Juice cleanse

Can living on juice for five days really get rid of toxins and work wonders for your body and your mind?

It was with a little trepidation that I looked at the Schkinny Maninny esky sitting on my front doormat.

I'd signed up for the five-day juice-plus-dinner cleanse and it was day one, 7am. I had detoxed before and was dreading the headaches, foggy-headedness and irritability that I knew were just around the corner.

I am a two-coffee-per-day kinda gal who had put on two holiday kilos so I was not going to escape without side effects, especially after a recent spate of functions.

In the esky were four punchily named juices: Schkinny Leap Frog (kiwifruit green), Schkinny Pine Grapple (carrot orange), Schkinny Lentil Luncheon (tomato red) and Schkinny Fruity Punch (watermelon pink) and a serve of snowpeas, mushrooms, tofu and noodles.

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The rules for the five days were:

• Drink all juices daily - the variety is important.

• Avoid vigorous exercise and go to bed early.

• Loofah dry skin with the supplied mitt.

• Drink the supplied detox tea.

• Soak in supplied bath salts to draw out toxins.

It took less than 24 hours for my headache to set in and, with it, a crabby mood. To be fair to my loved ones, I removed myself from home and saw a movie.

Day two brought another esky full of fresh juices, soup and dinner. The dinners were a definite highlight of the cleanse. Day two's was a rocket salad with steamed new potatoes, almonds, avocado and sweetcorn with a lemon and red wine vinegar dressing.

Day two brought another headache and a feeling of emptiness so deep in my stomach I had to eat a banana. Then, out of nowhere, I was suddenly bawling my eyes out.

Every delivery came with a buddy card with points about how you could expect to be feeling that day. As I read day three's card through puffy eyes, I noted the side effect of depressive feelings and felt better immediately.

By day four the benefits were starting to kick in; purity felt like it was within my reach. Day five, the last day, was better again, but the temptation was to reach for a celebratory glass of wine. Years of social conditioning don't disappear in a week. I abstained, however, and felt wonderful.

I was toxin free, my mind clear, my body firing on all cylinders. 

This cleanse works, but whether the benefits last depends on you.

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