Pulp Friction

Announcement: Today I begin this, which I found here, and which was created by these people.

I've never done one before, but I've been curious for a while now regarding the positive health benefits some claim to experience. I'm not doing it to lose weight -- and, in fact, this one isn't even designed with that goal in mind -- but more to just restart my system. I've been exhausted for the past several months, and it seems as though whether I get 90 minutes or 9 hours or 19 hours (OK, maybe more like 12), I have very few days that begin with me feeling energized. Basically, I'm tired of just waking up every single day feeling, well, tired.

So, as I've been wondering whether or not this had something to do with eating too many processed foods, or just my overall diet, etc., when I came across this information a few months back, I was immediately curious. Now seems to be the perfect time to try it, too, since the boyfriend is away and I don't have to worry about feeding him plus spending the extra time it takes to juice all these drinks for myself.

[Which, by the way, is a huge pain in the you-know-what if you don't own one of those fancy shmancy $100-plus juicing machines. Which, by the way, I do not. AND, silly me, I believed that I could just as easily take care of all of this prep work with my little arsenal of blender, food processor and ghetto juicer - which, by the way, is basically just that sombrero-shaped thingy (I know you know what I'm talking about) atop a motor, so that you hold the fruit and the juicer-sombrero rotates automatically. Well, it turns out, I made a Mess, with a capital 'M,' preparing my juices for tomorrow. Seriously, I had green and red and blue pulp all over the counter in a matter of minutes. P.S. Can I even mention sombreros right now with all the hot water Arizona is in? Even Miss GooGoo thinks the whole ordeal is atrocious.]

If ordered through the BPC website, a beginner-level cleanse costs roughly $65 to $75 per day and consists of 18 individual drinks that are reportedly made with the purest, highest-quality ingredients known to mankind, whereas my version costs roughly $26 per day and consists of 18 individual drinks that will be made with the purest, highest-quality ingredients known to Super Wal-Mart. Maybe that defeats the purpose? I don't know, but we have to start with baby steps, don't we?

Actually, I'm looking forward to the next three days. What I'm not looking forward to are the days that come after. The first day post-juice you're supposed to eat just fruit, the next day you can add vegetables, the next day you can add plain brown rice or sweet potatoes, the next day you can add fish or another lean meat, and then finally, on the fifth day post-cleanse you can bring back denser foods.

I've never done anything this strict or extreme before ... but then again, our species did survive on fruits and other raw foods for generations and generations and generations and generations and ... So I guess it really shouldn't be that extreme.

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. We'll see what tune I'm singing by the end of tomorrow.