Juicin’

{Romper: Shopblush.com. Belt: Vince Camuto. Shoes: Just Cavalli. Juice: My Raw Juice and OnJuice. Photographed by Me.}

At well after midnight, I walk in the door, head straight to the kitchen, toss a pot on the stove and cook couscous, toasting almonds to go on top. Once I inhale that, I then shove butter-covered Poptarts into the toaster oven and snarf those down, too. Am I starving? Nope, it just all sounds good … until the next morning, when I wake up after the carb binge. Houston, we have a problem.

Since my little jaunt to New York, I’ve been eating basically every not-great-for-me thing I’ve come across. New York is an epicurean adventure. And after grilled cheese shops, mac and cheese restros, bakeries, pizza joints, I fell off the eating-well wagon—hard. My flamenco with fat grams didn’t end once I got home either. I just kept on keepin’ on. Forget the nuts and berries I generally live on, I was headed straight for the brownie with a side of Cool-whip. And it needed to stop.

I’ve been down with juice cleanses in the past, mostly because they reprogram your way of eating and the way you think about eating. And if I ever needed a hard reset in the eating-well department, it’s now. So, on Monday night last week, I decide to go chew-less and this time around I mixed it up and try a few different juices to give myself something to look forward to daily.

Day 1: After a Pilates session, I decide to live off of my own concoctions and a few things from JugoFresh. Day one never crashes me. It’s just a day when, like other times, I get too busy and realize, wait, its end of the day and I haven’t had anything to eat. It’s day 2 that’s the beast.

Day 2: My My Raw Juice delivery arrives around 8 a.m. First impressions: How cute are these juices? They arrive in Mason jars ( 2 points for the recyclability factor) with my name on an organic-looking heart. Love. And what’s this? A nut milk in my Rebuild Cleanse? I’ve never had a nut milk in my fast before. Looking forward to my last juice of the day, but first I have to start with the first one, which is a green guy called Wellness. And it’s on green side, but that’s what I need, right? By the time I get to the Zest, mmm mmmm good. But man, I’m hungry. And I don’t know which is hungrier: my stomach or my mind. Remember day 2 is the beast: the day after the day you didn’t eat. The day your body is like, “Hey, are you going to feed me or what?” But the Zest helps tame the beast and the Temptation tames it even more. By the time I get to the Zone C, I am so hungry/happy to have something that resembles a milkshake, I suck it down in seconds flat. Not exactly what you’re supposed to do on a fast, but I can’t help myself. The great thing about My Raw Juice is it comes with probiotics and a guide on how to care for your body as well as what you are putting into it. Take your last juice two hours before bed. The milk weighs you down and makes it easier to sleep. I pass out with a full belly. Going to bed early on a juice fast is also a fab idea. The less awake you are, the less you have to struggle with the thought of not eating.

Day 3: My OnJuice delivery arrives. Inside is a three-day supply of orange, green and yellow juices. Up first, a very green Sublime. But it’s the Lemon Aid and Pina-Kale-Lotta that most please my tastebuds. Day 3 comes with a lot of mental clarity. Usually, it’s wow, the world if full of junk food. In abundance. CVS and Walgreens are like a high-fructose corn syrup emporium. The check out lane has no less than 75 different binge options. Why aren’t there apples everywhere? Can a girl get a pear? Awesomely, OnJuice recently set up shop at Aventura Mall. A juice fast in a mall is brilliant. Giving people healthy food choices is the first step to eating well. Now when I’m shopping and I get a craving for a pick-me-up, I can grab a juice and skip the pastry, which, in the end, will leave me feeling better about myself. And speaking of feeling better about myself, Day 3 gets easier. By the time I tuck myself in, I’m feeling A-OK. I even make pasta for Milly for dinner and don’t consider wrestling her to the ground for a bite. It’s the small victories.

Day 4: I wake up, have an OnJuice and squeeze in a Pilates class. I haven’t had solid good in four days, so I don’t push myself too hard, but it’s nice to get some kind of movement in. And then I do something really dumb. I make the mistake of leaving home without a juice, which is a very, very bad idea. Basically, you need to keep a juice with you at all times. Juice is your lifeline on a fast. It’s like oxygen. And I just cut off my oxygen supply. As a result, I get a wicked headache. Unlike most nights when I would just tuck myself in early for the fast, I have to work out and about at an event where Tiesto is spinning. Having a juice fast headache and mixing it with house music, is, well, not great. But I’m far too stubborn to give in now. Once I get home, I Pina-Kale-Lotta myself and go to bed. Here’s to tomorrow being a better day.

Day 5: Surprise, it is. I wake up feeling like I got this. I do an outdoor yoga class and manage to do one of the best scorpion poses I’ve ever done. I even have enough energy to walk home from the class. I feel clear and in control. Afterward, I have a Lemon-Aid to put back all the fluids the sun sucked out of me. I’m still feeling A-OK. But the rest of my day requires me to be in the late-June Miami sun for work purposes. I pack an OnJuice with me, but by mid-day the sun is wearing me down. An hour or so after my last juice, I make the decision to end the fast and have a handful of raspberries. Best damn raspberries ever. And so it ends. I was hoping to go until the following morning, but it was a fair fight. And I’m a warrior. Full of juice.

It’s a great idea to order an extra day of juice to help integrate back into eating life slowly. One small meal is more than enough for day one. Remember, your tummy shrinks, so trying to stuff too much in is not ideal. And the juices make up for the extra calories I need. In fact, it’s days later and I’m still having juice for at least one meal a day. Bonus: I haven’t given back in to Poptarts or post midnight carb fiestas.

Mission accomplished.