Can Can Cleanse Recap

Earlier this month, I decided to do another 3-Day juice cleanse. I was feeling the need to start off the new season on a good note. I wanted to reset my stomach and get myself to a place where I don't need quite so much caffeine. Last time I did my own juice cleanse which meant shopping for all the ingredients, making each juice, and finding enough bottles to hold me through the day. Totally doable, but this time I decided to make things easier on my busy life and try a cleanse from a local company who makes and delivers your pre-made cleanse right to your doorstep. I actually teamed up with a handful of my colleagues to do this cleanse together so I went with the Can Can Cleanse based on the group decision.

The evening before we were due to start our cleanse, bags full of our juices, fully organized with numbers even, arrived. That's when I discovered that I somehow missed the fact that there was a pre-cleanse routine. I really wish I had known that so I could have properly prepared. Oops! They have you reduce the amount of things like red meat, carbs, salt, suger, and, most important to me, caffeine. Regardless, I was pumped to give this program a shot and glad to have a group of gals to lean on especially when the typical office temptations (catered lunch, snacks on hand, special occasion treats) were sure to be difficult to avoid while cleansing.

I loved how organized everything was from the Can Can Cleanse folks. The juice includes a one-sheet with pretty much everything you'll need to know while cleansing, including a very easy schedule for when to consume each juice. Each juice had a label on it that includes a number so there is absolutely no confusion about what to drink or when. I also loved that it wasn't all just juice; there is tea, and soup as well! Read on to see what I thought aout the spring recipe.

#1 Lemon Ginger Juice

ingredients: lemon, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, filtered water

The first juice in the routine sounds a lot like the concoction that Kelly on The Office does to try and lose weight in the Season 5 opening episode, minus the maple syrup.




Probably due to the lack of coffee that morning, I failed to notice the instruction to heat this particular juice (I know, off to a great start, right?). It was super, mouth-puckeringly tart. But I'm the sort of person who would eat lemons on the regular if it wasn't so bad for the enamel on my teeth, so I enjoyed it. The remaining two days, I made sure to heat it up, which made it even better still!

#2 & #6 Green Juice

ingredients: cucumber, celery, parsley, kale, broccoli, cabbage, fennel, spinach, romaine, lemon, ginger, apple

This juice was insanely good. I discovered in my last cleanse that I am not a fennel fan, but I loved this somewhat sweet green juice despite the fennel.  I really looked forward to this one and I got to enjoy it twice a day.

#3 Nettle Tea

ingredients: dried nettle leaves, filtered water 

I prefer my tea to be on the sweeter side so I didn't exactly fall in love with this brew, but it was good and really hit the spot until it was "lunch" time. It was especially helpful that I got two drinks out of this one can. The only downside to the tea is that I tend to get a little nauseated when I drink tea on an empty stomach.

#4 Spring Root Soup

ingredients: carrot, fennel, onion, garlic, celery, fennel seed, anise seed, lemon zest, olive oil, sea salt, filtered water

This concotion was perhaps the saving grace of the cleanse given that it was warm and savory. My office caters lunch every day so it was really challenging to say no to the delicious smelling dishes most of my colleagues were eating. If this soup wasn't so good (despite the fennel), I probably wouldn't be able to say that I managed to say no to lunch every single day!

#5 Grapefruit Mint Juice

ingredients: grapefruit, apple, mint, filtered water

This afternoon treat might be my favorite of the bunch. I love grapefruit juice so much that even though it was only sweetened with apple juice and a touch of mint, I still wanted to gulp it down!

#7 Almond Milk

ingredients: whole almonds, cardamom, dates, filtered water

This wasn't as good as I was hoping/expecting it would be, but it was still a good enough beverage to keep me from getting hungry.

#8 Chamomile Ginger Tea

ingredients: dried chamomile flowers, fresh ginger, filtered water (herbal tea)

Same note on this tea as the morning tea; I prefer my tea to be a little sweeter. But this was a nice one to end the day and get to bed with a full stomach.

Permissible Eats

Midway through the first day I discovered a list of food that was okay to eat if my body was telling me it needed something. I was happy to see things like a half of avocado, raw almonds, hard boiled eggs, and cucumber on this list. This helped with the tea nausea thing and I just had a small handful of almonds or a hard boiled egg before drinking the tea.

So what did I think?

In my opinion, this cleanse is perfect for the juicing novice or experimental juicer.  The soup, tea, and permissible eats make this something that pretty much anyone should be able to follow through on. Compared to the DIY juice cleanse, this one is much better for someone who is too busy to shop for and make their own juice. I thought their recipes were pretty tasty and I'm actually hoping to try their newly announced summer cleanse menu in a couple of months. And it doesn't hurt that I now have a bunch of pretty jars to use for my own juices! Before doing this cleanse, the cost of this cleanse was a bit of sticker shock, but when you consider this is in place of three days of meals/coffee, they did all the shopping and prep, and you get 24 adorable little jars, this is actually a pretty great deal!

My energy was pretty low at the end of the first day, which was a Tuesday. When I got home I couldn't help myself but to take a nap on the couch before finishing up my day and going to bed. The second and third day I had a headache, from caffeine withdrawals, I believe. The afternoon of the third day was hard; I was so very sleepy! But then I had to paint some walls which surprisingly gave me a load of energy! Based on that, I've decided that being active on a cleanse is important. I don't think I'll try doing another cleanse during the work week when I'm mostly sitting at a desk. It'll have to be over a weekend!

Are you a cleanser? What cleanse do you love?

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