First Time for Everything: Organic Avenue Cleanse

I wish I was a health nut, but I'm not. I go through phases- like, as in having a salad for lunch, then when cupcakes land on my desk at 3pm, the phase has ended- but I have never been hard core committed to clean eating. Sure, I want to be healthy and, yeah, I'll admit it- skinny- but not THAT badly. As in, not badly enough to not indulge in the foods I love every chance I get. Yes, I know eating "clean" is so good for you- but who wants to be the girl eating kale when you can be the one throwing back martinis and porterhouse, medium rare?

In a moment of self-realization a few months ago, it came to me that the reason I am not motivated to clean up my diet is because I honestly don't take notice of how my body feels when I eat crappy foods. I just go on about my day at mach speed trying to get everything done, never taking a minute to think, hmm, maybe the reason I feel cranky/sluggish/anxious or my skin looks dull/dry/icky is because of what I am putting in my body.

So, in an effort to see how the healthy half lives, I decided to try a cleanse and actually take notice of how it made me feel. The hope being that after three days I would feel so good that I wouldn't be able to help but be concerned about eating clean from here on out. I went online, signed up for the Organic Avenue LOVE Fast cleanse, cancelled all my social plans for the duration, and started psyching myself up for the experiment. Err, I mean, experience.

Now that I have completed my mission- here are my thoughts:

• My skin looks significantly better.
• My go-to shorts fit significantly looser- which is what I go on since I rarely weigh myself.
• The LOVE Fast option had great variety, but for the most part, I couldn't stomach the foods- so thinking if/when I do Organic Avenue again, will go juice only. It was nice to have something to chew around 5pm though.
• Highlights: Orange Juice, Pear Juice, Green Embrace Smoothie, Chocolate LOVE Smoothie and Master Tonic and most of all, the Gazpacho Soup.
• Lowlights: Anything that involved chewing. And the Cholorphyll shots, although they were so quick, they were relatively painless, despite the plant-y aftertaste.
• Also of note, the emails that they send the night before are great- informative about not only the reason for each ingredient in each meal, but they also give you a good layout of how you should time each juice, so you really are eating throughout the day. By Day 3 I felt hungry, but at that point, it almost felt like a badge of honor for sticking with the program.
• Did I feel better? Hard to say. I think I did. But I also don't know if there was some sort of placebo effect involved with the fact that I am a VERY competitive person and was determined to ace this cleanse with some semblance of grace and enthusiasm.

Would I do this again? Absolutely. Even if just for the excuse to duck out of any social obligations for a few days and re-emerge with stellar (and I mean stellar) skin. And having a little extra breathing room in my jeans is nothing to shake a vegan stick at, either.

Have you ever done a cleanse? What kind? Please share, because  I am totally up for experimenting with something different next time- always up for a challenge.