So, a few weeks ago I did a juice cleanse.

A bunch of my clients & fellow instructors had talked about having done them before, so I figured, I would give anything a shot once. I ordered the cleanse, and it came fully frozen. As I started unpacking this giant cooler box, a big wave of doubt hit me.

Will I actually be able to do this?

Blake was gone on a work trip to Europe, so I knew I wouldn’t have much temptation to eat at home. Admittedly, since it was just me, and I was going to be drinking my juice, I didn’t even go grocery shopping – just to make sure I wouldn’t give into temptation.

The idea? Drink six juices a day, for three days, and be cleansed.

I did it. I posted on my story all day every day. I didn’t cheat. I basically lived in the bathroom. I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t awake. I just… was.

SO – here’s the thing.

I don’t drink a lot of juice in general. They are really sweet for me, and I just would rather drink either water or a smoothie. So, maybe I was set up to hate it from the get go, because I hate the feeling of having to brush my teeth EVERY other hour. Seriously, the inside of my mouth felt like I had ate a bag of sour patch kids without ANY of the satisfaction of eating them.

Why?

There was SO MUCH SUGAR in each of these juices. Virtually every juice had some sort of natural sugar/sweetener  added to it – agave, inulin – pushing the sugar content of some of these juices to almost 50 grams (you are supposed to drink the WHOLE bottle, even though it’s labeled as 2 servings). To give you an idea of how much sugar that is, a can of Coke has 39 grams. And we all know that Coke is the standard for “this is not a healthy thing”.

But it’s not just about the sugar.

It’s about the IDEA that we should not eat to “cleanse” ourselves. That we should chug juice and poop out 10 lbs to feel better about ourselves.

Sure, I dropped 8 lbs in 3 days.

THAT’S NOT SUSTAINABLE. THAT’S NOT HEALTHY.

Food is a need. Not a want. When you think about food as fuel, you eat according to what your body needs. Craving something salty? Maybe your sodium level is low. Can’t get the hankering for a huge salad out of your mind? Might need to up your fiber and iron levels. Your body is always talking to you – but a lot of the time, we choose to ignore it in favor of quick fixes.

We already have warped ideas about food and bodies – so why do we keep feeding into this?! I’m glad I did it. I’m glad I got to feel how tired my body felt without food. I’m glad I got to see how my skin broke out because of sugar. I’m HAPPY that I learned to appreciate what food can DO for me. I don’t need a juice cleanse to feel comfortable in my body.

Why?

Because, I think I actually like my body.

All I need to feel like a badass in my body is good workout, my friends and family, and maybe a glass of wine.

So, I guess in a weird way, I want to thank the juice cleanse for showing me that I don’t need to drink weird concoctions and deprive myself to feel my best.

I just need a little sweat and love.