I made it.

Three whole days of drinking nothing but juice.

Lots and lots of juice.

And, surprisingly, it wasn’t really that bad.

I’ve gotta say, Pressed Juicery made it pretty freaking easy for us.  I showed up at 10 AM, always with giant sunglasses on (I usually wake up around 10AM…), gave them my money, and the guy just picked out what I was going to eat – ahem, drink – all day.

No juicing, cooking, or even thinking involved.

Actually, no thinking is strongly encouraged.  Because when you start thinking, you remember that its dinner time and you’d like to chew on something rather than drink liquids.  And then you have a orange juicy beverage (telling yourself this is just as good as that burger Brad’s having) and you start thinking that you wish this juice wasn’t so orange.  You think you’d feel less like Bugs Bunny if it were less orange.  Or less carrot-y.

Truthfully, the hardest part was coming off of the cleanse.  Suddenly I didn’t know what I could and couldn’t eat.  My body was all squeaky clean and it got mad at me for silly things like eggs or coconut water.  I felt pretty disgusting the first day back.

My body didn’t even like my fantastic first solid(ish) meal back.  I made scrambled eggs with lots of veggies.

I almost wanted the juice back.

I know this sounds kinda corny, but since finishing that cleanse on Monday I have been looking at food in a whole new light.  Not being able to just nibble on food whenever I came across it (even if it were a healthy food) made me realize that this cleanse wasnt so much about cleaning out my digestive system, it was more about breaking my habit of just eating.  Most of the time I was eating just because it was an activity, like some people bite their nails.  Not because I was hungry.

I started listening to my body.  Hungry?  Or thirsty? Or just bored?  It was like I was on a serious food bender and this alternate way of looking at eating snapped me out of it.  Wait, I used to eat how much for lunch?  I would eat what after getting home from work at 12:30AM?

Spaghetti five times a week?  Everything cooked in pork fat or duck fat or bacon fat or whatever?  How many courses to that dinner out?

Ew.

So maybe all you East-Coasters think this whole juice thing is very California of me.  But truth is, people are getting smart about what they eat.  People all over are sick of all the hormones and the scientifically altered food that is crowding the grocery stores.  People everywhere are waking up, avoiding processed foods and seeking out healthier alternatives.  And people all over are realizing that we felt better when we were kids and we were forced to eat all of our vegetables along with our three balanced meals.

Thanks, Mom.

Remember back when we weren’t allowed to have ice-cream for dinner (guilty) or ten course meals (definitely guilty) or an entire bottle of wine while just hanging out with friends(um… yep)?

I’m not saying at all that I am going to completely cut out the decedent food that I am surrounded by  in the restaurant industry and that I love.  But I just felt so incredible for those three days I was drinking juice, and now I want to make better choices and make sure that my meals are balanced and complete so I continue to feel that way.  Feasting every now and then is ok if you make healthy choices to balance it out.  Right?

So on this healthy path, a few other healthy things of 2012 so far.

I am enormously lucky that I live in a town that has two huge farmer’s markets every week of the year and a climate where today, January 11, Brad and I were able to plant our own little garden on our back patio.

Fresh herbs, lettuce, raspberries and peas in the upcoming months!

Also, a recent lunch I made.  Have you tried quinoa?  A superfood that is also delicious…

And after our trip to the Farmer’s Market today, our refrigerator looks amazingly healthy (and organized, thanks to chef Brad).

But who am I kidding.  I’m married to a man with a pig tattooed on his arm.  I can try as hard as I’d like to eat healthy, and pig fat is still going to end up in most dinners.  But a lot of vegetables will, too.

Oh, I’m not going to be able to give up running anytime soon…