix claims that people are toxic due to the food we eat, the air we breath and the chemicals we encounter in life; I don’t buy this. The human body is an amazing thing. It has refined itself through centuries of evolution, and can handle basically anything we throw at it. I decided to do my cleanse because of other factors. Firstly, I’ve always got my mind open for ways to boost my energy levels and feel better- during my cleanse, there were times that I felt super sluggish, but other times I felt phenomenal; and the good certainly outweighed the bad. Secondly, I know a few Isagenix users who I trust a lot, and they say that Isagenix changed their lives- they claim to never get sick and that they have lots of energy. Thirdly, I’m very into the concept of Intermittent Fasting (which research has shown to be valuable for health), and Isagenix seems like a very responsible way to tackle this (instead of just not eating or consuming anything but water for 24 hours, you drink the cleanse drink and have a few snacks, keeping your body filled with B vitamins and other herbal extracts). Finally, I’m a big believer in supplements (especially for my lifestyle) and already use fish oils, multivitamins, greens, whey, workout drinks, etc., which are all products that you can get through Isagenix, and of a very high quality.
The process
I began my 9-day cleanse on December 31st. This is a pre-cleanse day, a day to prepare the body for the upcoming detox. This entails eating 1 nutritious whole meal, drinking 2 Isagenix shakes, drinking lots of water, and snacking on Isagenix snacks throughout the day. I’m a huge proponent of eating whole foods, eating lean, eating regular meals, etc. (Precision Nutrition 101), so a 9-day cleanse seems like glorified anorexia on the surface. With that being said, the health-claims of Isagenix are too much to ignore, not to mention recent research supporting the concepts of Intermittent Fasting and the growing problem of soil-depletion. Keeping an open mind and trying new health strategies is the only way to truly learn if there are ways to improve our lives; and something as simple as a 9-day cleanse shouldn’t be a barrier to the proposed benefits. The biggest surprise of my pre-cleanse day was that I never found myself being hungry. I was active, I went to the gym, and I felt great all day. I was in the car driving around 9pm and I realized how alert I was, whereas I typically notice the opposite. Not a bad start.
I’d like to take a small detour here and mention something very important: compliance. Health and fitness professionals can prescribe training programs and give nutritional advice, but without discipline, optimal results cannot be achieved. For tips on how to find the will-power to succeed, read my post on compliance. I started my cleanse on December 31st to prove a point; I could have waited until January 1st, but I believe in practicing what you preach. I was out all night and didn’t cheat once- no extra food and no alcohol- despite the hundreds of offers and bizarre looks. Sometimes its fun to be different, but I digress.
Day 1 of the actual cleanse (pre-cleanse days don’t count towards the 9-day cleanse) began on January 1st. These first 2 days are deep cleanse days and are designed to give the digestive system a rest; the only food consumed on these days are small Isagenix chocolates and snacks, as well as a cleanse drink taken 4 times throughout the day. This is indeed the definition of anorexia, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Even more so than the previous day, I was surprised by my lack of hunger. Around 7pm I realized that I hadn’t eaten a meal in over 24 hours and couldn’t figure out how I hadn’t yet experienced any desperate desire for food. My mood was good, I felt great, and I began to wonder how I would feel after a full 2 days of cleansing. Day 2 wasn’t bad either- still no crazy hunger pains or abnormally low energy levels. I’m still not entirely sure how the Isagenix system works, but there is something in the cleanse drink and snacks that suppresses appetite. Starvation shouldn’t feel this good!
The following 5 shake days were pretty normal days. Day 3, as would be expected, my body definitely had a little purge- I won’t go into details, but it was definitely a rewarding part of the cleanse. I went to the gym on 3 of the 5 shake days, and although I lacked some strength and power, I still managed to have 3 good workouts. There were peaks and valleys during these 5 days where I sometimes felt alert and other times sluggish, but that’s to be expected when you aren’t consuming a regular amount of calories. The one constant was that my quality of sleep was tremendous- something that was true throughout the entire 9-day process, even on cleanse days.
My last 2 cleanse days were the best of the entire process. I was alert and productive the entire time and didn’t even think about food. It was truly confusing.
Results
When beginning a cleanse, Isagenix recommends that you weigh yourself and measure your waist, arms, legs, etc. so that you can track your weight loss in pounds and inches. As weight loss was not one of my goals, I did not do this. For me, it was more about seeing what it would do to my body and how it would make me feel. Energy-wise, the cleanse made me feel great. In the two days since my cleanse ended, I can’t say that I feel markedly different than before the cleanse, but I am feeling more alert and I had a fantastic workout yesterday with energy to spare (and there didn’t appear to me any strength loss, which is an extremely important factor to me). In regards to what it did to my body, pictures speak louder than words:
2011, before lean-eating protocol
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![2012 Before Isagenix]()
2012 Before Isagenix
2013 After Isagenix
As these pictures show, paying attention to my nutrition- using Lean-Eating, Intermittent Fasting, and Carb-backloading- made a huge difference in my physique during 2012. I was already fairly lean before my Isagenix cleanse but after 9 days using Isagenix I was noticeably leaner. Even from the straight-on shot to the left, you can make out some striations in my deltoids, which is just silly. I really didn’t think that I had much fat to lose, but after the first 2 days of the cleanse I could already feel that my pants and shirts were fitting a bit looser. Again, weight-loss was not my goal for this cleanse, but I unquestionably leaned-out, and I am not complaining.
Going forward
Isagenix is now my go-to supplement provider. As I mentioned above, I can get almost everything I need in one place, and now I can start mixing in a 1 or 2 day cleanse every month or two- whenever I feel like leaning out. I look better than ever, without any apparent strength loss, and I feel more alert as well. An added benefit to using Isagenix is that it operates through the principle of Network Marketing, meaning that users can make money by introducing the products to other people- and who doesn’t like an additional stream of income?
I don’t believe that people need to cleanse their bodies on a regular basis. If you eat right and exercise, your body will be a well-oiled machine. However, Isagenix cleansing has shown me personally that it can be a great strategy to jump-start weight loss, to lose those extra few pounds, to increase energy and alterness and to improve sleep quality. For individuals that don’t eat right or exercise on a regular basis, a cleanse would certainly be beneficial because it forces you to take a 9 day rest from an otherwise irresponsible lifestyle.
Would I recommend Isagenix? If you have similar goals to my own- to be healthy, energetic, and lean- then I absolutely would.
For more information on Lean-Eating, Isagenix, or the benefits of other nutritional supplements, don’t hesitate to contact me!
Happy cleansing!
-DW
