Friends who juice cleanse together.....

Wednesday, October 1, 2014


Happy first day of October!
(and a very Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law!)

If you're following me on Facebook and Twitter, you'd know that I was on a 3-day juice cleanse last week! My friend Lauren and I have been talking about doing one for a while now and we were so excited when we found the perfect person to partner up with! Dani Strong (@dani_strong) was kind enough to work with me and Lauren and she provided us the yummiest juices and milks for our cleanse! Dani is the cutest, sweetest lady ever so if you're shopping around for a juice provider, she's your girl. Scroll down to the end of this blog post to get her contact information!

*Disclaimer: This will be a very information-heavy, ramble-filled post, so I apologize if you were just looking for a summary of everything! It's just that I want to include every part of my experience with this cleanse so that anyone who's had questions or wants to try it out will have a good source of info. (: Also, this is my FIRST time trying out a juice cleanse so all opinions and initial reactions are my very own!*

I've split my post up into three different sections:

JUICING 101
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
BENEFITS OF JUICING WITH A BUDDY

Top: c/o SWELL  |  Hat: c/o LuLu*s  |  Short Necklace: c/o LuLu*s  |  Long Necklace: c/o Emmajoy

JUICING 101:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with juice cleanses, let me give you a little rundown on how this specific cleanse works (please note that there are many different cleanses out there but I am only reviewing/giving information on this one in particular). 

First off, juice cleansing is a way to rid your body of yucky toxins and get your body on track to a healthy lifestyle. It gives your digestive system a break from working so hard to process a large meal (and let's face it, all my meals are large...). It's important to know that although you do experience weight loss in a cleanse, that is not its primary purpose and you shouldn't aim to do a juice cleanse just to lose weight!

To start, you choose however many days you want to cleanse (I did 3) and then you choose your 6 juices and milks for your x number of days. You can pick either 1 milk and 5 juices OR 2 milks and 4 juices--I did the latter because I'm a noob, hehe. You can find the list of juices and milks Dani makes HERE!

Here were my choices for the 3 days:

Day 1: Vanilla Almond Milk, Power Green, Classic Green, Power Red, Power Orange, Chocolate Almond Milk
Day 2: Strawberry Almond Milk, Power Green, Classic Green, Fresh Apple, Hot Lemonade, Coconut Almond Milk
Day 3: Vanilla Almond Milk, Power Green, Classic Green, Summer Watermelon, Summer Raspberry, Chocolate Almond Milk

My favorites: The ones shown in the picture below.

Favorite and non-favorite flavors really depends on your taste and is sooo different for each person. For example, I really like the Power Orange because I love carrot juice for some weird reason, while Lauren wasn't a huge fan of it. Lauren enjoyed the Summer Watermelon, but I had a tough time with the aftertaste. Make sure you read what veggies and fruits are used in the juice before you pick it because it could really make a difference in whether you like it or not! Also, if you're not a fan of tomatoes like me, avoid the V8 one. (:

Your drinking schedule is basically you wake up, drink a milk (drinking a milk as your first and last for the day is recommended), then drink a juice every two hours from there until you reach your 6. Make sure to drink about a bottle of water in between each juice to keep yourself full. You WILL urinate A LOT during this cleanse so I recommend you make sure a bathroom is within reach at all times. Have I mentioned that you don't eat ANY food? Hence the JUICE cleanse. ;)


PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

The morning and afternoon of Day 1 wasn't too bad at all for me. I think I was mostly excited about doing the cleanse and trying out all the juices to think about anything else, really. It was fun wondering what each drink would taste like! Dani does such a good job at making sure each juice and milk tastes yummy and fresh. At first I didn't have to use the bathroom too much but once I was done with my third juice and had a couple bottles of water, I was heading to the bathroom about every 10 minutes. Other than that though I was feeling energized and full!

Temptation hit in the evening when it was time for Connor to eat dinner. I had gone the whole day without smelling any sort of real food because it had just been me and Samson at home. Connor brought home leftover steak salad that Cubby's had catered at work that day (it's like they knew I was cleansing that day). The moment he took the salad out, the delicious smell of food attacked me and I had a craving for it like I've never known before (wow, I'm sounding very early-vampire-Bella right now aren't I?). I had never experienced such heightened sense of smell like that before! I had to go into our bedroom and close the doors and I could still faintly smell the salad. Oh man, it was torture, but I survived (barely).

Day 2 was fine as well. I expected myself to wake up in the morning, starving, but I was actually quite full (even though I hadn't drank anything since 7pm the night before). Drinking milks in the morning and night really help because it helps kickstart your day and then you look forward to it at the end of the day. Dinnertime wasn't as bad as the night before because Connor ate before he came home so he didn't torture me again (thanks hubs). However, that night after I fell asleep I woke up randomly to the smell of what I guessed was stew. Yes, stew. Guys, I'm not a huge fan of stew but I reaaaaaaaally whatever I smelt that night. It must have been coming from a nearby apartment or building, which is crazy because it meant the source was pretty far away! I could not fall back asleep because I kept smelling food!!! I had to bury myself under the sheets to escape whatever delicious evil it was....

Day 3 was good and bad. Good because it was the last day and bad because my mouth starting becoming dry from all the acid in the juice I was drinking. I had to keep forcing myself to drink water in between to get rid of the dryness but it was hard because I was feeling more full that day than usual. Nighttime came pretty quickly though (the days go by really fast on this cleanse because you're counting down every 2 hours) and soon I was on my last bottle of milk.

Taking that last sip of milk was pretty awesome. Partly because it meant I could have food the next day but mostly because it meant I had successfully accomplished a 3-day juice cleanse! I don't often stick to things very long (besides Connor and my blog) and I'm quick to give up when things get tough, so committing to this 3-day long program was a HUGE accomplishment for me. :) I was a happy camper!


BENEFITS OF JUICING WITH A BUDDY:

It was sooooo awesome doing this cleanse with Lauren. Just knowing that there was someone else out there doing the exact same thing as you and going through the exact same withdrawals was helpful to the max. We were one another's support systems and encouraged each other to stay strong whenever one of us got cravings for food like pizza and KFC (hint: that was me). It was also fun to text each other whenever we tried out a new juice for the first time and share our first impressions with it! We also kept each other updated on our reactions to the cleanse (like the constant trips to the bathroom and heightened smell)--it helped so much to know that someone else's body was also reacting the same way and I wasn't going crazy or anything.

I would definitely recommend juice cleansing with a friend for all the reasons above and because it's just fun to experience something like this together!

Lauren blogged about her juicing experience on her blog today too!
Check out her story HERE!


I'm definitely glad I did this juice cleanse becuase I feel so much healthier and energized!
The best part is that not only am I not eating unhealthy meals and junk food anymore, but I don't crave anything unhealthy! It's so weird because I craved everything unhealthy while on the cleanse but once I finished it, my body was in full-on health mode! I crave salads instead of pizza and choose to drink water over sodas all the time! I love how I feel--both inside and out--and I have Dani to thank for everything!

If you are interested in doing a juice cleanse (and live in Utah), Dani is your obvious choice! Her prices and flavors are listed HERE on her blog. Dani is also always posting about special offers and updates on her Instagram, so be sure to follow her at @dani_strong!
Text/call her at 801-473-8612 to place your order!
Make sure you let her know that Ariel sent you and she'll take care of you :)
Also, be sure to give her a 48 hour notice before you want to pick up your order because she makes all these juices and milks FRESH daily and she's a working mama!

If you have ANY questions at all about the cleansing process, please feel free to contact me!
Leave a comment below or email me at arielhamilton14@gmail.com

Thanks for reading about my experience with juice cleansing!
I kept everything honest and truthful here because although I do want everyone to try this out, I also want you guys to know what to expect!
Hopefully I convinced you enough to give it a try! (:

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Cheers.

  1. Thanks so much for sharing! Ps- Where is your top from? I love it!

    The Style Storm
    <3, Christina

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  2. so cool! and i love your shirt!
    xxoo,
    nikki

    www.dream-in-neon.com

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  3. This is a great post! i was actually considering doing a juice cleanse soon :) this is just a bit more motivation to do it

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