CAN CAN juice cleanse

this is one monday morning i was happy to wake up, because 
it means we MADE IT through our 3-day juice cleanse! phew!

first let's talk about why we did this juice cleanse.
// not to lose weight in 3 days.
//not to be annoying and make other people feel bad about what they eat.
//not to become extreme health nuts.

...i used to not understand why people did cleanses, and 

it always made me feel stressed that i wasn't being 

healthy enough when i saw others doing it. 

don't let it do that to you. like i talked about here, 

we are all about being healthy and balanced. i am not a 

fan of anything extreme because if you have to think

about food too much, it causes stress and defeats the

purpose of being healthy in the first place...at least 

for me. so i never thought i would do a cleanse.

it all started because lately we've been trying out 

pressed juices here and there, and we've fallen in love. 

none of the local places we were trying offered cleanses, 

so we didn't even consider it..but i really noticed how great 

i felt after drinking them and i started to learn more. 

i love all of the goodness that goes into pressed juice 

and i think of it as "liquid gold" going into your body. 

but, i was happy just drinking it on the side & eating food too!

then i came across can can cleanse...and fell in love. 

i think i loved their cute branding and name first, but once i 

talked to teresa i knew this was my kind of cleanse. teresa has 

set up shop in san francisco and LA, and they have a great 

reputation in both places. she is the sweetest, and makes you 

feel like you can do anything! my favorite part was her saying..

"emi you CAN do the can can!" there are 8 juices per day, and 

it's so nice because she does 2 cold fruit juices, 2 cold 

vegetable juices, 2 warm herbal teas, and a hot soup for lunch. 

this makes it so much better instead of drinking cold juice all day. 

so wait..why did we do the cleanse? a few reasons.

1) look at the benefits of all of the ingredients here... reading that was what really first convinced us to do the cleanse. the health benefits are too amazing to ignore! 

2) i think we are so lucky to live in a time where there's such an emphasis on health, and so much knowledge about it. we love food and love treating ourselves, but it's smart to have balance and do things like this once in a while to reset. 

3) after the holidays + our sonoma trip + eating anything in sight, this was a good time to really focus on what we put into our bodies...especially with our big trip coming up this month where we are sure to treat ourselves! doing this cleanse made me think about food so differently and really appreciate the fact that we can have any food, anytime we want. 

4) trying new things is our favorite, especially together. we knew this would be an adventure of it's own, and we wanted to experience it first-hand.

benefits of the juice ingredients include: 

anti-cancer, liver cleansing, full of vitamins and nutrients, etc. 

so we thought-- why not. this will only help our bodies, 

and it's a good mental challenge to not be controlled by food. 

it's a time-out from routine eating, and it gives you 

more willpower and self-control! teresa said the cleanse 

makes you: feel less tired, less stressed, eliminates 

aches & pains, and helps your digestive process. it's a 

"spa retreat for your insides!" 

love that. we focus on the outside too often, it was time 

to focus on the inside. so we decided to do it...here is a recap:

..can can cleanse recap..

day one

we started on friday, so i had work + an interview and my

mind was not even on food anyway.. i was doing great!

the lemon ginger juice was hard to get down the first day

because of the cayenne pepper, (eeek!) but i felt good after

drinking it and i LOVED the green drink. the warm

cardamom dandelion drink was a little harder to drink,

but then i made it to lunch and heated up the winter

soup...umm, delicious. i would eat that for lunch every

day! after i had that i felt great, full enough, and focused

on work. i made it to the spiced apple juice, (again-delicious)

& was feeling so good! i drove home and suddenly crashed.

i felt light-headed and so weak and my body was confused

because normally i would get home and eat, so i was just off.

i got home and crawled straight into bed and just stayed

there until chase got home. i said that i could't get out

of bed or i'd go get food! i drank the green juice and felt

okay, and finally made it to the nut milk at 7:00 which 

saved us. that stuff is delicious and i could also have that

every day! we fell asleep and then did our last lemongrass

drink really late because we had slept so long.

day two

this day was hard because a) you're not even halfway

when you wake up, b) it's saturday so you're not as 

busy or distracted c) i went to yoga and felt amazing but 

when i came home i felt so much more hungry. it was

really hard to but back activity and not exercise,

because i enjoy exercise so much and rely on

it for de-stressing and routine. so i think i was

just off from not feeling strong enough to! our

bffs came over for moral support, but we ate our

soup lunches early and just felt starving! we

definitely used the permissible eats list by

munching on some celery/almonds. i love that

these are included on the website, because

we just needed to chew something instead

of drink it. chase fell asleep in the afternoon

and i walked down the street to anthropologie

(haha) for some retail distraction. i walked 

past all the sidewalk cafés with huge bowls

of pasta and burgers and smelled it all..

but i stayed strong! saturday night we 

watched documentaries and finished out,

but we were both a little hangry

(hungry/angry) by then haha.

day three

i don't know how i accidentally scheduled

this cleanse over SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!

what kind of wife am i? haha chase was such 

a good sport. we woke up and spent all morning

apartment hunting in rainy SF...which was fun

but after i thought i would pass out from hunger!

i was needing food! it's so strange because you

will feel desperate for food and 10 minutes

later you're completely content. there are

definitely highs and lows. we went to church 

and i was fine all through that because 

we were with friends and not thinking about

food, but then we made a big mistake...headed

to watch the super bowl at our friends' house..

with hot pizza in the oven, chips + salsa,

brownies, popcorn...and we had our 2 juices

on the table! it was definitely hard and 

i had to focus all my energy and not

eating a huge piece of pizza. luckily our

friends had done a cleanse before and

they gave us pep talks and said that even

if we ate pizza coming off the cleanse we

wouldn't feel good...i guess the pep

talk worked for me, but not for chase :)

right after he finished his last juice, 

he considered himself done and ate

chips and salsa, and maybe a few

treats..haha but i can't blame him, i'm

impressed he did the cleanse with me 

and made it through (most) of the

superbowl. last night when we got 

home i made some of my very favorite

 sweet potato/kale/quinoa to eat today,

and i did sneak a few bites...so we

didn't end perfectly, but we did make it 

and we feel great. i definitely have more

energy, and little things are gone like

my sore throat when we started.

i love knowing how many good

nutrients are in our bodies from that,

and i hope it will help us stay a little

more balanced going forward. i won't 

lie, i am looking forward to a huge

burrito and lots of brownies this week,

but maybe i'll balance them out better now.

all in all, we're so glad we did this.

let's be real, it was hard. we love

food and you realize what a big

part of your life it is when you're

doing a juice cleanse. it's hard to

go to social things, or even go out

without thinking about food because

it's everywhere! it was nice to have a 

reset and we definitely picked the

best company possible for it.

thank you to can can for such a nice break and challenge!

we recommend them highly and even though it was

hard for us, it was so worth it. i truly feel full of 

energy today and haven't craved sugar at all...

which is not normal for me! teresa checks in on 

you and makes it so personal. all of our SF and LA

readers---be brave and try this, and let us know

how you do! we'll be cheering for you!

xo

ps..for a little health craze humor, watch here!