A cappuccino and a bagel are usually the two things I’m thinking of when my eyes pop open on a weekend morning, and this morning was no exception. But with $200 worth of juice slowly spoiling in my fridge there was no question about what needed to happen. I poured myself a glass of BluePrint green juice. This was the juice whose taste I most feared, since it contains six pounds worth of romaine, celery, cucumber, apple, spinach, kale, parsley, and lemon. I could really taste the parsley and celery, both of which I’m not a huge fan of, but after sipping a while it mellowed out to more of a leafy green apple juice flavor. By the time I finished it, I was enjoying the fact that it’s not too sweet and is actually good for me. This drink, more than the others, made me want to buy a juicer and recreate the recipe.
You’re supposed to space your drinks out by a couple hours with lots of green tea and water in between, but I had errands to run in Manhattan and I knew I’d be hungry, so I drank the PAM juice right after. PAM has pineapple, apple, and mint, which I love, so this is the best-tasting of the juices, in my opinion. It tasted really sweet after the green juice though, and I wondered if all this sugar could be good for me.
I soon found out. I was gone longer than expected, and my body burned through all the juice, leaving me suddenly hungry and feeling like hell. I could have taken a juice with me, but had no way to keep it cold (I could have asked BluePrint to include a cooler bag, had I known about it). Or I could have broken the cleanse and found something healthy to eat, but the effort of thinking about that was bumming me out, and I figured I’d be home soon anyway, so why bother.
I felt better once I got back and had another green juice, but that experience alone made me glad I’d kept my calendar pretty clear of obligations. Besides the fact that the cleanse contains only 1100 (albeit nutrient dense) calories per day and the portions need to be carefully spaced, there was the issue that being around real food was making me feel deprived. As long as I stayed away from food I was ok, and by not having a distraction to focus on, I could motivate myself to exercise for the first time in weeks. I’m not sure how people do this for ten days while carrying on their work and social lives. Maybe they get used to it?
The last juice of the day was the cashew milk, which had an unusual chalk-dust texture that stuck in my throat a little. But the vanilla taste was pleasant enough and sufficiently dessert-like, and it filled me up enough to sleep contentedly through the night. Still, I was feeling a little less pumped to start Day 2, when I’d actually have to do work—my body was ok, but would my brain function on nothing but juice?
Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed