Juice Cleanse Review

So I survived my juice cleanse, which I'm kind of surprised by. The beginning of the first day, I was so disgusted with the juices that I almost gave up. But by the time yesterday rolled by, I was able to pretty much breeze through the juices. The major problem I found was that I had horrible cravings the whole time, so instead of gradually beginning to incorporate solid foods into my diet like Urban Remedy recommends, the first thing I ate this morning was an egg and brie sandwich on a Hawaiian bun--fat, dairy, and gluten all at once. And I'll admit it, if I had found sausage in the fridge I would've cooked that up too--red meat, fat. 

But I guess the juice cleanse me taught me how to handle my hunger. Whenever I'm bored or feel the slightest hungry, I stuff my mouth. But now, I know what hunger feels like and that I don't actually need to eat. I'm not positive this is a healthy approach, but is it that horrible feeling uncomfortable? Maybe I've just grown accustomed to being unnecessarily full? We'll see how resisting my hunger cravings serves me.

Back to the juice cleanse, I'm not sure if I'd do it again. Physically, I don't feel much different. Looking at myself in the mirror, I think I look thinner but that might be some placebo self-esteem thing. I don't think my stomach actually got small with those 3 days of starvation and a couple Soul Cycle classes. However, my skin didn't glow....I'm 95% positive of that. Also (and this is a tad TMI) besides having to pee all the time, I did NOT spend an abnormal amount of time on the toilet. Everyone warned me of that with a cleanse (I mean honestly Rachel, how else does it "cleanse" it from your body") but I guess I just peed it out or it was released through my pores or something. I felt fine. 

All in all, it was an interesting experience, and I definitely got more work done during the past three days than the rest of break. Hopefully, this juice cleanse will really be the beginning of better habits. Here's to exercising more, eating better, and appreciating food more!

Juice Cleanse: Why Do We Juice?

I woke up this morning certain that my phone had died and I had missed my alarm. Instead, I had actually woken up before my perfectly timed chiming period (Sleep Cycle reference). I'm also super hungry but have run out of lemon for my tea in the morning. So here I am sitting in bed, with hunger in my throat, but unwilling to drink the Brainiac juice sitting on my bedside table.
Urban Remedy's email this morning told me that I'm supposed to glow today. As if my juice cleanse has the same magical powers as pregnancy. Looking at myself in the mirror, I don't feel like I'm going to be glowing. I look disgusting, this horrible pale color with a yellow undertone. I'm not blaming my juice cleanse for my unattractiveness. That I can only attribute to poor genetics and my lack of sun. Now I wish I had asked my parents to send me to LA for a "job fair" and gotten my winter tan on. But honestly, even if after this cleanse I feel all fresh and healthy, how could that be properly translated to the world without the appropriate sun kissed face??
Today, I'm hoping to continue with my job app streak. But I'm not feeling as motivated as I did yesterday. Since I submitted my last app, I've started looking at positions I care more about and would be devastated if I didn't get a call back from. I've also stalked every person remotely related to these companies on LinkedIn to see how they got there. I've discovered that they got there by being better than me.
All my life people have told me not to compare myself to others, but that just seems like the biggest load of crap. Grades, GPAs, resumes, not to mention the load of superficial insecurities that I have that do not relate to job searches are all a comparison game. Sadly, I think that I wanted to do this juice cleanse to make myself a better version of myself. I was hoping that I'd be thinner and prettier and more attractive. Maybe this juice cleanse could be the thing that jumpstarted the me that I always dreamed I'd be? That statement seems potentially harmless. Be your best self, right? But under that statement is the true unshakable insecurities that will undoubtedly haunt for the rest of my life. And unfortunately, there's no juice cleanse to detox me from that.

Juice Cleanse: Day 2

Wake Up (10:20) I woke up on the second day of my cleanse feeling pretty good. However, I'm not sure I can attribute that to the juice cleanse or to the fact that I used Sleep Cycle for the first time since my semester abroad. Waking up to the sound of perfectly timed chimes just feels better than the usual uhhhh fuckkkk what time is it??? hungover-like wake-up I experience during breaks.

What I found strange was what my Sleep Cycle told me: I didn't sleep well. It gave me a 51% sleep rating, telling me I almost never fell into a deep sleep all night. This was particularly surprising since I have a temperpedic bed, so I actually thought the phone would detect less movement than it did on my horrible bed abroad. What does it mean if I didn't sleep well on my juice cleanse?

So right now, I'm watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians. I'm hoping that watching a less serious, more background TV show will encourage me to actually write some job applications. Wish Me Luck!! I'm also waiting for my tea + lemon to cool down to the recommended "warm" temperature and starring apprehensively at my first juice of the day: Brainiac aka the bane of my existence. That's the juice that took me over 2 hours to drink yesterday and had me start the whole juice cleanse with a

horribly negative attitude.

Lemon Water (10:55) The tea was nice and soothing in my throat. Strangely enough, with every gulp, a little headache began to pang. According to the email I received this morning from Urban Remedy, I will be experiencing those all day. I wonder if they realize that I've actually been experiencing these headaches since my pre-cleanse days. This really does mean that I have a caffeine addiction, doesn't it?

Brainiac (11:15) I was really nervous to try this drink again, since I found it so disgusting yesterday. Today, I still don't like it. I don't even like it as much as I liked the "Flush" drink from yesterday, which I barely liked. The salty celery tasting water is apparently never going to grow on me, but I don't find it as horrible as yesterday. I'm able to gulp it down in under an hour.

Time Machine (1:30) The time machine is the drink that is supposed to help weight loss and kickstart your metabolism, so obviously it's one of my least favorite drinks. It was not as difficult to drink as yesterday, but I'm not downing it due to thirst like I did with Brainiac. I have decided to do something productive today, so I actually put in my retainer for the first time since I joked about wearing it to my sorority's crush party. I'm also beginning to work on my AT&T application and just started the cover letter section (it's my least favorite section!) Just kidding, they said it was optional so I'm skipping ahead and doing that shit later.

Flush (3:45) Drinking with a retainer is weird. Also, I submitted my first job application to AT&T. I'm sure it's horrible, but WISH ME LUCK! I really need to be employed in May. Unfortunately, I'm scrolling through more job applications and am losing any motivation. FYI I haven't showered or even changed out of my pajamas today. Sexy can I, right?

After Party (5:50) My stomach is started to rumble in this strange way. I'm not sure if I'm just hungry or have a stomach ache. I am now watching He's Just Not That Into You and finishing up another cover letter. Also, I would prefer a little less ginger in this drink . . .

Warrior (8:15) Oh how we've met again. Once again my favorite. Except this time I took my retainer out and the chia seeds are actually kind of tough on my newly sensitive teeth. Lesson? I need to wear my retainer more frequently. I'm also LinkedIn surfing now, looking at alums who are in positions I'm applying for. It's funny, I'm pretty sure I'm a good applicant but every time I stalk people, I feel so inadequate.

Relax (9:40) I still don't really care for it, but I'm surprised how well the whole day has gone. It's pretty much the end of the day, and I'm not rolling around in hunger pains or cravings. Even more surprisingly, I've applied to four jobs today. My mom asked me if "it's working" and if I'm feeling really good. I told her I'm not feeling bad? It's been kind of nice not having to think about what I'm eating and how to feed myself, but  I don't feel incredible. Although, I haven't been able to convince myself to submit a single job app until this juice cleanse, so maybe that's enough to say it's worth it? How about this: If I get an interview from any of the job applications I submit during this cleanse, I'll say it was worth the $185. 

Juice Cleanse: Day 1

My first day on my juice cleanse was really difficult. I started the day wondering why in the world I thought this was going to be a good idea. I found the first couple drinks absolutely disgusting and preferred starving myself to forcing more of it down my throat. Honestly, I felt like giving up after the very first drink, already regretting completely wasting $185. Urban Remedy said to take it easy fitness wise during my juice cleanse, so I took that as permission to become a couch potato. My intention was to do some job applications, but of course I just watched TV. Specifically, I bought the first season of Girls and watched that for the first time while grimacing through my juice cleanse. If you want more insight into my thoughts during the first day, here's some tweets:

I 100% wish I had spent this money on soul cycle classes instead of this cleanse. This sucks. Ugh.
— Rachel (@rachietalksalot) January 4, 2014

Suffering through my juice cleanse by watching girls. Like seriously, could I be more of a bougie cliche right now? pic.twitter.com/rJbhEWyutC
— Rachel (@rachietalksalot) January 4, 2014

You know what would be fucking amazing right now? A giant cheeseburger...I'm salivating.
— Rachel (@rachietalksalot) January 5, 2014

Like its kind of disgusting how it's 5:30 and I've consumed less calories than a bottle of naked or odwalla juice.
— Rachel (@rachietalksalot) January 5, 2014

Here's my review of the drinks on the first day:

Juice #1: Brainiac is made of Cucumber, Celery, Spinach, Parsley, and Lemon. What it tasted like? Watery, salty celery. Gross. It took me 2.5 hours to gulp that shit down. I seriously hated it, especially how salty it was. I understand that they needed to put my sodium levels somewhere in this juice cleanse, but it tasted like they put all of my daily sodium in my first drink. They didn't, but they did put 10% of my daily sodium intake.

Juice #2: I found this one (Time Machine) slightly easier to gulp down. I wouldn't say I liked it, but I didn't grimace quite as much with every sip.

Juice #3: The Flush. I was super worried for this juice. It sounded pretty similar to the other green juice I had had that morning and almost puked up (Brainiac) but its name was even worse. The name 'Flush' made me think that the moment it touched my lips I'd have to run for the toilet. Surprisingly that didn't happen. And the ginger in Flush made the rest of the drink much more tolerable for my taste buds.

Juice #4: It was carrot, beet, apple and ginger juice. I wasn't in love, but it seems like the juices are getting better as the day goes on. I could see myself buying this drink when I'm in a healthy Marina, yuppie mood. Apparently beet juice is amazing for detoxing your liver, so they named this juice "After Party."

Juice #5: A-MAZ-ING. It was a raspberry shake and it made me feel so much better about the whole cleanse. It's odd, but I think the JUICE element of this has been weirding me out. In reality, juices from Naked and Odwalla are pretty thick, so having all the juices so far be so thin and watery kind of disgusted me. But this juice/shake was so thick with the yumminess of raspberries. It was definitely my favorite drink of the day. I think this juice helped me regain my strength...and the drink was aptly named "Warrior."

Juice #6: Relax. I was really expecting to like this drink more. The reviews I read from bloggers said it was amazing, so when I finally got to #6 I thought the day's struggles were already over. But after the thick quality of Warrior, I was disappointed by the thinness of the Cashew milk. I vaguely could taste an horchata-like quality to this drink. I'll probably like it a lot more tomorrow....and now I want a real horchata.

Well, the whole day is done and I'm not feeling as hungry as I thought I would. I think this might be because I went to bed feeling more hungry the night before. That's the final part I feel like I should mention. I just downloaded the app FitBit, which has been giving me a calorie target for each day based on my activity and the amount of weight I want to lose. After all the calories I burned from Soul Cycle, I actually ended up having LESS calories with my real food (and froyo) than on my juice cleanse........Maybe it would've been better to just eat normal food and have a tough workout?

Urban Remedy: Pre-Juice Cleanse

When I was in Geneva, I was feeling pretty lethargic and gross. I got it in my head to do a juice cleanse and be more healthy. Unfortunately, during the summer I didn't have enough time to both enjoy the yummy food in San Francisco and do my juice cleanse. But here I am again in San Francisco for four weeks with plenty of time to do the juice cleanse, so I have no excuse. Well, I guess I did have an excuse. Juice cleanses are pretty freaking expensive. Ranging from around $150-$250 for 3 days.

I looked around at a bunch of local juice-cleanse spots and settled on Urban Remedy because the juices sounded pretty yummy (well for primarily vegetable juices....) When I signed up for the cleanse, I assumed it would just be those three days. But in reality, it's a 9 day ordeal. In order to prep your body for a juice-only diet, Urban Remedy recommends that you cut out pretty much everything that's good in the world.

So basically, I've already been deprived of chocolate and steak and milk and alcohol and everything yummy since January 1st. Unfortunately, I still have 6 more days of cravings and they will only get worse.

However, I think I did a pretty good job with all my diet restrictions. For breakfast, I would have a breakfast scramble full of veggies. I made my parents buy me chicken which I ate at every occasion. I had my fill of pistachios (like honestly it was disgusting). And I watched my friends with envy as they downed chocolate chip cookie after chocolate chip cookie. Oh and I forgot to mention I also peed all the time. Urban Remedy told me to make sure I actually get my 8 glasses of water a day, which made me realize that I NEVER get my full 8 glasses. Even though it seems like 4 water bottles isn't a lot....it's so much water I have to pee every fifteen minutes!!

I must admit, I cheated. I wasn't supposed to eat sugar or soy, but I met up with my friends at Fraîche after I went to a Soul Cycle class and I just couldn't resist the cool, refreshing froyo. But I got it in soy instead of original because I felt like that would be healthier. Unfortunately, I ended my 3-day pre-cleanse period with horrible cravings which were not helped by my brother who dragged me to Krispey Kreme and In-N-Out as I ate my berries....god I want a fucking cheeseburger, with a milkshake, and more cheese on the side...maybe some poutine on the side. FUCK. I have to start a juice cleanse like this.

Ladurée

 I enjoyed some amazing macarons that I smuggled across the Atlantic. They are actually from the famous Ladurée in Paris. yum! 

Please, I Should Be 'The Mayor'

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, I just joined foursquare last week. I'm not quite sure why I hadn't joined before, since it basically is advanced instagram that comes with tips. Since I've been obsessed with making sure I post my location on all my instagrams and my instagram is almost entirely food, foursquare makes perfect sense for me. 

Since I'm such a late and recent addition, this week I've been trying to check in as much as possible. (However, I only check into restaurants and always forget that locations, neighborhoods, and stores are also something you can check into at foursquare). So far, it's been pretty fun but there's been one thing that I've found annoying about being a 'Newbie' foursquare. Every time I check-in to a new restaurant (or really anyplace), it tells me CONGRATS! This is your first time at this restaurant or CONGRATS! This is your first ___ type of restaurant. 

This has been particularly annoying this week, since I've mainly been going to all of my favorite restaurants that I'm pretty much a regular at. This was particularly true at Sushi Raw in the Lower Haight. I first went to Sushi Raw with my family because my grandma lives around the corner, but I kept going because my friend Camille lives right next to it too. They also have pretty reasonable prices, so everyone time I come home, I go there for some sushi or soup. 

Despite going to school on the East Coast, I manage to go to Sushi Raw so often that they greet me with a friendly welcome (even more than their normal welcome) and I frequent it more than my parents do.

In my opinion, there should be some sort of test or way to get the 'Local' badge or 'Mayor' position on foursquare even if you just joined. Honestly, them knowing where I go to college, where my grandma lives, general knowledge about  my parents and friends should mean more than how many times I remembered to press the little 'check-in' button. Right?

Udon after a long day is always such a great choice. It's nice and warm, which is always perfect in foggy San francisco. But it's also the cheapest thing you can get at a sushi restaurant at about $8 while being extremely filling (way more filling than sushi). Not to mention, that it is really healthy. Look at all those yummy veggies! (But don't worry, if you want a less healthy option, tempura udon is always a great choice!)

Pakwan

When I'm away at school, the main thing I miss is ethnic food. Growing up in San Francisco, I was used to have authentic and absolutely amazing anything-you-can-imagine food. When I was little, my favorite restaurants were thai, chinese, and mexican. As I got older, I ventured into puerto rican, burmese and nepalese food as well. So when I come home for breaks, there are a couple stops I just have to take. One of these is Indian food.
I met up with my friends Camille and Mattie one night after they both got off of work and headed over to the Mission to get dinner. While the Mission District is best known for mexican food (big surprise there), I had already had mexican food three times at that point so we opted for Indian at Pakwan instead. Pakwan was the perfect choice since it was pretty fast and cheap (like Mexican), but wasn't yet another burrito. Here's some pics!

Mattie is certainly happy with the food!

Also, I just joined foursquare. Add me!

A Day Trip to Napa

Apparently all I do these days is go wine tasting. For a person that admittedly doesn't have the most refined palette for wine, I find this slightly amusing. But as you know, during my last weekend in Geneva I went wine tasting and during my 22 hour layover in Boston I also had a quick wine tasting moment. So here I am my second full day back home and I'm in the Napa Valley wine tasting.
I went with my brother, my niece Malayah, and her mom MJ (who I've known since I was eight years old) to this winery in St Helena called V Sattui. The place was really nice and the lady who did our wine tasting was really nice and super funny. I was a little congested from allergies, which I think is why I liked the super fruity and girly wines more than usual that day. After tasting about 15 wines, my brother and MJ both bought a case of wine each.

 I was pretty hungary after consuming all that wine, since unlike my pretentious brother I did actually swallow all my wine. Luckily, the place that MJ chose had a picnic bbq area. MJ and my brother ordered quite a spread with oysters, bruschetta, shrimp, and pork ribs. We paired that with some white wine, a baguette of Acme bread, and a couple of cheeses we had tried at the cheese tasting. It all hit the spot as we sit in the warm Napa sun. 

It's been rather exciting being able to finally drink legally in America. Although I've been drinking in America for awhile now (I know, big shocker) and I've been drinking legally in Europe all semester, it still wasn't quite as exciting as my new power as a 21-year-old. So my first drink on the plane was a white wine, I went to a wine tasting and went out in my 22 hours in Boston, I had a mimosa after breakfast my first day in San Francisco, and then I went wine tasting yesterday. You know what that means? I just have to go out today or else I'll break my LEGAL streak! Tell you about it later. 

Higher Grounds

I spent my first night and day in my old neighborhood of Glen Park, where I grew up in San Francisco. After awakening at 5am and just lounging in bed for the next five hours, the crew (my brother, my niece and me) all headed down the hill to the 'village' to get breakfast. We went to my favorite breakfast spot when I was little, Higher Ground. Back in the day, I would just get a basic cheese omelette with a Mexican hot chocolate (you just add cinnamon), but these days I'm older and have a much more mature palette. So this time, I decided to actually try what Higher Grounds is known for: their savory crepes. I think the crepe I got was Alla Toscana? It has a large variety of cheeses, egg, and spinach. I rather enjoyed it. I also got a large fresh-squeezed orange juice that was only like $3, which I'm pretty sure is a good deal (or I'm still confused by Geneva prices)

I completely recommend Higher Grounds. Recently, Glen Park has been on the rise and the 'village' has gotten a bunch of snooty new restaurants and markets. But Higher Grounds has been around since I was little and Glen Park was still an area of the city people didn't know how to get to (no seriously, the amount of friends' parents that got lost dropping me off). So this isn't like those yuppie brunch spots that are littered around San Francisco (although don't get me wrong, I do love those). Instead, Higher Grounds is an authentic unpretentious family owned breakfast spot that will probably be around longer than all the new computer geeks who just moved into the neighborhood. What I should mention though is that because it's so authentic and unpretentious, They don't take credit cards and there's no wifi. So bring your cash and bring a book if you're planning on sticking around to enjoy the rustic ambiance.

After breakfast, we headed down a couple doors to pop into Chenery Park and say hi to the owner Joe. My brother automatically went to the bar and made us all some mimosas and we all chatted as they prepared for the graduation party that they were having that afternoon. Back in the day, Chenery Park used to be the fancy restaurant in the neighborhood. These days, it's pretty much at the same fancy level as every other restaurant in town besides the old chinese restaurant, mexican taqueria, and the diner. If I go back before I head back to the east coast, I'll snap some pics and tell you allll about it.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

My last weekend trip of my semester abroad was to Istanbul, Turkey. Although I don't think it's the traditional European destination, it was one of the main places I wanted to visit during my semester abroad. Apparently, the rest of the Geneva crew wanted to see it too because I went with a group of five other GSGers and two other groups had already gone for spring break. By the end of the semester, all of but one of us made a little trip to good ol' Constantinople.

Istanbul was so different from all the places I had been during the rest of the semester. The first two days reminded me of my summer in Jerusalem actually. It was pretty reminiscent of that summer when I went to the Grand Bazaar, the merchants were extremely aggressive, just like they were in the Old City of Jerusalem. Although, I didn't feel quite as unsafe as I occasionally did in the Old City. But I just think that's because it was constantly jam-packed, while the Old City had some empty corridors. Also, we had a guy this time. Sadly, that does make a difference sometimes.

Generally, my time in Istanbul was very enjoyable. I finally got to see the Hagia Sofia, which I had heard about since Western Civ at UHS.

We saw the beautiful mosaics of the Blue Mosque and got some pretty cute photos with our headscarves.

Ventured over to the largest mosque in Istanbul....

Wandered through the Grand Bazaar and bought plenty of presents for the family back home....

Ventured over to Asia for a quick stroll...

Watched some dervishes whirl...

Ate some kebabs...and then some more kebabs

Out of everything, I think one of the coolest experiences from our time in Istanbul was sleeping on the roof of our hostel. Our hostel was located in the old area of Istanbul, right by the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. So close in fact, that you could see the Hagia Sofia from the roof. It was so cool to wake up to the 5am call to prayer and then later watch the sunrise behind the Hagia Sofia.