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"So what good can come from consuming nothing but six bottles of fresh-pressed, organic juice a day? A lot, according Ritual Cleanse: mental clarity, abundance of energy, happier mood, better digestion, decreased desire for salt and sugar, craving for fresh fruits and veggies, glowing skin, more restful sleep, weight loss, and increased sex drive. All by &amp;quot;flooding the cells with vitamins and minerals that gently cleanse and heal your body without the harsh &amp;#x27;detox&amp;#x27; symptoms associated with other cleanses.&amp;quot; Too good to be true, right? I didn&amp;#x27;t know. But I was about to find out. My cleanse: I signed up for the 3-Day Seasonal Reset: six bottles of juice a day, one of which is made up of the season&amp;#x27;s freshest fruits and veggies (in total, the daily juices equal 15 pounds of produce!). I also ordered the Shred: two juices geared specifically toward giving you an extra boost during any workouts you might do while on the cleanse. Ritual Cleanse also offers a Classic Reset (one of the fruit juices is different from the Seasonal Reset; it&amp;#x27;s available in three- or five-day versions) and a Custom Cleanse (kind of a pick-your-own juice deal). Going for it: I went into this cleanse fully intending to cheat. I&amp;#x27;m a lazy healthy eater. I&amp;#x27;ll grab the whole grain flatbread crackers instead of the potato chips if that&amp;#x27;s what&amp;#x27;s in the office breakroom, or get the spinach on my veggie sandwich at Subway instead of plain lettuce. I&amp;#x27;ll make the healthiest choices I can in a given situation, but I don&amp;#x27;t always go out of my way to find even healthier options. Also, I eat all the time. I have a drawer in my desk that&amp;#x27;s devoted solely to snacks. I wasn&amp;#x27;t sure consuming nothing but juices for three days was going to cut it. Besides, I&amp;#x27;m a skeptic--I mean, I&amp;#x27;ve read all the pros and cons of cleanses, too. The day I ordered Ritual Cleanse&amp;#x27;s Seasonal Reset, I received an email with instructions on how to prepare for it. Really, the cleanse began before the juices even arrived. I was supposed to start drinking lots of water, and ease off on caffeine, alcohol, sugar, processed foods, and animal products. The day before the cleanse, I was to eat just fruits and veggies (plus organic tofu or organic beans if needed). But because I&amp;#x27;m lazy, I didn&amp;#x27;t start following the instructions until two days before the cleanse. And, as I lay on the couch, clutching my pounding head and cursing my daily lattes and diet sodas, I regretted it terribly. Talk about caffeine withdrawal--I had no idea I was such an addict! I didn&amp;#x27;t know if I was going to make it through the cleanse without caffeine. Or alive. When the huge box of juice arrived on my doorstep, I decided nothing--nothing--could be worse than the 36-hour caffeine headache I&amp;#x27;d endured. I was ready. Day 1: Three of the day&amp;#x27;s six juices were green drinks: kale, spinach, romaine, cucumber, celery and green apple. Celery is not my favorite flavor in the world, and I was reminded of this when I took my first sip at 7 A.M. But--minus the celery--the juice was smooth and sweet, so I chugged it down and headed to work, hauling the comp cooler bag Ritual Cleanse sends to help you tote your juices and ice packs around. At 10:30, I had the next drink: a sweet orange-blackberry-apple concoction that tasted more like a typical breakfast juice--except that it was super-filling. Before I knew it, it already green juice time again--and I wasn&amp;#x27;t even slightly hungry, which was weird, because usually you just say the word &amp;quot;lunch&amp;quot; and my stomach starts to growl. When I met my husband and toddlers over the lunch hour, though, a dark storm cloud started to form over my head. I missed chewing and resented that everyone else was eating. I was thisclose to throwing an all-out tantrum about it, too. (Yes, I am a grown-up.) Back at the office, I grumpily grabbed the next drink: a lemon-cayenne pepper juice that distracted me with its spicy sweetness. It was about then that I started to feel more energetic. Peppy, even. As the afternoon went on, I had this amazing focus and was actually able to check off almost everything on my to-do list. After one more green juice, I headed home to the last juice of the day: crushed raw cashews, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, all mixed together in alkaline water. It was a very chewy juice, which doesn&amp;#x27;t sound like a positive thing--but if you haven&amp;#x27;t chewed in 24 hours, it&amp;#x27;s especially heavenly. It tasted almost like a milkshake. Day 2: I knocked back the morning green juice without a problem (though I still didn&amp;#x27;t want to marry celery or anything). I had way more energy than my morning latte ever gave me, and I felt lighter somehow--happier, faster, more efficient. I had more patience and noticed I was better able to concentrate. And because I was drinking 17 ounces of juice every two hours (plus lots of water), I wasn&amp;#x27;t hungry--not really, anyway. I wrote a few posts for Vitamin G about no-bake energy bites and Honey Pretzel Luna Bars, and I&amp;#x27;d be lying if I said my stomach didn&amp;#x27;t growl while doing it. Plus, my teeth started to feel like they were covered in a filmy substance that I couldn&amp;#x27;t ever fully brush off. I wanted... a carrot. I worked out that day, so I had the &amp;quot;pre&amp;quot; bottle of Shred--a bright red juice made up largely of beets--and went for a run. I was ready for what I was sure would be an inevitable crash--I mean, I hadn&amp;#x27;t eaten in two days. I was surprised by how strong I felt; I pushed through the run without getting head rushy or tired. And afterward, drinking the &amp;quot;post&amp;quot; juice--crushed almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg--I felt relaxed as opposed to exhausted. I was sure I&amp;#x27;d be cheating by the end of day two, but you know what? I wasn&amp;#x27;t--and I didn&amp;#x27;t want to. Yes, the kids&amp;#x27; tater tots looked wildly inviting and smelled like something out of a potato-lover&amp;#x27;s dream, but I&amp;#x27;d come this far--why not hit the finish line? Day 3: I had mixed feelings on the morning of day three. Not going to lie, I was looking forward to having something real to eat the next day, but I was also kind of anxious. I felt this pressing need to put only the healthiest foods into my body, post-cleanse. I didn&amp;#x27;t want to fall off the wagon--and into a pile of peanut butter cups. For the rest of day three, I felt as energetic and focused as before (and, added bonus: my pants were fitting better). That night, I slept for a full ten hours. I haven&amp;#x27;t slept that long since having kids 4 1/2 years ago. It was the best sleep ever. The upshot: It&amp;#x27;s funny--I write and report about health all the time, so I understand that there&amp;#x27;s a connection between what you eat and how you feel. But this cleanse helped me step back and look at that connection in my own life--to take stock of what I eat throughout the day and how it might affect me. Post-cleanse, I&amp;#x27;m actively seeking out the freshest produce, craving salads filled with colorful veggies, and clipping recipes for healthy new treats to try. I&amp;#x27;ve cut way back on the mindless snacking and I&amp;#x27;ve even shed a few pounds. And, in what truly ranks as one of My Life&amp;#x27;s Biggest Accomplishments: I haven&amp;#x27;t gone back to caffeine--not even one sip of a diet soda. And I don&amp;#x27;t miss it at all. Quite striking results, no? Does this Cleanse Diary make you more interested in trying one out? P.S. If you&amp;#x27;re excited about Ritual Cleanse, use promo code glamreaders at online checkout to receive 15% off your order through March 18 at 12:00EST. Did you see last week&amp;#x27;s Cleanse Diaries? *Caitlin&amp;#x27;s Cooler Cleanse *Marina&amp;#x27;s Organic Avenue Cleanse *Mikki&amp;#x27;s Blueprint Cleanse Photo: Courtesy of Cooler Cleanse"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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