This article is sponsored by Clean Juice.
I’m a foodie through and through. It’s not just what I do for a living. It’s also, in essence, who I am.
It’s maybe a slight exaggeration to say I live for food, as there are plenty of other aspects to my life, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that I’m obsessed with it. It simply cannot be said any other way, I LOVE to eat.
So when Ashley at Clean Juice started talking to me about trying a One Day Cleanse with their Organic Cold Pressed Juices, I was skeptical at best. Could I, with this passion for actual food, give it up for an entire day? And why would I even bother?
Well, that’s where Ashley sold me. Not only is it easier to drink a cold-pressed juice to get your otherwise nearly impossible daily vegetable recommendations, cleanses are extremely nutritious and have a multitude of other health benefits such as:
- Cleansing Gives Your Organs Some Rest: While you take a break from eating solid foods, your body gets a rest from processing them. This allows them to repair themselves from all of that hard work (especially important for a foodie who eats for a living) and come back healthier and more efficient when you’re through.
- Cleanses Improve Energy and Create Better Sleep: When our livers are overworked from detoxifying all of those burgers and fries, we feel sluggish and drained throughout the day. Giving our liver a break from this hard work allows it to repair itself, resulting in better energy and deeper sleep following a cleanse.
- Cleansing Improves Mental Clarity and Mood: An overworked digestive system is a tired and grumpy mind, something I can attest to every day around 3 pm. So the idea of giving my organs a break to clear my head is appealing. On top of more energy cleanses can improve mood by balancing our hormones and giving our adrenal gland a break from releasing the Cortisol required to digest food.
- Cleansing Produces a Brighter Complexion: Just like our livers, our skin filters and eliminates toxins. Giving our largest organ a break from this work by cleansing allows it to repair itself, resulting in fewer breakouts and brighter, glowier skin.
Who can argue with these benefits? I for one, couldn’t. So with that, Ashley had me hooked and I picked up my first ever Juice Cleanse pack, all nicely labeled and numbered to make it as easy as possible, and ran home to get started with a full heart and clear mind, ready to share with you, dear Frisco, the good, the bad and the ugly of my day without food. So let’s talk about it.
My Cleanse Experience
For my cleanse I chose the Original, which features 6 juices (Sweet Green, Orange, Green, Yellow, Red, and White). The juices are designed to be consumed in order at 2-3 hour intervals. You’re supposed to sip them, not guzzle, so as to imitate the experience of a full meal and maintain a full stomach throughout the day.
As the name implies, you are not supposed to eat any food at all, however, it’s important to drink copious amounts of water throughout the day — at least one glass in between each juice is recommended. Personally, I think you need more, and recommend one full glass while drinking the juice along with the one in between.
I chose to do the cleanse on a day where I was working from home with no appointments outside of the house. I wanted to give it my full attention with minimal interruptions. This isn’t necessary, but the more distractions you have during the day and the crazier your schedule, the more likely you will be to miss a juice or grab a snack out of desperation. Choosing a day where I could focus and be intentional proved key to my success.
Some cleanse experts recommend preparing your body for a few days prior by eliminating processed foods, excess sugar, and alcohol. I didn’t do any of this and instead ate nearly an entire pizza by myself the night before like a bear preparing for hibernation. Did this make it harder or easier? I don’t know. But if you can prepare your body by cutting back a few days before, I recommend it.
On the day of the cleanse, the first thing I noticed is that the juices are good. No, scratch that, they’re amazing. Of course, there will always be one of the six that just doesn’t do it for you. For me, that was Yellow. But in general, each juice is unique and full of flavor.
Even diehard skeptics have to give credit to Orange for being deliciously sweet and pleasing and Sweet Green for being a surprising mix of apple and greens and cucumber. You’ll find something in this cleanse that you’ll want to get again and again. This I am sure of.
The second thing I noticed which was quite shocking, was that I was actually FULL. It wasn’t just that I wasn’t hungry, I was actually full. Not only are these juices incredibly nutritious, providing your body with more nutrients than they get with most of our daily food intakes, they’re also satiating and nourishing. I felt pleasantly surprised by how satisfied I felt all day.
Now, of course, those were the good parts, the surprises and the pleasantries of the cleanse. But what else did I learn? Were there any downsides? Naturally, there were a few.
Halfway through the day, I started to develop a massive headache. By evening, it was pounding like a jackhammer. This, however, wasn’t because of the cleanse. It was because I made the choice to cut down my daily caffeine intake to accommodate all of the juices I was consuming.
It seemed like a good idea at the time given that the whole idea of a cleanse is to detox your body. However, in my experience, it felt like too much of a shock for my body to take and detracted from the overall experience of the cleanse. Even though many cleanse experts will tell you to cut back or eliminate all coffee to get the full effects, my advice to all of my fellow coffee lovers out there is to keep up the coffee or the tea or whatever it is that keeps a caffeine headache from rearing its ugly head. Trust me on this one. It will make your entire day more enjoyable.
The other thing I learned the hard way is that keeping to a schedule is a key component in the cleanse experience. If you get off schedule just a bit, stretching your time between drinks to 3 hours or more because you get tied up in a meeting or you don’t feel hungry yet, it will throw your whole day off and make it surprisingly hard to fit all 6 drinks in. I was only able to drink 5 of the 6 juices because I got off schedule around noon and then fell asleep before it was time to consume my last drink.
Did this destroy the cleanse experience completely? No, of course not. But, do I wish I had been more conscious of the schedule and was able to complete the cleanse in one day? Yes, I really do.
All in all, I found the juice cleanse to be a lot less intimidating than I expected it to be. I was worried I would starve or be grumpy or feel deprived, and I was none of those things. I found some new favorite juices to incorporate into my life in the Sweet Green and the White Juices, and I feel as if my body is a bit happier and cleaner now that I’ve done it.
The jury is still out on the long-term effects and I’m still waiting on that glowing skin, but all in all, I really enjoyed my Clean Juice Cleanse and would recommend it to anyone who wanted to give it a try.
Interested in doing your own cleanse or just want to learn how to incorporate more clean juices into your diet? My friends over at Clean Juice are experts and are ready to help you get juicing. Stop by either the West Frisco or Starwood location and check out their healthy and delicious menu today.
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