At 9:30 AM this morning, I took delivery of the juices that were going to feed me for the first day of my Urban Cleanse--and, hopefully, thoroughly detoxify my body. In the bag I was given, I found four products: three kinds of juice in plastic containers of various sizes, and a sprinkle to hydrate my face during the day. The darkly-tinted “Green Healing Juice” particularly aroused my curiosity. It's a mix of concentrated celery, cucumber, apples, parsley, greens, ginger and lemon, which I was advised to begin drinking at breakfast time and throughout the day. The first sips were tolerable, as I had an empty stomach and needed some kind of sustenance to help get me going. After a little while, though, I put the bottle--and its peculiar green contents--as far away from me as I could, as I was feeling slightly nauseous. At noon sharp, I gaily opened the refrigerator door and fetched the bottle containing the soup of the day, intriguingly called “Middle East Raw Soup." I heated up half of it--keeping the rest for dinner--then poured it in a bowl and tasted it with pleasure. Filled with sesame seeds, cucumber, avocado, sprouts, tomatoes, parsley, garlic, cayenne, turmeric and lemon, the result was quite tasty. For dessert, I decided to try a few sips of the strawberry shake to finish my meal on a sweet note. The smoothie contained almond milk, strawberries, vanilla and dates and had a subtle taste--which I quickly found a little too subtle. My body felt increasingly light as the day unfolded, due to the exclusively liquid diet--but I also felt tired and unfocused. I was warned by Alicia that the first day of cleanse can often be the hardest, which gave me some hope for the next.
