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The Dragonfly Warrior

@thedragonflywarrior / thedragonflywarrior.tumblr.com

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Review: JUS by Julie One-Day Cleanse

Date of cleanse: June 21, 2015

Another entry in my experimental forays into the world of juice... JUS by Julie was another Groupon, and I used this cleanse to start off the “2-gallon chug” final week of my weight cut. I’ll keep this one brief, because I was honestly a little whacked out at that point in the cut, and I didn’t bother to write detailed descriptions of each juice as I drank it. As far as I can gather, JUS by Julie has a slight reputation of being the vanilla, mainstreamed Starbucks of juice cleanses. But I’m all up for trying, so I gave it my best go.

  • Morning Glory: I actually had to wait a few hours on this one, because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before and my customary black coffee with coconut oil was sitting in my belly like hot lead. So I went to an early morning yoga to set myself right, came home, and started my day proper with the Morning Glory juice. It’s basically blended greens plus banana and strawberry. Very gentle, kind of soupy, easy on the palate. I appreciated this one, because I was worn pretty thin at this point in my cut, and I probably would have cried if the first juice of the day had been some kale/ginger/cayenne/liquid dynamite type of thing.
  • Spicy Pomegranate: I approached this bottle with trepidation as the ingredients of lemon, cayenne, and maple syrup filled my heart and internal organs with dread (refer to: Juice So Good review). Yet! Miracle of miracles: This juice was actually delicious. Maybe Julie goes light on the cayenne, or maybe the pomegranate is the secret, but this was a vivid energetic sweet lemony juice as opposed to the throat-searing medicinal hell that I’d experienced before.
  • Sweet Spin: Clearly Julie has decided that the way to disguise your greens is to pair them with bananas. Another blended green juice, but with mango and pineapple for a tropical twist instead of the mild morning strawberry mix previously consumed. Again, totally unoffensive and completely palatable. Smooth sailing so far, which is a nice way of saying no excitement, tbh.
  • Acai Blend: Another banana blend. Don’t get me wrong, I love bananas, but that banana-strawberry-apple bubblegum taste is starting to permeate my entire existence. The addition of acai to this juice saved it from being a real snoozer. At this point I’m starting to feel a little insulted, as if Julie thinks I can’t eat my greens like an adult. All these juices taste a little bit like baby food.
  • Choco-nana: Okay Julie, I want to give you shit for the bananas and strawberries (again), but you got me with the chocolate. This was less of a juice and more of a dessert smoothie. It was actually chunky. I actually had to chew it. If this yucks you out, see if you can sub out for a different juice should you decide to try this cleanse (which is something I believe they do offer).
  • Xtreme Greens: Nothing containing pineapple and orange juice should be called extreme. I’m sorry. That being said, this juice was the closest I came all day to feeling like I was consuming something fortifying and nutrient mega-dosing. I love kale and spinach. I enjoyed this juice more than most of the others, but I think I was just existentially annoyed by this point.

Okay, look. This isn’t a bad product. It’s nutritious and has enjoyable elements, more or less depending on who you ask. But mostly... this was boring. It was basically one big banana smoothie with nothing daring or exciting to offer. This is a perfect cleanse for people who are afraid of strong tastes or “green flavors”, because everything was mild and vaguely sweet.

  • By itself, this cleanse offers approximately: 800 calories, 14g fat, 14g protein, and 20g fiber.
  • I added 2 tbsp of coconut oil, 1 liter of coconut water, and 2 scoops of raw vegan protein to the day, which brought me up to approximately: 1500 calories, 43g fat, 57g protein, and 21g fiber. While this is still not suitable long-term nutrition, that was actually right about where I wanted to be for that particular day in that particular plan. Again, please add to your cleanse as is necessary for your needs.
  • The yes: I liked that most of these juices were blended, something I don’t see often in commercial juice cleanses. The fiber content was actually significant, which made the experience more physically satisfying. And to be fair, it was also probably a suitable cleanse for my level of exhaustion and mopey mindset on that particular day. I also like that it involved minor amounts of chocolate, and it was shipped to me in a neat little cooler bag. Good customer service.
  • The no: Boring, so boring. Nothing even remotely interesting about this cleanse, unless bananas utterly thrill you. The caloric intake offered by the cleanse alone is ridiculous, and the company’s tagline (“A Healthy Obsession”) raises my hackles in some inherently pissed-off area of my subconscious. And as I imagined, it was bland and mainstreamed. Olive Garden is to Italian food as this product is to juice cleanses.
  • Rating: 5/10. 5 points awarded because this isn’t a bad product. It’s nutritious. It’s definitely not unhealthy (other than the whole 800 calories thing). The whole package could be a lot worse. But it could be a lot better. Something about this cleanse is faintly insulting, and although I can’t put my finger on exactly what is insulting, I can just say with fair certainty that I won’t be trying this one again. 
#jus by julie#juice#juice cleanse#review#tw calories#tw numbers#tw vlcd#general tw#nutrition#health#lifestyle#wellness#juicing#fruit#vegetables
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Review: Juice So Good One-Day Cleanse (a la carte)

Date of cleanse: May 31, 2015

My first juice experience, the 18Karrots one-day cleanse a couple months ago, was positive enough that I decided a very occasional one-day juice might be a useful addition to my lifestyle. While I will never consider juicing to be a wise or healthy option to follow long-term, I cannot deny that one day of consuming fruit and vegetable juice instead of solid food provided me with an excellent mental reboot and digestive benefits. It also had the positive side effect of breaking a somewhat destructive eating cycle that I’d fallen into over some hard winter months. Two months later, time for another round.

18K was good, but I also knew of a local company called Juice So Good and had seen that their juices were readily available at my local co-op. (Support local business PLUS skip out on next-day shipping, hell yeah.) Juice So Good provides structured six-bottle cleanses and can deliver by bicycle within the immediate Minneapolis area. However, like most other commercially available one-day cleanses, their programs are significantly too-low-calorie. I had planned this cleanse as a reboot before embarking on a very-low-carb routine for a couple weeks to finish off my weight cut for my gym’s fight team. Doing a very-low-calorie reboot to prep for a very-low-carb weight cut endgame seemed like a recipe for spectacularly awful failure, and besides, I wanted to try as many of the Juice So Goods as possible! So I picked up one of each bottle at the co-op, for a total of eight juices and a slightly more robust nutritional intake, and went to wing it on my own. :)

  1. Sweet Green: As before, I started my day with a big cup of strong black coffee with a chunk of coconut oil thrown in for substance (bulletproof lite, I guess?). I grabbed Sweet Green for breakfast because a sweet green juice sounded like a good thing to start my day. It is a delicious, light, and aromatic juice, but I probably wouldn’t drink it again for breakfast. The bell peppers and celery really stick out and would be more palatable for lunchtime, but aside from that it was a fairly gentle start to my morning. I like when juices taste how they look. This one does indeed have a light, crisp, sweet-green taste.
  2. The Ginger: Yeah, the name isn’t lying. This is a fiery, very awake juice that isn’t exactly spicy but will clear your sinuses like heck. Carrots are also very strong in this, and it pairs well with the ginger. The carrot makes the ginger go down smoother, and the ginger makes the carrot more “food” and less “sweet”. This juice tastes as vivid as it looks, and on this chilly morning it warmed me up from the inside.
  3. Radiance: Ugh, LOVE. Pineapple, cucumber, lime, green apple, so good. Not quite as straightforward sweet and sunshiney as the C Boost I loved from the 18k cleanse - it’s a bit more subtle, more nuanced - but I think I actually like this one better. The cucumber is a brilliant addition. It’s all so sweet and fresh and clean. A sophisticated and delicious cocktail of fruity nutrients.
  4. Fierce Green: This is the juice version of straight whiskey in a tumbler. Or double-brewed coffee. If a juice could put hair on your chest, this would be the one that would do it. Kale, romaine, dandelion greens, and a big dose of “not fucking around”. This was hard to drink but made me feel somehow robust and fortified. The type of thing where you want to slam the bottle down after draining it to the dregs. Arrrgh.
  5. De-Tox: A slow burner. It hits the mouth in such a light, sweet appley way. By the time it hits your stomach, your mouth and throat will be aflame with ginger fire. There’s like, whole ground ginger in this one. I thought The Ginger was gingery but now I’m pretty sure all the ginger in the world is in this one. I enjoyed it a lot though; simple and straight to the point. As with the last “detox” juice I consumed, a poop was imminent (sorry again). Enjoy, but don’t get too far from a bathroom…
  6. Juicy Roots: F yeah beets! There’s something about beets that’s inherently wholesome and satisfying. Of course I’d rather be eating them, but a good beet juice is prime. Beets and carrots for that rooty goodness, apples for the sweet crispiness, and of course more ginger for that gingery gingerness. This is an excellent dinner juice, but it’d also be well placed at breakfast to put a little vigor into your morning.
  7. Deep Cleanse: Okay, so, apparently this is a less fanatical version of the lemon/cayenne/maple syrup Master Cleanse thing. It tastes precisely as terrible as I always imagined the Master Cleanse would be. Sorry, but this is the only juice I came very close to pouring out. To be fair, that is entirely not the fault of Juice So Good. This bottle of juice is clearly a best-case scenario of what happens when one combines lemon, cayenne, and maple syrup. Which is to say it is slightly less disgusting than solely consuming those three ingredients for days on end. I guess the lemon part was all right? Ugh. Eww.
  8. Happy Green: I saved this one for last because it does seem pretty happy, and I prefer happiness before bed. Cucumber, pineapple, kale, mint, and lime - an agreeable, unassuming combination. It was less sweet than I anticipated, but the mint was very calming and the flavor combination went down smooth to end my day with a pleasing taste.

As a whole experience, I loved this juice cleanse. I loved it even more for the fact that these juices are local and that I bought them right at my co-op instead of hovering at the door waiting for a time-sensitive FedEx package. I’m also glad I had eight bottles instead of the standard six, and it was interesting to try out different flavors. There are three other options that my co-op doesn’t carry - kind of desserty flavors based on nut milk - so I’ll give those a try if I ever find myself near their actual store. Some final thoughts….

  • By itself with nothing added, the array of Juice So Good I bought a la carte provides ~1500 calories, 0g fat, 33g protein, and zero fiber. In a cleanse package from JSG, approximately 10g fat and a bit of fiber would have been provided by the nut milk drink included in all their structured cleanses, which contain 1000-1400 calories depending on which option you choose.
  • For my day, I added two scoops of raw vegan protein, one liter of coconut water, and coffee with a tablespoon of coconut oil. That brought my nutrition totals to ~2000 calories, 15g fat, 76g protein, and 5g fiber. My energy levels are good and my stomach is happy, although I could have added some more coconut oil to that coffee. Yum.
  • I love how local, responsible, and sustainable this company’s practices are. I love that they encourage participants to alter or add to their cleanse to suit their individual needs, such as adding nutritious whole foods, snacking occasionally, or perhaps juicing for only part of the day, and they recognize that the benefits are still received if you alter your cleanse. I love that if I order juice, they will have a bike courier deliver it to my home or my work for way less money than shipping costs for most juices. And, I love that they have a real physical storefront.
  • I don’t love the complete lack of dietary fiber in the juices - I get that juicing is supposed to remove the fiber and give the digestion a break and all that, but still, a little fiber is a plus. I also don’t love that they don’t offer the nut milk varieties in physical locations other than their one storefront.
  • Taste-wise, these juices are interesting, balanced, and enjoyable (with the exception of the Master Cleanse sensory assault in a bottle), although a little heavy-handed on the ginger. Compared to the 18K cleanse, I quite enjoyed the distinct lack of parsley and the welcome inclusion of pineapple.
  • Rating: 9/10 - points mostly awarded for being a responsible local company with a positive, healthy attitude on lifestyle and wellness and for providing high-quality products. One point knocked off for the lemon cayenne (sorry) and for still enabling extremely low caloric intakes in the cleanse packages (I know this is the norm, but I’m very stubborn on my nutrition principles). I will definitely be keeping Juice So Good in mind, for a future cleanse or if I just want a bottle of nutritious goodness. Really hankering after that Chocolate Fix cashew drink right now…
#juice#juicing#juice cleanse#local#sustainable#vegan#raw#fruit#vegetables#nutrition#health#wellness#cleanse#tw calories#tw food#tw nutrition#tw numbers#green juice#lifestyle#juice so good#minneapolis#minnesota#twin cities#positive#long post#review#product review
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Review: 18 Karrots (18k) One-Day Juice Cleanse

Actual date of cleanse: March 29, 2015

I went into this never having participated in any sort of cleanse before, because as a rule I am incredibly suspicious of any company/product/program that encourages me to stop consuming actual food. However, I had heard excellent things about 18k juices (like, people say they actually taste good!) and my concerns were somewhat alleviated by the fact that they were happy to promote their simple one-day cleanses instead of trying to sell people a “seven-year cleansing detox fast with full juice-cult initiation included!” type of thing. I was also feeling digestively bogged down after a long two months of haphazard SAD-induced eating habits, and more than that, I felt mentally stuck. So I went for this juice cleanse because why not, and it was a much more positive experience than I expected. Here are my thoughts on each juice:

  1. 18 Carrots (Glow): After a large cup of strong black coconut oil coffee, I started my day of juice with the Glow juice (bottles are numbered in recommended order of consumption). This was a nice enough way to start, although it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I reasonably anticipated a thick, carroty drink. Instead, it tasted bright and gingery, and somehow yellow (in a good way). The ginger was slightly overpowering - this juice isn’t as gentle as you’d expect - but this is a good “kickstart” for your morning.
  2. Dandelion Cleanse (Energize): I drank this one about three hours later after my Sunday yoga practice, approximately making this my brunch juice. Again with the ginger (it gives me immediate heartburn) but I liked this juice a lot. It was light and appropriately green on the palate, and I could taste the tang of dandelion, but the sweet apple-ness made it fresh and rejuvenating instead of bitter.
  3. 18k Citric (C Boost): Yes. Yes. By far my favorite. I could drink this juice with breakfast every day if I could afford it. Imagine a brilliant fresh grapefruit juice from the most awesome flavorful grapefruits ever, then add some sweet mellow orange and some bright sunshiney lemon and that’s it. Toddlers would probably drink this without a fuss. It’s probably the sweetest juice in the spread, and this one is entirely pleasant and not offensive in the least.
  4. Parsley Tonic (Balance): Ooof. Balance. You mean balance out the joy I felt while drinking the last juice? Here, we slide straight into the thoroughly no-nonsense green juice realm. Again, hella ginger. And now introducing parsley! LOTS of parsley. 18k did a good job of taking the edge off that ubiquitous parsley/ginger duo by throwing in some apple, though. I didn’t love drinking this juice, but it was not a terrible experience. It tasted clean, green, and lean. This is the “eat your vegetables” part.
  5. Kale Greens (Detox): This was even green-juicier than the Parsley Tonic, but somehow much less difficult to drink. It may be that I really enjoy the taste of kale, or perhaps there was enough apple in this to disguise another dose of persnickety parsley, but Detox went down easy. I then learned what 18k is referring to as “detox”. This juice will make you poop. Sorry, but I refuse to not advise potential 18k juicers to have a bathroom at hand after drinking this juice.
  6. Beet ‘Em Up (Vitality): It took me until almost midnight to get around to this juice - not eating solid food all day does some weird things to the appetite (in the short-term anyways) and I only started sipping this as I rode the bus home after work. A satisfyingly beety beverage, to say the least; this was thick and foody and actually tasted as red as it looked. The ginger and celery balanced out the earthy sweetness of the beets, and I felt quite happy and satisfied as I arrived home and got ready for bed. It was almost like ending the day with a hearty full stomach.

For a first-time juice cleanse, this went better than I thought it would. That being said, I have some serious thoughts and advice that I need to include. The first thing is that I have never encountered a juice cleanse that provides marginally adequate nutrition for baseline human functioning. Yes, you can live on juices and stay healthy for a number of days or even weeks, depending on your activity level and the demands upon your body in everyday life. No, I don’t believe this is advisable. Juicing is a great way to get an insane payload of vitamins and minerals delivered to your system in a short period of time, but it also deprives you of fiber, protein, fat, and other things that humans require. I therefore recommend tweaking and supplementing your cleanse appropriately to address your unique needs.

  • The 18k one-day cleanse, by itself with nothing added, provides: ~1250 calories, 9g fat, 32g protein, and 10g fiber. 
  • During my one-day cleanse, I added: two scoops of raw vegan protein powder, one tbsp of coconut oil, and one liter of coconut water (for electrolytes). This brought my day’s nutrition up to ~1800 calories, 24g fat, 75g protein, and 15g fiber; a much more balanced and reasonable approach to my personal needs, although still not something I’d want to maintain past the immediate short-term.
  • I do not recommend juicing for active people, or people who have higher caloric needs. If you are active and want to try a juice cleanse, be very cautious and try a one-day cleanse on a rest day. I did my juice day on Sunday, which is always a rest day and only involves gentle yoga, maybe some walking. But even with the added protein and fat, I still felt low on gas and was acutely aware of the delicate energy balance my body was struggling to maintain.
  • Very light exercise does help, though. The megadose of vitamins in your system will move around more if you are moving your body in some way. Gentle yoga, walking, and easy bicycling are excellent options. (Running, weightlifting, martial arts, hot yoga, and other intense activities are definitely not!) If you plan to add protein to your juice day, I recommend consuming at least some of that protein directly after whatever exercise you choose to perform that day.
  • I did not “lose weight”. Juice fasting is not a viable option for healthy or sustainable weight loss. Some loss of water weight may occur. Most of that water weight will return when you start eating solid food again, as it should, because that is healthy and normal and your body naturally retains water for digestion and cell function needs.
  • Juice cleanses are fucking expensive. However, I think that the benefits of an occasional one-day cleanse are well worth it if it fits into your version of a balanced lifestyle. I felt refreshed and mentally rebooted. If your body responds well to short-term juice fasting, I would call it positive self-maintenance to have a one-day cleanse once per couple months or so.
  • 8/10; points off for barely providing 1200 calories by itself. Seriously guys, if you are going to try this, add whatever you need to make it healthy for you because this super-low-calorie business just doesn’t fly with me. That aside, this particular cleanse was a pleasant and positive introduction to the realm of juice! I definitely plan to try other juicing options available to me, but if given the opportunity I’ll go with 18k again someday. 
#juice#juice cleanse#juicing#18k#18 karrots#18karrots#health#wellness#nutrition#review#detox#cleanse#green juice#fruit#vegetables#lifestyle#vegan#raw#vitamins#minerals#nutrients#tw calories#tw fasting#tw nutrition
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I don't understand the obsession with "200-calorie breakfast bowls" or whatever. Today's breakfast begins with this delicious 300-calorie bowl of mango and cottage cheese and that's like, my appetizer. Then there's cinnamon protein oatmeal, tea, maybe more fruit, yogurt... breakfast is the most important part of my day and it's going to be a hearty affair.

#food#breakfast#mango#fruit#nutrition
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karlenciaga-deactivated20150215 asked:

To everyone out there, I studied this a bit and frozen fruit/veggies usually have more nutrition, vitamins ect than "fresh" has. Ofc the fresh fruit/veggie that you plant it in your garden taste better and has more nutrients, but usually the vegetables in stores are a few weeks old (they need transportation and stuff ofc) which means that they lose a lot of nutrients. Usually when it's frozen, they pack it when it's ripe so it keeps most of the nutrients and doesn't loose as many. :)

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Thank you!

#food#nutrition#produce#fruit#vegetables
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