Juicing: Cleansing the body and the mind
Think of a bouncy little golden Labrador puppy, wet nose, bright eyes, wagging tale, shiny coat, a bundle of energy and full of life.
Well, that was me – five days after a rigorous juice cleanse by Jus for Julie.
I attempted the three-day juice cleanse back last year, and struggled because it was all new to me, and I like my food, so drinking juices was a whole new ball game for me.
So, with the challenge of the five day cleanse ahead of me, I set myself into a frame of mind that was most positive, and woke up on Monday, uttering the words: ‘I’m quite excited about my juice cleanse’ to my husband, who had no idea what I was on about.
I love the juices by Jus by Julie, and now I knew what to expect, I could pace myself. Filled with fruits, vegetables and proteins, the ingredients are incredibly tasty and I knew that I was going to get filled up fast by them. In fact, on day one, I paced myself so well I was left with one juice left over, but because I wanted to stick to the rules, I downed that before bed.
The key to juicing is not to put yourself in any situation where there is real food – you know, the stuff you chew. My senses did crave this from time to time and it was tough to sit and watch my friends eat pizza one night, but I just told them I was juicing, and they just took it as wrote.
The peanut butter juice is just the best, and if I could get that one on a stand alone order I would definitely have it on hand in the fridge and the freezer as my go-to snack.
It’s important to remember that this juicing is not about weight loss, but about cleansing the body and clearing out the toxins – it’s a health regimen. And because I had my mind focused on this, I felt that I managed to clear out a lot of the bad eating habits that I have when I am tired or have exercised a lot. And I’m a picker, which means I’m always grazing, so this was very routined eating and worked for me, setting in motion a much more concrete way of taking in food.
Today I tasted real food again for the first time, but whilst it tasted great, I understood that to fall back into bad eating habits and to undo all the good work of the cleanse would just wrong, so I set myself a routine food program and I hope to stick to it.
Even with Spring Break and Easter looming, the juice cleanse will be at the back of mind, reminding me that if I can do it for five days straight, I can be disciplined and proactive any day of the week, especially if I want to feel like a bouncy Labrador puppy again 🙂 .
Jus By Julie’s website calls this juicing experience a ‘healthy obsession’ – I’d concur with that!
Claire Bolden McGill is a British expat who lived in Maryland for three years and moved back to the UK in August 2015. Claire wrote about her life as a British expat on the East Coast and now works in travel and hospitality PR in the UK. She still finds time to blog about her repatriation and the reverse culture shock that ensued – and she still hasn’t finished that novel, but she’s working on it. You can contact Claire via twitter on @clairebmcgill or via her blog From America to England.