As you may know, if you follow me on this blog or social media, then you know I’d signed on to do a 15-day juice cleanse back in April.
It all seemed like a good idea at the time. My friend Erin was game to be my main support system and has done numerous juice cleanses before so she was also going to be a huge resource for me. We went so far as to creating a Facebook group, and invited a few dozen people to join us so we could all support one another. I’d made the decision to do this cleanse for a few different reasons. All rolled up into one, I was having a really rough moment in life. When I say moment, I mean past few days weeks months. Erin seemed confident that a 15-day cleanse was just what I needed to get me back on my feet and be somewhat of a “reset button”. I’d talked about wanting to do one for months prior, so I decided to just trust her and dive in.
I went in with good intentions. I did my best to “transition in” the days leading up to it by eating mostly salads or fresh veggies and juicing at least once a day. I put down a wad of cash with Fresh Direct on a load of produce I assumed would get me through my first week (give or take a little). When it came, I was so excited! I was so thrilled to see 3 big boxes filled with nothing but fresh fruits and veggies! It was after having made 4 or so juices and my veggie stash had gone down to about half that I realized, “Sh*t. Financially, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this for 15 days.”
On the first day of my cleanse, I had plans to go see a live taping of The View with a friend and so I juiced my first 3 juices the night before since I had to be at the studio pretty early. I had the first juice before I left the house and felt pretty good. I was mentally craving food, but I knew my body was doing just fine with the nutrients I had just poured into it, quite literally. Immediately following the show, I let my emotions get the better of me and I scarfed down a big sugar cookie. It didn’t even taste that great! I just wanted to put a band aid over my emotions with food. I felt so disappointed with myself but rather than allowing it to completely derail me, I continued on with the cleanse. After 2-3 more juices that day, I realized how quickly I was blowing through them and still needed juice for the following day. So I allowed myself to eat a small bowl of refried beans with avocado. Eating felt amazing. Even though I’d eaten a cookie earlier in the day, it felt like I was eating for the first time in years! I’m not sure if the beans had dairy in them or if it was just the fact that it was my first time really eating that day, but my stomach started hurting so bad. I followed it with some raw kombucha in hopes that it would help soothe my belly, but it just tasted too sweet.
The following day, I slept in much later than normal and didn’t get to my first juice until almost noon! If I ever try doing this again in the future, I definitely need to make sure I plan my days better. I will say, I found it interesting how I didn’t seem to ‘suffer’ from any of the common side effects that you generally hear with juicing- no headaches, no dizziness, no fatigue, I didn’t even feel very hungry. What I did feel was the yearn for food. I missed the act of eating so much! I missed that satisfying feeling you experience when you have a fully belly after a great meal.
As I review the notes I kept from those 3 days, I just kept writing “I want food! I can’t stop thinking about food!” That was honestly the biggest struggle for me. I missed the satisfying feeling you get when you pick up a fork, and put food into your mouth. So why did I quit when I knew that would be a struggle before I even got started?
On day three, I started like the days prior with some warm lemon water, followed by my first juice of the day. As part of my cleanse, I wanted to experiment more with ingredients and juices I hadn’t made before. I promised myself I’d drink them no matter what. The problem was, I had some serious flops. I didn’t realize how bitter Swiss chard was or how “pulp-y” mango was going to juice. I was choking down these juices and not enjoying a bit of the process. Not only that, but by day 3, I was almost completely out of produce. Given I’d “transitioned in” a few days before going in 100%, I was just not in the position at that time to be taking on a juice cleanse at ~$30/day. By 2pm on the third day, I gave in, had a hearty bowl of kale and white bean soup and came to terms with the fact that now is just not the time for me to be making such a drastic “diet” change.
I fully understood and agreed where Erin was coming from in the beginning when she said that she thought honestly that it could benefit me in many areas of life. I think the one component that I really wasn’t fully aware of going in was the cost. In NYC, it’s easy to spend upwards of $40/day on breakfast, lunch and dinner. But I was not your average New Yorker! When I was working, I packed my own lunch almost every single day and made the majority of my breakfasts and dinners at home. If I ordered out, it was generally on the weekend and even then I’m pretty lucky in that my super awesome boyfriend pays for the majority of our meals together (which happened mostly on the weekends).
Once my life here in Austin really gets rolling, I get into my own apartment and start boosting my salary up to where I was once accustomed to it being, I think I’d like to give a cleanse another shot. I’m not going to get on my soap box again proclaiming to do it at X date for X number of days. I just know that I’d like to try it again sometime in the near-ish future.
Have you done a cleanse before? What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear what you think, positive or negative!
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