THE WELLNESS TREE JUICE CLEANSE

The “juice cleanse” fad has been around for a while and I have always been intrigued by it, but skeptical. I don’t believe in any sort of quick-fix when it comes to losing weight and being healthy. Like many others, I thought that the goal with a juice cleanse was weight loss. Turns out, I was wrong. There are a lot of benefits to doing a juice cleanse, none of them focusing on losing weight. The owners of Wellness Tree, on Perry Street in Spokane, explain their juice cleanse as a day of fasting. It is a way to re-set your body and help you become more aware of what you should be eating, how it makes your body feel, and your portion sizes. There are many scientific benefits to fasting that show that it is good for our body to go into starvation mode instead of constantly being fed out of boredom or habit.

I think a big part of me wanted to try this juice cleanse so I could prove to myself that I could do it. We all know that I love food so going for a whole day without it…. let’s just say I was pretty anxious. The great thing about a juice cleanse from the Wellness Tree is that the juices you are getting were made fresh that morning. I love that the cleanse comes in good, old fashioned mason jars! We are all about supporting local business and what is more local than a restaurant letting you borrow their glass jars for your cleanse, trusting you to return them as they came.

There aren’t really rules about how to do the cleanse but they did recommend I start with the green juice and save the cashew milk for my hungriest time of day (which, when you’re on a juice fast, that’s literally ALL DAY LONG). I held off the milk until about 4 pm. The goal is to try to drink a juice every two hours. I started around 9 am and finished around 7pm. It is best to pick up your cleanse in the morning and drink them fresh that day.

The cleanse comes with 4 juices, 1 homemade milk, and 1 cleansing water. Here is the order that I drank my juices:

1. Green: Kale, spinach, celery, dandelion greens, cucumber, apple, parsley, lemon and ginger
2. Purple Haze: beet, carrot, celery, spinach, apple, ginger
3. 3.Orangey roots: Carrot, sweet potato, lemon, orange, burdock, ginger, turmeric.
4. Homemade Cashew Milk
5. Spice it up: orange, pineapple, cucumber, cilantro, lime, jalapeno, pinch of salt
6. Cleansing Water (Linden Flower Tea)

This order worked great for me but after tasting them all I would switch and drink the Spice it Up third and the Orangey Roots 5th. The Spice it Up had a strong spice to it and was the hardest to drink, in my opinion. Drinking it earlier in the day when you are hungry and want anything would make it easier. The Orangey roots was my favorite flavor so I would save the best for last, in the future! The type of milk you get depends on what they have made that day. I absolutely LOVED this cashew milk. It was so thick and creamy and had a ton of flavor! I don’t like regular milk so I was a tad nervous to think about drinking an entire glass of milk but this is nothing like your typical dairy milk. This milk got me through the cleanse.

My only complaint with this fast is that it isn’t very portable. If you are constantly on the go it is hard to sip out of a mason jar in the car without spilling. I challenge you. However, I simply poured one of my juices into a portable bottle and that worked great. I made a couple other tweaks in the cleanse to fit my needs/wants. Once 4:00 hit, it’s safe to say that I was HANGRY. I was kind of sick of drinking my food and I wanted some crunch. Instead of drinking the cashew milk straight from the jar, I noticed how creamy it was and really wanted to make it into a shake. I poured it in my blender with some ice and…. whalla… Cashew Milk Smoothie! This hack got me through for the rest of the night because I finally got to chew on something. The owners at The Wellness Tree, also recommended heating up the cleansing water and mixing it with a little honey and that was such a treat! I saved that one for bedtime and it was a perfect way to end my cleanse.

In addition to the milk option changing, they also offer various “cleansing water” options with each cleanse. I was given Linden Flower tea as it is a great immunity boost during cold and flu season. They soak the Linden Flower in water overnight then strain it out and squeeze out the moisture the next morning. (they used about two cups and soaked it in ½ gallon of water). There are about 30-40 minerals and nutrients in this cleansing water and it has a variety of benefits including various soothing properties known to reduce mental stress and anxiety, free radical neutralization, detoxifies, fights cold and flu, reduced inflammation, and helps with indigestion.

If you aren’t quite ready to commit to a full day of juicing, start small and stop by the wellness tree and order one of their juices and see for yourself how great it makes you feel to fuel your body with pure, good fruits and vegetables.

While some people juice for days, I’ll stick to one. I am so glad that I was able to partner with The Wellness Tree and try their juice cleanse. I feel like it helped me greater appreciate food and what I am putting into my body, while allowing me a metabolic reset and refuel with loads of vitamins and minerals from real food and fresh ingredients. In addition to the “body reset” you get with juicing, it can also help you fight future food cravings. It is all about bringing an awareness to what you are eating and listening to your body instead of eating out of habit.

The Wellness Tree juice cleanse costs $40 and can be ordered by calling them at (509) 598-8558 or stopping by their store at 1025 S Perry St, Spokane, WA 99202.