30-Day Challenge: Going Raw with Danilae

Jan 8, 2013
Dani Smith • Lifestyle

For seven days, I’ve been completely raw; nothing I’ve eaten has been cooked over 118 degrees—not even salt. It hasn’t been easy by any means but it’s honestly not too bad. Though, it does take a lot of preparation, commitment and will power.

I started while I was in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day, as soon as the clock struck midnight. If there’s one time and place to start a raw diet, it’s NOT on New Year’s Day in Vegas. Though the temptation to eat and drink “regular” food was quite strong, I resisted. Starting at midnight, I drank only water and freshly made smoothies and ate only fresh fruit, vegetables and nuts for three days.

On the fourth day, I started a 3-Day Reset juice cleanse by Ritual Wellness. The cleanse has a lot of benefits, but the most appealing to me were the claims that it rids the body of toxins and reduces cravings to enable a healthier lifestyle after the cleanse is complete. In short, it “resets” the body’s system. It seemed like the perfect way to start my January raw journey. So, on Friday, I began my cleanse.

Day one was the most difficult for me. The cleanse has six juices that are numbered and are supposed to be taken in numerical order with two to three hours in between. When I drank the first juice, I was really surprised at how good it tasted—this was a theme that carried true for all the juices. After the first two juices, I was fine. I didn’t feel like I was hungry or needed more food. However, by lunchtime I was starting to feel like I needed a snack and I was somewhat bitter toward my co-workers that were eating—and not drinking—their lunch. From the middle to the end of the day is when the cleanse started to get really hard for me. I wasn’t hungry, but I wasn’t full and I really wanted to eat something, but I didn’t.

Day Two was another difficult day, but much easier than the first and I was starting to feel the benefits of the cleanse. I could feel my body ridding itself of toxins and I had a lot of energy, which was surprising to me. As the hours passed, I could feel myself looking forward to the juices because they were all so tasty. Toward the end of the day, I really wanted something to eat. Then, I realized it was something I wanted and not something my body was craving and was happy that I was finally able to differentiate between the two feelings.

Day Three was by far the easiest day. I felt energized, I was not hungry at all and I was in a pretty good mood. It almost felt as if I could go a few more days on the cleanse. Almost. I had so much energy that I tried the Shred option, which, unlike most cleanses, gives you the vitamins and nutrients your body needs pre and post workout. I was skeptical at first, but I wasn’t light headed or tired at any point during my workout. By the end of the cleanse, I was ready to start chewing my food again but I was really proud of myself for completing something I wasn’t sure I could do.

The cleanse was a great way for me to start a raw lifestyle for January. Afterwards, I feel lighter, healthier and, most importantly, I don’t want to put bad food into my body. Instead of craving foods that include pizza, tacos or burritos, I genuinely want fruits and veggies, which is perfect since that’s all I can eat this month. I spoke with Lori Kenyon, co-owner of Ritual Wellness who gave LadyLUX an inside scoop on the 3-day Reset Cleanse.

In your words, what is the Ritual Cleanse?
The cleanse is a natural, easy way for your body to detox while flooding your body with nutrients. So, the idea is that you give your digestive system a break for a few days, and your digestive system is able to catch up with all the toxins you normally take in … Your body really feels reset afterwards and you’re craving more of the live enzymes, fruits and vegetables, but you also have your body working more efficiently. It’s a great way to restart or reset if you’re trying to eat healthier or embark on a new diet.

How did you develop the juices to make them nutritious and also tasty?
Marra, my co-founder, and I spent a year in research and development before we sold a single bottle. We both got our nutrition certification and we really studied which fruits and vegetables were the most nutrient dense, which ones had the best cleansing properties and we started making recipes. Each day of the juice has 20 pounds of organic produce. So we put all those produce together and tried each ingredient to determine the best combination so that you would flood your body with the nutrients it needs but then also cleanse at the same time and the third step was palatability. We also had to make sure that we kept the glycemic level very low. You can make something taste great if you put a whole bunch of fruit in it, but you’re going to end up with blood sugar spikes throughout the day and one of the points of the cleanse is to reset your metabolism also so we really want to keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day.

What is your body supposed to be going through during the cleanse?
It’s kind of different for everyone so you have to kind of listen to your body—and that to me is another benefit of the cleanse; you’re really resetting your mind. Also you’re learning to be more conscious of what you’re putting into your body and how it affects your body

Ritual Cleanse is offering 15 percent off to LadyLUX readers. Visit www.RitualCleanse.com and enter promo code: ladylux15 for our exclusive discount!

Follow @Danilaexoxo to find out more about going raw

Danilae Smith
Editor