I survived a juice cleanse....

....not only did I live to tell about it, but I loved it! Recently I did the three-day CAN CAN Cleanse (c/o) and while it was hard at times, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Here's what one day of the cleanse looks like:

...and hello? Everything comes packaged in a mason jar. Could it be any more right up my alley? (That was said in my best Chandler Bing voice)  Teresa, the beauty and brains behind the CAN CAN Cleanse designed it to be "like a spa retreat for your insides"  Each day consists of eight liquids (plus as much water as you want.) The first drink is a spicy lemonade. The second (and sixth) drink is a green juice and I'm not going to lie - I had a really, really hard time getting it down. There are only a few things that make my gag reflexes go crazy, and cucumber is one of them....this drink tasted like straight up cucumber, with a hint of lemon. I literally had to plug my nose and chug in order not to puke, but if you're a normal person and like cucumber, you'll love it. Moving on.....the third drink was this amazing cardamom tea. YUM!! After that was a winter orange soup. I heated this one up, and poured it into a tiny mason jar, so that I could have "seconds" and feel like I was having a big lunch. (It's all mental with me, folks!) After that was my favorite - the spiced apple juice. This stuff is addicting and I was super bummed when I'd finish it. Next up was the dreaded green juice..... Moving on, another favorite - the almond/hazelnut milk. It had cinnamon in it, and tasted similar to horchata. To finish off the night, another amazing tea.

This cleanse is awesome because of the variety. There are "permissible cheats" because Teresa wants everyone to who does it to be successful. I didn't eat any of the cheats, but even knowing that I *could* seemed to help. I drank a TON of water, and felt really good the whole time, with the exception of a dull headache due to the cold turkey cut off of NO caffeine. I also love how CONVENIENT this cleanse was! Each bottled was labeled 1 - 8 and they give you a sheet of paper telling you approximately what time to drink everything. It was awesome because I could grab my sealed bottle, with my cuppow and go. This cleanse is designed to be very doable, and it truly is.

I lost 4.3 pounds on the cleanse (although the point is not necessarily weight loss, but a way to re-boot your system, and jump-start your health.) I also lost another pound the next couple days after. It's now been more than a week since I've been off the cleanse, and making (mostly) healthy choices and I'm down another 1.3 pounds and feeling really great!

A while back I wrote about accountability, and how I was ready to get healthy. All hell broke loose from September on, and it's been really, really hard to stay accountable to myself and my health, but I'm doing my best and I know the cleanse helped. I've given up red meat, dairy (with the exception of cheese every once in a while) and cook mostly vegetarian now. I'm trying out all sorts of healthy recipes and in general feeling great! While the cleanse was hard at times, it was awesome, and I'm even hoping to do the new "power cleanse" this summer!

The top rack of my dishwasher after the cleanse:

I want to publicly thank Teresa and the whole CAN CAN team for this wonderful opportunity! If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area and are thinking about doing a cleanse, I can't recommend this awesome company enough!

You can find CAN CAN here:

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Have you (or would you) ever do a cleanse? I'd love to know your thoughts and experiences!