Hip Hip Hooray! I Came, I Saw, I Conquered a Three Day Juice Cleanse!

Yes, you heard it right.  I completed a three day juice cleanse and lived to tell the tale.  So why in my right mind did I even attempt such a crazy thing in the first place?  Over the last 6 months or so, I’ve heard all sorts of chatter (mostly throughout the internet community) about the amazing benefits juice fasting has for your body.  The concept behind it (as I understand it) is that by only consuming freshly pressed fruits and vegetables in the form of juice, one gives the stomach a break from the digestion process.  A process that utilizes a lot of our time and energy to do.  It thereby allows your body to rest a bit as it focuses on eliminating toxins and improving your overall health & wellbeing.  Of course, as anyone can well imagine, there is also a lot of controversy over the practice of juice fasting and whether or not it truly works as touted or is even healthy to do.  If you’re interested in learning more, I would urge you to do your own research, form your own conclusions and talk with your doctor about it before trying a juice cleanse for yourself.  That said, I am a believer.

My New Years Resolutions this year is to direct my attention on the health of my wholebeing (mind, body and environment).   To me, taking on a three day juice cleanse felt like it would be a perfect way to kickstart the New Year.   I hoped it would live up to all the hype I’d been hearing about, and I would feel recharged and raring to go.  Never having done one before, my main thought was, “How am I going to not actively eat/chew food for three whole days?”  I was worried hunger would get the best of me and I would ditch the juice in favor of a nice juicy hamburger.  Something I should mention is you will drink 96 fluid ounces of juice every day on the cleanse, along with a whole bunch of water.  You are not forsaking nutrition to do this.  In fact, I probably consummed better quailty nutrition on this cleanse then I get out of the foods I eat in a normal day (something I need to work on for sure this year).  Less calories, but better nutrition.  This leads me into one piece of advice: Don’t do a juice cleanse if losing weight is your goal.  People do lose a few pounds doing these cleanses, but its not a good way to diet at all as it is mostly water weight you’ll lose so you’ll gain it back pretty readily.

In order to do a juice cleanse, you can either buy your juices from one of the many companies out there that offer them or press your own juices from the comfort of your own home.  Either way, it will cost you a good chunk of change (which can also be a source of motivation for completing the whole cleanse since you paid so gosh darn much to do it).  Buying the pre-made juices will set you back at least $200 and if you want to do them at home you’ll need a juicer plus a whole lot of organic fruits and veggies to press (I have no idea what that’ll set you back).  I decided to buy mine from a company called, Cooler Cleanse.  It cost me $253, which included the overnight shipping costs.  As I said earlier, there were quite a few companies in which to choose from, so I narrowed it down from various reviews I found on blogs, newspaper/magazine articles, etc…   I was very happy with my juices, overall.  There were only two drinks (out of the 9 different flavors) that were not at all pleasant.  It was all I could do to choke those both down.  The Essential Green drink (cucumber, celery, dandelion greens, watercress, spinach, parsley, kale, pear, lemon & ginger) tasted like how I would imagine my lawn clippings to taste….disgusting!!!  The Grapefruit & Mint, was also awful but then again I don’t care a lick for grapefruits.  My most favorite drink of them all was the Almond Nut Milk (raw almonds, vanilla bean, dates & filtered water).  This one was like drinking a super delicious milk shake.  Oh my did it taste good!  I looked forward to drinking it every night, as it was the last drink of the day.  It made for a truly fantastic reward for a whole day of juicing (not to be confused with the often times used jargon of illegal steroid use)!  The other flavors (in order of my most to least favorite) are: Watermelon Lime, Coconut Water, Sweet Greens (kale, spinach, parsley, watercress, apple), Spicy Lemonade (lemon, lime, cayenne pepper, raw agave, filtered water), Essential Red (carrot, beet, apple, lemon) and Pineapple Ginger.

I’m not sure what the norm is but I felt really great the vast majority of my time juicing.  When I began this, I had thought it was going to be a constant struggle and exercise in extreme control to not eat at all, but it wasn’t like that at all.  I was even lucky enought to experience a moment of mental clarity, or “awareness” as some people call it, on the morning of my third day.  Its hard to describe how it felt but it was a sort of hyper-awareness of all my surroundings.  I felt as if I was seeing things and feeling things with crisp, crystal clarity.  It was amazing!

As I understand it, not everyone feels the exact same way as I did after completing a juice cleanse.  Don’t feel discouraged.  It doesn’t mean it’s not working for you or you’re doing it wrong if you feel tired, have a headache or are super hungry the whole time.  All our bodies are so completely unique, we’re all bound to experience things in our own way.  Just so you don’t think I breezed through this whole process like it was nothing, I will admit to a hiccup towards the end of my last day when I mistakenly allowed my mind to drift a little bit to what I wanted to eat the next day. This was a huge lapse in judgement on my part (I’m glad I didn’t make this mistake anytime earlier in the process or I probably would have bailed on it all).  Once you begin to allow yourself to think about eating food, it’s all you will then think about.  My tummy began to grumble and groan. I knew if I didn’t get back in control of my thoughts, I would be a goner. So, I refocused my mind on other things besides eating, and was able to successfully complete the rest of my cleanse thinking nothing but happy thoughts!  Waking up on day four, I was euphoric.  Not only did I accomplish the goal I had set out for myself, but I even felt as if I could have continued a few more days.   My whole being felt renewed, energized and ready to kickstart 2013 to a healthier me!

~Chrissy

One little aside – While I was juicing, I excitedly replied to a tweet I saw by Lea Michelle, who plays RachelBerry on Glee, which said she was beginning day 1 of a juice cleanse.  I don’t reply to stars tweets on any kind of regular basis but I felt like we were kindred spirits, like we were members of the same little -drinking only juice- club and we might trade a few thoughts and bond. Yeah, not so much.  She never did respond. Darn it! LOL 🙂