The Blueprint Juice Cleanse

After watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead last year, Dennis and I decided that doing a juice fast would be a good thing.  We’ve done whole foods detoxes many times, and we even did a 30 day raw challenge, but we’ve never done a juice fast, and it seemed time to give one a try.

Dennis bought us a very nice Hurom juicer that we placed in a spot of prominence on our kitchen counter and then promptly ignored for the next several months. We do make fresh juices here and there, but that darned thing is such a pain to clean, that we just don’t use it on a daily basis. 

So last weekend on a whim I decided that I wanted to give one of those done-for-you juice cleanses a try. I looked around a bit online and decided on the BluePrint Cleanse. There was a bit of a buzz about BluePrint online about year ago or so, and I’ve seen the juices at Whole Foods. Actually, the main reason I choose BluePrint was because Whole Foods carries them. Instead of ordering the juices online and waiting for delivery, I could just drive up the street and start right away. I was able to save money too. Ordering from BluePrint online would amount to $69 a day plus shipping, but buying them at the store was $54 a day, and I didn’t even spend anything on gas because Whole Foods is half a mile from my house. I figured I’d probably spend close to $50 a day in produce if I were to make my own juice, and I’d gladly pay not to have to clean my juicer 5 or 6 times a day. I know that when you order BluePrint online, you get daily emails supporting you through the process, but I didn’t mind forgoing them for convenience and a little savings. 

I began my cleanse on Sunday, after eating out on Friday and Saturday. The day starts with a green juice that’s made with kale, apple, ginger romaine, spinach, cucumber, celery, parsley and lemon. Green juice is a bit of an acquired taste, but I enjoy it. After that there’s a pineapple, apple mint juice for a snack, and another green juice for lunch. The mid-afternoon juice is a spicy lemonade, followed by a beet, apple, carrot juice for dinner. The day ends with a vanilla cashew milk. The cashew milk is amazing, and I found myself looking forward to it each day.

I’ve heard people say that during juice cleanses they’ve had tons of energy, felt great and were never hungry. I wish I could say I was one of those people, but I’m not. I was hungry and weak through all if it. I know all about detoxing and how you sometimes feel worse before you feel better, but this wasn’t the case with me. I needed food! Victoria Moran explained to me that people who aren’t hungry in the morning and don’t really need breakfast usually do best on a juice fasts and often decide to keep going. People who need to eat when they wake up usually have a difficult time with juice fasts, and they should probably just stay in bed during them and have someone take care of them. It’s something she learned from reading Gabriel Cousens, and I forget what the phrase she used to describe it was. I tried looking it up online but I can’t find what she was referring to.

So I ended up supplementing my juices. On Sunday and Monday I had chocolate cherry smoothies and on Tuesday I broke down and had a salad for lunch. At first I was disappointed in myself for that salad, but if I didn’t have it I probably would have passed out. (And it’s not like I ate a box of chocolate chip cookies.) If I could have laid in bed all day, I would have, but it wasn’t an option as I had work to do.

On Wednesday morning after the fast, I had another green juice and then followed it up with a giant smoothie. I didn’t eat solid food until lunchtime, when I had some soup, a salad and a few raw crackers. My abdomen gurgled and growled a lot all afternoon, but I felt fine. I wasn’t very hungry throughout the day and didn’t too much for dinner. Since spring is almost upon us, my goal is to stick with juices and smoothies in the mornings and then have salads for lunch, making the bulk of what I eat during the day raw.

I would definitely do a juice fast again, but I would probably add a little solid, raw food in the form of a mid-day salad or some fruit in order to keep myself going. 

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