I lost 10 pounds in 5 days

I’ve really been looking forward to the new year. I didn’t have any big plans or anything, just really tired of 2011. The last weeks of December I began looking for my inspiration for 2012. I’d  closed down my yoga studio, and felt a little at loose ends. I wanted to find a little “spark” to get 2012 started off on a good foot. I was thinking a cleanse…?

I’m a very experienced juicer. I spend several weeks a year juice fasting, I have several machines and apparatus to help me bring juice out of various fruits and vegetables, but I just didn’t have the “spark”. Fooling around on Pinterest or maybe Tastespotting I found this website  while looking for my inspiration. When I saw this picture I knew immediately it was time to juice!

Pressed Juicery, Los Angeles

These juices look beautiful. This photograph is maybe a little doctored or enhanced but that doesn’t matter it was enough to get me excited.

The Pressed Juicery is apparently owned by Nicole Richie and some friends in Los Angeles. This company allows you to order juice online and then delivers them to your door every morning. It’s all the rage in LA!   They offer of a large menu of juices, as well as options for various cleanses or packages of juice. It’s a great idea. And it’s very expensive. It’s not overpriced -as my dear friend Katie and I realized it’s worth every penny. When you take on juicing so many different fresh foods and making mixes for more than one person that will last them for a couple of days- it’s a big deal.

The PJ protocol for detox calls for 3 different cleanses. There is a beginning, middle cleanse and a major cleanse. Each one is comprised of various juices that are designated as either greens, roots or detox. Included in all 3 of cleanses are also almond milk, aloe vera water, and chlorophyll water. There are many other juices that are not part of their detox protocol but that is what we focus on.

A few greens

Because I don’t live in Los Angeles and have lots of time, I took my inspiration and my shopping list from their website.  I used their protocol for cleansing, and their menu of juice combinations for my own juicing program at home. This is something that you could certainly do yourself if you have the time and a juicer, but honestly, if I lived in LA and was going to do this and I worked full-time- I would absolutely buy this program and see how it worked out. Of course it’s always better to prepare your own food or juice if you have time. There’s an energy transfer from the person preparing the food to the person partaking of the food so especially when doing a cleanse, if you have time it’s best to do it yourself. If you believe in that sort of thing. (I do.)

Beautiful Veg

Prep is the big deal in juicing. It’s what takes the most time and it’s very very important. If you don’t prep your veg and fruit properly it can ruin the taste  of your juice or worse it can be full of sand. We spent HOURS prepping. You wash the spinach several times. (even though you can buy  baby spinach pre-washed there’s nothing like the taste of the real mature spinach) I like to peel the carrots and of course you have to peel and seed the cucumbers.

Here’s a photograph of our juicer set up for the session.  I guess I should say our multiple juicer set up.

Vitamix, Oster citrus, manual citrus press, Hurom Slow-Juicer, Angel 8500

We used mostly 3 juicers. We use the angel juicer for all of the greens. We used the Japanese Hurom juicer for carrots, beets, cucumbers, ginger and apples. We used the manual squeezer for all of the citrus. We used the Vitamix for the aloe filet with lemon juice mixture.  There’s no question that having good equipment  makes all the difference in the world! If you have any questions about any of these juicers please don’t hesitate to comment or send me an e-mail.

I chose the “middle” fast to do. My intention  was to juice fast for four days. I’m on day 6.  I’m doing juice and having some tangerines or an apple if I start to feel hungry. Katie is new to cleansing so she chose the beginning fast for 4 days and had a successful result.

On the menu were romaine lettuce, spinach, watercress, parsley, celery, cucumbers, kale, beets, carrots, apples, ginger, lemons, grapefruit, aloe vera and mint. We did 2 sessions of  marathon juicing- preparing ourselves for 2 sessions of 2 days of juice fasting each. Also in the mix were a couple of juices for my husband who was not fasting but is trying to make healthier choices.

We juiced everything separately into large jars and once we were finished juicing everything we made custom mixes in smaller jars. This really worked out nicely. The juices were so beautiful in their individual jars and the mixtures tasted delicious. There are no recipes with this post because I didn’t have any recipes. All I did was look at their website and used their menu. We guessed the proportions by the ingredient list order.

Ready to be mixed.

Here are some of the finished jars waiting to be mixed. Our results are not as sexxy as Pressed Juicery, but they are so pure and perfect for our cleanse.

The aloe vera water and the chlorophyll water were pretty easy to prepare. I admit that filleting aloe leaf is no easy task!   We had a great time laughing at me trying to hold onto that slippery “aloe fish!”  I’d watched a couple YouTube videos to try to figure out how to do it, so luckily everything came out great. Basically you just fillet the aloe vera gel out of the leaf and put in the Vitamix with a little filtered water and lemon juice. Swirl it together and keep in the fridge. You then use that as a concentrate, adding a tablespoon or so to a glass of water for a mild laxitave drink at night.

The chlorophyll water as super easy!  I went to Whole Foods market and bought liquid chlorophyll extract. We added a few drops of this to filtered water and used it throughout the day as a thirst quencher and appetite suppressant.  Chlorophyll water doesn’t taste bad at all,  it’s almost tasteless but it does make your water a beautiful green color. It is good for the lungs and is a nice treat. It does not have any appetite suppressant qualities, it’s just a healthier water drink!

The almond milk is your treat at the end of the day.  We used store bought Almond milk and mixed it with dates, vanilla and a pinch of salt. A few seconds in the Vitamix and WOW!  EXTRA YUMMY!
(I had a BAD experience last summer making my own almond milk. An epic day of sickness followed. I think I poisoned myself.  I am still scarred emotionally. I hope to try to make my own again someday after much more therapy)

The cleanse continues to go well. I’ve lost 10 pounds so far. I am starting to feel like “Me” again in my skin. Regardless of the shameless click inspiring title this is not about losing weight for me, it’s about taking a little more control of myself. I am very happy to be feeling lighter, brighter and much more positive in my outlook. What seemed like an uncertain cloudy 2012, now looks bright and fresh and clean and wide open!