Eat*Drink*Cleveland: cleanse

EatDrinkCleanse: Day Three

Day Three of Anna in the Raw's Juice Cleanse

So how did Day Three go? I was surprised that it was already the last day of the cleanse. I felt like I was getting into a groove and felt a little sad it was my last day. Because I was used to the routine, I stuck to our schedule almost perfectly. I thought about food a lot today. Popcorn and ice cream sandwiches were on my brain. I ate 9 raw almonds throughout the day.

I had a small salad for dinner: mixed baby greens, sweet onion, red pepper, carrots, cucumber, avocado, blueberries, thawed edamame, flax seed and chia seeds with a splash of balsamic vinegar and some black pepper. Today I was ready to chow down and I really think it was just my brain because my stomach wasn't telling me that it was hungry. The desire to be chewing something wasn't there at any other point of the day. I think that this is normally the time of day I'm starving and my brain still was telling me to eat.

My fiance went to his brother's house to help him with some construction work and he really regretted it. Even though he drank extra water and ate a banana, he felt horrible when he came home. They were outside for hours and it was hot and humid and I think it was just too much. So for you folks who've asked about exercising while cleansing, I say take it easy! I was able to take the dog for a very brisk walk with no problems. If you normally run, maybe do a short jog or walk instead.

So how does it taste?

Still loving the juice! I thought I would get sick of them by now. I always liked the #1+#3 and today enjoyed them even more. #2 is still my favorite. It's so refreshing! I feel like I get an energy rush after drinking it. And #4 tasted especially good to me today too.

I had a huge problem with my juice #6 because it was spoiled. I took my first drink and thought maybe it tasted weird because I was tired of the juice. I took another big gulp thinking I would just power through it. Here's a tip: if your juice tastes different, don't drink it! After drinking a little less than 1/2 the bottle, I felt horrible! I talked to Anna and we couldn't figure out how one juice was bad when they were all the same batch, were stored properly, etc. I finally remembered last night that the day I got the juice from Anna, we had opened one of the cashew milks for me to taste because I had hated the previous cashew milk. That night I took a sip, declared the milk to be very drinkable and thought nothing else about it. I thought that opened juice had already been consumed on Day One but obviously it hadn't. So the moral of this story is: don't open the juices and then let them sit around for days.

Here's the list of juices:
#1 and #3 are the same and they contain organic romaine lettuce, organic apple, organic celery, organic cucumber, organic spinach, organic kale, organic parsley, and organic lemon.

#2 is organic pineapple, organic apple, organic mint, and filtered water.

#4 is like the lemonade cleanse that was all the rage in recent years and contains filtered water, organic lemon, organic agave nectar, and cayenne extract (Mexican habanero, jalapeño, African, Chinese, Thai, Korean, and Japanese peppers in distilled water).

#5 is the bright red beet juice. It contains organic apple, organic carrot, organic beet, filtered water, organic lemon, and organic ginger.

#6 is cashew milk and contains organic cashews, filtered water, organic agave nectar, organic cinnamon, organic vanilla extract, and organic vanilla specks.

So how did we feel? I felt really good all day. My fiance said that he had a headache again. I think part of his problem might be caffeine withdrawl. He drank some green tea and it helped. I drink a cup of rooibos tea and added more water throughout the day.

So what about going to the bathroom? We still are going #1 and there was perfectly normal #2.

Pros: Wasn't hungry
No cooking or washing dishes
No weird bathroom issues
Learned to distinguish hunger from wanting to eat
Tasted great

Cons: Expensive!

$65 a day isn't realistic for most people or long term. We spend a ton of money on food and it's WAY more than our normal expenses. It's not that Anna's prices are out of line - she's actually the same or cheaper than many other similar programs. All her ingredients are organic and there's something like 20 lbs of ingredients for each day of the cleanse so I understand why it's expensive. For two people for 3 days it's $390. That's more than most people's monthly food budget.

You have to bring your juice with you everywhere and it has to stay cold
It's hard to be around other people eating
No caffeine or alcohol: ok for 3 days, long term would be another story!
Takes up a lot of space in the fridge - plan ahead!

Would we do it again? YES! I actually wish I was doing it longer. I love not feeling hungry - for someone who is ALWAYS hungry this was mind blowing! The juices were delicious and it was actually nice not having to worry about cooking. Today I woke up looking forward to my juices and was sad that there were none in the fridge. I'm kind of at a loss for what to eat! Instead of wanting to stuff myself with the foods I wasn't allowed to eat during the three days, I'm craving my juices. My fiance made coffee and I haven't even had a cup yet!

If you are like we were, and want to try a cleanse but are afraid, don't be! If a person like me who is food obsessed blogger can do it, I know you can too. My biggest concerns were that I would be starving and that I would have bathroom issues - and both problems never happened. If money wasn't an issue, I'd be doing it for another week - that's how much I love it!

And by the way, I wasn't paid to write these posts or compensated in any way. I know Anna but that in no way influenced what I'm sharing with you. I knew how apprehensive I was when I was thinking about doing this and figured there's a lot of other people out there feeling the same way. We're already trying to figure out when we can schedule another one!

For the rest of the story: See Day One here.
See Day Two here.