Blueprint Cleanse: Play-By-Play Diary
Last Thursday, I started a three-day juice cleanse from BlueprintCleanse called Renovation, which is the starter level among two other options. It involved drinking six juices per day made from raw fruits, vegetables and other does-a-body-good stuff. Let me preface by saying I LOVE food and am not usually a healthy eater. I just exercise a lot to balance out my bad habits.
Instead of doing a straight up review, I decided to do a play-by-play diary of my experience on the cleanse. I took notes in the moment…even when I whined and had TMI thoughts. Check it out after the jump!
DAY ONE: Thursday, July 29
9:45 AM: Felt a little full even after the first sip! Tastes like a mix of wheat grass and apple juice. It’s taking me a long time to drink this and I feel a little queezy like taking medicine on empty stomach. I didn’t follow the guidance from Blueprint about preparing your body for the cleanse ahead of time…this is probably why I feel a little queezy.
2:30 PM: No more queezy, but the hunger is getting to me. I can’t wait until cashew nut milk later! I heard it’s goooood! I’m kind of freezing. What is going on? Is it the office or the cleanse? I think it’s the cleanse and I like it! I’m also feeling pretty energized.
4:30 PM: Spicy Lemonade, where have you been all my life?
6:15 PM: Walking to to the Lauren by Ralph Lauren handbag preview while sipping the beet juice. Not my fav, but like the Ginger taste. Oops, just spilled beet juice on my top…it’s the color of wine…awesome! Mmm, wine sounds good right now…and cheese. FML
8:05 PM: Walking home thinking about cashew almond milk…which is supposed to be yummmmmy. Everyone I pass looks like a taco. Mmm tacos…doh!
9:10 PM: Mmm cashew nut milk…better than I thought it could be! I wanna be tired so I can go to bed feeling full and content like I do right now. My brain is fried and can’t finish my work…oops.
10:30 PM: Just took Tylenol PM…need a lil help tonight. This is probs beyond TMI, but I think I’ve peed 30 times today.
DAY TWO: Friday, July 30
8:15 AM: Woke up after a good night of sleep and not feeling hungry, drinking water with lemon. The BlueprintCleanse peeps suggested it as a way to get your system working right away. I’m taking a half day off work today, so it might be a little harder to pass the time between juices.
9:30 AM: Juice numero uno for the day - the Green. Most people love it, but it’s a little hard for me to drink because I have a strong pallete. I just made the bf take a sip…he says it’s not bad!
1:30 PM: Crap! I’m behind on my juices! Time for the Pineapple Mint drink…yumm! It tastes like a Mojito! That was easy!
3:30 PM: Still behind schedule! Number three is the Green juice again…tough! Spicy Lemonade is next…it’s getting me through this one and my favorite (it actually inspired me to create a cocktail like it…not until a few days after the cleanse, of course).
5:00 PM: All caught up! Spicy Lemonade was as good as I hoped but disappeared too fast!
6:01 PM: So hungry and starting to have an internal negotiation about if I can quit the cleanse. ”I’ve experienced it enough to understand it…I’m not doing it to lose weight. Wahhh…NO! You’ve come this far! At least finish day two! Okay…shrugs…
8:30 PM: Okay, so the directions give you a cheat sheet telling you what you should eat if you feel like you’re going to break. A few pieces of celery, slices of cucumber, low sodium vegetable broth or a 1/4th of an avocado. I bought celery and veggie broth and made myself a mini soup. It definitely helped. I then slurped down the beet drink (plugging my nose helps because my palette is extremely strong).
10:15 PM: Cashew nut milk shake time!! Tastes too good to be true. Taking a Tylenol PM because I have a little headache.
DAY THREE (LAST DAY):
10:15 AM: Slept sooo well! Just weighed out of curiosity on my Wii Fit…lost 3.7 lbs since starting two days ago. I did eat bad the night before I weighed though, so it’s prob more like 2 lbs. I’ve been thinking about doing cleanse til dinner tonight and ending early, but maybe not. I’ve come so far!! Time for green juice!
1:00 PM: Still surviving, but it’s so hard to do on a sunny Saturday. I would love to go for a run, but don’t have the drive right now. My energy level is okay though…much better than I would expect considering my 1200 calories per day cleanse.
4:30 PM: Spicy Lemonade…I don’t think I’m supposed to, but I added a little extra cayenna pepper. I LOVE spicy and this is the last of this juice!
6:15 PM: Just ordered sushi for the boyfriend and myself. I chose the cucumber-avodcado-romain roll and am only going to eat half of it. Yes, that means a little bit of sticky rice and low sodium soy sauce, but I could have done much worse. If I didn’t, this would cause me to binge tomorrow…talk about counter productive! I’m also eating a few pieces of celery.
7:30 PM: Skipping the Beet-Apple-Ginger juice since I had a little food. Drinking a green herbal tea from Starbucks. I’m not supposed to use sweeteners, so I added a little Cashew Nut Milk – tastes good!
9:30 PM: Cashew Nut Milk time! Yay, I did it!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I’m definitely not cut out for a cleanse, hence the whining throughout my diary, but this blew my mind! I would definitely do it again, but probably only two days of just juices or 3-5 of the juice-til-dinner option, which allows you to eat dinner.
My biggest take-away?
The experience educated me about the importance of incorporating raw foods into your daily diet. I’m not an expert, but know part of the reason I stayed energized was because the cleanses are designed to aid digestion, making it so your body won’t have to work as hard. For my first meal afterward, I ordered a green bean veggie salad with a lemon vinaigrette and one scrambled egg with pepper.
Ordering BlueprintCleanse:
The Renovation cleanse ranges from $60 – $80 per day depending on if you choose to pick-up, NYC delivery or nationwide delivery. There are several other offerings if you’re looking for something more advanced or want to try a juice-til-dinner option. If you order with three friends, you can get a group discount of 10% off, and it’s probably a lot easier to do with friends because you can be cheerleaders for one another! More details are here.
Photo Credits: BlueprintCleanse, Rockiescast, Flickr (Dianne’s Dishes)
I’m jealous ’cause this sounds awesome! Maybe I could put together my own juices. I can’t afford $100 a day! 1200 calories a day is about what I always try (between 800-1200) when I’m dieting… but I work at home and am not bustling around NYC on foot burning calories!
RT @clutch_22: Play-by-play diary of my 3-day juice cleanse @bpcleanse (the good, bad and ugly moments of weakness): http://www.clutch22.com/2010/08/04/bluep...
via Twitoaster
how did you feel in the following days?
Janine – I think it’s $80 per day if you live outside of NYC (b/c of delivery…they have to do same-day to keep it cold and fresh) and you could get a 10% off if you do it with two other people. Sometimes they do specials too. Hopefully Blueprint will expand to your area at some point too!
Vyque – I felt great! I’ve been wanting to be healthy, eating more greens…even craving more greens. It’s weird…normally all I want are fries and candy.
loved your play-by-play!! I just signed up for my 2nd BP Cleanse for next week. But after my first cleanse, it made me decide to adapt a raw food lifestyle. You can’t beat the energy you feel…why shouldn’t you feel great all the time, right?
thanks for your post!
I have been juicing with BluePrint for a while now and really like their Juice Till Dinner one day cleanse – in fact I have been doing it once a week for a few weeks. I cannot recommend it higher! Congrats on your hard work!
Thanks for the play by play! I felt exactly as you did. However, I didn ‘t like the spicy lemonade because I don’t like spicy things. So, i had two juices to down. The lemonade and beet. Everyone said if you can drink the green one you can do any of them. But, I’m with you. Beet juice….BAD!! I’m finishing my third day right now. I did feel light headed when playing tennis and did not ever feel a ton of energy. Oh well….I did lose weight though. So it’s a win!!
I’ve done three BluPrint cleanses and have my fourth booked for later this month. Doing these cleanses has definitely affected what I now choose to eat on a daily basis. Highly recommend! Also seems as though everyone is affected different during the actual cleanse. I never feel hungry but fall asleep early and sleep right through the night (highly unusual).
Loved this – A few of my coworkers did this cleanse and it looked pretty brutal. You know, faces about the juice flavors, complaining about hunger and the works. However, it seems like your experience was a little more delicious! And to end with a little sushi – well that sounds just great
Girl, I don’t even know how you made it through! I tried it a few months ago and only got through 2 juices before I thought I would eat my arm off.
Lovely blog!
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wow they look so yummy and fresh. i wanna try