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| Photo from www.moonjuiceshop.com |
At the end of the year, Mike turned to me and said, "Let's do a juice cleanse". My eyes widened in surprise, half out of shock that he wanted to do it, and half out of fear! I warily said Ok. One of my favorite juice shops in L.A. is Moon Juice. Their stuff is Medical Grade (!!!), Cold Pressed, Certified Organic, and always really delicious. Every time I drink one of their juices my body thanks me and I feel alive inside. So there's definitely something to it. I didn't trust our own knowledge or dedication to making our own juices every day enough, so we opted for one of the Moon Juice cleanses. I signed up for a 3 day, and Mike a 5 day. We chose the Indigo Cleanse, which fell in between the hardcore Green Cleanse, and the less intense Rainbow Cleanse, which contains more fruits.
The first day was tough! We had to pound 8 juices in one day. 11pm would roll around and we still had one more juice to drink! I'm bad and I don't drink enough liquids throughout the day as it is, so this was a real challenge for me. I was sluggish all day. My eyes felt cloudy. I was hangry. The last juice of the day was a nut milk made from Pumpkin Seeds, alkaline, mineralized and oxygenated water, wildflower honey, and pink salt. Somehow it felt like I was eating food while drinking this. It was so satisfying and nurturing at the end of a long day. Afterwards, I swiftly fell into a deep, amazing sleep. When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that it was earlier than usual for my waking time, and I felt amazing. Not drowsy or sleep deprived at all. The second thing I noticed was that I wasn't that hungry, after not having "food" all day.
The 2nd and 3rd day of the cleanse were the complete opposite of my 1st day. I felt so light! In high spirits. Like I could take on anything. But not with a manic energy that I sometimes have when I'm trying to tackle a project. Instead, I felt very calm. I went about cleaning our house in a very peaceful, concentrated way. I really paid attention to my body. When it needed to rest, I sat down and took a breather. On the 3rd day, the world around me just started to glow and shimmer! I'm serious! I felt so present and in touch with myself and my surroundings, in a way I haven't felt since I was a child.... or when I first moved to L.A. and everything was new and exciting. My skin even looked brighter and glowing in a way I'd never seen it before. I felt so great, that I added on two more days to the cleanse. Of course there were moments when I longed to bite into something. But I never felt 'starved', because all day long I was pumping my body full of amazing nutrients from the juices.
The first day off the cleanse, we started the day off with some aloe water, and then a delicious vitamin and enzyme packed smoothie (a slightly more solid kind of juice, really), and it was divine!!! We could now taste every ingredient in this smoothie that we used to slurp up and take for granted on a daily basis. When we bit into our first Kale & White Bean Soup.... tears came to my eyes. I was able to appreciate my food and where it came from on a whole other level. We ate slowly (instead of gobbling it down like we usually do). We took breaks between spoonfuls (instead of chatting on the phone while eating, or scrolling through Instagram feeds). We ate mindfully together. After the soup, we took a nap. Our bodies were actually digesting solid food for the first time in 5 days. All day we felt buoyant. As I'm writing this, today is Day 2 of coming off the cleanse. We're definitely feeling closer to earth today. Part of me misses the "high" that we had on the cleanse, and the lightness I felt coming off the cleanse... and yet, I'm happy knowing that I carry the experience and the knowledge I learned from it with me always. While cleansing, we've even incorporated tongue scraping to help us along the detox -- something I never thought I'd do! Here is a great blog post on natural, oral hygiene that I found inspiring. And should we ever need to reset, doing another juice cleanse for 5 days, 3 days, or even 1 day, is always there. And the best part is that now I know I can do it!
Here's to eating more mindfully in 2015!
love,
p.a.
