{Editor’s Note: I’m thrilled to welcome my exceptionally talented and health-conscious friend, Megan Clark, to the blog today. She’s here to tell you all about a juice cleanse…which I’ve always been secretly curious about, yet too chicken to try. She volunteered to play guinea pig, and I think you’ll love her rundown of the results. Enjoy!}

Oh, the mysterious juice cleanse. I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard my fair share of horror stories, watched documentaries, seen friends suffer through cleanse and wondered: is it just a fad? I decided to find out and finally tried it myself.

For many, just the mention of a juice cleanse conjures up the mandatory fasting that takes place before surgery or a blood test. I’m happy to say that it’s actually a very different experience. There’s still some anxiety and food cravings, but what you get in return is well worth it. A juice cleanse gives your digestive system a break. Consequently, all the junk that has been put into your system has a chance to get flushed out. (I have a mental picture of coffee, donuts, cookies and bottles of wine floating down a river through my digestive tract. Just in case you were wondering.) It’s like a reboot for your body.

We were privileged to partner with The Feel Good World in Portland for this little experiment. Their three-day program, affectionately known as the “Juice Feast” is made up of eighteen juices, or six juices each day. The entire experience is titled Shine Signature VIP. It includes all of the juices for the cleanse, a bag of fresh snacks and prepared meals to help you taper off the cleanse at the end, one week of yoga/movement classes and a spa treatment to top it off (though the package has now changed, and the spa treatment is a colon hydrotherapy session).

So, you probably want to know how it went, right? Read on →

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