Journey through Juice Cleansing: Day Two

Day 2:

I woke up hungry and miraculously craving juice. I heated up the kettle for my morning primer: hot water and lemon. Juice master Jason Vale suggests that you start your day with this concoction to jumpstart your digestive system. I’ve also heard that drinking a cup of ice cold water with lemon does the same. I’m not sure which is better but I’m guessing that the main goal is to drink water and lemon once you wake up. Since I was a kid, my grandmother and mom always made me drink hot lemon with honey when I was sick and it always worked miracles.

My morning followed the same routine as yesterday. I made the same morning juice, a combination of apples, pineapples, lime, cucumbers, avocado and ice. Then I went out for a swim, juiced my lunch and started my day full of energy. The best part was putting on my jeans and finding them a little looser then the day before. Apparently not eating solids for 24 hours really reduces water weight and flattens out your stomach. Score!

Around 11am, I made the horrible mistake of checking Pinterest. A wave of mouthwatering food photos flooded my pin board. Somewhere around truffle mac n’ cheese and cake batter cupcakes, I felt my stomach begin to concave and my confidence begin to crumble. I clicked on “health & fitness” so that women with 8-packs and shiny tanned skin could remind me to say ‘no’ to nutella, and push through. I sipped on my juice and whimpered.

I had a good amount of energy all morning – better than any cup of coffee has ever given me, that’s for sure. I was definitely more focused and productive. But around two o’clock, I started to get fussy. I think it was more psychological than physical.

“I don’t know if I can do this. I miss food,” I texted my husband. He sent me a few words of encouragement and tough love to push through. He’s on the cleanse too, and loves it. Its only day two, I can’t start to break.

But why is this so easy for everyone else? Why do all the people that blog about this make it sound like it’s a delicious piece of cake? Oh my god would I would do for a delicious piece of cake right now. No – pull yourself together, Chereen. You feel good, you feel light, you is smart, you is kind, you is important (twenty bucks says you sang the last three).

So I sucked it up, drank my green juice and moved on.

Around 5pm, I was supposed to drink a mix and match of the first two juices like yesterday, but I needed a change, so I swapped recipes. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t destroying all my efforts so I checked the book and it turns out, I wasn’t alone. Vale said many of his clients favor one juice over the other and tend to swap them around. That was good to hear, although I was planning on doing it anyway.

I juiced an apple and ¼ pineapple, then threw it in the blender with ¼ a banana, some yoghurt, some ice and a dash (okay, a heaping teaspoon) of cinnamon. It was so good! That’s my kinda juice. After the cleanse is over, I’m going to remove the pineapple and throw some dates and peanut butter in that bad boy for breakfast. Mmm.

My jet lag kicked in and I passed out before I could have any more juice. I definitely ended the day still feeling light and refreshed, but started to feel the detox exhaustion and headaches they warned about. That’s when your body starts withdrawing from all the caffeine and junk, while eliminating the toxins from your body.

Two days down. Five days to go.

WE SAID THIS: Catch up with day one of Chereen’s juice cleanse here.