I made it!  The juice cleanse is over!  It actually went surprisingly well and fast (thankfully…) and I’m immensely proud that Jenn (who did the 5 day… what a beast! :P) made it through this challenge.  I’d been making some little journal-type notes about the cleanse as it went, so be forewarned that this post is A) exhaustingly long and B) probably not the most refined thing I’ve ever written.  But here’s how it went…

Pre-Cleanse: Before you start the actual cleanse, you’re supposed to spend a few days preparing your body by cutting out all the “bad stuff” (in quotation marks because I don’t think meat, cheese, alcohol and caffeine are bad in moderation).  I just decided to stick to a vegan diet and nix caffeine and alcohol.  Surprisingly, life didn’t feel much different sans coffee, beer, cheese and bratwurst.

Day 1: The first day was a breeze!  I’d eaten dinner late the night before and I think that helped me not feel hungry the next morning.  I’ll be honest, the first juice (a green one) was not as good as I had imagined it to be, but I just tried to convince myself that those ones would get better as I got more used to them (for the record, they didn’t…).  One thing that I wasn’t prepared for was how long it would take to finish each juice.  Maybe I didn’t do this right, but it ended up taking me an hour to an hour and a half to finish a juice and since you’re supposed to drink them two hours apart, I was pretty much drinking juice constantly.  Mentally, that helped because I knew if I got hungry in between, it wouldn’t be long until I’d be drinking another juice.  I ended the day with the almond milk that I’d been looking forward to all day and it was even better than I’d imagined!  It’s crazy that simple natural ingredients (dates, cinnamon, vanilla, almonds) can make something so sweet and delicious tasting!

Day 2: I woke up feeling refreshed and shockingly, not hungry!  I had had this huge fear that I’d wake up starving so this was a welcome surprise.  Also, it wasn’t until Day 2 that I realized that in the back of my mind, I kind of doubted I would make it through even one day of this cleanse.  Pessimist problems.  I thought the novelty of the juices would have worn off by Day 2, but instead, I was just as excited as the day before to try new juices.  I was even looking forward to them.  Say what?!  The first juice of the day wasn’t my favorite (greens), but the second juice had lemon and ginger and I loved that spicy kick.  The third and fourth juices of the day were the exact same (??) and weren’t bad per se, but definitely weren’t my favorite.  Aloe tastes just likes it smells… I was hoping for a noticeable surge of energy by Day 2 but I pretty much felt like my normal self.  I did get a burst of energy from Joey telling me that he was jealous of my “juice journey” (ha!).  It’s not often that I do something that he doesn’t think he could also do.  For the rest of my life, I can take comfort in the fact that I’m better than him at… drinking juice?  Great.  Anyways, by the end of Day 2 I was feeling pretty over the cleanse — and I wasn’t even hungry or craving food, I think I just missed the ritual of mealtime and it probably didn’t help that Joey was drinking a beer while I had green juice for dinner — but I drank my almond milk and reminded myself that it was only one more day.  Then I went to bed… at 9:20 PM…

Day 3: I woke up feeling really mentally rejuvenated.  And I actually had a lot of energy!  Evidenced by the dance party I had when I walked into Joey’s office and heard “Hit Me Baby One More Time” playing 😛  I had a beet juice for the first time and although I was terrified, it ended up being really tasty.  I also drank about a bazillion cups of herbal tea.  Plus regular water and 7 juices means a LOT of trips to the bathroom.  The two citrus juices in the afternoon were delicious (grapefruit!) and my green dinner juice wasn’t too bad thanks to the addition of lemon and ginger (I almost convinced myself that it tasted sort of like a Bloody Mary).  Jenn and I went to a dance show that night and I was glad to be hanging out with someone else who was juicing on a Friday night.  We may or may not have drank our last “juices” during the performance… I will mourn the end of that almond milk for the rest of forever.  SO DANG GOOD.  Prior to drinking that almond milk, my stomach actually growled and that was the first time during the 3 days that I actually felt hungry.  Thinking the milk wouldn’t hold me over long, I raced home to go to bed but Joey was up, the Rockies were on and it was Friday after all so I ended up staying up till 10:30 but even then I never got hungry.

Post-Cleanse: When I woke up on Saturday morning I felt light and refreshed.  I was also super proud of myself and was kinda craving juice… but had actual food instead.  It was so weird to not feel like eating — I always feel like eating!  Anyways, I’m sure you can find all kinds of different rules about breaking a juice cleanse, but my plan was just to eat simply and kind of ease myself back into the harder stuff (aka cheese!), so I had some fruit for breakfast, a salad for lunch, a rice cake snack and more salad + rice for dinner.  I never felt queasy or sick (although I did feel EXTRA hungry!) so I’m gonna say my plan worked well.  As for the other details…

Favorite juice? Um as if I didn’t already make my love for the almond milk clear?  But since that’s not technically a juice, I’ll say “Citrus 1” (orange, red apple, lemon and ginger) was my favorite.  It was so refreshing and sweet.  I could drink that every day for the rest of forever.

Exercise?  I probably could have, but before starting the cleanse I’d already given myself a pass on exercising for 3 days, and that mental block was much stronger than any desire to go on a run or practice yoga 🙂

Do it again?  Meh, probably not.  I really enjoyed the experience and I’m glad I did it but for me, the high of juicing isn’t quite as great as the high I get from a good meal.  That being said, if someone said “wanna do a juice cleanse with me?!” with enough enthusiasm I would probably jump right in.  Peer pressure totally works on me 🙂

The company?  I was really impressed with Pressed Juice Daily — a Denver-based juice company — and loved that they hand-delivered my juices to me on Tuesday night.  It was important to me to use a local company and I felt like I was in good hands with the one I chose.  If I’m ever in the neighborhood of one of their three stores, I’d definitely grab a juice snack 🙂 Yeah, I already did that…

Overall?  I’m really glad I did it!  It was a totally new experience and I loved the challenge.  I realized I have more willpower than I give myself credit for.  Honestly though, I didn’t feel physically different.  I’m going to pretend that means my diet and lifestyle are already healthy enough 😛  Also, I realized just how much food = life/fun/excitement for me (as if I didn’t already know that!) but instead of being put off by that, I’m embracing it.  If it’s between living to eat and eating to live, I’m definitely in that first camp.  Also, in the beginning I was kind of sad Joey didn’t want to do the cleanse with me, but now that it’s over, I’m kind of glad I embarked on this journey without him.  It made for a very introspective experience, instead of a competitive one.  In the end, I’m overjoyed with how well this cleanse went!

#5 Try a juice cleanse: check!