Diary of a Juice Cleanse Newbie

Below is a brief diary documenting my experience on the Ritual Wellness juice cleanse. NOTE: The cleanse was meant to last 3 days…

Day 1

• 7:30AM – Hot water with lemon
  • It was hot, and tasted like water with lemon.
• 9:15AM – Juice 1
  • Tasted a little like liquid salad. I wish there had been a little more apple/citrus flavor. I love salad, but this had a romaine lettuce taste and I’m more of a spinach/arugula/kale girl.
• 12:30PM – Juice 2
  • Reminded me a little of Thanksgiving minus the carbs, meat and sugar. The orange, red apple, cranberry juice was yummy. Not too sweet, the tartness from the cranberry was nice.
• 1:40PM – Green Tea
  • Not going to lie, I’m a little hungry. I think it is more mental, but none-the-less the lack of solids is a bit of a challenge. Good thing Kristine had some remaining peppermint green tea left over from the holidays.
• 3:00PM – Juice 3
  • Another green juice. I drank half. It was a little better than the AM one thanks to the ginger, but not much.
• 5:30PM – Juice 4
  • This one is a la master cleanse. Lemon, cayenne and agave. It was delicious actually. I would drink this on a regular basis.
• Evening – Yikes
  • This was a struggle. Juice 5 was another green juice but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I am a fan of juicing and cannot wait to bust out my juicer, hit the farmers markets and juice like a crazy person. However when I make green juices (kale/spinach based) I use a whole lemon and half an apple to cut down on the liquified salad taste. I could eat salad for every meal, but when it is not in its traditional solid form, the chlorophyll taste does not sit well with me. Juice 6 was an alkaline water, cashew, cinnamon and nutmeg blend that I had high hopes for. It tasted like watered down milk with cashew chunks. I took one sip and knew that there was no way I could finish the bottle.

Day 2

• 7:30AM – Hot water with lemon
  • It was hot and still tasted like water with lemon. Nice to hold something warm on my walk to work though
• 9:00AM – Juice 1
  • Didn’t taste any better than yesterday. Made me feel a little nauseous.
• 10:30AM – Mental check in
  • Cranky, hungry and really not feeling well, I decided to take an at desk meditation moment to contemplate the next 36 hours. I had been cold since the thing started. Having grown up in AZ, my blood is relatively thin. Any sort of air conditioning gives me goosebumps. That, combined with the frigid temperatures of my office and drinking cold juice all day made me a quivering mess. I was warned that this would happen but hoped people were just lying to me. They were not. Freezing, hungry and bad moods are not states of being I like to find myself in.
• 12:00PM – FOOD
  • I caved. Went to Whole Foods and succumed to one of my weaknesses – garlicy kale salad (if you haven’t had it yet, it is a must!)

To sum up my experience, cleansing is not for me. As humans, I don’t think we are met to only drink juice. I certainly am not. A large part of my daily routine involves physical activity. My days do not feel complete without a run, a spin, a yoga class or even just a walk home from work. Without fuel, I cannot do the things that I enjoy. Feeling like my only option is to hop on the bus and sit on my couch is not how I would choose to spend my week. I like to think that I maintain a healthy diet, therefore drinking liquified salad for three days straight doesn’t seem necessary to “reset” my system and start on a different eating track. Green smoothies for breakfast and salads for lunch and dinner seems like an okay daily menu. I believe that cleanses are good for some and can provide benefits. I am also not ruling out every trying one again. I would like to test out some other juice products and see if the juices taste better (like Cooler Cleanse, Suja and BluePrint.

For the foreseeable future I will stick with solid food. Looking forward to busting out my juicer and whipping up some liquid concoctions that I can actually stomach. Breakfast smoothies will soon be replaced with a balanced juice that tastes less like romaine lettuce and more like a harmonious blend of apple, carrot, lemon and ginger.

-Lexie