Before and after every bucation – we cleanse.
This isn’t the first time we’ve done a cleanse. For Janine, her first cleanse was after returning from a long week on a “wives-only” cruise. (Janine: I lasted only three days on that cleanse out of five!) Cleansing before our trip, always leaves us feeling amazing at the end of our cleanse, and it’s a great way to jump start our vacation vibes. It’s fantastic what a few days of healthy eating or drinking can do to your body! Cleanses, in particular Juice Cleanses, hit the reset button on our bodies and give us the energy boost both mentally and physically we need to explore our upcoming destination. We do not cleanse specifically to lose weight and for us it’s not about a number on our scale, but it can help drop some of that excess bloat you may have built up over the holiday season.
Cleansing didn’t come easy to us. (Janine: As I said before, I struggled to make it only half way through my very first cleanse!) The hardest part of cleansing for us is eliminating certain items like carbohydrates, caffeine, or alcohol for those few days, but for some that may not be an issue at all. It takes a lot of dedication, willpower, and of course time.
Our juice cleanse provider of choice is Pressed Juicery (“PJ”). This west coast based Juicery is in a whole other league when it comes to the juice life. PJ’s excellent customer service, easy online ordering system, and delicious juices are the reason we keep coming back. Pressed Juicery’s most popular cleanses offer three prepackaged options to choose from. With stores located throughout The States (find a location near you) they provide enjoyable juice options in beginner, experienced, and advance cleansing stages as well as a 3 or 5 day option. Their Manhattan locations are a regular stop for us on our many trips to New York City. However, this time around, we chose an intensive cold pressed cleanse (No. 3) from Pressed Juicery via mail order. This cleanse in particular is our favorite style of juices. These thirty tasty juices are made fresh in their California locations and shipped overnight in refrigerated packaging to your home – all ready for your drinking pleasure. You receive one shipment for a 3 day cleanse and an additional shipment half way through your cleanse for a 5 day cleanse. This is done in order to keep the juice at its freshest and most delicious. The best part of this is there is absolutely no fuss! Once your juice arrives, you are ready to begin cleansing. For those few days while you are living the juice life you don’t have to plan, cook, or clean up after any messy meals. Your meals are also extremely mobile, and they can fit in your bag/brief case – after all, it’s just juice! Cleansing doesn’t get any easier than this.
The one thing we love most about Pressed Juicery’s cleanse packages is the optional supplement waters. In cleanse three, you have the option to add on the additional supplement waters (for an additional cost) which contain Chlorophyll as well as Aloe Vera. PJ’s Cleanse Waters are meant to raise your alkaline levels as well as assist in digestion throughout your cleanse. We feel these additional beverages really add to the overall cleanse experience.
Cost:
There are three different cleanse packages available:
- Cleanse 2 – Most Popular Cleanse: These juices are the easiest to drink since they combine greens, citruses, and roots, and we find ourselves craving these throughout the day while on this Cleanse.
- 1 Day $49.00 – Includes 6 juices with the option to purchase the 2 Cleanse Waters for an additional $7.00
- 3 Day $129.00 – includes 18 total juices with the option to purchase the 6 Cleanse Waters for an additional $21.00
- 5 Day $229.00 – includes 30 total juices with the option to purchase the 10 Cleanse Waters for an additional $35.00
- Cleanse 1 – This Cleanse is made for the beginner juicer: The best part is this Cleanse contains two (all other cleanses only include one) delicious Almond Milk juices that are the juice we look forward to most on each cleanse.
- 1 Day $49.00 – Includes 6 juices with the option to purchase the 2 Cleanse Waters for an additional $7.00
- 3 Day $129.00 – includes 18 total juices with the option to purchase the 6 Cleanse Waters for an additional $21.00
- 5 Day $229.00 – includes 30 total juices with the option to purchase the 10 Cleanse Waters for an additional $35.00
- Cleanse 3 – Intense & Low Calorie: This ones all about the green juices, which are our favorites!
- 1 Day $49.00 – Includes 6 juices with the option to purchase the 2 Cleanse Waters for an additional $7.00
- 3 Day $129.00 – includes 18 total juices with the option to purchase the 6 Cleanse Waters for an additional $21.00
- 5 Day $229.00 – includes 30 total juices with the option to purchase the 10 Cleanse Waters for an additional $35.00
We highly recommend Cleanse Waters but as we stated above, they are an additional cost to each cleanse
Day One – We started our cleanse on a Monday which is the first work day of our week. Monday was day one of our five day cleanse. We kept our activity level light and traded our normal cardio/weight training activities for forty minutes of walking our dogs in the evening. Unfortunately, the last quarter of our walk turned into a mild run thanks to the sudden downpour we encountered as we were heading home. However, we didn’t find ourselves exhausted or overly hungry – and to be honest, we really didn’t think about food so much. However, our theory on this (not based on any scientific principle or theory in any way) is that our bodies are currently living off of all the stored energy from the terrible (but favorite) things we consumed over the weekend such as pizza, pineapple mojitos, hamburgers, wine, hot dogs, and shrimp tacos – just to name a few. Basically, we started this journey with a full tank, and in result, we think day one of my cleanse was not much different than any other Monday.
Day Two – Tuesday was the second day of our five day cleanse. One day down, and there are only four more days to go! We had a great night’s sleep last night, and we both woke up this morning feeling energized and as if all of the water weight we gained during our senseless weekend of overconsumption had been eliminated. Things really began to feel a bit more loose, and we know this sounds strange to say, but our fingers even felt thinner! We’re also starting to feel a bit more focused as opposed to our normal state of mind after a busy weekend (Jared: Normally, I feel as if I’m unable to catch up on sleep). The best part is that we did not find ourselves waking up and thinking about food – at all. We know things should be going the other direction, however we chose to increase our activity level a bit today. We took a mid-afternoon walk with our dogs for about fifteen minutes as well as our regular forty minute walk again in the evening. Overall, we feel accomplished on Day 2!
Day Three – Today our calendar was full, so juicing made it easy for us to travel and meet all of our deadlines without having to worry about meal prep. This is one of the major benefits of juicing in our opinion. Since it was such a busy day, we were unable to take a lunchtime walk, and therefore, our activity level wasn’t as high as the previous day. However, we did manage to fit in our normal forty minute evening walk. At this point, we both agree that we can feel our physical energy level diminishing, especially after we climbed a number of hills on our evening walk that normally are easy going for us. After our walk, we were off to the dentist for a late night teeth cleaning, which also helped distract us from any potential food cravings. Three down – two to go!
Day Four – In the past, we have always found day four to be the toughest. Personally, it’s all in our my heads – we know we’re so close to the end of our five day cleanse that all temptations now become even more enticing. Suddenly, even the food that normally repulses us has become appealing. Today was the first day we woke up to a “grumbly in our tumbly.” We weren’t actually hungry, but we could tell our bodies (mainly our stomachs) were not happy with us. However, we had an incredible night’s sleep, and we agreed that we woke up this morning feeling more energized. (Janine: I also woke up today and notice how great both my skin and hair have been cooperating this week. I tend to have very dry and sensitive skin after a weekend in the sun, but this week my skin seemed to bounce back noticeably from all of the weekend rays. I’m not sure if any of this has to do with juicing or not, but I’ll take it!) In the afternoon we were able to take a short fifteen minute walk with our dogs. However, due to our busy personal and professional schedule today, we were unable to do anything more exercise-wise. After our afternoon walk, we felt ourselves crash a bit between Juice 3 and Juice 4. This of course could be due to the excessive humidity we were experiencing in our area today. Both we and our dogs felt exhausted after just fifteen short minutes of walking on the hot asphalt. After we consumed Juice 4, our energy level perked back up to its normal levels. This was the first and only time we felt like we were running out of steam during our entire five day cleanse.
Day Five – Last day! This morning we woke up to our surprise not hungry at all. We’re not starving, we’re not miserable, but we do notice that around lunch time that we are beginning to miss solid food. However, there is a light at the end of our juice tunnel, and we only have a few more hours to go! We took our normal afternoon walk for fifteen minutes, and then it was back to work for a few more hours of delicious juicing. After we finished our last juice of our five day cleanse, we were ready to celebrate.
We made it! We can breathe a full sigh of relief now that our cleanse is over, and we both feel great having completed five full days of cleansing. Vacation here we come!
Tips:
- There’s safety in numbers. Cleansing solo can be a struggle, so find a cleanse partner and motivate each other to get through your juices together.
- Take it easy on your stomach in the days leading up to your cleanse as well as the days following. Don’t binge on massive amounts of food, caffeine, or alcohol prior to cleansing.
- Don’t overwork yourself with crazy cardio during your cleanse. Stick to lighter workouts like yoga or just take walks.
- Stay hydrated. It should be noted that on both day one and day two we have consumed well over 80 ounces of water in addition to our juices.
- Avoid the temptation to celebrate the end of your cleanse with a massive meal.
- Make your own – Instead of mail ordering our juices directly from the source, as we have many times before, we have also opted to press each of my juices ourselves by using our favorite recipe book for cleansing, “Juice” by the fabulous founders of Pressed Juicery. This book of recipes is fantastic, and from the look of its spine anyone can see it certainly gets a workout at our house! The reason we prefer to sometimes press our own juices is because we can control the ingredients. Even though these recipes are #ToDieFor, we may add a little extra ginger root, celery, or lemon to a few of these recipes during the pressing process.
When to cleanse:
Janine: I like to do the majority of my cleansing, although it can be a challenge, during the work week. The daily responsibilities of my 9-5 job create a welcome distraction for my body’s normal cravings for food every hour on the hour, but at times I also find myself forgetting to consume one or two of my juices due to these distractions.
Jared: I prefer to leave cleansing for the weekends or holidays since, if you didn’t already know – Juicing requires a LOT of elimination, and my 9-5 doesn’t always offer access to a restroom on a regular basis.
If you plan to cleanse, pick a time period that would support you most in your cleanse. If you’re in the middle of training for a marathon, you may want to schedule your cleanse post race so it doesn’t interfere with your training. You want to select a time period that will offer the best conditions to allow you to complete your cleanse successfully without any distractions. We’ve found that cleansing over the weekends is generally not a good idea since your cleanse may get in the way of your packed social calendar. When it comes to the weekends, we know we may be tempted to surrender to all of the tasty treats offered at a social event or a date night outing. Also, cleansing over the holidays is not recommended.
After you decide when to start your cleanse, you must do the research to decide what type of cleanse is best for you. We’ve tried food cleanses (Thank you to both Men & Women’s Health and Runners World Magazines!) where we are only eating items from a pre-approved list such as edamame and fish. We’ve also tried holistic cleanses which involve herbal laxatives. However, our preferred cleanse by far is a juice cleanse. With a juice cleanse, especially a mail order one, all of your ingredients are included. Food cleanses tend to require specific ingredients that may be difficult for some to find and can also be quite expensive.
With a new year approaching (and New Year’s resolutions to be made) we thought we’d share one of our favorite ways to detox before and after each of our adventures! Are you thinking about trying a juice cleanse? Have you tried a juice cleanse in the past? If so, we’d love to hear about your experiences, both positive and negative!
If you are new to cleansing and interested in giving it a try, please remember that we are experienced cleansers. The particular cleanse we chose is for a very intensive cleanse program, and I would not recommend this intensive of a cleanse for first timers. There are a variety of fun and beneficial ways to cleanse. To learn more about Pressed Juicery, please check out their website and sign up for their e-mail list to get 10% off your first order.
The comments, opinions, and views set forth on this site are the reflected personal positions of the site’s creators. This site is not an affiliate of Pressed Juicery. The comments, opinions, and views set forth within this site are not the official positions of Pressed Juicery, and they do not reflect the Company’s position.