Peter Summerville is exceptionally bright. Most juice cleanses, not so much. Here’s what happens when clever marketing whips an intelligent soul. No stress, youngster. It happens to all of us. 

At Kaplifestyle, we try to dive into a wide range of philosophies, myths, trends, and workout routines. My latest experience went way off the usual path.

As an athlete and new GM at Diamond Star Sports in LA (I am extremely busy, but everything is going well), I wanted to experiment with a recent trend…a five day juice cleanse.

What was I thinking? I truly have no idea…but my desire to try this was solely based off of my internal curiosity.  I wanted to see my body’s response to something new. I also wanted to give myself a mental challenge and have a feeling of accomplishment at the conclusion of day 5.

I began by finding a good deal for a cleanse on Groupon and selected the day I wanted it to be delivered. I scheduled my trips to the grocery store meticulously around this delivery date, to make sure no food went to waste.

What is a juice cleanse supposed to do, you may ask? I did some research as well.

You will most likely feel a renewed sense of energy- thanks to ridding of the toxins, and a noticeable decrease in cravings.

For those who don’t know exactly how a juice cleanse works, this specific cleanse featured 6 bottles a day, and I would drink a new juice every 2-3 hours. The juices vary in taste, from a morning juice with kale, mango, spinach, banana and more to an afternoon one of lemonade with cayenne pepper and hemp seeds. All of the bottles are frozen until the night before, and then you let your next day thaw out overnight.

The Results:

I will get right into this…day one was absolutely miserable. I don’t think I drank enough water with the juices, which made for an unfortunate headache come 4:00PM. I tried to combat that by crushing some water but was unsuccessful. My cravings for food really never were noticeable. My energy throughout the day was significantly decreased, and I did not have any durability or power in any of my lifts in my morning weight session.

Days 2, 3, and 4 were very similar and, unlike day 1, actually very pleasant. I began to really enjoy the tastes of each juice and was looking forward to a new flavor every 3 hours. I also took it upon myself to drink a lot more water consistently throughout the day. The combination of the water and my newfound appreciation for the tastes of the juice lead to much more successful workouts and sprints (which I do in the back of Diamond Star in the parking lot).  Energy was maintained throughout the day, and I had no real issues. Towards the end of day 4, I did start to have cravings for whole foods and a nice meal.

Day 5 was positive, just like the previous few days, however, my cravings for a meal exponentially increased. Anytime I saw someone with food, it looked very appetizing. This is where the mental challenge really set in…and I won. Day 5 came and went, and I had sustained energy with no noticeable side effects.

Overall, the experience was positive, and I definitely felt a feeling of accomplishment after completion.

However, would I do this again anytime in the near future? No chance. I did not feel so much better after completion that I would want to limit myself to strictly juices, other than to have one as a midday treat. I don’t think I got rid of any “toxins” and still had cravings.

The next day I went back to dominating eggs for breakfast. For dinner, I had some bison steak from Whole Foods, which I highly recommend.

–Peter Summerville