I tried a juice cleanse, and I (sorta) liked it

December 13, 2011

A few weeks ago, I tried the Total Cleanse for two days.

Yes, me. The one who adores food.

I was curious to see how it’d make me feel and to see if I had the resolve.

I chose the Energize version from Total Cleanse as the six juices a day offered the most variety (compared to their other two versions), so I knew it’d be easier for me as the idea of the same juice over and over makes me want to weep. Energize consists of one berry, one cashew milk, two lemonade-type drinks and two green drinks daily (you can find more info on each of the juices on the Total Cleanse site). Here’s a brief diary of my weekend juice cleanse:

Saturday

12:05PM: “I guess I should get up.” (I slept in as late as possible so I could have fewer hours in the day thinking obsessively about food).

12:06PM: Fed the cats. “At least you get to eat something, you lucky B@#*$.”

12:10PM: “OK, let’s give this scary green juice a try. Phew, it tastes OK! Mostly spinach and cucumber.”

12:33PM: “Time for some bacon. Oh. Wait. Right…”

12:45: “Some granola and yogurt would hit the spot. Oh, yes. Right. No food.”

2:14PM: “About time for juice #2, hooray!”

2:46PM: “How about some toast? Crapola. Juice cleanse.”

3:20PM: “You know what sucks? Not eating kinda sucks.”

And so on and so on. At about 6PM on Saturday, I broke down — I really missed the feeling of having something solid in my tummy — and I devoured a handful of almonds.

Other lessons I learned over my juice cleanse weekend:

1. Planning to do a juice cleanse on a weekend so you can stay home and taking it easy all day long is not ideal: Why not? You  have access to food that’s already paid for and readily available for you to eat. And having nothin’ to do just gives you more time to constantly think about the food you are not eating. I found  Sunday easier to deal with the cleanse when I left the house and saw some friends in the afternoon and went to a movie in the evening.
2. Walking and juice cleanses do not jive well. I walked several kilometres doing errands on both days. Walking when you’ve got that much liquid in you makes feel like you’ve gotta pee real fast and real often. Public washrooms (shudder) became musts.
3. Six of these juices a day will fill you up. When I really thought about it, I never felt absolutely ravenous. I did really miss the sensation and flavours of eating and having solid food, though. Oh, I also drink rather slowly so while I was supposed to also drink water and herbal tea as well during the cleanse, I just couldn’t do it — the idea of even more fluid sloshing around in my belly added to the fact I didn’t really have a moment to have more beverages (by the time I finished one juice, it was almost time for the next juice!) was too much for me to handle.
4. I think about food a helluva lot. So I surely eat a lot of things mindlessly. Gotta keep that in check.

Have you tried a juice cleanse? How did you like it?

Oh, I was also curious as to what a registered dietitian would have to say about this cleanse — check out what Nicole Yuen’s verdict is in my post on thekit.ca!

Filed under: Diet,Healthy Swellness

Tags: are juice cleanses healthy, detox, Diet, fast, juice cleanse, Nicole Yuen, registered dietitian, Total Cleanse