Juice cleanse. There are about a million different types of cleanses out there.

Some are ridiculous. Just spicy lemon water for 10 days!?! Uuuh…No thanks! I am all for detoxing, but our bodies need a little more substance to function. I can barely move if I go more than3 hours without eating. I wouldn't even want to be aroundmyselfafter a day of lemon water, let alone 10!

But along with all the dumb ones, there are some great cleanses out there."Cleansing"can be as simple aschanging your diet. Ditching things like sugar, caffeine, dairy and meat for a period of time. It can also be something more intense like a multiple day juice cleanse.

It's super important to reset my body every once in a while, think about how much you are putting into it each day. It's too easy to get off track during the holidays or summertime. I usually like to do one cleanse at the beginning of the year and anytime I'm feeling really blah.

Over the last few years I've seen juice bars popping upEVERYWHERE. They all offer different types of cleanses that promise to leave you with a clean digestive track, glowing skin, more energy and no more sugar cravings. Sounds pretty amazing! Let me warn you though…not all cleanses are created equal!

I've tried a few different ones over the years and some were less than great. The first time I did it, I wasn't prepared. I kinda just jumped on the bandwagon. I didn't know you're supposedto basically eat vegan for a few days beforethe cleanse to help "pre-tox" to avoid foodand coffee withdrawals:). I'm pretty sure I just came off of a NYE hangover and went straight on the cleanse.#FAIL!It also wasn't the best quality cleanse out there. I felt crappy during it and didn't notice any changes after.

After our trip to the Caribbean and all the summer festivities, I've been feeling like it's time to reset again. It's been more like "Champagne NOW" lately haha and I knew i needed something like this to get back to my normal. This time I did my homework.

WARNING:

This is not about losing weight!DO NOTdo a cleanse just to try to lose a few pounds. It's a waste of time and energy. You may lose some, but it's generally water weight, not actual fat. So will you feel lighter and less bloated? For sure! But don't mistake it for fat loss.

I wanted to make sure I gave myself a few days before to prepare and most importantly pick the right cleanse. If I was going to live off juice for 3 days, it was going to be the best!

There were four "MUSTS" for my cleanse:

• Taste Good
  • Obviously! I'm don't need super sweet juice. I want to ditch those sugar cravings, but it does need to taste good. This is really about making smart combinations of flavors to get the best taste and most benefit.
• Cold Pressed
  • This keeps the juice as raw as possible. It shreds the produce to a pulp, then presses it to get the "juice" You get the most nutrients out of the produce so you end up with a better product.
• Organic
  • While some people think organic produce has more nutrients, it's not really proven. Either way, there several reasons to chose organic. Eating organic will reduce exposure to pesticides, insecticides and other chemicals thought to cause cancer and mess with your hormones.
• Deliverable
  • If I'm going to try something like this and share it with you all, I wanted to make sure you'd be able to check it out. Being cold-pressed means a shorter shelf-life (that's a good thing!) so it can be hard to find quality juice that can be shipped, but I did!

After digging around I finally found Project Juice. They met all of my criteria and don't just deliver locally, they will ship anywhere in the US for FREE! Yes, Please! There is no point in me sharing something like this if you girls won't be able to try it too right?

Ok, so once I picked the place it was time to do a little prep and pick my start date.

The weekends are just too hard to live on juice. If I wasn't married or didn't have any social obligations then sure, but I didn't want to be the girl who had to keep saying "Sorry, can't go out, I'm on a cleanse" It's just obnoxious. So I decided to do a Tuesday – Thursday to make it most convenient in my week.

Obviously cleansing will effect everyone differently. Some people feel great the whole time, while others experience fatigue, headaches, dizziness, feelings of hunger, etc. This is called DETOXINGKeep these possible side effects in mind and make sure you prepare. I always carried a few raw almonds around with me. Not to tempt me to eat, but incase I found myself really needing something. (PS: I never ended up eating any)

Another reason I loved Project Juice is that one of the owners used to be a fitness competitor and gets that people want to still be able to workout and live their lives on a cleanse. Most people don't have the luxury of just hiding out for 3 days. So they make a "Pre" & "Post" Shred juice you can add to your cleanse.(These seriously saved my life)

They also have a organic cold-pressed coffee and "almond mylk" option for those who aren't ready to give it up. I tried it and it is AMAZING! I really just love how realistic they are about the whole thing. You don't have to be crazy and suffer through a cleanse. It's all about nourishing your body with incredible ingredients and making it work for you.

What I Did: 6 main juices per day. That's about 20lbs of organic produce pressedinto bottles!

• Green Lemon:Kale, Romaine, Spinach, Celery, Cucumber, Green Apple, Lemon.
• #Get Your Greens:Celery, Cucumber, Chard, Romaine, Cilantro, Lemon, Ginger, Aloe.
• Green Ginger:Kale, Romaine, Spinach, Celery, Cucumber, Green Apple, Ginger
• Black Magic:Pure Filtered Water, Lemon, Raw Agave, Cayenne, Activated Coconut Charcoal
• Deep Green: Cucumber, Celery, Kale, Spinach, Romaine, Lemon, Ginger.
• Cashew Mylk:Cashew, Pure Filtered Water, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Vanilla, Raw Agave

BONUS Drinks I Loved:

• Swizz Beet (Pre-workout):Beet, Apple, Lemon, Ginger
• Almond Mylk (Post-Workout):Raw Almonds, Purified Water, Date Paste, Vanilla Bean, Sea Salt
• Get Up And Go-Go:Purified Water, Cold Brew Coffee, Raw Almonds, Date Paste, Vanilla Bean, Sea Salt
• Wellness Shots: Liver Flush & Turmeric Tonic

How I Felt:

I honestly felt pretty good throughout this cleanse. Ryan always gets nervous because there have been past ones where I was miserable to be around. Like gnarly headache and totally irritable. I guess I'll take that as A. My diet is pretty on point and B.This cleanse is way better quality than most of them out there. Because of the added workout juices I was able to stick to pretty much my normal routine.

Day 1: is always a little tough. You can't help but think about how you want to be eating food. Especially if you are cooking your hubby dinner! Haha that was rough… Honestly though, I felt full all day and didn't notice any drop in energy levels.

Day 2: I did notice myself getting a little light headed doing cardio, so I stopped. You have to listen to your body!Even with the added juices, it's much less calories than I normally consume so I had to be super aware of how I was feeling anytime I was teaching or working out. Besides that one moment, I was actually feeling really energized. I also felt like my mind was really clear. Sounds kinda hippy dippy, but it's totally true. I was able to get so much work done this week (partially because I wasn't spending time cooking, cleaning etc.) and felt like I was full of new creative ideas.

Day 3: This was the best day of all! Not only was it the last day, but I felt the most normal. By day 3 I was feeling really good. You're so used to the cleanse that it seems easy. You'd think you would be sooooo excited it was almost over so you can eat whole food again, but because you've been detoxing, your body and mind really don't care about it anymore. It's a pretty cool thing to not have food controlling your every thought like it does for many people.

Day 4: I technically finished the cleanse on day 3, but I had a few extra juices and decided to continue into part of day 4 and also reintroduce clean whole foods back in. I juiced in the morning and mid day and had some veggies in the afternoon. For dinner I had grilled salmon on greens. It was delicious, but girls, I felt so full and sort of like I had all my magic juice energy sucked out of me. haha What!?

The After GlowSo I can honestly say my skin felt better, my mind felt clearer and my digestive system was celebrating after this cleanse! If you've read my Why I Broke up with Gluten blog, you know that I have a SUPER sensitive stomach. It doesn't always react immediately to foods with dairy and gluten, but I get, well… blocked up if you know what I mean. This cleanse cleared things right up and will hopefully keep it that way for a while.

All in all it was a pretty awesome experience. It really makes you stop and think about what you are putting into your body everyday. I think a cleanse paired with my Guiltless Nutrition Guidewould be a winning combo for someone trying to break bad habits and make a transition to clean eating.

If you're thinking about doing it, check out Project Juiceand use code:lovesweatfitnessfor15% offat checkout!

Again, until you do a cleanse you won't know how you will feel, it might be different each time, but I can guarantee your body will be glad you did it!