About 4 weeks ago I decided that after I got done with the Goofy Challenge I was going to do a cleanse. I do not think cleanse’s are something you should do all of the time, but the way my body was feeling after working some long hours and playing too much on the weekends I really felt like my body needed it.
I have been testing out juices at Juice Generation since I made the decision to do a cleanse. This way I knew what I was in for. My first green juice was called Hale to Kale with kale, apple, watermelon and lemon. At first sip I was hooked! Since then I’ve been spread my juicing wings out a bit to test out all sorts of flavors, I’ve also testing juicing for dinner and breakfast to see how my body would respond. To my surprise I always felt pretty good after a quick juicing meal.
So that brings us to today, the start of my three-day Cooler Cleanse.
The last few days I’ve felt like crap so I was worried that the cleanse would be a bad idea. But since I had already orders my juices for a Thursday start there was no going back. Fortunately I felt the best today that I have all week. Perhaps I just got more sleep last night so I’ll have to decide tomorrow it is a cause or an effect!
The Three Day Cooler Cleanse comes with 6 juices a day and they prefer that you drink them in order, trying to drink one every two hours with some herbal or green tea and lemon water in between. So far so good for me!
Drink 1) Sweet Green- Spinach, Kale, Parsley, Watercress, Apples. I started my morning with their Sweet Green at 9 AM, definitely a great and healthy way to start any day. Kale, spinach and apples is one of my favorite combinations, the addition of parsley and watercress didn’t do anything to harm the flavor!
Drink 2) Pineapple Ginger- Pineapple, Ginger. Somehow at 11AM I still wasn’t hungry! Perhaps I was well mentally prepared for day one to suck and since it didn’t I was overly shocked at how great I was feeling at this point. The taste of this drink is awesome, sort of like a pineapple ginger ale without the fizz. My only complaint is that the texture seemed pretty thick.
Drink 3) Essential Greens- Cucumber, Celery, Dandelion Greens, Watercress, Spinach, Parsley, Kale, Pear, Ginger. I really really thought I would like this drink but unfortunately the taste of the cucumber was very strong and that didn’t set well with my taste buds. I added some lemon juice to the drink and it make the taste much more drinkable. At 1PM when I drank this I was somehow still not hungry and feeling great.
Drink 4) Spicy Lemonade- Lemon, Lime, Cayenne Pepper, Agave. By 3PM I finally started to hear my tummy growl. Luckily this juice is great. It has a bit of a kick with the pepper but other than that it reminds me of being a kid drinking guilt free lemonade. Any shaky hungry feeling I had before went away about half way through the bottle. I milked this juice for about 50 minutes!
Drink 5) Essential Red- Carrot, Beet, Apple Lemon. Right at 5pm I begrudgingly cracked open this drink. Of all the drinks this was the one I was most dreading. I also wasn’t feeling very hungry and my stomach had started to bloat a bit. Not a good thing when your headed to the gym! I was actually pleasantly surprised at he texture which was not thick like I thought it would be and it also really didn’t taste that bad. But I could only finish a few sips before I put it back in the fridge to drink after my workout. Luckily after my session the drink sounded much more appealing. I think I’ll try drinking it with a straw tomorrow I believe it’s the smell that turns my taste buds off, oh and the fact that I HATE beats and raw carrots!.
Drink 5) Almond Nut Milk- Almonds, Vanilla Bean, Dates, Filtered Water. I have looked forward to sitting down and slowly enjoying this drink all day. In fact I’m enjoying it as I write this post. The texture is thick and smooth and you can really taste the sweetness of the dates and the vanilla bean. I love it! Definately worth not munching on solids all day! This drink is loaded with calories, 480 to be exact, so I wont be grabbing it on a whim unfortunately 
Over all I have to say that except for a few tummy grumbles around 3PM and a bit of headache before my workout at 6PM I felt great all day. Perhaps I was mentally prepared for it but I think tomorrow is going to go just as well…
Fingers Crossed!
How fun, those juices sound delicious! I love the concept of a cleanse, but with my training it’s something I’ve never fit in. I wonder if it’s the same juices for everyone or do they adjust the calorie content for people?
I train for a lot of things too so I had to wait until I had some downtime to do this. The total calorie count is around 1,150 so its not horribly low. I’m sure you would still benefit if you added in one real meal. So far I’m 36 hours into it and I’m really happy I did it!