Cleansing 101

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So we (Lauren (best friend for life), Tara (sister) and I), started the Catalyst Cleanse yesterday.  Actually, Tara is doing her own juicing, but she is following along with Lauren and I with the 6 juices every two hours.  It was a hard day 1.  I had a headache around 2:30pm, and Lauren and I had to remind ourselves that if we had eaten all the watermelon in the 4th juice, we'd be so full we'd pop.  Alas, Day 1 is done, and now we're on to Day 2.

Here are my thoughts on the different juices:

Juice 1: Cucumber, Celery, Apple, Parsley, Spinach, Lemon, Lime, Ginger

Way too much Cucumber Taste!  It's funny though, Lauren thought it was way too much Celery Taste.  Isn't it crazy how peoples taste-buds act so differently! Otherwise it was a nice green clean way to start the day. A little bitter for me though.

Juice 2: Lemon, Agave, Cayenne

Yuck!  That was my first reaction.  Pure yuck!  It was too sweet.  I actually had to water it down, it was too sweet.  I thought this was going to be lemonade-y, but it wasn't it was more like agave syrup-y!  Once I watered it down, about 3 to 1, water to juice, ratio, I liked it a lot.  It was refreshing and a nice little "snack"

Juice 3: Carrot, Apple, Celery, Lemon, Lime

THANK GOD!  I needed some substance.  Thank goodness for the carrots and apples in this mid-day Juice #3 that came right at lunch time.  I was really needing a juice with some substance. 

Juice 4: Watermelon, Lime

After not being able to open the first bottle of Juice #4, and having to get tomorrow's bottle out of the fridge (can't wait til I have to attempt opening it again), finally sipping this bad boy was worth the struggle.  Yum!  As Lauren said, this one was like a Watermelon Italian Ice.  Just enough sweet to get me passed the afternoon sweet/snack crave, but still refreshing!  Good Job Catalyst Cleanse! 

Juice 5: Cucumber, Celery, Apple, Parsley, Spinach, Lemon, Lime, Ginger

Same thoughts as Juice 1, because they are the same green concoction.

Juice 6:

YUM!!!  It's like dessert.  Thank goodness.  I needed something rewarding after today.  My boyfriend Danny brought Pizza Hut Pizza in the car on the way home and I needed all the willpower I could get not to have a bite.  I resisted!  This was a nice rewarding treat for being so good.  Kinda like ice cream in a bottle, but healthy!

The whole day in general wasn't too bad.  I thought it'd be a lot more difficult.  I did have a headache from hunger after 830pm, but slept it off and was feeling great morning of Day 2!  Onto more juicing!  Horray!

My Last Supper...

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Last night I had my LAST MEAL, before I started my the 3-day Catalyst Cleanse today.  I was cooking for Danny and I (and my sister who only ate the veggies, because she was already juicing), so of course I had to make enough protein and manly food for Danny, while satisfying my need to "ween" myself into the cleanse with some fresh veggies and raw foods.

What did I make?  Chicken with white wine sauce, (recipe to come at a later date - but YUM!), green beans and grilled veggies.  I always love when summer comes, because veggies are so fresh and grilling them brings out their flavor in such a simply way. 

I started with the basics: Eggplant, red pepper, and farmers market local jersey zucchini! 

(love that the farmer's markets are open in new jersey).

 

I kept it simple.  Just cut the veggies into strips (for the pepper) and eggplant and zucchini into circles (is that the right term, no, probably not.  Welcome to Erica's language.)

After they were all cut, I sprinkled with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Now to the girll.  Just simply place them on the grill, so they start to sear and get the grill stripes.  I kept a small bowl of olive oil, salt and pepper next to the grill with a basting brush to keep the veggies moist as they were on the grill.

Viola!  The finished product.  Yum!  I love summer veggies.  The whole process takes about 20 minutes.

Juice Cleansing! A New First!

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I am often the friend who can be talked into doing things.  My philosophy is always try something once.  If you love it, do it again.  If you hate it, well, then you know!

About 5 years ago, I tried my first cleanse.  It was the master cleanse- you know, the one where all you drink is water, flavored with palm syrup, cayenne pepper, and lemon - the one all the celebrities were doing.   Aka you drink spicy lemonade all day long.  It was tough, but i kinda (secretly) liked it.

Well, lately my friends have been doing juice cleanses. lots of them. all different types.  The BluePrintCleanse and the Catalyst Cleanse have been the most popular, so when my best friend asked me to buy one courtesy of RueLaLa.com and join her, I jumped to it.

We selected a date, May 30th, as our start date.  HOWEVER, to our dismay, since everyone and their brother bought the cleanse from the same RueLaLa sale we did, there were no available weeks to start until July.  Bummer!  We totally wanted to get jumping before the summer was off to a start.  Alas, we settled on a July 18th start date for our 3 day adventure.

Fast forward to yesterday, June 11th.... I received an email in my inbox from "UPS QUANTUM VIEW" announcing that my catalyst cleanse shipment had just shipped.  SURPRISE! We are cleansing this week.  Boy oh boy, talk about jumping right into it. No time to prepare, mentally, no time to ween ourselves off of the sweets, alcohol, meats, etc.  Here we go head first!

Well my 18 bottles of juice arrived today, and I'm ready to start.  I'll keep you posted in the next three days on how its going...WISH ME LUCK!