Juice in, Juice out

What is juicing?

juice By extracting juices from vegetables and fruits in their raw form, juicing can give the body quick access to all their nutritional benefits. This process is best for people who don’t already add fruits and vegetables to their diet so this might be one of the reasons why I might not have been an ideal candidate. However, I did promise to write about this and this is my experience.

Why I did it?

I’m anti-fad of any diet—except Paleo. That diet definitely works for me. However, the Paleo that I get on board with is actually foods that are close to what I grew up on in the Caribbean. I have strong opinions that foods are best with your genes that are unprocessed and close to clean as possible. Also, I believe in sustainable dieting where you can eat without going out of your way to change your lifestyle—unless you have allergies. So, I did this to be proven wrong, or right, or see if I learned something new. Read on…

Which did I choose?

I chose the blueprint cleanse. I was told that it was the best one and I had been eyeing it for awhile. Daniil (teammate on the Dashing Whippets Running Team) mentioned this particular cleanse to me and he told me how amazing he felt. I’m always up to trying something new that won’t hurt me physically so I did some research instead of completely shutting it off. The cost would have been $260 (I paid a super discounted price) for 4 days. So if you get this at full price, you’d be paying ~$10.84 per bottle or ~$65 a day on meals.

There are 3 types of cleanses on Blue Print. There’s Renovation, Foundation and Excavation. Renovation was too simple, I didn’t consider myself a middle-of-the-road eater like Foundation and Excavation seemed like it would be worth the experience. I definitely fit the description of it which was: “when I eat wisely, I don’t feel like I’m missing out.”

Excavation, the cleanest way of juicing, also promised to “take you much deeper, dig down to a cellular level, and leaves you feeling brand spanking new.” Who doesn’t want to feel that way?

There’s little fruit, infact none with a high glycemic index, and only cayenne as spices—unless you want to count ginger. So essentially the least amount of anything.

There’s Green Juice (110 cal) x4, Spicy Lemonade (120 cal) x1 and Cashew Milk (300 cal)x1—a total of 6 bottles. So I was pretty much on ~860 calories for 4 days which was a scary thought when I calculated it.

How it went?

feet

The box was delivered to my office in Chelsea. I didn’t think about how I would take it home unfortunately so I had to carry the 3 days worth (the last day is delivered during the 3rd day) with me on the train and walk another 1/2 mile to my door. So if you try this, please be aware that you might have to carry bottles of liquid, which can be heavier than you assume. I think it could have been about 25lbs which do get heavy if you’re carrying other bags.

Unboxing

The 18 bottles were in a box with ice packs which kept them really cold until I was able to take them home. The juices were cold press and fresh so it made sense that they gave you 3 days at a time.

Excavation day 0

Prior to Excavation day 1, I’ve been training for an ultramarathon. I do want to lose about 20 lbs total before my 50-mile ultramarathon. The weight is crucial because I don’t want to carry this weight for 50 miles. I altered my food and exercise regiment before this cleanse so the weightloss from this definitely didn’t come from just the cleanse (please make note of that).

Excavation day 1 (Saturday)

I started this process on Superbowl XLIX weekend because I love torture apparently, you know, much like how I started the 30-day-challenge of complete sobriety during the month of July.

What I regret was not taking my measurements on day 1. However I weighed myself as soon as I woke up to see if there were any changes (I certainly anticipated weight loss from the lack of calories and deficit). I made a plan of how I’d schedule the juices when I woke up and figured that it was practical to have the juice not too early since I’m usually up for very long. They gauged at least an hour between juices so I decided to push it to 2 hours apart so I could be in bed by 11pm-ish (I have terrible sleeping habits). I had the first juice at 11:10am and set my alarm for 1:10, 3:10, 5:10, 7:10, 9:10pm (those 6 bottles needed to last). It mentioned I was allowed coffee (although you really shouldn’t) so I figured why not. I’m not there to remove all habits. So, I had coffee every morning of this cleanse—probably would have been best without. I also had a substantial amount of water (I drink at least 1/2 my weight in ounces always).

I had concerns on my mind of how this would go because many people who have tried it, or hadn’t tried it, had their opinions so here’s where I address them.

Headaches: You might get a headache if you ever change any eating habits. I didn’t. Maybe it’s because I eat close that I can to healthy with some cheats here and there. My body also let’s me know when I need something (Can you see why clean eating is important?).

I did feel dips in energy which actually correlated to the time that I had to take the other juice. So, once I started feeling hungry my alarm was actually about to go off in the next few minutes. When I felt like I should be eating, I made some decaf tea and that made me feel good.

Cravings: I had none but it’s because I’m a weird foraging dieter. I grew up poor, and by habit, I eat what’s available to me so food and taste were always less important than giving me energy to do what I needed to do. I’m uncertain whether this is behavior-base. However, my friends kept posting some delicious looking food and I really wished I could have sampled them—Oh well, next time.

That evening I took the last two juices with me when I went to see a play and had them on scheduled with decaf tea in between.

I did urinate a great deal from drinking mostly juices, water and tea. I did find it odd that I didn’t defecate because I usually do a number 2 on schedule daily (sorry for the TMI but I did say I’d be honest in this review).

Excavation day 2 (Sunday)

Super Bowl 49 was spent indoors by myself with my juices. I actually woke up, drank coffee and ran 2 miles on empty. I ran because of being antsy. They actually advise not to workout but I figured 2 miles would be fine if I didn’t exert myself. I’m also pretty good at checking my energy levels.

While running I actually sustained a nice 8’40 pace with what the snow allowed me to and I took it home once I felt a little dip in energy (sort of like how you feel when you are close to completing a race). I decided 20 minutes of running was appropriate for the day so I stretched and had my juice. I also hadn’t wanted to run much more because protein is necessary for muscle repair and I didn’t want to injure myself.

I set the same schedule, like the previous day, all until evening and felt pretty much the same. I did notice I had 2 cups of coffee instead of just 1. I didn’t care.

Excavation day 3 (Monday)

I was so curious about how this would affect me at work. So I brought all 6 bottles with me. I didn’t become grumpy so that was a very good sign! The last day’s bottles were supposed to be delivered that day and the cut off was at 5:30PM so I was very surprised that I got it at 5:28PM (Believe me I was sort of excited about getting out of it a day early—definitely took discipline to get through this).

Excavation day 4 (Tuesday)

I weighed myself and realized that I dropped 12 lbs. It was definitely 12 lbs from all the steps that I took. However by this day I also realized that I hadn’t done a number 2 in 4 days! Then I read something super important: I should have taken a laxative. They suggested other things like colon cleanses but since I’ve never ever done one, again sorry for the tmi, I wasn’t going to start. Laxative was the proper alternative. If you really need to know: not much comes out.

Transitioning day 1 (Wednesday)

You pretty much feel like an empty vessel by this day and although you might think you could just start eating regularly again, you can’t. I had fruit and salad. The salad couldn’t include nuts. By this day, I had been craving nuts because I usually have almonds at my desk as a snack. I also met with a past coworker for dinner and although I was worried about the restrictions with my diet, I realized that I could have vegan options at the restaurant and be fine. The taste of the food was incredible! I had a salad, soup and vegan chocolate mousse.

Transitioning day 2 (Thursday)

I ran 6 miles in the morning—6 miles of freedom! I also included nuts! I was super excited about that. Then at work, since the client came in we were asked to come for drinks at the bar. There was no way that I was going to sabotage my process, so I had cranberry (fruit right?) and seltzer water. I have no idea about the authenticity of the juice and whether there were added sugars but I figured that’d be the best option. My energy levels were fine and I didn’t crave drinking.

Transitioning day 3 (Friday)

That day I had jury duty so I kept things light (had fruit and coffee to start the day). Then I settled on choosing sofritas for my lunch from Chipotle. I liked it so much that I decided to also have it for dinner. I called it carb loading. I had a scoop of ice-cream for dessert.

Transitioning day 4 (Saturday)

I woke up, had generation ucan as fuel (110 calories) ran 18 miles adding another serving (110 calories) then came back to have a bean meal I made with additional veggies and I added a sausage. Since I had torched over 2000 calories that day my body was craving calories so I had lots of water. I allowed myself hot chocolate with marshmallow as a cheat.

Transitioning day 5 (Sunday)

I weighed myself. I’m pretty much down about 10lbs (could be adding the 2 lbs from water weight). I have no idea how the upcoming weeks are going to be. I’ve heard that many people yoyo when they go on these. From the sketch above, that’s basically how I lost the weight. The key area was above my stomach (kind of wished it was my stomach haha). I had 1 mimosa at brunch and it’s funny how I didn’t crave having more. I also had smoked salmon instead of any real meat.

What I concluded?

If you’re going to do juicing please do it the right way. I strongly believe that combining bad practices along with juicing doesn’t allow your body great benefits.
This cleanse could help you jump-start your clean eating habits and 4 rigorous days probably isn’t necessary. By habit, when I stick strictly to Paleo, I get leaner in a manageable process but this does it very quickly. It’s worth it if you allow the time to slowly incorporate things back into your diet (I didn’t know I would need an extra 5 days to transition off). So I guess it would be perfect if you want to fit a dress for an event.
Personally it wasn’t worth it for me to lose out on training to try this but I’m happy that I did to form an opinion.
It’s costly and an alternative could be used for the average user (i. e. eat clean, eat clean, eat clean). The juices also aren’t very difficult to make, so I don’t see why making a few of these to replace a meal couldn’t be an option.
Excavation was certainly perfect for me since I do fit the target: “I eat what I want, when I want it. I don’t consider choosing my food wisely, ‘missing out.’ My only rule is: If it doesn’t make me feel healthy and zaps my energy, I don’t eat it.”

I hope this review helped. If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer!

Cheers!

Highlights

Woot! I did it! 70.3 crossed off the list!

Illustration for ESPN The Undefeated: Artists look at the struggle of the black female athlete

Enjoying the Long Journey with Jerlyn Thomas

We Become More Digital When We Think Multiscreen

Juice in, Juice out

What is juicing?

Why I did it?

Which did I choose?