7 Day Juice Cleanse: A Reflection

We did it! My husband and I successfully completed a 7 day juice cleanse.

Philip & I with solid FOOD

I am so thankful that I had this experience, it was not always easy, but it was not nearly as hard as I made it to be in my head (which is true of most my experiences).

With past cleanses, the greatest improvements I noticed with was my skin (looking clearer and having more of a “glow”) and my digestion. I also noticed that with this cleanse, and more, including:

• A huge increase in energy. This was by far the most pronounced effect. By day 3, I already noticed my energy sustaining much longer throughout the day, without the mid day crash. I was staying up later, and getting up earlier with ease. I noticed this for my husband, as well. He was awake before his alarm on both day 6 & 7, and woke up already full of energy (when it normally takes him some time to fully awaken).
• Acute mental clarity. By day 5, my mind felt incredibly focused and sharp. This is the end of my school year, and I am normally so drained and unproductive. However, at work on day 7, I was incredibly focused and jotting new ideas down left and right of things to implement, the following year.
• 6 pound weight lost. I do not do these cleanses for the weight loss alone, but it is a nice side effect.
• Peace at being in the current moment. I have been working on being more present and finding peace wherever I am at and doing a juice cleanse is definitely a great way to practice. It was a great opportunity to practice “just being,” even when I was uncomfortable, even when I was thinking of, or looking at food I wanted. I tried to be at peace with my present reality, even when I was feeling less than peaceful.
• Being OK with not getting what I wanted (you think I would have learned this before being 30 years old). I am pretty bad at giving into my food cravings. Normally, if I am wanting something, I eat it. Sometimes that food or drink may not be what is most healthy or best for me. This juice cleanse helped me see that it was OK not to give into every single craving and in fact, I will probably feel even better later on, when I don’t.
• I have to say how nice it was to have all my meals planned and prepped ahead of time. I realize how much of my day is spent thinking about what my next meal will be or creating a new recipe. Although I do enjoy many things about cooking, it was nice to take a break from thinking about all of that, and know that my next meal was already waiting for me.
• This was the food I packed myself for my work day; oatmeal with blueberries and cinnamon, an edamame salad with cherry tomatoes & tofu and a smoothie. I cleaned up my oatmeal, but have leftovers of both the salad and the smoothie to finish today. It all felt like so.much.food.

I am very glad I was able to have this experience. I was expecting it to be more difficult, but I think the once per week juice cleanse days we have been doing helped. I would absolutely do it again and am looking forward to potentially even going for an extended amount of time.

Thanks for supporting me along this journey! Please let me know if there are any questions you have about juice cleansing. I would be happy to do a whole post devoted to answering those questions. Feel free to comment here or email me at angieeatspeace at gmail.