So if you have been following me over the past year you know I love doing cleanses! Last year when I was on a crusade to lose weight, I made my own Blueprint Cleanse and bought a local San Diego juice cleanse a few months after. Making my own cleanse was very tedious, but it was A LOT cheaper than the $200+ price tag for a 3-day. So if you are up for it and have a juicer, I highly recommend it! The green juice I am having now with Pressed Juicery tastes exactly the same as the one I made!!! During the blueprint one, I had the occasional avocado and cucumber to curb my hunger. Also, tons of green tea to improve digestion and get some natural caffeine. The local San Diego one was good, but I did eat lightly, so it was just to get nutrition from it. I also exercised during those cleanses – I had a ton of energy actually and never felt like I was dying. So basically based on my experience of these last 2 cleanses, I began my love affair of cleanses and couldn’t wait to do the next one. So here we are now, almost a year later and I will be doing my third cleanse! I chose Pressed Juicery because several of my friends have done it, and also it was on sale after the holidays for $149 for a 3-day Cleanse 2! A lot cheaper than the normal cleanse price of $199+, and also cheap enough for me not to make my own cleanse again (too tedious!). Ends up being around $8.27 per bottle (18 bottles), so it is a pretty good deal to get it delivered to your door the morning of!

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Now this is not an infomercial on a weight loss pill or a lap band that magically sheds pounds. haha! I am writing this not to gloat, but to share my story on how I became happy and healthy and shed 17 pounds to be exact since January. A lot of people have asked me what I have been doing so I figured I would write it on here so I can refer people to this post! My juice cleanse post is actually my most viewed post, so I figured that a lot of you out there want to get healthy and am wondering different methods to do so. I hope to inspire someone to get healthy, like I inspired several people to go on a juice cleanse!

It all started in a very embarrassing way: I realized during winter break that I wasn’t fitting into my winter coats anymore! And when I brought home a dress for a wedding, it didn’t fit when it came time to wear it. It was my favorite dress. How shocking and sad I was =(. I knew I had to do something about it once I came back to SD and away from the abundance of food during the holidays. Also, its funny how heartbreak can lead you to look at yourself and want to be better and channel all your anger, sadness, loneliness into something. For me, it was to get fit and be skinny like I used to be 2 years ago. Luckily I interned in a building that had a gym spring semester!
Jan-Feb: So the FIRST thing I did was RUNNNNN on average 4 times a week, 3 miles a day, on an incline of 4.0. I did this for about 4 weeks. There were 2 weeks where sometimes I ran twice a day, once at lunch and once after work, for a total of 5 miles. I did some machine weights. I did 100 crunches a day. I became sort of obsessed! It was definitely VERY HARD in the beginning. I would come home and sleep at 10pm and be sore. I felt like this for 3 weeks. It was sort of an escape for me! Then it became easier and easier. In addition, I did my 3 day juice cleanse! It really taught me that I really didn’t need that much food and it really was an invigorating experience. That lesson has stayed with me since then.

Feb-Mar: The SECOND thing I did was buy a Groupon for a month of unlimited Corepower yoga. I had done the free week last October, so I sorta knew what it was like. I didn’t really like it, but I did it to get toned and flexible. I went 5-6 times a week. I did Hot Fusion and Yoga 1.5 exclusively. I didn’t like the 2 or the Sculpt classes because I figured if I am going to run 3 miles a day, that was enough cardio. So I did this in conjunction to my running. I did another 3 day juice cleanse from Extract Juice Bar in SD. There is a Groupon deal for it! $50. So cheap! I was eating a lot more salads and protein (egg whites, protein powder, chicken) By now, I had lost 10 pounds!!! (stepping on the scale becomes an obsession sorta! hahah)

I went on Spring Break and tried to eat until I was full, and exercised when I could. I went to Miami feeling better about myself, but I knew the trip wasn’t the end of my fitness obsession. I came back and realized I had dropped another 5 pounds! Yee-haw! I came back and signed up for 24 hour fitness too so I can continue to have a place to run!

Fast forward to today, I am now a member at Club Pilates! I like the community feel of the studio, or maybe pilates in general? Everyone is so helpful and nice and the teachers/students are always so friendly and helpful. I dislike it because IT REALLY MAKES YOU SORE!!! There are a lot of core workouts, which means A LOT of planking. But I can already feel some of the results. It definitely tones you up very quickly!

So basically there is no secret to weight loss, but working hard and persevering through the whole thing. Definitely try supplementing your cardio with an extra type of workout that focuses on other parts of your body. My metabolism has gone up! I don’t overeat. I can even hike without dying!!! Now that I am at my ideal weight, I have been wanting to firm and tone up! I plan to continue running and to continue taking that extra fitness class, like pilates and barre. If anyone has recommendations for Bay Area fitness studios, let me know! Currently I am looking at the Dailey Method and the Bar Method. I plan to give barre classes a try! When I come back to SD during the fall, I have another pilates Groupon lined up and plan to try Bikram!

Here are some recommendations I have:

Protein: Trader Joe’s Designer Whey! (I drink it with soy milk and chia seeds after I work out or wake up in the morning.)
Lifting gloves: Saranac b-grl just4me gloves off Amazon.
Shoes: I just bought my first pair of Nike Frees! [But in the past I have been running with Asics]
Hair bands: Sweaty Bands. [I have a really really small head, so even these sort of slip, but I am abnormal and it will not slip for you]

I hope to inspire someone out there to get happy and healthy! Let me know your exercising regimin and your success stories! ❤

Day 1:

OK ya’ll! I survived Day 1! It was not bad, and I have a juice to spare. Drank 3 Greens, 1 Pineapple, and 1 Lemonade. I did snack on a few extra cucumbers, celery and some avocado though. Don’t worry, thats not cheating the cleanse–when Blueprint mails the juices, they mail you an extra card that says if you get too dizzy/hungry for some solids, you can munch on a few of those things. To be honest though, I didn’t need the extra munchies, but I had to wait for one of my juices to defrost [I ended up freezing the juice to make sure it didn’t go bad (precautions after I spent 2 hrs juicing)].

I didn’t feel dizzy or out of the ordinary today! I still went to the gym and ran/walked for 3 miles. My usual routine anyway, so I feel great and green!

Day 2:

Yay! Made it through 2/3 of it! I still feel good. I’m still not that hungry where I will keel over and die. I  did the same-ish routine from yesterday. I drank 3 Greens, 1 Pineapple, 3/4 of the Lemonade. I exercised too. I found that I sweat more both today and yesterday. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the cleanse…

I am SO HAPPY that I inspired 3 friends to do it today! Thank you for the love and support =)! And I know you can survive this cleanse!!!

I really am excited about eating a Costco hot dog on Saturday for lunch. And the many recipes I bookmarked in class to make in the future. And I bought a 6 pack of Nando’s hot sauce immediately after my friend mentioned it. And finally, I am super excited to make finger food for the Superbowl! I swear this obsession with food didnt come because of this cleanse– I do this every day of my life. Hehe stay tuned! =)

Day 3:

I MADE IT!!! I drank even less- I had 2 Greens, 1 Pineapple. I just wasn’t thatt hungry and also I was so bored of the drinks by now. I felt great though!!! I made baked ziti and nommed on some at midnight! 

***I ate a Costco hotdog the next day. I didn’t ween off the cleanse like I was supposed to. It was a terrible idea…I felt sick after and my stomach hurt and I felt like I had no energy. =( so dont be like me!!! Ween off of it by slowly incorporating more fats. Only reason I craved the hotdog was because my friend mentioned her love of hot dogs last weekend =(. 

RESULT: LOST 4 POUNDS! woot! I guess its all water weight, but oh wells! I felt skinnier in the morning and felt good and felt like everything left my body until I ate that stupid hot dog.

BRB going on a cleanse. Dont talk to me, I’m not eating.

I discovered the Blueprint Cleanse reading gossip posts about celebrities going on it to slim down for certain events and award nights. Recently, too, a few of my friends have been on it and have posted their success stories! This uber inspired me to go on it because I am on this fitness obsession right now: I must be happy and fit and skinny and healthy again! (It also doesnt hurt when I have Miami for spring break coming up either :D) So I read up on Blueprint Cleanse and it looked great! I liked the ‘Foundation’ one- 3 Greens, 1 Pineapple one, 1 Spicy lemonade, and 1 Cashew Milk. I normally LOVE veggies and fruits and juices and healthy tasting stuff so I got excited that the cleanse involved that. I have heard of the Master Cleanse [or the lemonade diet] and was sort of grossed out by drinking lemonade all day everyday– sorta boring if you ask me!

Then I looked at the price tag and was blown away! At first I thought it was $75 for the recommended 3 day cleanse, but boy was I wrong. It was $75/day [including shipping to your home]. Each day involved drinking 6 bottles of various juices. So I decided to just make my own. The internet is amazing and I found a recipe by Home Fitness Manual. Because I dont like cashews anyway, I decided to do 3 Greens, 1 Pineapple, and 2 Spicy Lemonades [I read on their website that if you are allergic to cashews, they send you an extra Spicy Lemonade].

I tweaked the recipe from Home Fitness Manual a little bit because for some reason every grocery store I went to ran out of kale -_-. So I decided to use Swiss Chard in place of the kale.

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