Blue Print Cleanse and giveaway!

Friends. Hi.

You might know that I just finished working on my first cookbook. Its a baking book. duh. I spent months knee deep in butter and sugar and flour and cream. It was delicious. It was overwhelming. It made my waist bigger. It made my pants tighter. How could it not!? I think I was absorbing butter and sugar through my pores. Wait. Can you gain weight through your pores? Call a scientist.

After I turned in my manuscript, I decided to clear out my system with a cleanse. Before you tune out listen. Im not a cleanse girl. Im not particularly fancy. I really really really like to eat food. I just thought this might be a good thing to do for my body to regulate my sugar cravings and try to get myself back in control. I dont own a scale. I wasnt trying to lose weight. I just thought a few days of wholesome juices might be a good way to counteract the constant stream of butter I had allowed into my system.

I embarked on a three day juice cleanse with Blue Print Cleanse. The word embark makes this process sound far more daunting that it actually was. This post is more words that I ever write on my blog. I just wanted to tell you what happens when a girl that is totally into food only drinks juice for three days. Also! Theres a giveaway at the end. so thats pretty rad too.

In the days before my juice cleanse I tried to revamp my diet. I stayed away from meat. I ate salads. I drank tea. And I don! t want t o talk about how many french fries I ate. the number is more than 10. Whatever.

Day One: Alright belly. Food is so yesterday. I start off strong with the juices. Juice. Water. Tea. Water. Juice. Everything is going along just swimmingly. And (miracle of all miracles) Im totally not hungry. Well well well. Imagine that! I have a pep in my step, I go for a long bike ride, and Im stoked on the day. Unfortunately, it all came to a screeching halt when I went for my first colonic. See the BPC website highly suggests you go for a colonic during your cleanse. I wanted to get the full cleanse experience. Um Im sure this procedure works for some people. Its just not for me. (If youre feeling faint at the mere mention of a colonic, feel free to skip the next paragraph.)

If you dont know what a colonic is google it. Its a hot mess. I hated every single second of it. Sweet Lord. Not ok. The lady tried to convince me that I had major problems going on inside my body. Um guess what super ancient colonic lady? I totally dont believe you. Im pretty sure Im young and healthy, and I take care of my body, and the major problem with my body right now is the hose you have shoved where the sun dont shine. Kindly remove that hose, your hands, the giant massager you insist I put on my belly. Get everything off me exactly right now so I can run screaming from this place. The classical music isnt helping. What are you doing on your iPad, colonic lady!? Youre like 80. Are you playing solitaire? Cause thats annoying. Oh Lord. Help. Stop saying I have high cholesterol. Did you know theres a legit test for that? Yea. Check your iPad. Theres nothing wrong with me. except for the fact that all I want to do now is sit in the fetal position and eat cheeseburgers. See what youve done? Thanks for that.

Day One (the saga continues) I dont eat cheeseburgers. Ooooh heavens. I really want to. Its not that Im hungry, its just that I want fat in my face after such a traumatic experience. I push through, drink more juice and h! andle my business. The first day was much easier that I thought it would be. I thought Id suffer without cookies and kale and rice and bacon. the things I normally eat. Theres was no suffering! I even struggled to finish all of my juices because I felt so full.

Day Two: Whoa! I woke up from the craziest dreams. Not scary-clown crazy but vivid and topical and totally appropriate for where my brain is. I was dreaming about issues that Ive shoved to the back of my brain in an effort to avoid. But after one day of no food, they all can rushing forward. It felt good. I felt like I could settle some things and get some clarity. Now I know this sounds totally hippy-dippy and this is totally not my style. But!! I felt like I had some amazing mental clarity. My brain felt unclogged and I didnt even know it was stopped up. I took some time to sit and be quiet in prayer. Supreme.

Whats up lunchtime? Its not that Im hungry Its just that I want a giant sandwich for my face. I had meetings on my second day of the cleanse. That means that I had to be out in the world, interacting with people normal people who eat delicious food for lunch. I had juice. I didnt make a bit deal out of it. I didnt feel superior. I didnt feel fancy. I just drank my pineapple juice thingy and enjoyed it.

I went to a spin class on Day Two of the cleanse. I was feeling particularly badass. I had enough energy to sweat buckets for 45 minutes. Um where did all this energy come from? Amazing. The only slight downside was that after the mega work out, al! l I coul d think about was dinner and beet juice didnt really fill the dinner void. To fill the void, I heated up a mug of low sodium vegetable broth cut with hot water. I know. This sounds totally crazy. I just wanted something savory and warm and dinnery feeling and the vegetable broth solved the dinner problem.

Day Three: Alright. Another day, another six juices. By now I feel like Im an old pro at this. I even get in the kitchen and start making this soup. Its totally weird cooking food that you cant really eat. It smelled really good. Thats a problem. I took pictures of the soup. I took five small tastes of the soup. I put the soup in a container in the fridge and forgot about it until dinner time.

Dinnertime: when I naturally want to shovel food into my mouth. In a moment of weakness, I texted my friend for a dinner date. Dinner date! Since this friend had ribbed me through my whole cleanse I thought hed surely be happy to help me break my fast and cheat a bit. His response I secretly hoped you wouldnt break your cleanse. And with that, my confidence was restored and I stuck to the juices.

After the Cleanse: Food. Food. Food. Food! Its a day for foooooood! The one ironic bit about the first day back at food; Im not really hungry. Like at all. This is practically unheard of in my life. I started slow with a banana, warmed up to a small salad and had lots of tea. Amazing, my craving for sugar di! d not ru le my life. I know in my brain that that bag of Cheetos is delicious, but for some reason I dont need to pour it into my face.

Overall, I feel great! My wine consumption is in check, my sugar cravings have toned waaaaay down, and the jeans that were once a little tight at the waist, now fit like a dream. I cant tell you whether or not I lost weight, since I dont have a scale, but I can tell you that I feel great from the inside out, my skin is bright and happy and my clothes fit better and!!! I crave whole, healthy foods now more than junk. Im stoked.

I wouldnt suggest this cleanse as a weight loss, I need to go on a crash diet tool. I dont think you should ever go on a crash diet so there. While it seems that I did lose a few pounds on this system, I fully expect to gain some weight back you know since Im eating real food again. This juice cleanse was very effective in helping me reset my food choices and I think that will benefit my waistline in the long run. Also the juice is delicious. Deeeeelicious!

Please also note: Ill happily chow down on some fries next week and I wont even feel a little bit guilty.

Now its time for a giveaway!! Read the blue text below for giveaway details!

Blue Print Cleanse would like to offer you a one day juice cleanse delivered right to your door. If youre curious, this would be a great way to start! Or if youre already convinced, you could put this credit towards a three day cleanse package. Also pretty cool.

Now I know these juices arent exactly cheap. Its not lost on me that this service is a total luxury. Blue Print Cleanse also has a book (The 3-Day Cleanse) that teaches you how to cleanse on your own, at home. They give you tools! How great is that! Im ! giving a way four copies of the Blue Print Cleanse book on Facebook and Twitter this week. Keep your eyes peeled for that.

To enter to win the one day BPC juice package, please leave a comment on this post. Comments close Friday at 6pm pst. To have a chance to win one of the four copies of the BPC book, make sure you keep up with me on Facebook and Twitter. Other than that just be happy and smile lots.