I am officially the “juice after the holidays” person. One thing about being pescatarian at Thanksgiving is you basically just eat stuffing and mashed potatoes for a few days (leftovers obviously). And after days 2-3, I felt like a stale casserole dish myself. I was feel more than sluggish, anxious, uncomfortable, and even dizzy.
Laying in bed Sunday morning, I decided to compare juice cleanses. I love a good fresh green juice, however, I hadn’t done a proper “cleanse” in over 10 years. It felt overdue according to my stomach. I found Bamboo located in Senerbe, GA. They delivered the next day free to the Atlanta area and the same day for $5.99. I picked the most intense option (rethought this later) and signed up for same-day delivery. I knew if I had the juice cleanse ready for Monday morning, I would have no choice.
Let’s start by saying I’m not a doctor. I’m not a nutritionist. I’m not even sure if juice cleanses are beneficial in any way. But after swinging all the way to gluten, dairy, butter, carbs, sugar, and alcohol last week… swinging all the way to celery juice felt like extremism balance.
I loved reading about other people’s decision-making and play-by-play so I’m writing my experience here. Along the way, I realized it felt like I had already told people so I better just finish it.
Table of Contents
What is a Juice Cleanse?
A juice cleanse is a dietary practice where an individual consumes only freshly pressed fruit and vegetable juices for a specified period of time, typically ranging from a few days to a week. Advocates claim that juice cleanses help to eliminate toxins from the body, boost energy levels, promote weight loss, and improve overall well-being. However, scientific evidence regarding the specific benefits of juice cleanses is limited and inconclusive. I’m not sure I could do more than a few days, but you do feel a jump start after wards. People tend to do them after the holidays weeks filled with sugar and booze.
Why Bamboo Juices?
Options + Subscriptions
Bamboo comes from a town just south of Atlanta, Serenbe. Serenbe is known for Serenbe Farms, delicious food, and gorgeous landscapes. They had 7 different cleanse kits and 1 build your own option. I love that each juice has a focus. You can not substitute juices within a set cleanse but you can build your own.
Bamboo does have a 5% off for subscriptions. If you are looking for juices to be regularly available in your fridge, Bamboo doesn’t charge for shipping over $35 (about 3-4 juices). So I would highly recommend it. You can schedule cold pressed juice and/or milk every 1-4 weeks for delivery.
Recycling
Bamboo uses the most gorgeous glass bottles. Think VOSS water. You can keep them or you can recycle them back to Bamboo by leaving them outside when your next delivery is scheduled.
Why I choose the Bamboo Ultimate Weight Loss Cleanse
I didn’t exactly choose the Ultimate Weight Loss Cleanse for the weight loss aspect, although yes, please. But more so because I wanted the lowest sugars and carbs. Since I’m trying to give myself a break from exactly those two things, it felt like the right choice for this particular juice cleanse.
I’m looking at The Color Cleanse next. I want to sign myself up for a cleanse in January. I’m well aware of the Christmas, holiday dinner party, my birthday, etc. diet that will go down. I want to give my insides a little spa day after.
Each juice is 15 ounces. This juice cleanse comes with 7 green juices and 1 almond coconut milk per day. They also recommend warm lemon water first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Lemons are not included. If you want to do that aspect of the cleanse, you’ll need to get those separately.
The 2-Day Juice Schedule
Day 1 Diary
5:45 am: Hot Yoga Class ( do this every Mondy morning and try to get there a few other times in the week) I had ~40 oz water combined before, during, and after the class.
7 am: 1st juice. Seasonal Greens. I had this one a little early but it evened out later. Not bad. I don’t like celery so I was looking forward to celery-free juices. Feeling optimistic.
** I did have a cup of black coffee around this time. I was afraid of caffeine detox headaches; I’ve been drinking coffee nonstop since I was 14. (I’m from Miami. Cuban coffee is life.)
10:31 am: 2nd juice. Gingered Greens. Not my favorite. Heavy on the celery situation. Seasonal Greens is celery, cucumber, collards, and ginger. NGL. It tasted a bit like celery soap water. I texted my husband asking for support. My coworker brought in a banana pudding pie for my other coworker’s birthday. It looks incredible. Every time I go to get one of my juices I weep a little inside.
12:54 pm: Juice 3 – Dandelion. It’s taking me an hour and a half to get a juice down so I’m an hour behind at this point. It might as well be 12 oz of wheatgrass at this point. I have a permanent “ew” face on. Did I mention there is a huge thing of banana pudding in the fridge? I just keep telling myself I can do hard things and my poor stomach needs a break from crap.
I’m not light-headed and honestly, I wouldn’t know I’m behind on juices. It’s just been a constant stream of green juice. My stomach is making wild noises; I’m not attached to the bathroom or anything. I feel a little bloated.
1:39 pm: The “this is so stupid” thoughts have taken well over. But I refuse to quit. I’ve taken to looking at the Bamboo website and telling myself that the next cleanse will not taste like grass.
2:30 – 5 pm: I was coasting. The Dark Green juice was delicious. Of course, because it didn’t have celery and it includes a green apple (sugar!). Still slightly tempted by all my kids’ snacks. But I kept pointing out to myself that it was the junk food calling my name. I made a grocery order and you could tell I was on a juice cleanse. I ordered vegan brownies and bagels with lox and cream cheese. I wasn’t actually hungry. I was craving all the things. I even skipped a juice at this point because Gingered Greens is just not it for me. I let my husband drink it.
6:30 pm: I pulled out the Almont Coconut milk which I had been waiting for all day. These juices and milk are SO fresh that the creaminess threw me off. The milk mixing with the green juice was not my favorite, however, if the cleanse was more of the milk, I could go a few more days. The milk has almonds, coconut milk, vanilla, and sea salt. you can taste it all.
7:45 pm: I started getting the flu ache. My body was finally letting go of sugars and toxins. I could not do the lemon water. I had zero desire for another liquid. I was in bed by 8:15 pm and had some HARD sleep shortly after.
Day 2 Diary
5:15 am: I had woken a few times in the night, but not in a restless way. I was almost just done sleeping. By the time my alarm went off at 5:15, I was pretty ready to get up and do another hot yoga class. I never in a million years thought that would’ve been the case. I should mention here that I love sleep. If you told me I had an hour to do something, I would nap. I used to sleep in a TON before kids and I love nothing more than to be in my bed. But it only took me a minute or so to get up for class. Normally my husband has to encourage me with a “you’ll be happy you went”.
7 am: Being on a juice cleanse, I worried that I would’ve been a weak mess in class. I didn’t know if I would be able to handle the movement or heat, I felt so strong and clean though. I didn’t “feel” like I would’ve assumed I would at all. Again I had a ton of water. I packed up my juices for the day and left the two Gingered Greens for my husband. Leaving me with 5 green juices and an Almond Coconut milk for the day. I defrosted the extra milk I got, just in case I needed it at some point later on.
8 am: Black coffee. I’m not trying to get a caffeine headache here.
9 am: I finally pull out my first green juice of the day. I just don’t want any more green juice. I imagine it’ll take me all day to chug down these 5 juices. It’s not even that I miss chewing. I miss something other than liquid in my stomach. I also have not gone #2 since this cleanse started which is confusing to me. Some blogs say it takes a day for your body to catch up.
1:30 pm: I’m only on my 2nd juice of the day. I know that I love Dark Green so I may swap it with Seasonal Green so I have something yummier while my kids are snacking after school.
3 – 6 pm: I just wanted all the junk food. Clearly, I’m addicted. I really didn’t think I was going to make it.
6:30 pm: I had my last Almond Coconut Milk and was so wildly happy I finished.
Conclusion: My Take on The Cleanse
I woke up and didn’t crave anything. If I had the Color cleanse, I think I could’ve gone another day or done “Juice until Dinner”.
My skin definitely feels better. I had a few tiny breakouts on my lip but that is more likely from the pies the week before than the juice.
My sleep was deeper and I woke up fresher. I will credit the juices for this. Whenever I cut dairy or processed carbs, I find myself having much better sleep. Waking up in the morning was when I felt most optimistic about continuing the cleanse.
Bamboo Juices overall get a 10/10 for me. The juice cleanse is incredibly fresh. Because cold-pressed juices are not pasteurized you want them to be as farm-to-fridge as possible. I received my juices on 11/26 and they all expire on 12/1.
I’m thinking of subscribing to green juices I’ve hand-picked and doing juice instead of dinner most nights.