Juiced
On Friday, September 7th, I woke up to my very first day of a juice cleansing mission. I successfully avoided the break room and the coffee machine at the office and popped open the lid on my travel bottle containing freshly made Mean Green Juice as I settled in at my desk for the day.
After being so inspired by that documentary, and watching the filmmaker drink the stuff for 60 days, there was only one thing I was not prepared for: how incredibly disgusting it tasted. It smelled like yard clippings and tasted worse. It was nothing short of awful. It took me most of the day, but eventually choked it down. That night, I whined and cried that I wasn't going to make it two days... and our second batch that night was just as gross. I held my nose to suppress my gag reflex and the only thing that kept me from ordering Chinese was how nauseating that nasty juice was. It provided loss of appetite, I'll give it that.
Saturday morning, I awoke to the noise of the juicer grinding celery, cucumber and other green crap into less than pulp and I tried to close my eyes to go back to dreams of bacon. Eventually, I plodded down the stairs and followed my pouted lip into the kitchen. There, I found an apologetic husband who informed me that "I was such a trooper" and "he really thought it was kale that he'd bought, but in reality it was collard greens"... yuck. Day two went much better after that, especially after I found a Mean Green Juice Recipe that called for less kale, more spinach and the bonus of papaya. And though the taste was far better, I was still grumpy and headache ridden. The research I'd done had said there would be headaches... and that they were a good sign... a sign of toxins leaving your body. No amount of water alleviated the pain, so bedtime came early in the first three days. I was very glad that I'd been smart enough to start on a Friday so that the worst of the process took place over the weekend.
By day four, I was off to work with no yawning, no caffeine and an actual taste for the juice. That night I began my mile jogs at the gym. By day five, I felt healthier than I had in years and I'd lost 9 pounds. The downside however, was that the lack of protein was causing me to be a bit scatterbrained. I was having trouble focusing at work and I had to actually concentrate while driving, which worried me. And so, on day six I converted to a "modified juice cleanse" by eating a salad of raw vegetables for lunch, with almonds for a snack and the green juice for breakfast and dinner. I continued this for the remainder of the 10 days and overall, I think it was a success.
I have not had a drop of coffee (the only thing in life I was addicted to) in twelve days and I (almost) enjoy working out three nights a week now. I'm still drinking the juice for breakfast, eating a healthy salad for lunch and a dinner of meat a vegetables... quite an improvement over my previous 80% pasta diet (I am Italian, after all). Though I didn't have the energy to string a coherent sentence together, let alone write during those 10 days, I do feel motivated now. I've got some great new ideas for my sci-fi short that's been looming over me like a broken promise for the last three months. I think I'll actually finish it soon. All in all, it was a good experience despite the rough beginning. If anyone out there reading this feels like they could use a kick-start to get back on the track to healthier living, I say give it a shot. If a Starbucks fiend and pizza gobbler like myself can do it, so can you!
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