With all the talk – good and bad – about juice cleanses and beach season in full motion, you’ve probably thought about a juice cleanse more than once. View The Vibe’s Aly Zorn put her skepticism aside to try a cleanse and gives us her honest review.
Juice cleanses have been all the rage for the past few years. I mean, why have real food when you can limit yourself to liquids, right? Juice cleanses claim to rid your system of toxins and pump it full of nutrients. Purifying not only your body but your mind too. With all these tremendous claims, I was admittedly skeptical of cleanses, so I decided to try one out for myself.
Though there are dozens of juiceries across the city, I decided to pop into Village Juicery‘s Roncesvalles location. I was quickly greeted by the holistic nutritionist on hand, Cara. I’ll be honest, prior to my visit, I had imagined an overexcited, tree-hugging hippy with little knowledge about anything health related to assign my program. The fact that Cara is just one of 15 trained nutritionists at the Village Juicery and that they’re Toronto’s first Certified Organic Juicery, gave me more confidence to start a three-day juice cleanse.
The Introduction
This is what I like to call the fun part… The juice tasting! As I tried the raw, cold-pressed juices, I found they all tasted on a scale of “decent and I won’t puke,” to “wow, this is actually really good!” but things are easier said than done. I won’t lie, although I liked most of the juices, cleansing is still a MAJOR commitment.
The Reset Program
My juices conveniently arrived at my apartment early the next morning and were arranged by date. All I had to do was simply drink them in the order stated by the accompanying protocol. The first day included raw foods, while the second just juices. The third was a reintroduction of raw food and easily digestible grains.
Day 1
I actually enjoy all the juices except for the immunity shot – three words, “oil of oregano.” While not the only ingredient, if you’ve never tasted this stuff, DON’T. Throughout the day, I feel famished and visit the bathroom an obscene amount of times.
Day 2
I sip on the juices, feeling pretty hungry and visiting the bathroom even more. Around 6:00 pm my roommate comes home and begins to eat McDonalds in front of me – the horror! I go to bed hungry, but not feeling as starved as one would think.
Day 3
I’m not going to lie, by this point I am VERY hungry but feel surprisingly energetic. As I empty the last bottle, I’m glad that it’s over, but do notice an overall feeling of calm – not the rabid cravings I thought I would be experiencing.
While I’m happy to start eating real foods again (three days felt like three years). Juice cleanses aren’t the health gimmick I assumed they were. The process was difficult but by the end, there was a noticeable difference.
I weighed the same but felt cleaner and more radiant. All in all, my experience with Village Juicery was better than I thought… I probably won’t do The Reset Program again – I have a ride or die relationship with food. But I would definitely implement the juices into my weekly routine.
RELATED LINK: To Cleanse or Not to Cleanse
Have you tried a juice cleanse? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us at @ViewtheVibe.