Food for Thought by Daphne Oz

As some of you may know, I committed to doing the Whole Living 21-day cleanse starting this past Monday.

In short, I went from "allowing" myself to have at least a few bites of anything I wanted over the holidays — part of my commitment to a healthy lifestyle year-round is acknowledging that there are occasions when it is better to splurge on calories so as to incentivize myself to eat and exercise well the rest of the time than to deprive myself, only to gobble stale store-bought goods a week later; I call this "indulging for a good cause" — to being prohibited from having dairy, meat, added sugars, grains, alcohol and any processed foods or drinks. I drew the line at no caffeine; I need my green tea.

I'm a pretty healthy eater all around, but even I balked at the sound of my diet for the first week: veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, olive and coconut oil, water, seasonings and nothing else. We're way past vegetarian, past vegan, all the way to Spartan at this point. And this is not just for a few days; we're talking three weeks, people!

As someone who's tried (and failed) at my fair share of cleanses, what could possibly have persuaded me to sign up for this? I needed it. And chances are you do, too.

Now for the surprise: Not only has this eating plan been wildly easy to stick to (the added benefits of clearer skin, sustained energy, fewer headaches, less mucous, better sleep and, yes, weight loss have not hurt!) but also I haven't missed a single one of my forbidden foods. Not that I'm saying I'd like to eat like this forever (I love food too much), but the past week has been downright enjoyable.

Every morning begins with a very delicious veggie and fruit juice elixir. Now, I never have been a huge fan of long-term all-juice cleanses. There are some upsides: Because juicing begins the process of digestion and removes much of the insoluble fiber from fruits and veggies, it makes the nutrients very easily accessible within your body.

It also relieves some of the burden on your digestive tract. However, reducing the fiber content also makes the fruits and sweeter veggies a more immediate hit of sugar to the bloodstream. Because of this minimized fiber and roughage, I find myself constantly hungry on juice cleanses. Plus, I haven't had much luck sticking to a long-term regimen that doesn't allow me to chew. Call me crazy.

What's nice about this particular cleanse is that the juice is only for breakfast, so you get an immediate hit of vital nutrients first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, when your bloodstream is primed to receive new supplies after the reparative work that happens while you're sleeping. From there, you move on to delicious meals packed with plenty of bite, such as cabbage salad with carrots, red peppers and sunflower and hemp seeds in a tangy vinaigrette, roasted butternut squash soup and steamed broccoli in tahini. At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, I haven't been hungry once.

And now for my confession and epiphany: As part of my co-hosting ABC's "The Chew," I've amended the cleanse slightly to allow myself one bite of everything we make on the show. Is that cheating? I think not.

Purists might shudder at the idea of taking a bite of fried dough or shrimp tamales in the middle of a cleanse, but I think these few tastes of non-cleanse food just might be the reason I'm coming to realize how little I am missing their presence overall.

With the abundance of processed foods all around us, we get in the habit and train our taste buds to crave super-salty, super-sweet and super-fatty foods. But when given the chance, your body the machine knows what kind of fuel it prefers: clean, whole foods. All we need to do is give ourselves an opportunity to see what it feels like to run on premium.

If the few bites of naughty foods get us there, then let's chalk it up to having our cake and eating it, too.

Daphne Oz is a co-host of ABC's "The Chew." To find out more about Daphne Oz and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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