Welcome Table

Swag Bags

Photo by Joie in Town & Country Village

Joie Opening Celebration

Hydrangeas

On Right: Amy Wicks, Fashion Editor at Polyvore

Jessica Doll (Back Left) of Hej Doll & Elisabeth Wallace (Middle) of The Abstract Life

Left Foreground: Nancy (Left) of spiffykerms, Melissa San Vincente (Center) of MELSANV, & Elisabeth Wallace (Right) of The Abstract Life

French Macarons & Mums

French Macarons Party Favors

Outfit for Fashion Event by the abstractlife on polyvore.com

Day 6 - Closing

Not to be cliche, but this week has been a journey. I had a goal to make it this week, as the longest I've done a juice cleanse was 4 days. Blogging about it really helped motivate me and I feel great. Not only do I feel good from a simple, clean diet but I accomplished my goal and maintained regular blog posts all week (all are big deals from the typical binge eating, procrastinating, TV marathoner that I can be). It feels great my friends!

Lifestyle Tips for Juice Cleansing: Before, During, & After

A Week to a Few Days Before:

Plan Ahead It's easiest if you plan your cleanse ahead of time and can appropriately prepare. Get your dormant Type A personality out and color code your calendar for your chosen juicing week to get yourself excited, try creative recipes to use up what food you have, research juicing (ahem, thanks for reading this blog), clean your home and fridge, etc. Whatever you need to feel comfortable and ready to commit.

Know What Works for Your Lifestyle Like so many things in life, DO WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOU! I like having a clean home, no food in the house (the less to taunt me), and to plan on juice cleansing on weekdays. My weekends are for hanging out with my man and going on adventures-not ideal for juicing. If you live with others-let your loved ones know you intend to cleanse. They may scoff at it or be negative, but stay positive! You can model good health and positivity as a rebuttal. If you want to, explain the reasons why you're doing this and what it means to you.

Diet Some people find it's helpful to cut out meats and heavy fats at least a few days before starting a cleanse. My sister eats vegan-and mostly fruits and veggies-a few days before she cleanses. It is a softer transition that way. I also STRONGLY suggest no alcohol the week before.

Stock Up on Hydrating Options I love herbal teas, especially by Yogi Teas. I like to get exciting flavors or fancy teas-to make it feel like a luxury or special treat while cleansing. I also find DeTox teas from Yogi to be helpful. Some people like fruit infused waters. You can buy them or make your own. See blogger Joyful Scribblings' Recipes Here.

Talk to Your Doctor Not everyone should do a juice cleanse. Talk to your healthcare professional and determine if it is a good fit for you. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have hypoglycemia-low blood sugar-and have higher caloric and protein needs than most might on juice cleanse. I get a customized juice cleanse to meet my personal needs and don't jeopardize my body's health.

During:

Journal It helps! Commit to at least one journal experience each day you're juicing. Jot down feelings, observations, and reminders as to why you're doing this. It not only helps you stay focused and learn things during the cleanse but it's good to go back and read over afterwards.

Light Activity This is not the time to pick up your dusty gym back and tackle the 10k you've been meaning to sign up for. If you want to stay active I suggest going for a walk or doing yoga. Yoga is especially good because it can help alleviate tension in your body that can lead to emotional releases as well. Flush toxins out of your body in more way than one.

Limit Going Out A lot of socializing centers around food and drinks. Limiting your social engagements can help prevent temptation and frustration.

Exfoliate More Your body is going through detox and is trying to push out those toxins multiple ways-not only through your gut but your skin. You may notice your skin looking a little dull or have some acne problems. Exfoliating your whole body not only gets rid of dead skin but helps with circulation and benefits your lymph nodes.

Bathroom Awareness Your body is cleaning house when it starts detoxing. This can create different reactions. Some people's bodies react strongly when removing waste matter and toxins from the colon. You could feel sick and spend more time in the bathroom than usual (not just from having to pee all the time). Listen to your body and its needs.

After:

Soft Transition Okay. You're off the cleanse and dying to eat. LET'S GO EAT A BURGER A GOAT THAT HORSE THAT COUCH NOM NOM NOM!!! JK. This is not the time to go crazy. Remember why you did this in the first place and treat your body with kindness. Start slow. Think fruits, vegetables, and nuts. I like to wean myself off the cleanse by doing some meals as juices still and some as solids. Great options are soup, salad, fruit, rice, chia seeds, oatmeal, etc. Once you're back to a full day of solid meals think of easier to digest meat or protein. Tofu, seafood, or healthy Japanese food is my go to. Eat light and slow. Really chew your food and concentrate on how this food is providing nutrients for you.

No Alcohol, Heavy Fats, or Lots of Sugars When you first start back to eating you don't want to put these in you system for a while. They could tear through you and give you at least a headache or even a really bad IBS experience.

Pro-biotics It's important to replenish your colon with good bacteria. Your detox flushed everything out and you want the healthy bacteria to flourish.

Have a Game Plan Be intentional with your eating and health and have a plan. It can be easy to fall back into our old bad habits. Use this experience and fresh start to feel good about what you accomplished and motivate yourself to live better.

Let me know what your thoughts and experiences are on juice cleansing. What motivates you to become healthier and push yourself to be the best person you can be? 

Happy National Fresh Squeezed Juice Day!!! 

Day 5

When I was told this was going on during my week long cleanse I was so excited. It was meant to be! In honor of this recent discovery I'm going to talk about my favorite juice chain-Pressed Juicery.
History

Pressed Juicery is California's leading cold-pressed juice chain. It was founded by three friends in 2010 out of LA. They came with a vision of promoting health awareness and the nutrition of fresh juices to others with the ease and ability to incorporate it in everyday life.

Where/How Can I Get Pressed Juicery? 

They started off small and now have grown to have locations (either presently or coming soon) in Southern California, Northern California, Las Vegas, NY, Hawaii, and Seattle. Don't live in those areas? Don't worry about it! I have the benefit of their being local and can go pick up my own juices (which is cheaper). However, Pressed Juicery offers nationwide delivery or door delivery if you're local (DoorDash and Postmates).


Cleanses Offered

They currently offer three different levels of cleanses based on your needs or newness to juicing. The discretion is up to you. Think Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear here.

Cleanse 1 - Meant for beginners or those with higher caloric or protein needs or people who get hangry (angry + hungry). This would be the Mama Bear Cleanse for most people.
Cleanse 2 - I'm calling this the Baby Bear Cleanse. It's the most popular and in-between as far as calories go. It's meant for maintaing a healthy lifestyle-but not necessarily meant to be a big disrupter.
Cleanse 3 - Papa Bear! This is meant for experienced juicers. It is the most intense cleanse with the least amount of calories.

Sooo what is my personal preference? Well, I have hypoglycemia (low blow sugar) and need more calories and proteins to sustain me throughout the day so I need to stick to a variation of the "Cleanse 1". I tried Cleanse 2 and just wasn't getting enough calories to sustain my individual health needs. This is just my own personal needs and preference.

Photo Credit: The Chalkboard Mag

Hydrate! Pictured: Chlorophyll H20

Photo Credit: Natalie Schlegel Photography

Pressed Juicery - Chlorophyl H2O & Greens 3 Day 2 Lessons Learned:  Sooooo caffeine withdrawal is a real thing.  On the second day I learned you can get headaches and feel lethargic from lack of caffeine. I have really been on a coffee kick lately so I didn't realize how much this would affect me this go around. It's a good experience to get my body back to neutral because I didn't realize how much caffeine and sugar I was consuming. I can really feel the difference. BUT I also can remember how I was able to do things fine without as much caffeine and sugar binge eating. So I am excited to "get clean" and start over.  Less energy at first, but it gets better... No brainer with caffeine withdrawal right? What can I say? I'm a slow learner. This cleanse is really clearing my mind and giving me time back from cooking or just my time slots formally filled with bored snacking. So I felt motivated the first day to get all these things done around the house and start going through paperwork, closets, etc. (the "CLEAN ALL THE THINGS" meme comes to mind...).  I slowly started to run out of personal batteries though and wasn't able to focus. Half finished projects littered half my place and I was sitting in the middle just overwhelmed. Did I mention I missed my focus driven, energy pepping coffee? I had to sit the rest of the day out of projects. Day 2 was a little easier though. My body wasn't as confused. I kept busy with my day job and in the evening I went furniture shopping with an interior design client and I was good. I didn't take on anything too overwhelming and kept juices in my purse to sip on throughout the afternoon/evening.  Have you ever tried to go off caffeine or felt overwhelmed by projects? Tell me about it! I'd love to hear your stories.

Pressed Juicery - "Greens 3" In pursuit of a healthier and happier body I am doing a week long juice cleanse with Pressed Juicery. I am doing a customized cleanse, but it's closest to their "Cleanse 1." Since I work from home I often sit all day, consuming more than I need to and snack/binge eat not-so-healthy things out of: Boredom Emotional Eating Mad Cravings  Guilt/Obligation (i.e: Someone gives it to me, or I bought it for my boyfriend-or so I tell myself-and he hasn't eaten it so I don't want it to go to waste) Convenience/Laziness (I'm on video calls all day and don't feel like cooking or grocery shopping so I eat the less healthy pre-made options around the house) So when I discovered Pressed Juicery at Santana Row-a VERY convenient, delicious, and relatively cost effective juicing option I loved it! Quick, no cooking, no clean up, and it tastes amazing? SIGN ME UP! I've done two 3-Day cleanses from Pressed Juicery before. The first one (when I was already on a health kick) was so easy I told my sister I honestly didn't understand all the information and posts I read where people were complaining all the time and saying it was something you needed to do when you could just lie around and not see people. The second cleanse can only be described as, "OMG NOW I UNDERSTAND!"  So I am trying again and this time I have a goal of a whole week (I know, I'm crazy). I really want to give it a chance to cleanse my gut and detox. I intend to restart my metabolism and eat healthier and more balanced meals after I'm done with this cleanse. As I mentioned my reasons above for why I tend to binge eat or even just eat regular, poorly balanced meals (mostly carbs and proteins, lacking greens) I am hoping afterwards my body chemistry will be a little more balanced and it will be easier to fight these poor reasons a little better. Have I mentioned I just really struggle with wanting to eat greens???  I will be posting discoveries as the week goes on. Let me know if there are any questions or research you want answered.  NOTE: This provides all the normal calories someone of my body weight/height should consume-I AM NOT FASTING/STARVING MYSELF!!! PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT! My goal for doing this is to detox my body-not to lose weight! If you are looking for fast weight loss this probably isn't the right thing for you.