Juice cleansing for beginners

Although I have been interested in health topics for a long time, it wasn’t until I went vegan that I slowly started practicing eating well more consistently. Going vegan led me to become an incessant ingredient-checker. There’s a joke I’ve seen that says vegans have super skills when it comes to finding any animal product or by-product listed on the side of packaged or prepared food items.

Well, getting into that habit has made me a lot more conscious of the food I eat – whether or not it’s vegan. I’m not a total health nut, but I’m a lot more into salads and raw food now than I ever thought I would be. I’m also a lot less into chocolate. I still like my sweets, but I prefer one bakery item made with homemade ingredients over a store-bought package of cookies made with preservatives and chemicals – and, frankly, I think it tastes better.

I try to eat more fruits and veggies now and stick to heartier carbs like ancient grains bread, brown rice pasta, quinoa and freekeh. Unfortunately, it’s still easy to get side-tracked sometimes and feel a little gluttonous, weighed down, tired and blasé. But that’s why I finally decided to try juice cleansing. (It also helps that I have a wedding to go to in a couple weeks – and an accompanying cocktail dress to fit into.)

Juice cleansing is said to help detoxify your body, boost your metabolism, and improve your immune system. So, after much deliberation, I emailed Yamchops to order my one-day cleanse, which was the least expensive and most realistic option for me. With this particular company, customers can cleanse for up to seven days. More power to those people, but I don’t know if I would have it in me!

I started off well. I couldn't pick up the bottles until noon but purposely only had water until then. So I excitedly drank my first one as I headed out the door. I noticed ‘watermelon’ on the bottle and the colour matched that description, but then I tasted a surprising kick mixed into the fruity flavour. When I looked back at the bottle, I read ‘jalapeno’. It was a weird, but kind of wonderful, combination.

At first, it was exciting not to worry about preparing any meals, having healthy drinks ready to go, and knowing I was doing something great for my body. By around 2 pm, however, I got pretty hungry and ate my one permitted healthy meal for the day (a kale Caesar salad with mock chicken, coconut bacon and small sundried tomatoes from Yamchops). I felt a bit hungry in the evening too, but the juice helped satisfy me. Maybe not my mind, but my body.

Since I started the cleanse relatively late in the day, my last drink was around 10 pm. I consistently drank a lot of water too. Once I got on a roll, all that liquid led me to hit the washroom a lot. I also heard my stomach rumbling from digestion – and probable shock – intermittently. The one physical surprise was, well, if you don’t know what the effects of beets are, maybe you should just Google it for yourself. I also woke up in the middle of the night after my cleanse with some involuntary body twitches, but I'm not sure if this was related.

The juices themselves were really good. Picante Punch was the watermelon and jalapeno drink, rounded out with red grape and lime. Second Base was comprised of cucumber, green apple, kale, parsley, spinach, lemon and ginger. Number three was BPM, including similar ingredients, but the beets gave it a strong purple colour. Tropic Tonic had pineapple, spinach, cucumber, kale and lemon, while Pina Vida had pineapple, apple, turmeric, lemon, ginger and cayenne. My final drink was Beta Rush, made with orange, carrot, turmeric, lemon and lime.

Despite there being spices and/or ginger, they all tasted well-rounded and refreshing, a lot more fruity than spicy. Yamchops will also accommodate any allergies or dislikes, customizing the drinks to substitute ingredients you wish to omit. I personally didn’t have any, so I assume my roundup was pretty standard. The bottles are also only 500 mL so it wasn’t hard to get through them. I drank one every couple of hours, and had the second with my lunchtime salad.

When I weighed myself the next day, I was down about one pound. If you keep going, I’m sure there is even more gratification. But I’m happy I did the shortened version for my first attempt. A juice cleanse is not only supposed to help you physically, but also adjust your conception of food and eating. Knowing you committed to doing something healthy and good for yourself – and spent the money doing it – should be motivation to keep going, eat more salads, less junk food, drink more water, and generally toss out some bad habits.

As much as I love my cupcakes, donuts, chips and bread, overdosing on any of them immediately changes my opinion. Many people say “life is short” to excuse their bad eating, but life is also too short to feel dumpy all the time. Similarly, I think many vegans would agree we should extend the “life is short” expression to animals and not support taking theirs away to satisfy 15 minutes of ours. 

Luckily, juice cleansing is cruelty-free :)

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