Bye bye solid foods; easing into a juice cleanse

If you flip through a magazine or turn on the television at times you might see some celebrity talking about cleanses.

One that seems to be extremely popular is the Master Cleanse also called the Lemonade Diet. The ingredients consist of lemons, pure maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and purified water. That’s it!

I’ve heard about this cleanse for years, and although some claim that it’s healthy, I have a hard time believing that based on the ingredients used.

How can that be healthy following that routine for several days? I think one of the main reasons it has become popular is because of the amount of weight some have lost. I can see how that’s possible, but it’s not a healthy way to lose weight.

I do enjoy juice cleanses the difference between the liquid cleanses I use, and something like the Master Cleanse is I’m not depriving my body of nutrients, I receive my nutrients from freshly juiced vegetables and fruit – whole foods in liquid form.

I make sure I’m receiving adequate nutrients to match my active lifestyle.

Yesterday I decided to ease into the juice cleanse with an extremely delicious “green soup” that I created.

Mustard greens are plentiful in my garden, so I picked about six cups of them. Ginger, garlic, onion, garden tomatoes and corn, were quickly added to my food processor, and I blended everything. Although I could have eaten this soup raw, I decided to heat the soup.

My daughter loves the soups I make, but some of the ingredients added to this soup (garlic and ginger) would have been overpowering (for her) in its raw forum. “Mom, that’s too spicy!” would have been the comment I received, accompanied by an accusing stare. I added the puree into a stock pot, and added three cups of water, balsamic vinegar, and sea salt to taste.

I let the soup cook down for an hour. The soup turned out  delicious. It was nutritious and filling. In my daughter’s soup, I added about 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast. I stirred and served. The results? My daughter said, “Mommy this is unusual but very yummy!” My main course was a bowl of the delicious of green soup, however it was my daughters appetizer. Her main course was a homemade vegan pizza.

Lessons learned from my first cleanse

In my early twenties, I did my first juice cleanse. Even before I became Vegan I did choose healthy foods. It’s how I was raised, and when I lived on my own, I incorporated many of the principles into my eating lifestyle.

However, fasting from solids made me realize that sometimes I ate out of habit. I wasn’t really hungry since my body was used to eating at a certain times, it gave me “cues” to eat even if I wasn’t hungry.

After that first experience, I only eat when I’m hungry. I’ve been on several cleanses since my twenties, and really enjoy taking a break from solid foods.

 Cravings

The one thing I crave when I’m drinking liquids, is a vegetable pot pie. Homemade pot pies were one of my favorite meals, and I associate them with cooler days, snuggling by the fire, sipping a cup of herbal tea, book in hand as I savor my delicious pot pie. I’ll be preparing a Vegetable pot pie a few days after I start eating solid foods.

Question: Have you ever tried a juice cleanse?

Photo: Suat Eman