Drinking My Way To A Better Self

I am a binger. It is well known. When I get into something, I really do. Regular exercise? No thanks, but I’ve done 3 5.30am bootcamps in the last year, and go from not doing any running for 9mths to running 5 miles in 2 weeks. My husband despairs of my ADD and my inability to form good habits. My latest obsession? Should I do a detox cleanse? It is right up my alley in terms of quick benefit, requires intense short period of suffering, and comes easily delivered and downed in yummy bottles. I am a lazy, lazy girl.

Why do I want to cleanse? Well, the first thing to state is that it is not about the weight loss. I know that any weight lost during the cleanse is short-term, and will be gained back quickly. I have felt that I've been eating a lot of crap over the winter period, and it would be awesome to start the summer as I mean to go on - clean, fresh, healthy, toxin-free. Hopefully I'll have shiny, bright, clear skin at the end of this, but mostly I'm interested in seeing whether the sudden intox of healthy enzymes kick boosts my energy and gives me a taste for green things. 

The cleanse of choice in NYC is Blueprint Cleanse. They offer 3 different levels, depending on your detox experience and requirements. I’m obviously a beginner cleanser (earlier in the week  I went for burgers at Bill’s – the hip new burger place that Jenny took Nate to for his birthday a few weeks ago on Gossip Girl), and my cleanse would consist of 6 bottles of juice – 2 green ones, a lemon and cayenne pepper drink (that’s for the Master Cleanse peeps out there), a pineapple and mint one, and a beet-based one, as well as their famous Bottle No. 6 Cashew Milk with Cinnamon, Vanilla and Agave. (How yum does that sound?). I really want to do it so bad, but at $65/day for 3 days, it’s a little steep for me.

 

There is a second option, and that’s the head to Liquiteria, which is a juice bar in the East Village which, according to internet gospel (you know it speaks the truth!), can mix up similar juices for you. Apart from the apparently oh-so-good Cashew Milk mix. Liquiteria aren’t cheap either, and 6 juices are approximately $50. Cheaper than Blueprint, but not delivered my door in nice little icepacks. 

Blueprint also publish a book called The 3-Day Cleanse with various juice recipes for a range of cleanses. So maybe I could mix up the juices myself and detox that way. My initial DIY reaction to this is “SCORE!!! I am so there”, but actually, I don’t have a blender, 8 gazillion bottles for storing juice, and really, once I bought all the ingredients at whole foods, I would probably have spent $50/day as well. 

After some serious um-ing and aw-ing, I've decided to try out Liquiteria for the next three days. I've been preparing myself by mostly eating salad for the last couple of days (since the burger really), and man, I'm already hungry! I had my last diet coke at 12.30 today, and my last carbs were a handful of goldfish a couple of hours ago to stave off some serious hunger.