Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand April / May 2015 - The Health & Wellness Issue | Page 17
Beauty
Juicy Secrets
Diary of a 6-Day
Juice Cleanse
One writer’s record of a pure juice diet—no food,
no coffee. No wine. Yes, she lived to tell the tale.
By Shannon Frandsen
Photos: Shutterstock
WHY GO ON A
JUICE CLEANSE?
Juicing is a hot trend at the moment,
and it’s something many of my friends
have tried or are planning to try. (Yours,
too, I bet.) I am not the typical candidate
for something like this—I wouldn’t call
myself a health nut by any stretch
of the imagination—but here
are my reasons for accepting a sixday juice cleanse challenge.
Looks My goal for a juice cleanse
was not weight loss as it is for many.
I have a harder time keeping weight
on than off. I wouldn’t mind losing
the acne I sometimes get on my face,
though, and I thought the burst of nutrients from juicing might put blemishes
at bay.
Energy I was curious to see if juicing
would help me wake up feeling energized and ready to take on the day, rather than cranky and lethargic and ready
to go back to bed.
Bad Habits Over the years, I’ve picked
up a few bad habits. These might sound
familiar:
Coffee As a mom of two, I need
a coffee in the morning or I cannot function. I don’t understand
how you can be a mother and not be dependent on caffeine.
Lack of Veggies Implementing
the full rainbow of fruits and veggies
in my daily meals is not exactly my forte.
I was likely to be low in certain vitamins
and nutrients. Maybe a cleanse would
get me back on track!
Wine And finally, there is my nightly glass of wine habit, which came
about since moving to Bangkok. While
I don’t have a glass every single night,
it’s more often than not, and all this does
is make my sleep restless.
My hope was that I would be forced
to avoid my bad habits for a long
enough time to weaken their
stronghold, and along with it might
come clearer skin and higher energy
levels. How would this work, exactly?
Good question.
For six days, I would drink the same
six juices—carefully concocted blends
of various fruits and vegetables—
delivered to my door by Lifestyle Juicery.
It’s a simple enough concept: when
hungry, drink a juice. They even number
them from 1–6 to help you decide
when to drink each bottle. No other
food or beverages allowed, aside from
water. I recorded how I felt on each
day of the juice cleanse in the following
diary.
Day 1
THE HUNGER GAMES
I was slightly overconfident when
I embarked on my juice cleanse. Using
the rationale that I sometimes forget
meals, I figured a juice fast couldn’t possibly be difficult for a light eater like
myself. Then I woke up on the morning of Day 1, and all I could think
of was hot buttered toast and my French
press coffee. The reality was I’d be downing Juice #1, a fruits and vegetables
blend that tastes mostly like carrots with
hints of pineapple. It is a pleasant tasting
juice, but I wasn’t used to cold drinks
in the morning. I missed a hot cup of coffee or tea but went on with my day.
At lunchtime, a sudden massive
craving for a grilled cheese sandwich
came rolling in. The imagined smell
and taste of crunchy, salty, gooey,
wonderful grilled cheese was driving
me crazy! So I reached for Juice #3—
mostly a beetroot juice—and tried
to focus on things aside from grilled
cheese deliciousness. What wound
up happening was a two-hour nap.
Throughout Day 1, I cycled through
periods of hunger, mild nausea,
sleepiness, and intense cravings
for lasagna. Once I made it to the last
drink based on almond and cashew
milk, the hunger pains had mostly
dissipated. By the way, am I a cheese
addict?
Day 2
THE SWAP
Day 2 was definitely better than Day 1.
I didn’t wake up starving. I hopped
out of bed in a sprightlier manner than
normal, and I stepped on the scale
to see I had lost .4 kg in one day. Weight
loss wasn’t a priority for me, but that
was impressive.
The roadblock of the day was Juice
#2. This is one of the two green
juices and probably the healthiest
one in the set of six. I just
couldn’t tolerate the aftertaste —
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