No two words inspire equal amounts of fear and curiosity in me quite like the phrase ‘Juice cleanse’. Lauded by celebrities on Instagram as a body reset, it sounds like an adventure sport for the stomach, especially mine, which has built its cast-iron reputation on a steady diet of dirty Chinese food and whatever I can find in the back of the fridge at midnight.
Still, when Raw Pressery challenged me to try their one-day Beauty Cleanse, I decided to trust my gut. In that it wouldn’t spontaneously combust from an overload of actual nutrition.
The beauty cleanse begins solemnly enough with a 7 am delivery of Raw Pressery’s cold-pressed juices, the ingredients and designated time of consumption neatly spelled out. It includes a new twist: a rhassoul clay mask and an espresso scrub. The scrub smells delicious, so try it on first thing in the morning when your will power is still intact or you might be tempted to devour it. Speaking from personal experience…
Face freshly scrubbed and masked, the rest of my body prepared to do battle with the toxins that had free reign, until now. Assuming that all those studies about attention spans in the age of the internet are true, here’s a neatly summarised account of what this experience has taught me.
Juice Cleanse 101
- Cold-pressed juices are a smart way to ingest vegetables that you would otherwise not venture within a two-kilometre radius of. Doodhi and I broke up when I was 10 years old and our relationship has been rocky ever since. But I would gladly gulp down the ‘Trim’ concoction — kale, spinach, doodhi, amla, celery and more — at 9 am every day without a complaint.
- Lighten your daily workload before attempting a juice cleanse. Changing from solids to liquid food is shocking enough for your body, so preserve whatever energy you have.
- Preparation is key. Unless you have the will power of a Shaolin monk, your resolve will be tested as the hours press on. Keeping a salad or fresh fruits on hand might avert an emergency call to the nearest McDonald’s.
- Adjust your expectations. One beauty cleanse is not going to transform you into Priyanka Chopra. But you will feel lighter and fresher, and motivated to re-evaluate your feelings about Doodhi. Which is more than my mother could ask for.
