The Scoop:

In case you missed the last post, I was doing a little research on a new offering at one of my favorite places to eat, Evolution Fresh. Their 3 Day Juice Ritual intrigued me, and after explaining what I wanted to do {do a real life road test to share with all of you}, EF was awesome enough to donate their juices to the cause, in return for some candid feedback. What you read below is a reflection of my own opinion and experience, just as I would share with any one of you who asked me personally. Please consult your own doctor before embarking on any cleansing or detoxification program.

The Overall Plan: While the 3 Day Juice Ritutal is an official name at Evolution Fresh, there are actually no specific guidelines that you have to follow, which I like. When it comes to cleanses, I think the most important thing is to be listening to your body, even more so than usual, so I like the open-ended approach that they suggest. What it does include is one juice pack for each of the three days- with six juices per day as their initial suggestion.

How Does It Work?: You go into Evolution Fresh and can either pick up their set juice packs {Easy, Balanced or Green, pictured below}, or customize your own selection from all of their options (awesome). You can pick up all three juice packs at once, or take 1-2 and come back a day later to see what you feel like.

What does it cost?: Each Juice Pack was around $30, or $5/bottle, or approx $90 for the week, not including food (which didn’t end up being much).

What Did You Avoid for 3 Days?:  No coffee, alcohol, added sugar, salt, dairy, grains, snacking, and processed foods.

What Did You Consume for 3 Days?:  Knowing that I wouldn’t feel my best and healthiest with just juice (this isn’t my first rodeo), I knew I was going to add in some food when I needed it over the course of the 3 days.  In addition to the great EF juices (vegetable, fruit, and coconut water based), I focused on drinking a lot of water and had green tea in the mornings. If I was going to eat, I’d stick with raw vegetables, salads, raw nuts, avocados, beans/lentils and a bit of organic meat if I needed it, because I know that’s what my body functions best on. Some people avoid meat entirely on a cleanse, but add in whole grains some days, or some just eat salads and veggies and keep it totally raw.

What Happened: Well, read on.

Tuesday 9/4, Day 1:

6am: Green tea, Water

9:30am: Workout at Fly Fitness. 30 min on the spin bike and 30 min with weights. Feeling good and excited to pump myself full of good stuff for the week. I can hear my organs already shouting– “yes!! here we go!” Really. Me and myself have conversations like this a lot. Water.

11am: Stop by the EF Bellevue store to pick up my 3 juice packs. They are so nice and helpful there, it makes you just want to hang out. Any question I asked was met with “we can basically do anything, any combo you like, any food you want to add on, etc”, which I love. Rigid cleanses weird me out, and everyone is a little bit different in terms of what works well for them. It’s like a choose your own adventure.

11:30am: Juice #1, Essential Vegetable Juice (really good, greens with some beets, carrots and fruit), water.

1pm: Vital Greens Juice, water.

1:30pm: EF house salad (really good, esp for a pre-packaged salad!) with their balsamic dressing + 1 small avocado. Mental note to add cilantro & parsley to my own salad sometime, or go to EF and pick up a few for my busy weeks. Water.

3pm: 1/2 Cucumber- Ginger Juice (hmm.. not my favorite).

5pm: Sweet Greens with Lemon (greens but with some apple in there too). Definately hungry, but feeling good and hydrated at least.

8pm: Hungry and feeling full of liquid.  Had a small cup lentil soup + handful garbanzo beans for dinner. I know day 1 of any sort of cleanse always makes you feel weird until your body gets the hang of all the extra substances you’re putting in, so just being patient with the process.
Day 1, Notes to Self: Too much sugar for my system (this is just the way I am personally. I can’t eat much fruit, otherwise I puff up a bit and feel a little weak.) The juices that I had today, while great tasting, all seemed too sweet for my tastes. I’ll try all green juices tomorrow, and maybe less of them and see how I feel. 6 is way to many for me  to get through!

Wednesday 9/5, Day 2:

Today’s Plan: Veggie and hardcore greens juices today, and less of them overall than yesterday.

7am: Green tea & water. Didn’t feel like juice at all this morning, so stuck with water and tea.

9am: 60 min spin class @ Fly, more water

12:30pm: EF Green Salad (yup, still love this), water.

1pm: Vital Greens Juice (hardcore greens. pretty refreshing)

2pm: Small kale salad (my favorite homemade pesto kale) + 3 slices organic turkey because I felt like I needed something  little bit more substantial and filling. Water.

4pm: Vital Greens Juice over ice (highly recommend). Maybe they can even serve it this way in the store for you? Make a mental note to ask.

5:30pm: 1/2 Spicy Lemonade (yum– a great change up in taste. Still sweet, but at this point I’ve given up on that feeling.)

7:30pm: 2 cups pesto kale salad

Day 2, Notes to Self: Insane amounts of energy today!! I can definitely tell an increase, which I love. I miss chewing my food. I miss getting excited for my lunch and dinner. I definitely feel better personally with less sugar and the non fruit juices, and less of them. I needed some protein and heavier food in the day to help ground me, and I’m glad I did. I’m realizing that this is the same as I normally eat, plus juices added in (which I realize is  bit unique), so tomorrow I want to try just my 2 little meals and a juice or two to have as a nice energy booster. From a cleansing perspective, elimination is less than normal, which makes sense without all the fiber and less food overall.

Thursday 9/6, Day 3:

Today’s Plan: 1-2  green based juices, 2 smaller meals

7:30am: green tea & water

11am: Sweet Greens with Lemon over ice, water. I feel good just looking at the green juice. Mental boost 🙂

12pm: 30 min spin + 30 min weights class @ Fly, water and more water. Had great energy the entire class.

1:30pm: 1/2 Vital Greens + small collard green wrap with veggies & hummus + baby tomatoes. Still hungry. I push through. Day 3 baby! Going strong.

4pm: Think about having another juice, but it just doesn’t sound good. Decide that I’m ready for some good, organic meat for dinner to help fill me up.

6:30pm: homemade turkey chili + avocado with sea salt & pepper. I feel awesome afterward.

The Verdict:

1. A great experience overall, and much more mellow experience than it initially sounded like.

2. This would be the perfect cleanse for beginners, and people who are trying to eat healthier but have a lot of vices and habits to break. The juices give you a new (positive) habit, and they take the place of any crashing or hardcore detox symptoms throughout the day.

3. With the customized pack, you can choose whatever “flavors” you like, and you can progressively get more intense with more green juices dominating by the end. By the end of the 3 days, you may find that your energy is HIGHER  and longer lasting through the day after a fresh juice than any coffee or sugar, which is pretty amazing if you think about it. Bodies love veggies.

4. This is not a weight loss cleanse— but it depends what you were eating and doing before, of course. There is not much elimination because most of the nutrients you are having are already broken down for you, which is the point of a juice cleanse– to give your digestive system a break. It’s more of a feel good- pump yourself full of vitamins-hydration-sort of cleanse, at least in my opinion and experience.

Overall personal observations (or for my intermediate & advanced healthy eaters on a more normal basis):

1. My body doesn’t feel good with sugar– even too much natural sugar. But I might be a special case. I ended my 3 days and felt energized, but a little bit more bloated than normal. This makes sense to me, as it is more than I would eat/drink together on a normal day. Nothing takes the place of eating well day in and day out, and listening to your own body’s needs. It’s still nice to mix up the normal pace of things though.

2. Complementing the juices with fiber rich foods (salads and raw veggies), healthy fats (avocado) and some stabilizing clean protein (lentils, beans, organic turkey) helps you feel better— from a blood sugar standpoint and a digestion standpoint. If you’re detoxing your blood stream and organs, you want to move that stuff out of there!

3. 2-3 juices/day seemed like a better fit if you’re adding some food in. Doing it this way could mean that you could go longer than 3 days, which would be a good option for people who want (or need) a longer cleansing experience.

4. Longterm, I think the green juices will be awesome for a quick boost before or after a workout, a hangover cure option (:)), or bridging the gap between meals on busy days. I like the thought of buying a few at a time (check the exp date!) and having them ready in my fridge for the week. Or maybe as a Monday routine after weekend of eating out or lots of social events. The possibilities are endless.

So, as we head into Fall and get ready for the change of the seasons, one thing is clear. Doing something to set your intention of healthy eating and living– whether it’s a soft reminder or a intense awakening from the easy breezy days of summer– is a great thing to do, internally and mentally. September and October are the best months to set yourself up for success, before Halloween, Thanksgiving and the holiday season hits, as is any time of year where the seasons are about to change and shift. There is a great energy to those times.

Take advantage of it and get your healthy habits going strong– before you know it, we’ll be there. How do you want to feel when we get there— excited to embrace the best of the season,  or bringing out the mumus?

I think I know (and you know) the answer. So, do something about it, in whatever capacity that works for you personally. The Simply Real Health Blog is a mumu-free zone, my friends. Life is too short to be unhappy with your health and your body. Get those game faces on, and get ready to live better, feel better and be the best version of yourself because of it.

Free gift! Download the free Simply Real Health 3 Day Sample Meal Plan here and see what a healthy lifestyle way of eating really looks like on a everyday level.  100 % real food based.

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