My Boss Made Me Cleanse...
Working at PRESS, I have tried all of the juices…countless times. But, until this week, I had never actually embarked on a PRESS juice cleanse. As someone who seriously loves...
Working at PRESS, I have tried all of the juices…countless times. But, until this week, I had never actually embarked on a PRESS juice cleanse. As someone who seriously loves food, I’ve always worried about how I’d fare on an (almost) completely liquid diet.
But everyone always raves about how amazing they feel after even just one day of a juice cleanse, so when my boss set me the challenge of trying one of our most popular juice cleanses - the Weekend Reset Cleanse - I finally took the leap to see what the fuss was about.
How bad could 48 hours without food really be?
The Juice Cleanse
The cleanse I chose to do was 2 days long. It’s shorter than some of the other cleanses that PRESS offers, and with a real mix of products - from juice, to m*lkshakes to high protein soups - I figured this was a nice way to ‘soft-launch’ my way into the juicing world.
One day of the cleanse contains 9 nutrient-dense products: x2 Daily lean greens, x2 immunity-boosting shots, x1 gut-boosting probiotic water, x1 chia juice, x1 indulgent m*lkshake and x2 high protein soups. Listed out like this, 48 hrs without food seemed a lot less intimidating….
Pre Cleanse
While there’s no written rule book about what to do pre-cleanse, I was told if I wanted to get the most out of the cleanse, it was good to prepare my body (and mind) a day or so before.
I opted to do the cleanse on Tuesday-Thursday, which gave me Monday to prepare, after a slightly too indulgent weekend. I didn’t do anything drastic, just reduced my caffeine intake to the 1 cup of coffee, and focused on x3 mostly plant-based meals with a few less snacks than normal…just so my body didn’t go into total shock when the cleanse started.
Day 1:
I woke up (weirdly) excited to start the 2 day juice cleanse. I’d written out my juice schedule the night before so I knew exactly what I needed for the day. I’d also chosen to go into the office and keep busy for the two days, something which I’d really recommend doing - it meant that I wasn’t reaching for the fridge every time I felt mildly distracted, and everyone around me could hold me accountable.
I used PRESS’ juice schedule as a loose guide, starting my day off with a daily lean greens and ginger shot. I wanted to go cold turkey with no caffeine over the two days, so the ginger shot was a powerful morning energiser, and I found that I wasn't craving another coffee when 11am rolled around. That’s not to say that I didn’t miss my usual morning oat latte, but I figured I was able to cope without it for 2 days.
Fast forward to 5pm, and the high protein Glow Soup and Chia juice genuinely kept me feeling satisfied, and I wasn’t hungry at all, which did surprise me. I would say though it was quite a mental battle for the majority of my day to be liquid based - the soup was welcomed to feel like I was actually having a ‘meal’ for lunch and not just another juice, and I struggled with the thought of not having a ‘proper’ dinner.
By the evening I was starting to feel a little hungry for the first time that day, and while the soup and m*lkshake did fill me up, I can’t say I felt overly satisfied - I’m normally a two portion of dinner kind of girl, so the one bowl of soup, mentally, was a challenge. What was a welcome surprise though, is how much time I got back in the evening by not having to shop, cook and wash up dinner. I do love cooking, but it was really nice to have a bit of brain-space from my usual mundane routine for the first time in ages.
Day 2
I’d gone to bed quite tired, so I wasn’t expecting to wake up feeling quite as energised as I did…safe to say I slept so well, and woke up ready to tackle the final day of my cleanse.
Day 2 was much the same as day 1 - I followed the same juice timing schedule as I felt that had worked well the day before, and I acclimatised to this new routine strangely well, looking forward to my Soup at 1pm on the dot and my 5pm Chia Energiser. It was super helpful to take away any decision making around my nutrition, and I actively made some plans post-work to take advantage of this new found evening time that I got back.
The only slight negative on day 2 was having a low-grade headache for the majority of the day. Other people in the office also said they’d experienced the same thing when cleansing, so I think it’s a pretty common thing when you cut out your usual caffeine and sugary daily treats.
Overall Review
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly sceptical about the experience to begin with, so the fact that I genuinely got so many benefits from it is pretty great. Not only did I feel less bloated when I woke up on day 3, I felt more energised throughout the whole day, and felt mentally ‘clearer’ and more focused, I also just really enjoyed the challenge. It was great to do something that deviated from my usual routine, and I think it’s definitely something I’d like to do regularly, especially if I start to feel a bit ‘stuck’ in my routine.
I’m not sure if I’m quite ready to level up to a longer cleanse just yet….but never say never as the results speak for themselves from just 2 days alone.
