Last summer I started playing around with a weekly 1-day juice cleanse to reduce the load on my digestion and feel a little lighter on my feet. I quite enjoyed it and found it was no hardship at all, probably because consistently knocking back ice-cold juices in the height of a Mallorcan summer is a great antidote to the searing heat. But as autumn crept in the juicing went out the window, swiftly replaced with hearty, warming food (and plenty of it!).
Renewed motivation
Fast forward to springtime, and I was feeling a bit sluggish and generally lacking energy. This isn’t how I wanted to feel once summer hit, so the idea of a reset by way of a juice cleanse popped back into my mind. Anyone that’s owned a juicer knows that whirring it into action now and then is fine, but the palaver of assembling and cleaning it multiple times a day can be a massive hassle. Not one to do things by halves, I planned on enlisting the juicing experts with their fancy cold-pressed machinery and access to top-notch organic produce, instead of faffing about with grocery hauls, juice recipes and cleaning up. This is where Ziva to Go came in.
Bring in the professionals
If you’ve been on the island for any stretch of time and have an affinity for health and wellness, you’ve surely come across Ziva and their tasty, plant-based vegan fare. Now, Ziva also offers cold-pressed green juice detox programs, of 3, 5 or 7 days.
I had decided a 5-day cleanse was going to be my sweet spot. I was a fairly experienced juicer so felt I could confidently manage the 5-days, but having always had low blood pressure and a slightly low iron result on my last bloodwork meant 7-days probably wouldn’t serve me as well. (Make sure you disclose any health-related concerns to Ziva’s knowledgeable team before embarking on a cleanse to ensure the detox is right for you.)
What’s involved in the program?
Ziva arms you with their detox manual which gives you plenty of information about the why’s and how’s of detoxing and outlines the full program. It describes the 1-2 week ‘Pre-cleansing program’, what healing symptoms to expect, an array of complementary therapies and ways to enhance your detox, and how to break the fast post-detox. If you wanted to go all-in, for example, your program might involve additional supplements, powders and teas, massages, colonics, steam baths, yoga, meditation, dry body brushing and tongue scraping, alongside your daily juices.
Each day you consume four 500ml cold-pressed, organic, green juices comprised of greens, cucumber, celery, lemon and Ziva’s special detox powder made of superfoods. This is a cleanse for the purists – no fruit to be seen! Although fruit has many vitamins and minerals and is very rich in fibre, it is also filled with sugar. You can get the same nutritional benefits from just vegetables.
For a little warmth, you may also sip on yerba mate till your heart’s content (and a great way to curb the coffee withdrawals!).
How did it go?
Day 1, about to drink juice 1, I was nervous. Mainly because I have an aversion to celery (read: my most hated food) and I was highly concerned that it would be overpowering and the only thing I would taste for 5-days straight. Thankfully the rest of the green ingredients balanced the dreaded celery flavour and it was not at all unpleasant. Let’s be real though. The juice is green and it definitely tastes green. If you’re used to sweetening up your juices with half an apple or a cheeky carrot, there’s no place to hide here. Nonetheless, day one was a cinch.
Day 2, and I was taking this opportunity to tack some more wellness practices onto my daily schedule. 20-minutes of meditation, yoga, and for once remembering to take all my supplements meant I was feeling extra virtuous. Sure, I was a little hungry but nothing unmanageable, and upon reflection, it was more the desire to crunch on something rather than actual hunger pangs. I rounded off the day with dry-body brushing, a nice hot Epsom salt bath and a cheesy romance novel which felt an absolute treat.
Day 3 and I must admit, I was cold. It was at this point I was beginning to feel the effects of the detox on my body. Mallorca wasn’t turning on any of its sunshiny charms and the drizzle outside did nothing for my mood. I was slurping down copious amounts of yerba mate tea and distracting myself with work. My Ziva support person, Olive, informed me this was usually the hardest day. I concurred.
Day 4, I was in high spirits again. I was feeling light and energetic and quite chuffed with myself that I’d made it this far and the end was in sight. I noticed my bedtime routine had experienced a positive revamp too. Eager to cross off another day, I was wrapped up in my duvet by 10 o’clock ready for lights out. On the flip side, I was naturally waking with the sun feeling well-rested. A win for my circadian rhythm!
The finish line
Day 5 I had given up complaining about hunger and decided to jump on the scales out of curiosity. Detoxing isn’t about weight loss, but it can be a natural byproduct of a cleanse. I have nifty scales that measure all sorts so although I’d shifted around 3.5 kilos, more interestingly my metabolic age had decreased, and my muscle mass hadn’t gone down much at all. I was a bit worried about losing muscle due to the lack of protein, but I maintained my resistance training throughout the cleanse which seemed to have negated this. It’s worth noting that Ziva’s most popular cleanse is the 7-day, and one can expect even better results by sticking it out those extra couple of days.
Wrapping up and looking forward
I finished the 5-days without too much difficulty, felt fantastic, and was proud of what I had achieved. What was very noticeable was how my tastebuds had shifted during the cleanse and my new appreciation for simple, nourishing foods. Breaking the fast by reintroducing some steamed vegetables was heaven and felt like a taste sensation. Over the next few days, I found it easy to stick to healthy options, which I’ve continued weeks later. My intention to cleanse as a reset for summer worked a treat, and now I’m looking forward to a season of fresh, seasonal fruits and veggies, and adopting a more plant-based approach to eating.
If you’re new to juicing I highly recommend dipping your toe in the water with Ziva’s 1 or 3-day program, and for the more advanced juicers, take out all the juice prep and planning woes by letting Ziva stock you up for a 7-day cleanse. Booking is simple, just head to the Ziva website www.zivatogo.com and click on the Juice Detox link.
Quote “Nourish” to receive a complimentary post-detox meal with any Ziva Juice Detox Program!