Juice Cleanse Reflection

In mid-December 2010, Ms. C completed her first juice cleanse, a 3-day BluePrintCleanse! Her experience, with some hindsight, follows below. I am starting Day 1 of my 3-day cleanse today! I'm so excited to cleanse and will be sharing my experience as well. For now, please read below to check out the first juice cleanse of a recent college grad.

-- Ms. S

Now that it's been a few weeks since I completed my 3-Day BluePrintCleanse juice cleanse, I can honestly assess the highs and lows of my experience. While I may not have performed natural childbirth like Ms. S has, I impressed myself by consuming only juice (okay, and a handful of celery sticks) for three consecutive days. For those of you who are planning on doing your own juice cleanse or are considering doing one, here is my honest feedback on my 3 day juice cleanse!

Preparation Is Key!

Before embarking on the cleanse, BluePrint sends a prep email with guidelines on how to ease your body's transition to a liquid based diet. For the 5 days leading up to my cleanse, I tried to follow the advised preparation suggestions by phasing out booze, meat, dairy, sugar and white flour. This prep noticeably helped my body as it adjusted to preforming without solid foods. I normally eat (fairly) healthy so the prep wasn't difficult and I noticed when I consciously limited my intake of white sugar and flour, I saw a positive effect on my energy levels.

Since I did the cleanse with my two roommates, (they're the best!) I was able to compare and contrast our experiences. I noticed one of my roommates who did not prepare had a difficult time adjusting to the cleanse, she was crankier and more irritable than my other roommate and I. Witnessing that then, and reflecting on my experience now, reaffirms one of the key selling points of a juice cleanse which is to give your body's digestive system rest. When your digestive system is constantly working to break down complex foods without a rest, it can crash when given the opportunity. However, if you feed your body nutritious, easy to break down components, your digestive system is relaxed and steady allowing energy to be spent more efficiently. It's sort of like the tortoise and the hare cliché. For anyone about to do a juice cleanse, I highly recommend giving your body a few days to prepare before embarking on your cleanse. You'll get much more out of the experience and your body will thank you!

Mental Strength

As a BIG food lover and eater (I'm Greek, eating and cooking runs in my blood), I was especially concerned about feeling weak or light-headed during the cleanse. I was nervous before beginning the process but once I started juicing, I rarely felt hungry. Most of this is attributed to the richness of the cold-pressed juices (remember 7lbs of veggies are in one bottle). Whenever I noticed I was slowing down mentally or felt a headache coming on, I reminded myself to drink a juice. Even though I wasn't technically "eating," I was still consuming liquid calories--about 1,000 to be more exact.

I can't say for sure if I had more energy during the cleanse, but I can confidently say I did have better mental clarity. Two of the three days occured during the work week which also happened to be busier than usual. I was able to multi-task better and my mind felt sharper. During a typical day, I usually hit a mental slump around 3/4pm in the afternoon, most probably due to the digestion of my lunch, yet when I was juicing I powered through the afternoon. Feeding my body "pure" fuel, helped it run smoother during the day and once I reminded myself to stop thinking of the cleanse as deprivation, I felt great.

The Downsides

All the great things said, there were some negatives that are worth noting of the experience. First, carrying five 16oz. bottles of cold-pressed juice to work with me on the subway was rough--they were heavy!! I just told myself it was replacing my arm curl routines. Secondly, I felt considerably colder while I was on the cleanse. It had just started to get cold in the city, so there might have been some issues with the flux in heating in the office and my apartment building (in most NYC apartments heat is controlled by the landlord), but I think not having solids was affecting my warmth. This may have also affected my day's length. Although I was able to power through my afternoon slump while I was juicing, I did end my days earlier than usual. This may be due to the fact that I had less to look forward to in the evenings (no dinner or drinks with friends or cooking) but also I think my body was running out of the pure fuel it was getting used to.

Conclusion

After all is said and done, my 3 day juice cleanse was a great experience and is something I want to do again in the very near future. While spending $50/day on juice (the cost of BluePrintCleanse) is significantly higher than what my just-out-of-college-small budget allows, BPC often offers discounts and when you consider the experience as an investment in your health then the price is reasonable. BluePrintCleanse suggests a colonic before and after a cleanse. While I did not have a colonic before or after this cleanse, I absolutely want to try at least an at home colonic for my next cleanse.

Please note: Ms. C and Ms. S received free 3-day juice cleanses for our efforts in gathering a large group for a juice cleanse.