DIY Blueprint 5 Day Juice Cleanse

Every once in a while I get the urge to do a cleanse.  The first time I did a cleanse I went for the gold and did the Master Cleanse.  You’ve heard of it.  It’s the one where you drink nothing but water mixed with lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup for 10 days.  Yes, it’s crazy but I loved it.  I’m not into cleansing for any crazy weight loss goals, I like to do it to give my body a bit of a break and also to refocus my mind.  There’s nothing like doing a juice fast to make you realize how much you think about food.

The second time I did a cleanse it was the prescribed by a naturopath and was called the elimination diet. You get to eat (which is awesome) you just have to eliminate all sugars, gluten, red meat, common allergens etc.  I really enjoyed this cleanse as you get to eat but just be more mindful about what you’re eating.

Now that my summer of fUnemployment has begun I wanted to be all “out with the old, in with the new”.  So obviously a cleanse was in order.  I wanted to go for the gold again but maturity told me that I should probably skip the master cleanse.  I remembered reading about all of these juice cleanses that offer delivery but at $65 a day it was all too rich for my blood.  Being the resourceful person I am I managed to find the recipes online for the Blueprint Cleanse and opted to do their mid-level cleanse for 5 days.

The daily menu consists of (in order):
Green Juice (romaine lettuce, kale, cucumbers, parsley, apples, celery, lemon juice)
Pineapple Apple Mint Juice
Green Juice (same as the first)
Spicy Lemonade (memories of Master Cleanse)
Green Juice (same same)
Cashew Nut Milk

It’s a lot of green juice.

Here’s a bit on my day to day experience…

Day 1

I woke up at around 6:30 or 7AM (unintentionally) and started juicing.  Nearly two hours later all juices were made for the day.  Yes, two hours.  It’s A LOT of work.  I kind of understand why people just pay the $65 per day to have the juices delivered to them.  The night before my sis and I hit Stanley’s to buy produce for 2-3 days.  It was the most ridiculous grocery shop of my life.  I bought like 12 cucumbers, 18 apples, 3 bunches of celery, at least 10 lemons, and 20 limes among other things.  It was insane.  But we only spent about $50 for almost 3 days worth of “food” for 2 people.

The first juice of the day was the green juice which I didn’t mind at all.  I HATE cucumbers but didn’t mind the juice as the cucumbers only lent the juice a grassy taste and not a ton of cucumberyness. The pineapple juice was delicious!  Heavy on the pineapple with a hint of mint, it was sweet, refreshing and delicious.  After another green juice it was on to the spicy lemonade which I pretty much had to choke down.  Too lemony, too much cayenne and not enough fun. By the third green juice of the day I was just choking it down and waiting for the hour or so to pass so that I could have the cashew nut milk.  The cashew milk is easily my fave of them all.  It’s creamy, substantial, spicy and sweet. LOVE IT.

Surprisingly I wasn’t at all hungry and didn’t experience many side effects other than being a but sluggish.  Well that and the desire to read tons of blog posts of being chronicling their experience on Blueprint.

Day 2

Day 2 went as smoothly as day one.  I got up, juiced and drank juice all day long.  I wasn’t hungry per se, but really just wanted food.  Especially being in Chicago where there is so much good food.  That is part of the problem.  Whenever I’m in Chicago I spend A LOT of time eating and planning my next meal.  It’s almost liberating taking that out of the equation and learning how to do things independent of food. Unfortunately this meant going to Lush and buying a bath bomb and deodorant (I haven’t shopped there since MAYBE high school) and going to J Crew and buying shorts and two cardigans from their sale section.  And I also menu planned for the days after my cleanse.  Clearly I need food.

Oh, and my sis and I made a deal that we each get a “cheat” snack.  My snack is raw cashews since I drink them blended up in the cashew nut milk what’s the big deal if I steal a few?

Day 3

Things were still motoring along on day 3 although I couldn’t stop thinking about food.  I was looking at restaurant menus, reading food blogs… all of it!  Clearly I’m obsessed with food.  Oh and I bought a dress.  What I’m not spending on food, I’m spending on clothes.  Not. Good.

Day 4

By day 4 I was soooo done with green juice.  It got to the point where I was choking it back.  It’s not that I didn’t like it, I had just had too much of it.  I opted to skip my second green juice.  I wasn’t that hungry and the thought of drinking the green juice was more off-putting than being hungry.  It was a welcome break.  Oh, and I met my friend Mandy for iced tea.  It was nice to have a different flavour in my mouth.

Day 5

This was a bizarro day because it was also a travel day!  It was also even more bizarre because my sis and I decided to get doughnuts at the to be consumed post-cleanse. I was able to drink to drink a few of my juices but I had a late afternoon flight and of course couldn’t bring my juice with me.  I decided to buy a green juice at the airport (Odwalla) but of course it was way more fruit-based than the cleanse juice.  It was a nice change though.  My intent was to get home and juice upon arrival but I was pooped so I caved and had a salad to avoid a SERIOUS case of the hangries.  I then closed out the day with some cashew milk.  It made me happy.

Post-Cleanse

I decided to be pretty thoughtful with my post-cleanse routine.  When I did the Master Cleanse I broke the cleanse with a cupcake from Magnolia… at midnight.  I don’t remember it screwing with my system that badly but I wanted to break this fast/cleanse a bit smarter.

I started the day of with some room temp water with lemon and a bit of fruit.  For lunch I made a fantastic kale salad with apples, carrots, beets, walnuts, dried cranberries, red peppers and some other goodness.  For dinner I decided to incorporate some gluten and made pitas from scratch and did a bit of a Mediterranean platter with hummus, veggies, nut meat and tabbouleh salad.  It was heavenly. And I also had my doughnut.  My sweet, sweet doughnut…

In the days post cleanse I’ve definitely been feeling a lot more full than I normally do.  I’ve also noticed that my body HATES dairy.  I had a small piece of cheese and immediately became stuffy and mucousy.  It sucked.  But not enough for me to give up cheese.

Would I do the cleanse again?  Possibly.  I’d consider making 3 days worth of juice at once vs. juicing every day.  OR I’d just have the juices delivered.  The volume of juicing was WAY too much for me.  In terms of the effects of the cleanse it was great to feel lighter (not in terms of being fat vs. thin but more so just less weighty inside my body) and it was especially great that my allergies didn’t bother me.  I’d also be more vigilant about taking my Smooth Move tea to… keep things moving.  It’s very necessary.