I Started Drinking a Detox Shake Every Day, and This Is What Happened
When I first met Gabrielle Francis, ND, it felt like my health was beyond my control. I was a graduate student at Columbia with no room in my schedule for self-care. I was also stressed AF basically all the time.
I joke about my "near-aneurysm" baseline back then, but in all seriousness, my unsustainable lifestyle was causing my health to deteriorate. During my 20s, I dealt with adrenal dysfunction, inflammation that left me visibly puffy, hormonal fluctuations up the wazoo, low thyroid function, as well as anxiety, panic attacks, and insomnia.
It all changed when I met Francis. Along with her wisdom, guidance, endless patience, and gentle encouragement, I began to start making sustainable changes in my life. The very first was committing to drinking a detox shake each morning as part of my holistic treatment plan. Throughout the ups and downs of grad school—falling off the wellness wagon and then getting back on—my adherence to Francis's detox shake regimen was constant.
There were other changes, too—like taking naturally compounded phyto-T3/T4, following an anti-inflammatory diet, regular acupuncture appointments, and more—but for a long time, that detox shake was what kept my commitment to my wellness an everyday decision.
Until I moved to California, that is.
The Shake
Since the precious ingredients need to stay refrigerated, calling, ordering, and shipping the ingredients became a costly struggle I soon lost interest in. Then, Francis's book, The Rockstar Remedy ($22)—aka the detox shake bible—came out. If this wasn't somehow a sign from the universe to get back on my doctor-prescribed breakfast plan, then I don't know what is. I reordered the health-loving bundle faster than you could say superfood.
You might know that naturopathic medicine treats food as medicine and considers gut health to be of utmost importance. Why? It is the root of bodily inflammation, the underlying cause of many diseases and illnesses, including mine.
For an objective opinion, know that my boyfriend—who is not obsessed with wellness like I am—loves when I make him his own shake; not because of how it tastes, but because of how it makes him feel.