Cleanse: David Kirsch Wellness 5-Day Ultimate DetoxLength: 5 daysCost: $95Reviewer: Amy Marturana, Editorial AssistantThis cleanse promises to detoxify and re-energize without depriving you. The goal is to give your body the nutrients it needs and get a healthier, slimmer body and a clearer mind.First thing when you wake up, drink the “A.M. Daily Detox” (berry flavored powder, mixed with 4 ounces of water). For breakfast, mix the Protein Plus shake mix with the Super Charged Greens Blend into 8 ounces of water. For lunch, eat a salad of only greens drizzled with lemon juice and 4 ounces of skinless grilled chicken or other lean protein. For dinner, make a shake of one Protein Plus packet, or repeat the lunch option. No coffee or caffeine is allowed—at all.Subsisting on 800-ish calories a day was impossible for me. Within an hour of drinking my breakfast shake on the first day, I was starving. Immediately after my miniscule salad, I was ready for another meal. And it didn’t get easier as the days went on. The cleanse comes with the option of drinking David Kirsch’s Thermo Bubbles to curb your appetite between breakfast and lunch, but since I didn’t have that, I added a snack after lunch of raw walnuts. To take the edge off my searing withdrawal-fueled headache, I drank green tea (still a detox from my usual three cups of coffee per day). However, I was still exhausted with a dull headache every night by 8 p.m. By the second day, the chalky green breakfast shake was pretty hard to keep down. My cheating grew to first adding a few handfuls of granola on the second day, and then by the third day, I ate a real dinner—I just couldn’t handle the hunger pangs or grumpiness any longer. At the end of the fourth day, I decided to call it quits.I don’t own a scale, but I didn’t notice my clothes fitting any differently, so I’d say there was no weight loss. It’s hard to say if it de-bloated me or not, because the moment I decided I was done, I binge ate pizza and ice cream. Cleansing really didn’t curb my cravings for carbs and sugar—if anything, it intensified them. And I didn’t experience that positive turn for the better or magical burst of energy and satisfaction that many people claim to feel midway through cleanses. On the positive side, it definitely helped me detox from my caffeine addiction, and I’ve been drinking only one cup of coffee a day since. Oh and my skin definitely looked clearer and brighter—big plus.Although the cleanse says it doesn’t deprive you, that’s how I felt. Maybe it’s because I’m normally a very healthy eater, so I didn’t have tons of toxins or yucky stuff to get out of my system. I generally allow myself a little bit of the unhealthy foods that I crave in small does so I can get my fix without overindulging, so I found that completely depriving myself of anything carby, starchy, sweet and sugary just made me want it all even more.

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