We Tried It! Be Well Cleanse by Dr. Frank Lipman

Cleanse: Be Well Cleanse by Dr. Frank LipmanLength: 14 daysCost: $199Reviewer: Amanda Schupak, Science EditorFrank Lipman, M.D.’s Be Well cleanse is like pressing the reset button—and holding it down for 14 days. The basic idea is to eliminate all the things from your diet that might be making you feel less than awesome: gluten, dairy, nightshades, sugar, red meat, most seafood, soy, peanuts, alcohol and caffeine. The detox is supposed to result in more energy, less bloating and stomach upset, glowing skin, reduced pain and some weight loss. Once you’ve gone cold (organic, free range) turkey for two weeks, you can start reintroducing these things slowly back into your diet to suss out any sensitivities.The routine is simple: a prepackaged shake in the morning, another in the late morning, light lunch (with included digestive enzyme pill pack), an afternoon shake, light dinner (with pill pack). The shakes weren’t bad at first and I mixed them with almond milk to make them more palatable. But by the end I was sick of the taste and chugged each one as fast as I could—probably not how you’re supposed to do it.It wasn’t tough to abide by the long list of no-no foods when I was able to cook for myself. It was harder, though not impossible, to dine out. If you do this cleanse, I suggest you pick an empty fortnight on the social calendar. (Full disclosure: I had a couple food-related engagements that I was unwilling to cancel, so I broke twice—once for half a gluten-free bagel with a schmear of cream cheese and once for a total blowout lunch at a fancy French restaurant at which I don’t think I missed a single banned ingredient.)How’d it go for me? OK, not amazing. A quick recap: On day two I was so drained I took a nap at my desk. I’m talking a full-on, dreaming, drooling on my keyboard nap. Day three I couldn’t get out of bed and showed up to work at 11:45 a.m. After that, I felt back to normal but can’t exactly say I felt energized. I lived without my morning coffee, but capitalized on the cup-a-day of green tea the cleanse allows for weak people like me. The scale says I lost four or five pounds. My jeans say otherwise, but I’ll take what I can get.What struck me the most about the whole experience was the nearly complete lack of sugar cravings. Let me be clear: I do not skip dessert after dinner and I usually have something sweet in the afternoon. Yet somehow I was able to go an unprecedented 14 dinners and 13 lunches without caving and almost without caring. Yes, I had one meltdown in which I spewed a string of expletives at a co-worker who would not shut up about some amazing candy she was eating, but she was asking for it. I didn’t even take the L-Glutamine tablets that Lipman provides to curb sugar cravings.Overall, I didn’t feel or look any different after two weeks. My theory: Sweet tooth notwithstanding, I eat pretty well and maybe I don’t have any major food sensitivities. That said, it’s been a week since I finished and I get full quicker than before and I haven’t fallen completely off the sugar-wagon. Reset complete.