Food
My college days have limited my fluid intake to two things: Coffee for the good days, and liquor for the bad days.
Enter The Vantage Clean Eating Challenge. Since water isn’t an integral part of my lifestyle as it should be, I decided to take on a water detox, which is, as the Internet suggests, a healthy way to rid the body of toxins and will help better my digestion.
Searching the web, I found six water detox recipes that I planned to try out over the span of two weeks—all in search for the one that I could incorporate into my daily life.
You can find the list of recipes here.
Sassy water
Despite the absolutely ridiculous name, Sassy Water is the perfect recipe to welcome me into this two-week experience. Consisting of lemon, cucumber and mint, this very refreshing drink will be my companion on the sunny weekday afternoons of my first two days of the challenge. In fact, I enjoy it so much that it’s the first thing that comes to my mind whenever I feel thirsty.
It’s recommended to have a glass or two of this before meals to aid in digestion and metabolism, so it’s all up to me to choose the food that accompanies the drink. I choose to go about my meals regularly, but limiting them to two a day. In case I get hungry in the middle of the day, I just down a glass and I’m all set.
As this is the first on this list that I get to try, the bar has been set very high.
Rating: 4.5/5
Apple cinnamon water
Apple and cinnamon is already a well-known power couple, but putting them together for a water detox results in a surprisingly dissatisfying drink. I expected to have the glorious taste of apple pie in the water, but I get a second-rate stale apple juice instead.
The cinnamon doesn’t completely dissolve in water, so drinking this recipe is akin to swallowing half a spoonful of wet cinnamon powder. My stomach doesn’t seem very happy about this.
Rating: 2.5/5
Strawberry detox water
This recipe calls for strawberry, watermelon and rosemary, resulting in a mix that’s just as refreshing as my current favorite, Sassy Water.
However, I find it frustrating that the strawberry flavor—the most expensive ingredient in this entire challenge—barely makes it to my taste buds. The watermelon and rosemary easily overpower it.
Other than that, I could just as easily fall in love with this recipe as I did with the first.
Rating: 4/5
Simple detox water
This is the easiest recipe to do out of the bunch—only calling for half a lemon, squeezed into a glass of water—but it’s required to be drunk first thing in the morning. This is to make sure that my body gets properly rehydrated after a night of sleep.
But without my morning cup of coffee (which isn’t permitted by the detox), I go through my classes in a very bad mood. Some of my classmates take notice. Of course, I feel good and hydrated, but nothing else feels right.
Rating: 3/5
Fat flush water
The name got me really excited and hopeful, so I make this drink with major gusto. It’s composed of grapefruit (already famous for its promises of weight loss), tangerine, cucumber and mint. It’s essentially Sassy Water without the lemon.
However, tangerine and grapefruit don’t turn out to be great replacements for lemon. The water is so bitter that it’s almost unbearable. I cannot wait to move on to the next one.
Rating: 2/5
Lemon and cayenne pepper detox
This is apparently the recipe that Beyoncé used to lose weight for her role in Dreamgirls (2006), so I make this recipe with even more excitement than the last one. The twist in this recipe composed of lemon and organic maple syrup (which I’ve replaced with honey) is the cayenne pepper. It gives the drink a nice little kick that complements the acidity of the lemon juice. I don’t mind that my drink is a little spicy, especially if it could potentially sharpen my metabolism, as it claims.
Instead of following in Queen B’s footsteps and taking it up for seven days as part of the Master Cleanse, I tried it for only one. Although it was delicious, my short time with it yielded little results. I guess I’ll never be Beyoncé.
Rating: 4/5
And the reigning recipe is…
Sassy Water, hands down. As I went through all these recipes, I couldn’t help but fantasize about that perfect glass of Sassy Water. It’s so good that the ludicrous name is almost forgivable. My commitment issues notwithstanding, this could really be The One.
While I didn’t get off the challenge fatless as I had initially imagined, I can’t wait to see the detox water’s long-term benefits. Post detox, my college days will be limiting my fluid intake to three things: Coffee for the good days, liquor for the bad days and a water detox everyday.
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Pros:
All recipes are easy to do.
Most recipes can be incorporated with regular food intake.
Made drinking water much better.
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Cons:
Benefits can’t be observed immediately.
It takes a lot of commitment to try out all of the recipes.
Side effects may include irregular bowel movement.
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