Musings on Juicing, Pt. 1

When the Fed Ex truck pulled up to my door three days ago, you'd have thought it was the Publisher's Clearing House van, from the way I jumped up and down and squealed and told my cats, "It's here!  It's here!"

But my gift wasn't a bunch of balloons, flowers, and a huge check.  This gift was in the form of juice.  Juice from BluePrint Cleanse in New York (City!  Fancy!).  I'd arranged with them to do a three-day cleanse in exchange for participating in their BluePrint Life program - I drink the juice, and send them pictures before, during, and after my cleanse.

You might be wondering, "Why does a girl who loves cupcakes and bacon and hash browns and Taco Bell so much want to do a juice cleanse and not eat for three days?"

Good question.  One I will probably be asking myself within a few hours of starting the cleanse.  Basically, I've been feeling gunky and out of shape and gross since I hurt my back a few months ago.  I haven't been able to work out, I've been out of work, and I've been eating overindulgent food and watching a lot of Netflix to pass the time and make myself feel better.

Sometimes, you need a good kick in the pants in order to start fresh.  A clean slate.  This cleanse is my way of doing that.

I have to admit, I feel a bit out of place among the other BluePrint Life contributors; if you go to the contributor page, my picture is up there right next to actors and designers and photographers and other "with it" people.  I'm pretty sure it isn't even cool anymore to say things like "with it".  Or "cool", for that matter.  Oh well.  I'm in this now.

When that package arrived, I was ridiculously excited to get started; so much so that as soon as I had taken the box from the delivery guy, I ran up the stairs, ripped it open, and opened the first bottle.

Each day has six 16-oz juices.  The type of juice you get depends on which of the three levels you choose.  I chose the Renovation cleanse; it's the "starter" cleanse, for people like me who've never done  something like this before.  The six juices are:

1.  Green Juice: Vegetables in liquid form.  Yes, it tasted very "green", as in earthy, nutritious, and delicious!

2.  P.A.M.: pineapple, apple, mint: The only thing missing is a little rum.  Or maybe vodka.  Yummy.

3.  More Green Juice: Because a girl can't drink enough kale.

4.  Spicy Lemonade: You know the Master Cleanse that people do, with the lemon and maple syrup and cayenne pepper?  It's basically that, but this is sweetened with agave instead of maple syrup.

5.  C.A.B.: This is the hardest one for me, because I am not a fan of beets.  I've tried them many times, but I just can't get myself to like them, unless they're pureed into soup or laden with inhuman amounts of butter.

6.  Cashew Milk: This one is the best part - creamy, sweet, and full of yummy fat and protein (all in healthy forms, of course).  It makes the C.A.B. worth it.

I'll be posting about each of the three days of the cleanse: how I felt, what I did, and so forth.  Stay tuned for more!

(See Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here!)