Well hello there! As people in the midst of life crises often do, I have made a drastic change in life. And by life I mean in food. And as an aspiring masters degree holding retail worker Nutritional Anthropologist I do like new foods. So I decided to do a 3 day juice/smoothie cleanse hosted by our great local vegan juice spot Life Bar. I signed up for the Level 1 cleanse during this past Saturday's Vegetarian Tasting Fair at Rainbow Blossom which consists of 6 smoothies you drink throughout the day. There's a Level 2 and Level 3 too which are each more intense than the one before so the nice rep at the fair recommended Level 1 for me.
Yesterday was my first day and unfortunately the employee mixed me up the incorrect batch. So I got 6 juices instead of smoothies. Hmm...shouldn't be a big deal right? Well the all juice cleanse is actually Level 3. But I figured, what the hell, and stuck a straw in number one as soon as I got back in the car.
Once I got home I took a picture of my complete Day 1 line-up.
The first drink was very green. Likely a spinachy blend and I made it through alright. Since they didn't open until 11 I pretty much had to drink non-stop all day. That made things tougher than I think they would've been otherwise. But I marched on and drank drink 2 at work.
Maybe a celery drink? Probably my favorite one so it wasn't too bad. Once I got home I jumped into number 3 and was starting to really feel that urge to chew. A carrot juice did not help that urge.
Immediately into drink 4 and things got bad. Drink 4 was another earthy green thing and though not actually bad, the sting of nothing but drinking veggies had really set in. On my way out of the kitchen with drink 4 in hand I almost threw it in the trash and downed my tin of mixed nuts. But I held strong and walked past all my "real" food.
I'll be honest. I didn't finish drink 4. It was a bit too earthy for me but again, I think on it's own it would've been fine. By the time Walking Dead came on I was in the home stretch. After I gave up on drink 4 I just moved to drink 5. And things got bad. I went into this really open minded and didn't list anything on my dislikes section. But whatever was in drink 5 would go on that list. Beets? Radish? I don't even know, but it did not go well.
Finally (after not finishing number 5) I had reached my nut milk dessert drink. Which by this time had fully separated and was full of pulp at the bottom. But nothing a good mixing couldn't handle and it drank just like milk. Unfortunately, I hate milk. I particularly hate drinking milk. Always have. And keep in mind by "milk" I mean "almond milk". I have no idea what cow's milk is like anymore but I suspect it's similar.
I didn't finish the milk either. I think I was just juiced out. But I also wasn't hungry at all. I did want to be eating, meaning I wanted to chew and crunch but that's the habit part of eating. As far as actual nutrients and hunger, I was absolutely fine. And that's without finishing all of the drinks so the fear of being hungry actually isn't a worry at all on a well designed, well executed juice cleanse. So far the only side effects have been excessive urination (which isn't that uncommon for me) and a much flatter belly than normal when I woke up today which I'm a little confused by. No bloating maybe? I didn't even know I was bloated. Anyway, this morning I picked up my drinks for the next 2 days and they are correct and are actual smoothies. It's already been a bit smoother. (See? Did you get that play on words there? I'm clever.) I'll report about today tomorrow and hopefully I'll still be feeling great :)
And P.S. - last week I took my eldest kitty and only son to the vet to get some blood work done in his old age. I was really nervous to get the results but I got the call today that he's all clear! A happy, healthy, bouncing boy! Who needs a teeth cleaning. Good news all around!
I watched Fat, Sick, and Nearly dead and I feel like not chewing would be the worst part. I don't know if I'm interested in a juice cleanse specifically, but maybe adding juicing to enhance nutrients and all that fun stuff. But 3 days doesn't seem terrible! I'm a big fan of smoothies, but I don't branch out nearly enough. Do they provide you with recipes when it's all over?
ReplyDeleteThat's on my list to watch this summer but you're the second person who has mentioned it in regards to what I'm doing. Chewing is definitely an addiction but as my second day ends it's pretty amazing how much easier it was to ignore today than yesterday. I would definitely recommend juicing! I think I'm doing alright because I already smoothie a lot in place of meals so it's not entirely foreign. They don't give recipes since you know, it's their business (haha) but they do tell you the ingredients so with some hard work I bet I could figure it out!
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