Living in Los Angeles changes you. You start thinking that paying $15 for avocado toast is normal, you’ll give yourself 30 minutes to drive 3 miles, and you’ll start drinking green juice.
This post is not sponsored. All photos and opinions are my own.
Why I tried a juice cleanse:
By no means would I consider myself a heath nut, so I had to do some research before buying into bougie juices. A lot of lifestyle articles talk about detox and weight loss benefits of doing juice cleanses and how vegetable juices are good sources of vitamins and nutrients. According to an article published in 2015 by Harvard Health Publishing, the consumer health education division of Harvard Medical School, some studies have “found potential links between certain juices and health,” but overall, there is no solid evidence supporting “the safety or efficacy of juicing.” In other words, juice cleanses are a fad, and they won’t fix any long-term health or weight problems. If there was a simple solution, we probably would’ve found it by now in 2020.
Knowing that, I was still curious about trying one. I feel like most people do them for potential weight loss, but I was more looking for any kind of benefit for my digestive system. I had been feeling bloated and nauseous most mornings for the past few months. It was probably because of unavoidable anxiety from the election, pandemic, and just the state of the world, but I thought it would be interesting to see how I felt after only drinking liquids all day. Maybe a cleanse would make me feel better, even if it was just the placebo effect.
Types of juices:
Healthline explains that there are two main types of juicers:
- Centrifugal: These juicers grind fruits and vegetables into pulp through a high-speed spinning action with a cutting blade. The spinning also separates the juice from the solids.
- Cold-press: Also called masticating juicers, these crush and press fruits and vegetables much more slowly to obtain as much juice as possible.
While many articles state that cold-pressed juices contain more nutrients than centrifugal juices since centrifugal juicing involves high heat and potentially destroys enzymes, there’s very little scientific evidence to back this up. A 2019 study from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok actually studied this and found there was no significant difference in nutritional value between the two types of juices.
Why I chose Pressed Juicery (not sponsored):
I was introduced to Pressed Juicery when I was in college in Orange County. I’m a fan of the Pressed Freezes, and I’ve tried a bunch of their sweeter fruit juices. Pressed Juicery makes cold-pressed juices, and they’re almost all vegan. Their milk drinks and Pressed Freezes are almond-based. While their products are not 100% organic, they do use seasonal, Non-GMO produce.
Pressed Juicery offers three full-day cleanses, and you drink six 15.2oz juices a day. If you want, you can combine them all and do a three-day cleanse. I chose to just do Cleanse 2 (five juices and 1 almond drink) for one day, which their website claims is their most popular cleanse. Pressed Juicery cleanses are good for beginners because the juices taste good, and they’re pretty affordable compared to other juice companies. Pressed Juicery offers half-day cleanses for $25, up to three-day cleanses for $90. If you want a hardcore cleanse, check out this article from Gwenyth Paltrow’s company, Goop for more recommendations.
Earlier this month, Pressed Juicery had a sale for 10 juices for $45 with an additional 10% if you ordered through the app for the first time, so I ended up getting 10 juices for $40! They have a location at my local mall, so I just ordered the juices from their 1-day juice cleanse plus a few extra juices for my parents in the app, picked them up in the store, and then did a juice photoshoot.
My Pressed Juicery 1-day juice cleanse review:
Before doing a juice cleanse, Pressed Juicery recommends getting hydrated and drinking at least two liters of water a day, which I didn’t do. You’re also supposed to avoid caffeinated drinks, which I did do. To prepare your body for this change in diet, it recommends staying away from meats and poultry, refined starches (bread, white rice, and pasta), dairy products, sugar, alcohol, and nicotine the day before your cleanse. I definitely did not do this and ate a chicken burrito bowl the night before whoops. Not off to a perfect start, but oh well.
I chose to do the juice cleanse on Friday, November 20. It was the day before I officially launched my blog, so it was nice that I could focus on finishing up some content and didn’t have to cook. Pressed Juicery recommends a specific order for the six juices. Most people drink one every two hours, but you’re supposed to listen to your body and space them out when you want. The total calorie count of the cleanse was 1,110, which is a lot less than what I usually consume in a day, but I was so full from my dinner the night before that I didn’t even feel the slightest bit hungry until the afternoon.
- 9:15am: I logged onto work and started my first juice, Greens 2 “Sweet Greens.” I could definitely taste the celery, but it wasn’t awful. I tried straight celery juice last year and that one was saltier and kind of made me gag after half the bottle.
- 11:30am: Juice #2 was Citrus 2 “Sweet Citrus.” The mint was pretty strong, but I could also taste the pineapple. I liked it a lot more than the first juice.
- 2pm: Greens 3 “Greens with Ginger.” This one was kind of rough. The ginger is strong, but I didn’t find it too spicy. It’s definitely not as tasty as the other ones.
- 4pm: I felt slightly hungry/empty but it was probably because I was behind on drinking juice.
- 5:30pm: On to Roots 3 “Roots with Ginger.” This was was also very ginger-y and tasted earthy from the beets. Beets aren’t my favorite in juices, but it was alright.
- 7pm: I finished work and recorded my podcast episode of Soul Chats with my friend, Katherine
- 8:30pm: Finally started Citrus 1 “Refreshing Citrus.” It has coconut water, which I think tastes kind of cloudy and salty, like sweat. I can kind of taste the pineapple, but it’s definitely not my favorite.
- 9:15pm: I started feeling hungry again, but I just kept drinking my juice and felt fine.
- 11pm: My favorite! They use this in their Vanilla Pressed Freeze. The Vanilla Almond drink is creamy and delicious. It has some texture. I wouldn’t say it’s gritty, but it isn’t totally smooth like plain almond milk.
I didn’t go to bed until 3am because I was finishing some last details on my blog, and I didn’t have any more moments of hunger. Despite only getting six hours of sleep, I woke up feeling energized and didn’t even feel hungry until around noon.
Final thoughts:
Overall, I liked doing the cleanse. I felt like I was pouring nutrients into my body and the 9g of protein from the almond drink really did keep me full at the end of the day. I wasn’t used to drinking so much liquid, so I had to go to the bathroom once an hour. Maybe if there’s another sale, I’d like to try a longer cleanse and see if I notice a bigger difference in energy or digestion.
Have you ever tried a cleanse? Let me know in the comments below!
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Pressed Juicery’s 1-Day Juice Cleanse Review
