I mentioned yesterday that I was doing the Blueprint Cleanse – it’s a “cleanse” (I hesitate to use that term, because it gives the wrong impression) that consists of 6 juices a day – 4 green juices, 1 spicy lemonade, and 1 thick and creamy nut milk (each 16 ounces). But I’m cheating. Well, let me just do the recap and I’ll explain more later…
Guidelines: 1) You are supposed to wait at least an hour between juices; 2) you can drink unlimited herbal tea and water; 3) you’re supposed to finish at least 2 hours before bed; 4) there are some allowed “cheat” foods.
And guess what? Dori is doing this with me! We wanted to do it together for moral support 🙂 We’ve been gchatting all day long.
Monday – Day 1
6:15am – I wake up. I drink a big mug of water, lemon juice, and cinnamon from 6:30-7:30am while I’m doing work. I also take a probiotic and 2 maca tablets.
7:30am – I do a 30 minute exercise video from ExerciseTV.
9:15am – I get to work and I’m a little hungry so I have my first juice. It’s a green juice and it’s delicious. I drink water and tea after it.
11:45am – I have my second juice. I’m not that hungry, but I figured it was time. This is another green juice.
12:00pm – Oops, maybe I am hungry. Hm. Drink some more tea.
12:30pm – Okay, I really am hungry. I break into juice number 3. It’s another green juice. Yum! I have more tea and more water.
2:45/3:00pm – Yeah, hungry again. I have juice number 4, which is a spicy lemonade (filtered water, lemon, agave nectar, cayenne). I don’t see how this will keep me full for long. I keep having water and herbal tea.
4:30pm – I don’t want to drink anymore because I keep having to pee! This is a lot of liquid.
4:45/5:00pm – Very hungry, so I have juice number 5 (green juice). Yikes – Am I supposed to last on one juice for the rest of the night??
6:30pm – I take a sip of the last “juice” (cashew nut milk with cinnamon) and I’m kind of grossed out. I thought this was supposed to be the best one! It’s heavy and thick and the cinnamon makes it terrible.
7:00pm – I’m talking to Bobby complaining about how horrible this is and how I should never have done it. He says to suck it up.
7:30pm – I get home and drink the rest of the nut milk. It grows on me, but it’s still not my favorite.
8:00pm – I need to chew something. I break out the celery (a cheat food) and have celery dipped in maple syrup (not technically on the cheat list, but maple syrup is in lots of “cleanses” so I figure it’s okay). I also make 2 lemonades (lemon juice, water, and a whole lot of maple syrup).
10:00pm – I go to bed. This is the earliest I have gone to bed since… I don’t even know when. Probably middle school.
Tuesday
Honestly, pretty similar to Monday (but no exercise in the morning – I slept in and then did some errands). But today I cheat a little bit – I have a cup of coffee with some of the cashew milk in the afternoon, and then I have a cup of decaf after that.
At night, I can’t stomach the cashew milk. It’s heavy and it tastes weird to me. Why does everyone else seem to love it? I opt for a big bowl of steamed broccoli topped with some olive oil (I need the fats if I’m not having the nut milk), maple syrup, nutritional yeast (a nutritional powerhouse), and some dill.
Now I’m sipping some extra lemonade that I made (lemon juice, water, maple syrup).
Maybe I’ll go to bed early again tonight… or maybe I’ll do some work. I have some stuff I wanted to get done before tomorrow.
How do I feel?
Honestly, the best I have in a long time. I have a pretty bad case of IBS (or something?) and I was constantly bloated for the last month (at least)… but not now. I obviously can’t live on green juices for the rest of my life, but this is a nice break. I’m looking forward to my last day (tomorrow, Wednesday), but after that I’ll go back to eating normal foods. Maybe my stomach will be okay for a few days – I can only hope!
Maybe this shows that you can do a healing cleanse without being unhealthy or miserable. I don’t know if I would recommend doing this without cheating, because it doesn’t seem like a lot of calories, especially if you are tall (I’m just about 5’10”) or active. For me it’s been awesome because I feel like my digestive system is finally working properly.
I’ll do a more detailed post of exactly what the juices contained, the instructions that come with them, and more – after my final day.
Have you ever done anything like this? Or any other type of “cleanse”?
Wow–this is so interesting. I heard about this on another blog ages ago and have been curious about it. It definitely doesn’t seem like much food/calories, but after the indulgent holiday like the one I had, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your experience with your last day.
As mentioned in email girl, I am beyond impressed! No I have never cleansed, BUT As mentioned, did massive trial and error and finally removing dairy, gluten and soy got my GI system on track, got my food intolerances under control, and just has been so beneficial. So a cleansing of sorts, just not the traditional type of “cleanse”. I’m 5-10″ or 5’11” depending on the day 🙂 too!
seems like this works !! thanks for sharing this story – I have heard about this kind of cleansing method before, but never have the gut to try it out. I feel bloated these days..due to the heavy holiday eatings…a cleansing of the body might be a really good idea!!
Great post!! I will post mine tomorrow or Thursday. I wish I could do ALL cashew milks, so sorry you don’t love it. It totally redeems my day. Glad you love the greens though, that really helps. I want to wear a bikini, I don’t recognize my belly without lumpy bloat!
I have REALLY wanted to try this! Thanks for the review. I have cleansed before, 6 days i think. And I felt SOOO much cleaner afterwards that was about 3 years ago so probably time for me to another. I truly believe our bodies need breaks from processed cooked foods and digesting in general. Thank you for the review!
I remember Dori had a really good experience the first time she did this, and I remember her loving the cashew juice. I have done a cleanse two times in the past that involved rice protein shakes all day and then a dinner consisting of raw salads or steamed veggies for 7 days. Most people did the rice protein shakes ALL day, but I needed food and wanted to make sure I was getting enough calories. Don’t know why I haven’t done one again lately. Always feel amazing by day 3. The first 2, I’m just angry due to no caffeine. 🙂
ive been intrigued by this but had the same concern that you basically confirmed…i think i would keel over with only juices, but i guess ill never know. still very interesting. thanks for sharing!
I’m glad it’s working for you and you’re not miserable! I like how the juices are all different colors… still, I know I’d be starving (and I’m around your height, 5’9″).
I did a cleanse last year and couldn’t believe how great I felt the next day. My cleanse was only for 1 day. My stomach has never felt better. I need to do that again.
Whoa that looks like a shizload of liquid! I would be peeing non-stop. I’m interested to see how it all goes!
I have done the “master cleanse” with the lemonade, pepper, and maple syrup as well as a cleanse by M’Lis which involved cleansing, detoxifying, and fiber supplements along with days of the lemonade drink and fruits and veggie days. I couldn’t stay on the plain lemonade one long enough for it to really work, but I did the M’lis for about a week and it did seem to cure me of the stomach problems I was having.
I’ve never done a cleanse and don’t know that I have the willpower to do it. The closes I’ve come to it is fasting before Easter. I’ve only done that once and I cheated even with that. I’m not very religious, but I figure that soo many cultures fast, so I would give it try. Not for me.
It’s great that this has helped with your stomach issues though. I would be totally starving!!
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Raw food diet for the month of January! That’s my kind of cleanse 😉 I don’t know that doing an all-liquids thing would work out for me. Thanks for sharing your experiences with it though! It sounds very interesting.
Heheh this post made me giggle and giggle! You are so funny Maggie. But it does sound interesting! You purchased the juices correct? That’s part of the actual cleanse? Hmm. When I want to kind of detoxify I just cut out all carbs all together and salt too. Salt does not like me, I realized! Being so obsessed with food and cooking, for a loooong time I thought salt was the flavor secret to cooking! But I realized it was the culprit for my bloating, my bad mood because of bloating, upset stomach and my dislike/fear for certain foods. I’ve been going easy on the salt for the past 6 weeks or so, and I’ve felt better than ever. Water too. Lots and lots of water. With lemon! Never have done an actual cleanse though. I never ate on prom day in highschool, and that was bad enough! I don’t know how the starlets handle themselves.