Ritual Wellness: Vegan Juice Cleanse

A juice cleanse had never been a serious consideration. For me, hungry equals cranky. Plus, I eat my healthy vegan food, and have generally felt pretty good over the years. Recently, however, the train went off the rails. Neck pain became aggressive, my left knee would ache while running, and I have been waking up tired in the morning. Suddenly, a juice cleanse started to look more appealing.

So I researched several programs. Ritual Wellness stood out, in particular, because it uses all organic produce to make the juices and provides various pickup locations in the San Diego area. New York and Los Angeles seem to be the juicing epicenters of the United States, but our little hamlet down by the border appears to be off the grid. (Note: some companies provide FedEx shipping for an additional cost.)

Ritual Wellness offers the “Classic Reset Cleanse” and the “Seasonal Reset Cleanse.” Both cleanse programs provide six bottles per day – 16 ounces per bottle – that are numbered sequentially for customers. The Classic Reset Cleanse has four green juices, a cayenne infused lemon water, and cashew nut milk jazzed up with fun spices like nutmeg. The Seasonal Reset Cleanse is nearly identical, but replaces one of the green juices with a seasonal fruit juice.

Also, Ritual Wellness offers an option – called “Shred” – for people who want to absorb extra calories during a cleanse in order to work out. In addition to the six customary bottles, Shred includes an extra juice pre-workout and an almond milk concoction for immediately after the workout.

I tried the Classic Reset Cleanse for two days. I picked up the entire supply at Barry’s Bootcamp in Hillcrest, early in the morning, and headed to work. The instructions suggest drinking a bottle every two hours.

I enjoyed my first three bottles of green juice, which carried me through the early afternoon.

The fourth bottle, the spicy and sweet lemon water, came at a good time and alleviated my emerging headache. The fifth bottle, however, did not taste particularly good. My stomach was demanding something different, something substantial. So thank god for the last drink of the day – the sixth bottle is a thick, creamy cashew milk that feels like a meal. I went to bed happy.

For Day 2, my goal was to get as much sleep as possible. Because you’re not hungry when you’re sleeping. So I woke up late, drank the first three juices in the early part of the day, and did not feel overly hungry. However, I was definitely craving some some variety. And even though the fourth drink (fun lemon water) was technically different, it did nothing to stem my vivid daydreaming of tomorrow’s food. I was losing the battle, maybe the war, but the second day soon ended with the next merciful cashew milk.

The upside from the cleanse:

Moral victory—I did not cheat!
I felt clean and healthy.
My weekend felt really long—I saved a lot of time not having to worry about what I was going to eat or preparing food.
It made me appreciate eating food.

The downside from the cleanse:

I developed a headache both days around mid-afternoon.
At times, I felt tired.
The cleanse did not cure my knee pain – so orthopedic specialists can rest easy.

If you are interested in learning more about Ritual Cleanse, the website can be found at:

http://www.ritualcleanse.com/