iZO Cleanze: Day One

“This is my last meal,” I said to a friend-of-30-years during dinner at Ammo last night.

Barbara Epstein, producer/director/choreographer/writer/Broadway investor and all-around great gal, simply looked at me and waited. She’s known me long enough to know to wait for the punch line.

“I’m starting a cleanse tomorrow… a super-nutrient, super cleanse. For five days. I won’t eat again until … next month! Tuesday, September 1, to be exact.”

Here’s the story.

My business has a lot of perks. Over the years I’ve gotten to experience many of my client’s products and services … you know, for, like, - FREE. I’m talking about stays in beautiful hotel rooms (thank you Shutters at the Beach), movie tickets (thank you ArcLight Cinemas) and even, once, a day of psychological analysis courtesy of Moonview Sanctuary. Gastronomically speaking, I’ve had some amazing meals at five star restaurants served by the chefs themselves: Bobby Flay, Michael Mina, Bradley Ogden, Neal Fraser, Marcus Samuelsson, et al. Sometimes it’s an opportunity to be one of the first to taste a new smoothie (Jamba Juice), Ice-Blended (The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf), pizza (California Pizza Kitchen) or, (iced, half-caf, triple grande, non-fat) latte (Starbucks). And sometimes it’s a bit more out there, like today.

We just signed iZO Cleanze. According to the marketing brochure I have sitting in front of me, iZO Cleanze is a full-body detox cleanse designed to transform your health and let your body start fresh! (punctuation theirs). Founder and CEO Tim Martin told me the other day, “It’s not a fast, it’s a feast.” Cool.

So, here’s how it works, Every morning I will wake up to find, as I did this morning, a nifty, insulated bag containing the day’s “feast” waiting for me just inside the garden gate in my front yard. Inside are the following:

Two Pints iZO Red
One Pint iZO Green
One Pint iZO SuperGreen
One Pint iZO Tea: Purify
One Pint iZO Tea: Elevate
One Pint iZO Tea: Activate
One Pint iZO Tea: Replenish
One Pint iZO Pro
Two Pints Lemonade
½ Pint Anu Water
Liver supplements
Enzymes

These, dear reader, I will consume on a daily basis for the next five days. 11 and ½ pints of liquid. That’s just about one and ½ gallons. And I’m encouraged to drink all the water I can/want … that’s a lot o’ liquid!

Here’s how my morning has gone so far:

- I didn’t sleep great, waiting for the sound of the gate opening (will Savannah bark?).

- Up at 3:15 to check – nope, no bag.

- Slept from 3:16 – 6:30 and had vivid dreams of the “feast.” In one, my good friend and client Doug Pick Founder and CEO of DAP World had me meet him in an upscale bait and tackle shop(don’t ask, I don’t know…) where he delivered the bag of goodies. Doug is super cool and super fit, so it figures he would be featured in my first cleanse-related dream. He encouraged me, in my dream, to get the most I could get out of the experience … and then told me to go ahead and chose something from the bag. I opened it up and in there were beautifully scrambled eggs and crisp, crackling bacon! Thanks, Doug….


- Out of bed at 6:31 … look through the French doors into the garden – yep! There it is! (Hmmmm, now I really have to do this.)


- 6:32, walked Savannah.


- 6:50, fed Savannah (wondered to myself: Is this chow going to start looking edible to me in three days??)


- 6:55 I weighed myself - I weigh 193 pounds (I expect to lose weight during the next five days, but that is not my goal). BTW, I am 6’2” tall.


- 7:00, as instructed, I cracked open my first pint jar and … drank! (Going to be doing a lot of that the next few days.)


- My normal breakfast is coffee (black) and fruit. Or coffee and cereal with fruit. Or coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. Or coffee and a hard boiled egg.


- This morning my breakfast consisted of ½ pint of Anu Water (hyper-mineralized alkaline water) and 1 pint of iZO SuperGreen: “A comprehensive blend of nature’s most potent superfoods for deep nourishment and detoxification including: “land vegetables” (grass, whole leaf wheat grass, nettle leaf, shavegrass aka horsetail, alfalfa leaf juice, dandelion leaf juice, barley grass juice, oat grass juice, burdock root, broccoli juice, kale juice, spinach juice, parsley juice, carob pod, ginger root, nopal cactus and amia berry); algaes (spirulina, broken cell wall chlorella); wild-crafted aquatic vegetables (Icelandic kelp, Nova Scotia dulse, laver, bladderwrack, alaria, mori, Irish moss); and energetics, enzymes, probiotics and nutrients (shilajit, protease, amylase, lipase, cellulose, bromelain, papain, alpha galactosidase, massive array of both implantable lactobacillus species, 100% organically bound chromium, selenium, molybdenum, B-vitamins, beta-glucans, etc.). Wow. Wait - Nettle leaf? Horsetail? Bladderwrack? Anyway … the water was strange tasting and heavy; the SuperGreen was … REALLY GOOD! The ginger really came through. I can do this!

I’ll be blogging about my experience and will update periodically. It is now 10AM and I have consumed 3.5 pints of liquid. I’ve got a ways to go, but so far I haven’t fallen off the wagon…. Good sign, huh?

Oh, and my last meal? It was Ammo’s signature turkey meatloaf with horseradish mashed potatoes and sautéed beet greens. DELICIOUS!