Deciding to do a juice cleanse wasn’t an easy decision for me. As you can tell from my Instagram feed… I love food! But I also like to take care of my body and knew it was probably a good idea to take a break from my indulgent diet that seemed to span from Thanksgiving Day through to the new year. Cue Kale Me Crazy.

Photo by Kale Me Crazy

Kale Me Crazy is one of Atlanta’s top juice bars, featuring fresh pressed juices, nutrient-packed smoothies, healthy salads and wraps, and (in my opinion) the best acai bowl ITP! KMC currently has locations in Inman Park, Decatur and Midtown, and is expanding into Virginia Highlands, Sandy Springs and Brookhaven.

I decided to go with a 3-day juice cleanse- each day trying a new package. Day 1 was the KMC package (aka the “beginner” package), day 2 was the Rainbow package (a beginner-to-mid level package) and day 3 was the Garden package (one of their more advanced packages, although not the most advanced!). And I have to admit, most of the juices were delicious! Now don’t get me wrong, there were times when I would have killed for some solid food (like when my boyfriend came over to my apartment with the most delicious smelling sandwich. So rude, right?!). But for the most part I was fine. If anything, I was more tired than hungry. But I think that had more to do with the fact that I’m a coffee addict (that’s right, no coffee during a cleanse!) and less to do with the juice.

Day 1 started off great! Minus the fact that it was about 25 degrees when I picked up the juices (brrr), I was excited to start the cleanse, and the Kale Me Crazy staff had my juices ready for me the moment I arrived. In an effort to keep my juice as fresh as possible, I decided to pick up day 1 and day 2 Monday morning and day 3 Wednesday morning. As day 1 went on, I started getting a little hungry, but not terribly so. I definitely recommend following Kale Me Crazy’s advice to adopt a vegan diet for 2-3 days before and after the cleanse– something I failed to do and regretted later. Let’s just say going from chicken and waffles to just juice wasn’t the easiest transition. Nevertheless, day 1 came and went and I survived!

I was worried day 2 would be when the hunger really started to kick in, but it was actually easier than day 1. If you can believe it, I was finding it hard to drink all six bottles- it was a lot of liquid! A friend of mine recommended setting hourly goals for how much juice I needed to drink, and that really helped. A great tip for all you first time cleansers. I could have really used a coffee on day 2, but just two more days! I knew I could power through it.

The last day was both the easiest and the hardest. Easy because the end was in sight and I was actually getting used to this whole “no solid food” thing, but hard because I had never done a cleanse before and I just really wanted something to chew on. Haha.

Overall, I had an extremely positive experience. I was very impressed with how filling the juices were and loved the taste of (most) of them! My body is feeling great. Below I’ll outline each of the juices, what they contain and what I thought of them.

• The Glow– pineapple, grapefruit, turmeric. This was the first juice I drank on day 1 and it was the perfect way to start off my cleanse. It was simple, sweet and delicious. VERY easy to drink.
• Beet Up– apple, beet, lemon, ginger. I personally enjoyed drinking this one, but the beet flavor was definitely quite prominent. Luckily, I love beets! But if you aren’t a beet-lover like me, I have a feeling you won’t like it.
• Pear-A-Dise– pear, pineapple, spinach, ginger. Pear-A-Dise was my second favorite juice of the entire cleanse. It has that leafy green juice taste, but is still very sweet. It tastes healthy without tasting too healthy, if you know what I mean.
• Fire Fighter– carrot, apple, celery, ginger, cayenne. This one could not be more appropriately named. It has quite the kick! Not my favorite of all of the juices, but not the worst either. But I let my boyfriend have a sip of it and he loved it (and he hates juice- and pretty much anything healthy).
• Revive– kale, cucumber, pineapple, ginger. DING, DING, DING! We have a winner. Revive is my favorite Kale Me Crazy juice! So clean and crisp. I think it’s the pineapple that I love. I am totally getting another one of these after my cleanse.
• Kale Yeah!– kale, spinach, cucumber, apple, lemon. Kale Yeah! is a great green juice for people who aren’t ready for straight veggies. The apple and lemon keep it fairly sweet.
• Green Factor– kale, spinach, cucumber, celery, chard, apple. Very drinkable while being very green. But I have come to the conclusion that apple makes any combination, at the very least, tolerable.
• Beet’l Juice– apple, carrot, beet, celery, lime, ginger. Beet’l Juice tasted a lot like Beet Up, but I think I liked it a little more. Sweet enough, but not too sweet.
• Go Green– kale, spinach, chard, cucumber, celery. This juice made me nervous. All veggies and no fruit! This is the definition of a GREEN juice. And while I may not order it the next time I go to Kale Me Crazy, it was actually a nice break from all of the sweet juices I had been drinking the past two days. You can really taste the veggies.
• Energizer– spinach, carrot, cucumber, celery, ginger. I didn’t hate or love this one. The color definitely threw me off.. a mix between orange and green. But it really didn’t taste too bad!

Have you ever done a juice cleanse? What did you think of it? Would you do another one? Let me know in the comments!