Impressed.my - A Juice Cleanse Trial

I’ve heard so much about cold-pressed juice and juice cleanses that I decided to give it a try and see how it works considering I’d been feeling a bit tired and bloated for the past few weeks. I opted for a one day cleanse (more than 24 hours without food? No thank you) from Impressed.my, which consisted of six juices spaced out 3 hourly and downloaded their schedule from their Facebook page.

7am: Drank first juice called Rise & Shine (basically alkaline water, lemon and cayenne pepper). The juice itself was nice, not as acidic on an empty stomach as I thought it might have been (but then again it’s alkaline water duh), and the pepper was a slight kick. 

8am: Starting to have slight hunger pangs. Still alert. 

9am: Drank second juice (spinach, cucumber, celery, lettuce and green apple). Surprisingly yummy considering the number of veggies they’ve stuck in there. Also one of the few ways I’ll actually bother eating spinach. 

10am: Mildly hungry. I generally tend to get hungry at this time anyway. I’ve also realized that I probably don’t drink enough and now I’m starting to drink regularly I’m also getting frequent urges to go to the toilet. Damn bladder! 

11am: Stomach starting to rumble. Not exactly hungry but there’s that gnawing feeling that something is missing . I’m also starting to fantasize about the next juice. Feeling surprisingly light though, and not getting that mid-morning lethargy that I get on occasion. 

12pm: Had the I6 (watermelon, beetroot and mint). Not too sweet, and had diluted a little bit as I probably didn’t shake it well enough. It was only a hint of beetroot and mint, so nothing too overwhelming. 

1pm: OMG so many toilet breaks. Is this what a detox does to you?

2pm: That weird feeling of being hungry but not. 

3pm: Hallelujah for almond milk, which also has alkaline water and agave nectar in it! Not as thick as I thought it would be, just a hint of cinnamon. I've always loved almond milk so this one is a definite plus!

4pm: Busy running errands, which almost made me forget about that weird feeling of fullness but not. Not that I'm busy I didn't actually have time to analyse how weird I felt. Interestingly, at no point did I feel tired or lacking energy to go about my routine.

7pm: Was actually so busy that I didn’t actually get to drink my 6pm juice (the spinach-veggie-concoction) until 630 on my drive back. By this time I was getting used to that weird feeling. Man, I’ve never looked so forward to a bottle of juice in mt life. 

8pm: Buckled down and had peanut butter sandwich after seeing dad make himself one. I’m so weak. Then again, I wasn’t entirely clear how strict you had to be with food for this sort of thing, and you can’t really go wrong with a sandwich can you? 

9pm: Last juice of the day was the I1 (green apples and carrots). I have to admit to having a sense of achievement at actually making it though most of it. 

How do I feel? 

It took some time to adjust. Apparently when you first do a cleanse your body will start to crave sugar (it was the exact feeling I had when I first quit sugar for a bit, just not as awful). I had this constant gnawing feeling as I would keep anticipating that next juice. 

Cons: Finding a way to store the juice was a pain, especially if you’re someone always on the go like me. Considering how you have to have something every three hours and being highly mobile, it takes commitment. Ideally I would have liked a coldbox of sorts but I had to make do with one of those insulated bags, which probably wasn’t exactly ideal. Probably better if you're in an office environment of sorts with a fridge, or if you're going to be at home.

Pros: I did feel a lot less bloated after the cleanse, and pretty good the few days after (okay, I might have overdone it by having half a bag of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies to congratulate myself on that achievement – which probably undid a little bit of the good I’d done), but overall it felt like I’d done my body some good. I generally eat reasonably well so I didn’t expect to feel a lot different, but it did feel good, whether it was a placebo effect or not. 

I agree with the evidence that juice cleanses probably wouldn’t do too much good and isn’t a healthy alternative for long term weight loss, but it does the job if you’re trying to kick start a commitment to healthy eating, and is great for giving your body a bit of a break in the short term. 

I got my juice at Impressed Nu Sentral – their beginners set is RM65. Check them out on Facebook here or on Instagram at impressed.my for some yummy cold-pressed juice!