Urban Remedy Detox: The Day Before

I was pretty good on Monday's prep for my Urban Remedy detox cleanse. Yesterday, I continued my goodness even though I kind of functioned with "No Coffee No Prana". This is what I ate to prepare my digestive system yesterday:

Post-Practice: 1x Banana
Breakfast: 1x Fruit Salad
Mid-morning Snack: Muesli with soy milk
Lunch: 2x Tofu & Basil rice paper rolls (they were small!) and another Fruit Salad
Mid-afternoon Snack: Raw nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts & walnut mix) with dried dates
Dinner, aka THE LAST MEAL: 1x Spinach & Rocket salad with tofu & a Mango. (I was planning on just doing the mango & apricots again for dinner, but felt like something a little more substantial. Hey! It was FREEZING COLD in Sydney yesterday, it was like winter hit us all over again!!)

(Sorry for poor quality - taken on the Blackberry!)

And in between all of that, I was munching on a HUGE shebang of cherries. We were sent an early Christmas gift from someone we work with - AN ENTIRE CARTON of delicious cherries... so how could I resist the snacking?

Now that I've written everything I eat in a day down, it suddenly sounds like a lot even though it doesn't feel like it!

Anyways, onto the detox since it sounds like I really need this now! I'm doing the 3-day Level 3 cleanse. Yes, no solid food, only detox drinks. On the Urban Remedy site, they give you a step-by-step walk-through of your order and part of that is your choice of where you want the drinks delivered to (since someone needs to be present to sign for them).

Mine got dropped off at our apartment - 3 days worth of drinks neatly delivered in 3 cooler bags! Can I just say: WOW! I'm really impressed!


Each bag has a sticker with your name on the top with which day the drinks are for. They've also got their Urban Remedy branding on the side of the cooler bags. And yes, for those aunties who love freebies, the bags are yours to keep if you like - or you can also return them to be recycled if you have no need for them.


If you're impressed already, wait till I show you what's on the inside!


So CUUUUUTE! (I am a sucker for nice packaging).

According to their website, the cooler bags are OK out of the fridge for a few hours, but need to be put in the fridge as soon as you get them.

In between the 2 rows of juices, there's also an ice pack separating them (it's branded too, OK? Score more points!):


My concern was: don't juices lose their health properties within a few hours of juicing them? How can 3 days worth of juices actually retain all their nutrition for so long? (FYI - if you're on the 5-day cleanse, they deliver the first 3 days in one shot, then do a second delivery for the next 2 days later, on Day 3) ...but then I read this on their website:

"Our juicers extract the maximum nutrients:
Our special twin-gear juicing machines operate much more slowly than normal domestic and commercial juicers (the kind you might find at a juice bar or cafe). This means that oxidisation creating nasty free radicals (bad stuff) is minimised, while the extraction of enzymes, vitamins and minerals (good stuff) is maximised. These nutrients play a very important role in the detoxification and renewal process, so the more the better!"

OK, that works for me.

If you thought the packaging was nice so far, wait till you get a load of this. When I pulled out the bottles, they're each individually numbered and labelled with exactly what's inside each drink you're getting. You drink each one in succession throughout the day. Their recommendation is to space them out about 2 hours apart. So #1 at 9am, #2 at 11am, #3 at 1pm, #4 at 3pm, #5 at 5pm and #6 at 7pm, at least 2hrs before you sleep.


AWWW CHYEAAHHHHH!

It looks so pretty, I can't wait to try them all even though there's lots of funky green stuff you wouldn't think to put in a juice like silverbeet, spinach & parsley! To me, parsley's not worthy of being deemed a "vegetable". It's a decorative ornament with a funny taste. So this will be very interesting...

I have close-up shots of each bottle, so don't worry - you'll get to see exactly what goes into each drink. But first, I need to taste them all today and then give you my report tomorrow!

I've already got an email in my inbox from the guys at Urban Remedy giving me encouragement and reminding what I need to do today:

"Start the first day (and each day of the cleanse) with some hot or room temperature water (mix with the juice of half a lemon for an even better cleansing kick start). This will get your digestive juices flowing and start the detoxifying process. After that you can drink your juices. There are just a few things to remember:

* Drink the juices in their numbered order.
* A little cheat… if you are used to a big breakfast or coffee in the morning and need some extra sustenance to get you going, you can drink half of juice number 6 in the morning and save the rest for the end of the day or you can drink a little at a time throughout the day. It has the most good fat and protein so it will help fill you up and provide sustained energy.
* Wait at least an hour between each juice.
* Drink a tall glass of water or herbal tea between each juice. You can drink as much water and herbal tea as you like in addition to the juices.
* Drink your last juice at least 2 hours before bed."

First detox drink starts in an hour, I'd better go start my day with some warm water and lemon juice to wake up my intestines now! :)