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"__My cleanse:\n__Organic Avenue, beloved of celebutantes (Gwyneth plugged it on Goop!), offers a variety of vegan cleanses of varying intensity levels. Being a carnivore with a sweet tooth and regular salt cravings&amp;#8212;basically someone who really, really loves to eat\u2026everything\u2026all the time&amp;#8212;I figured a juice-only diet would do me in. So I agreed to try the &amp;quot;Love Easy,&amp;quot; a veggie-riffic 5-day cleanse with just-juice in the mornings and evening, and small-portion solid food in the afternoon.\nPinterestFacebookAbout me: I love to run, but assuming I&amp;#39;d have less energy to do it, I tapered it off the weekend before the Monday I began my cleanse. I also cut back slightly on the two coffees I nurse all day like a saline drip. And my nightly glass of wine. (I still had them, but smaller.) I eat pretty well&amp;#8212;lots of fresh fruit and veggies-but I also balance that out with a pretty serious potato chip habit and the odd burger. Also steak. And pasta. Cupcakes. Donuts. You get the idea. As a nosher in mid-winter, I felt like I could stand to lose the pooch and get myself off the caffeine-and-sugar-coaster. I was slightly apprehensive, due to aforementioned food addiction/my memories of the allspice-laden vegan concoctions from my college cafeteria, but was determined to succeed! Here&amp;#39;s how it went:\nDay 1: It starts with an email from Organic Avenue with surprising amounts of psedo-spirituality. (&amp;quot;How To Begin: Fresh Pure Water and a positive affirmation: I am Happy, I am Joyous, I am Free.&amp;#39; I can see how Gwyneth glommed on.) A shot of chlorophyll, a &amp;quot;master tonic&amp;quot; (cayenne pepper, etc.) and a gorgeous carrot juice before I get my first solid food at 1 p.m. By the time I do I am starving, and I stuff my face with the palm salad with fake parmesan cheese and fake Caesar dressing. But is it hunger or boredom. I think it&amp;#39;s boredom. I&amp;#39;m not getting my usual dose of work-break treats. I eat my &amp;quot;lasagna&amp;quot; (eggplant and tomato paste and other stuff&amp;#8212;not bad!) at 3:15 and I feel good. By 3:45 I want another piece of lasagna. But I drink a big glass of water and go to my afternoon meeting, and when I come out, I&amp;#39;m not hungry! Breakthrough. But the meeting was crap. I&amp;#39;m unfocused and have a headache and feel out of it. Want Starbucks.\nDay 2: Morning again isn&amp;#39;t so hard. A big revelation: I had forgotten what it felt like to be hungry. I&amp;#39;d been unofficially following the six meals a day plan, never overfull, but never empty. By late morning I&amp;#39;m craving coffee, have a throbbing headache, and I&amp;#39;m convinced the boss is going to fire me for being out of it. Don&amp;#39;t feel lighter; feel bloated from all the sunflower sprouts and chia seeds and hemp mylk and water.\nDay 3: Still bloated. Still a headache. Green tea in the afternoon: BLISS.\nDay 4: Easy peasy. I&amp;#39;m used to the weird vegan spices by now. But grateful for &amp;quot;real food&amp;quot; like arugula, less in love with the &amp;quot;burrito&amp;quot;&amp;#8212;cabbage surrounding sunflower sprouts and chicpeas and\u2026can I have more lettuce please? I&amp;#39;m realizing the plan includes more food than I need\u2026and much less than I usually eat. My stomach feels flat and empty and I&amp;#39;m not really interested in finishing everything (maybe that&amp;#39;s the idea behind a vegan diet&amp;#8212;it gets so unappealing you stop eating?). I feel smug as I give the night&amp;#39;s &amp;quot;cashew mylk&amp;quot; to my assistant.\n__Day 5:__Home stretch. Truly delicious pesto &amp;quot;pasta&amp;quot; (zucchini julienne with basil and olive oil), and a few other great treats today. But really, really looking forward to tonight&amp;#39;s glass of wine and the next morning&amp;#39;s coffee. REALLY.\nAnd after?\nA few days later I&amp;#39;ve yet to resume my snacky habits. And I&amp;#39;m craving the vitamin-boosts of the juices. So far am sticking to the green tea rather than coffee, but that&amp;#39;ll only last until the next demanding work project requires manic energy from me. In all, though, I like the program. While vegan is a lifestyle I can&amp;#39;t quite embrace (and, like I said, I&amp;#39;d prefer a crisp salad to the confusing attempts to make &amp;quot;cheese&amp;quot; without any dairy), I loved the chance to hit the reset button, and remind myself that I don&amp;#39;t need mass quantities of food (nor any quantities of processed foods) to be sated. Also, because I know you want to know, even though it wasn&amp;#39;t a goal (and I like my solid athletic build), I did lose eight or 10 lbs. So that was kind of nice.\nAfter hearing about Lauren&amp;#39;s cleanse, does this sound like something you&amp;#39;d want to try? Which of the five cleanses we tried sounds most appealing to you? Or are you still not convinced?\n__Read the rest of our cleanse diaries, plus, the article that inspired &amp;#39;em all!\n__Lexi&amp;#39;s Ritual Cleanse\nCaitlin&amp;#39;s Cooler Cleanse\nMarina&amp;#39;s Organic Avenue Cleanse\nMikki&amp;#39;s Blueprint Cleanse\nHealth Controversy: Should You Do a Juice Cleanse?\nPhoto: Courtesy of Organic Avenue"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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