Hey, all! I'm back with my next set of reviews of a different cleanse. This one is much less time consuming, but it makes up for this in cost ($$$). It's called BluePrint Cleanse.
I've had these drinks constantly for the past year, but more so as a snack or meal filler on days I was trying to eat lightly. So I thought it was time to take it to the next step and try the 3-day "excavation" cleanse program the company offered.
Of course, coming home from college, my parents were skeptical of me trying this cleanse. Even to the point of bringing it up to my doctor. But I assured them with the main point I want to make to whoever is reading this: this is not for weight loss!!! Doing this cleanse is about cleansing the toxins out of your body, gaining mental clarity, clearer skin and most importantly, tap into your inner self. Cleanses are a ver personal process, one that is not always the most enjoyable. But by the last day, you feel more in touch with your mind and soul.
Okay...and the super flat stomach for a couple days doesn't hurt.
Day One
On this cleanse, I truly find that the drinks keep we very fulfilled the entire day. I don't have to worry about being in the kitchen because they are all pre-made drinks.
Before my first drink - green tea with no sweetener
10 a.m. - Green Juice (kale has never tasted so good)
12 p.m. - Green Juice
2 p.m. - Green Juice (yeah, you start not caring for the taste at this point)
4 p.m. - Yellow Juice (spicy lemonade)
5 p.m. - Green Juice (oh hey, you)
7 p.m. - White Juice (come here you!!! Best for last)
(In between these drinks I made sure to drink lots of water and tea because your body is trying to get rid of all these toxins)
How did I feel?
Honestly? Fatigued. I took a nap between the yellow juice and the next green juice in order to get through the rest of the evening. I felt like I couldn't even walk up the stairs and I had a headache. I always feel this way on the second day of a cleanse, but never the first day. Perhaps the detox effects were hitting sooner than usual.
Day Two
I swear I sleep so well when I cleanse. My mom apologized for the ringing phone at 7 a.m., but I did not even hear it. My menu was the exact same as the day before.
How did I feel?
Still weak, but less fatigued. I find that I do get irritable in-between the juices, but I just try to take it easy and use these times as a reflection. No, I'm not hungry for food or anything, but I definitely miss the concept of cooking. I think I may bake something tomorrow just to satisfy my culinary cravings. Additionally, I took a bath, which really helped to relax me even more. If you have epsom salts, I'd definitely recommend putting those into your bath to help clear out the toxins. I'm definitely looking forward to the end of day 3 though!
Stay tuned to the blog if you want to see day 3 and the conclusion!!!
You think I'd be running towards the potato chips, burgers and chocolate, but my body is starting to appreciate my growing will power. Yes, I would love to have a fatty handful of eggplant fries that my chef made for lunch, but I also know how crappy that would make me feel. So instead, I had the morning raspberry shake offered by Dr. Oz. I did this not to torture myself, but to get my metabolism going in order to begin eating solids again.
For lunch, I had half of the lunch shake by Dr. Oz along with 2 cups of watermelon. I was shocked when it took me an hour to finish half of the bowl of fruit because usually I would complete the dish in 10 minutes. My stomach really did shrink!
Dinner was the ultimate test. Our chef created a dinner date feast with the fraternity next door.
Lobster tails and butter, steak, teriyaki salmon, mashed potatoes...
Buffalo cauliflower, shrimp cocktail...
Just be glad I didn't take pictures of the chocolate fudge cake, raspberry cheesecake, jellybean champagne glass, Lindt truffle bowl...Lord have mercy.
It was hard to resist a lot of the temptations, but the cleanse gave me the power to see past the deliciousness. Instead I made a mango, almond milk smoothie with a bowl of blueberries to chew on.
I thought dinner was hard. My body was aching for my pillow, but as a senior in college, I wasn't ready to sacrifice my social life completely! With a pre-bar to attend, I pulled myself together and allowed myself to have one glass of red wine. While not the biggest red wine fan, my friend Ruthie let me have some of her Yellow Tail Sweet Red Roo. It actually tasted pretty good. I could only sip it very slowly though due to its intensity, but that helped me make it through the night.
At 2 in the morning, I made a cup of tea and called it a day. 1st day down, tomorrow is the initiation of raw veggies! Will keep you updated.
8am-My alarm was set of 10:45a.m., yet my body naturally woke me up after around nine hours of sleep. My stomach was definitely uncomfortable when rising out of bed, but after my morning restroom routine, I began to feel the positive effects of the cleanse. Yes, I'm still a little fatigued, but I feel light and refreshed. Of course I had to weight myself too. I had to reweigh myself five times because it kept saying I lost 2.5 pounds since yesterday. Nah...can't be right...just water weight. But I looked in the mirror and my abs were definitely on show and everything seems tighter. While the actual weight loss may only be water weight, I won't complain with the way I look or feel! I actually feel like I could extend this detox for days-I can't fathom consuming solids now and the shakes aren't a disgusting thought to me anymore (besides the kale). I'm starting to research how to break this liquid detox come tomorrow morning.
10:30am-Time for the morning shake! My body accepted the shake, as usual, since the breakfast one never gave me any problems. I felt no immediate surge of energy, but my head never felt clearer. My hair feels so soft and has an attractive sheen.
12:45pm-I wasn't too worried going into my bootcamp workout, but quickly realized that activities like high-knees were making me extremely dizzy. Regardless, I pushed through and I realized that I actually was moving very efficiently. I was running suicides faster than anyone else, which was a side effect of how light and nimble I was feeling.
2pm-My lunch shake was filling, but I accidentally forgot to add kale (thank the lord). The kale upsets my stomach anyway. I noticed my rate of production increased and I was able to participate in the lecture and discussion unlike ever before. Still tired, but definitely loving these positive symptoms.
Slurp, slurp, slurp.
6:30pm-Okay. So about this situation...watching all of my friends eating my favorite meal right now. I live in a sorority and my chef made veggie burgers, an amazing broccoli cole slaw side dish and a tempting pasta salad. My dinner? A mango, kale and blueberry smoothie with stupid lemon seeds in it because they fell into the blender-YUCK! I couldn't even finish it. I'm so done. DONE! I WANT OUT!!!!
My main concern is that tomorrow I will begin breaking the cleanse. Through extensive research, I've been told to return to normal eating habits very slowly. Day one should be very similar to day three, but adding fruit solids (uh oh...how am I supposed to drink?! #Collegestudentproblems). Day two allows for vegetable solids (a salad will never taste this good). Finally, day three finally invites the fats and grains that were absent for nearly a week. And for those who are meat eaters, meat can be consumed day four and seafood on day five (seafood is harder for the body to digest because it makes your body very acidic).
I plan on blogging the next few days for the reason I think cleanse recovery is equally as important to the cleanse itself and that not enough people blog about it.
Day 2:I apologize in advanced for poor writing, my brain is very scattered due to the symptoms of the cleanse (bloating, fatigue, tired, dizzy, faint). I always consider the second day of any cleanse/detox to be the most difficult.
Lunch and morning shake
8am-I woke up from a very vivid dream feeling pretty holistic, but nothing great. I felt like the bath with epsom salts would've helped released some of the toxins floating around my body, but I would take a shower later that day after my workout course. I'm not really craving food at all, but especially not anything liquid. To be honest, the idea of the lunch shake is much for unappealing than it realistically is.
9:30am-I made my green tea and then went to my cardio kickboxing class. The thought of doing our typical 15 minute run made me want to curl up in a ball and die, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that we were substituting it for jump roping because a career fair was taking place in the gym. My balance was terrible throughout the rest of the workout.
11am-Could I be any hungrier?! I ran home and made the morning shake and immediately finished it with all of my vitamins. Honestly, this was when all of the symptoms I've heard about started to appear. I was just so spacey that it took me two hours to write yesterday's simple blogpost.
2pm-After a very hot shower, I made the greatly anticipated lunch shake. Well actually I made it twice. Let me expand: I had cut up all of the celery, cucumber, pineapple, lime and kale, but as I was carrying my plate to the blender, I dropped everything to the floor. Like...everything. And it happened for no particular reason other than I am weak and unfocused. Fortunately due to my roommate quitting on day one, I have extra ingredients.
3pm to 8pm-I unfortunately had a bunch of my long classes to deal with. I had no strength. Although I mentally felt like I had clarity, nothing I did made sense. I was texting like I was drunk and not able to formulate a sentence. The hours went on forever and all I wanted was something...not anything specific, but something to chew on!
8:30pm-dinner shake time! I used spinach instead of kale because literally the thought of more poopy kale made me want to hurl. Once I finished it, I felt so much better. While I still have the desire to bite into something, I definitely don't need anything to suppress any form of hunger. I'm really excited to see what I will be feeling tomorrow morning! LAST DAY WOOOOOT!
After two weeks of nonstop stress, no sleep, eating crap due to greek sorority recruitment, I thought it was time to reset my body with this three day wholesome detox. It's not so much for losing weight as it is to feel better about my body, mind and soul (not to detract from the fact spring break is 5 weeks away!!). I have intolerances to avocados and bananas, so I've eliminated them from the shakes. Additionally, I am a gluten free vegan, so my body may be more used to this type of plant based diet than others. At 10 a.m. yesterday morning, I ran to the grocery store with my roommate and spent $52 on all the necessities. The next few days I will write about how I feel throughout the detox in hopes it helps others deciding between trying it or not.
3 days worth of juices.
Day 1 11am-I had my first shake (here is the link to all the recipes). It tasted good and I finished it under 10 minutes with all of my vitamins. I was incredibly full afterwards, which didn't surprise me. I felt strong and energetic, which masked the original grogginess I felt when waking up after eating poorly the day before. For some reason I was very giggly as well. 12:45pm-Bootcamp class. I wasn't too worried about working out this early on in the cleanse, but I didn't want to push myself too hard. Overall, it was a fine workout, but I definitely was working up an appetite for shake number 2 2pm-After a quick shower, I blended up all the ingredients and quickly slurped down the second shake. It tasted good at first, but I am no beginner to green smoothie shakes. The kale is very overpowering so I recommend adding less than a cup at first. My body is very sensitive to foods, which is why one hour later I developed severe stomach cramps.They were so bad that when I was sitting in class and in my meetings, I seriously believed I was going to faint. I've experienced this feeling before when eating avocados and bananas, so I knew all I could do was to sit it out. The pain passed in an hour. Mentally, this had drained me to the point all I wanted was to sleep. I felt full still after my 5 pm class ended. So I skipped the snack smoothie recommended. I found my roommate passed out in bed. Fatigue definitely hit her hard, which is a side effect of detoxing. She found the green shake much harder to swallow than I did. 6:30pm-Time for the dinner smoothie. Overall, this was my least favorite tasting smoothie. Perhaps it was due to the unbalanced flavors because I had to omit avocados. Additionally, I may have put too much cayenne pepper in the mixture. It was so spicy that all my sinuses were cleared within seconds. I started to feel energized and giddy again. My roommate on the other hand was miserable. She couldn't get her mind off of food and was on the verge of tears. I went off to a group meeting and she went to the Syracuse vs. Notre Dame basketball game (Cuse won!!). When we met back up a couple hours later, she had given up. My other friend doing the BluePrint cleanse also gave up as well (BluePrint is much more expensive than the Dr. Oz cleanse). Although I definitely was starting to get mentally slower, I still felt clear enough to pick up my friend, drive her to get froyo and watch her eat it without any misery.
Dinner Shake...meh.
8pm-Ok, here is where I struggled the most. I always end up binge eating around this time of the day. No matter how well I eat during the morning to dinner, I always crash and burn before bed. So I made a cup of roobios tea and prepared myself for bed. I had the deepest sleep I've had in a while. With constant insomnia, nightmares and restless sleep, this meant a lot to me. Overall, a successful first day! Not too hard! Tune in tomorrow for day 2!!!
In my COM 400 class, my group presented on the topic of how social media modified the magazine industry.
Prior to this decade’s enormous social media boom, readership for magazines was
simple. It involved paying for a subscription and getting a print copy of the
niche literature to your home or office. This was the extent of interaction between
the magazine and the reader. With only a goal of boosting readership, there was
no need for two-way communication of open discussion between the two parties.
That is, until social media completely changed the playing field.
We live in
an entirely altered universe where reading a print copy of a magazine is not
only becoming an ancient form of readership, but it is one of multiple options
for the subscriber. Magazine applications on smart phones and iPads are becoming an
easier way to get your subscription to you. But most importantly, social media
has opened the door for a wholeheartedly new engagement between the publication
and reader. The options for communication are endless: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Augmented Reality, Tumblr are just a popular few.
Our group began researching the usage and effects of social
media on the industry. With the help of Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn, we
coordinate a schedule to finalize a perfect presentation. PearlTrees and Google
Hangout were amazing supporters for furthering our communication and research.
Twitter proved to be a viable source for contacting professionals in the
magazine industry. We conducted interviews via social media outlets that would
help give us a strong backbone for our arguments.
During the
presentation, social media showed its particular strength when our entire
class tweeted/Facebook posted/Google Plus'ed up a storm along with our hashtag
#socialmags. When we handed out iPads to our fellow peers, they first hand experienced augmented reality and online publication’s connection to
Pinterest and other online blogs and Facebook pages. Magazines even tweeted back at
individuals in our class by the end of the presentation!
Once we
concluded our presentation, we were able to track how many people around the
world were paying attention to our presentation notes. Slideshare allowed us to
publish our final product online as well.
This group
project not only taught me how social media affects the magazine industry, but
how you can take a boring presentation to a whole new collaborative level.
Being able to share our thoughts with not only our class, but also the entire
world, proved to be an amazing experience. This class will forever change the
way I disseminate Powerpoints and information in formal educational/business
settings.
Kate Brodock (aka @Just_Kate) is Executive Director of Digital & Social Media at Syracuse University. Today, she discussed the use and importance of social media in communications at Syracuse University (@SyracuseU) and for everyday usage.
.@SyracuseU uses a student #SM team. Why? Students have insane school spirit, are engaged, and have a little bit more fun. #NewhouseSM4
