This is the third in a multi-part series. Click to read part one and part two!
Throughout the cleanse, I noticed something Ashley* had mentioned to me about her own juice cleanse experience.
“I didn’t ever really feel ‘satisfied,’ after a meal,” she said. I didn’t, either; even the thickness of Juice #1 was not as satisfying as a full breakfast would have been.
Of course, Ashley also said she was never hungry during her juice cleanse, but by 4:12 PM, I definitely was. I was tired from a long day at work, and I could have used a caffeine or sugar kick. I guess this is how juice cleansing can break bad habits, I wrote in my journal.
Around 4 PM, I also noticed I was having weird stomach aches; not hunger pangs, but a slight nausea. I felt completely saturated from all of the liquid I had consumed, and I was still due to open my third bottle.
Juice #3 made me want to quit the whole process (wow, I had lasted a whole 16 hours). But even after I realized how spicy the lemon-cayenne-agave juice was, I still managed to choke it down.
Every sip burned, and as I swallowed, I had to resist the urge to cough. One of my friends later joked that it would be a great cocktail mixer, because the heat was so strong that it would have completely cut the taste of any alcohol.
In my journal, I wrote: Juice #3 also smells slightly rotten..that’s a bad sign. Omg it is spicy.Who knew having cayenne in it would actually mean that it’s spicy? [Note: probably everyone].
Yikes. This is not going down easy.
At the desk next to mine, my co-worker James laughed at the faces I made every time I had to drink more juice.
Juice #3
I got home from work at 5:59 PM and immediately wanted to turn around and run back out the door. With a quarter bottle of the spice juice from hell left, I walked in to find my roommate cooking a delicious-smelling chicken dinner.
I scurried into my room and shut the door, trying not to think about how hungry I was. Maybe if I chug it, I wrote, I’ll be less hungry?
I downed the rest of Juice #3, my eyes nearly watering. I felt slightly less hungry, but that could have been more of a psychological effect than anything else.
At 7:18 PM, I just wanted to give up. I was so, so hungry. Honestly, I was probably the wrong person to do a juice cleanse, as I have very little self discipline. But having survived Juice #3, I knew that Juice #4 could only be an improvement, so I resisted the urge to quit.
At 8:04 PM, I determinedly took my first gulp of Juice #4, cashew-vanilla-cinnamon-agave. Like I mentioned earlier, this was meant to be the protein drink, a heavier meal-like juice to finish out the day.
It was heavenly. A non-dairy almond milk, it was creamy and sweet, almost like a milkshake, but with natural flavors. I felt like I had been dragging myself through a desert and had just stumbled on an oasis of cold, fresh water. Seriously, it tasted that good.
Journal entry for Juice #4: DELICIOUS. Yum.
Juice #4, finishing strong
I drank it slowly and finished it around 10 PM, finally content. I was relieved to have finally finished the juice cleanse, and resisted the urge to stay up past midnight just so I could have a snack when the day was technically over.
Mission accomplished.
The Aftermath
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I did not experience any major results from my poor woman’s mini-cleanse. Although I did not complete a full-length juice cleanse with the full BPC program of juice, I still feel that I got a taste of what a juice cleansing experience can be like.
For parts of the day, I was hungry, mad, and tired. Maybe that can be attributed, at least in part, to the fact that I also worked from 8 AM to 5:30 PM. But even one day of juice cleansing was difficult for me.
However, there were also moments where I felt good. I wondered, during the day, if all of my liquid consumption could actually be just flushing toxins out of my system. And I did feel better both physically and mentally, knowing that what I was putting into my body was pure, fresh, and not processed.
I also noticed today that my appetite has shrunk slightly. I ate lightly, just hummus and grapes, and a salad for dinner, and I felt perfectly full. Maybe by tomorrow I will be back to my normal diet of coffee for breakfast and two complete – and not always healthy – meals; but then again, maybe I won’t be.
Although I probably will not be juice cleansing again, I did have one positive takeaway from the experience. Detoxing my diet made me realize that I do have the ability to eat better and make a healthier lifestyle change. In the future, I want to try to cut out sugary and fatty foods, and replace them with all-natural fruits and vegetables.
After surviving the cayenne nightmare of Juice #3, eating healthy snacks instead of chips should be easy.