Americans are in desperate need of an answer to an increasing rate of obesity, diabetes, fatigue, stress, toxicity and general lack of good health. I felt the same way. Why was I always tired, cranky and why did I suddenly have a spare tire around my midsection, when I never had belly fat before?

I decided it was time to make a major play for my health - I decided to undertake a detox diet.

What detox diet did I choose? I ended up choosing the "One Day Detox Diet : The Fast Track" by Anne Louise Gittleman, a renowned nutritionist who's written several books on eating right, including the "Fat Flush" series which has gained quite a bit of notoriety as of late.

My Experience on the Detox Diet

Well, let me start off by saying, the Fast Track Detox is in fact, a diet that is eleven days long in total, the eighth day is actually the juice fast that the cover speaks of. What I didn't know is that in order to fast correctly, you have to prep your body, or else a fast may do more harm than good in terms of your metabolism, withdrawal symptoms, releasing of toxins etc. I had absolutely no problem with this part.

I didn't expect to really rid my body of the harmful toxins and excess fat storages that had been built for, heck, probably years, to all be flushed away in a one day juice fast diet.

This diet consists mainly of fresh organic foods which the author has picked specifically to perform certain "cleansing" functions to the various organs in your body which are in the most desperate need of cleansing. What are these organs? The liver, kidneys and the colon and digestive tract. That didn't surprise me, especially knowing the number of times I've heard the doomsday stories of how all of our colons have stagnant, rotting fecal matter due to decades of build up and toxic foods, and what about our livers and kidneys? Do you think they haven't suffered as well?

I like this particular detox diet, because not only does it provide me with the shopping list, the recipes and the specifics of how to eat and what to eat for the detox to work, but she also takes the time to explain thoroughly the reasons behind the specific food choices. In other words, she tells you what part of your body these foods help to cleanse and detoxify.

This knowledge REALLY helped me to visualize the damage I've probably caused to my major organs by choosing foods that not only had tons of chemicals and pesticides, but also contained a lot of low carb replacement sugars, which I thought were good for me. Not so. By visualizing my new body and how I would be mending my internal organs and bringing them back to optimal function and losing my extra weight, this really helped me to get through the tougher parts of the diet, which for me were about three days in, and now.

Why do I say "now"? Well, as I am writing this article, I am doing the one day juice fast part of the detox diet, and was suddenly inspired to write this article. It is now April 17th, at 6:36 p.m., and yes, I have gone all day without any food. I've followed my fasting to the letter, and guess what? I'm alive and kicking! Not only that I feel good. I have energy, and I feel a sense of relief for not having to worry about food for the day.

The hunger pains have come and gone, and I feel a kind of mental clarity that I haven't felt in a while. I'm envisioning how the special juice is detoxifying my body, and it's making it much easier to know that I will also now go without dinner.

Plus, I'm thinking of how good that first savory bite of food will be in the morning! All in all, I'm very glad I've come this far in detoxifying my body, and I have to say, I do feel good. I do believe that there really is something to the fact that we periodically need to give our body's a break from the barrage of environmental toxins as well as food weighed down with various toxins, by going on a detox diet. I think if you try one, you'll know exactly what I mean. You'll look at your food in a whole new light.