Awww yeah, suck back that juice.

I’ll save you the boring details, but I have been pretty run down and flat lately. I guess we all get like that sometimes – bad eating, lack of exercise, the odd cold/virus just catches up with you and BAM! run-down punches you in the face. After reading a bunch of tweets about Urban Remedy juice detox, I decided it seemed like a good idea and made my enquiries.

A juice detox is designed to eliminate toxins, boost energy and rejuvenate your system – I’m sure you would know all that if you have ever read a celebrity magazine. Urban Remedy does 1, 3 or 5 day detoxes; they recommend 1 day for beginners (probably because they know people like me couldn’t last more than a day!). The juices are delivered to your home or office the evening before you are due to start, and they come in a cute little esky bag for easy transportation (note: a week later, I’m using my esky bag to carry my lunch – how primary school).

The juices themselves are fresh fruit and vegetables, mixed in the right combinations for maximum benefits (although not necessarily maximum taste...blech). There are 6 juices that need to be drunk in 2 hour intervals, starting at breakfast. The first juice of the day had carrot, parsley, cos lettuce, silverbeet and a few other things in it. Not the nicest, but it went down. Second juice was pineapple, apple and mint, and was definitely the highlight of the day. Juice 3 was like juice 1, while the hero of juice 4 was beetroot (hence the shocking colour). Juice 5 had me channelling my inner Beyonce with lemon and cayenne pepper (not as nice as it sounds), and the dinner juice contained raw cashew, coconut milk and a bunch of other stuff.

You have to chew your juice, not just gulp it, which is an unusual sensation and kind of explains why my colleagues were giving me funny looks (or it might have been my ‘eww yuck’ faces, I’m not sure.) I figured have nothing but juice would leave me hungry and cranky, but I was full all day. The juices are packed with all the protein, good fats and nutrients you need, and drinking every 2 hours means you don’t have a chance to ever get hungry before it’s time for the next one.

Would I recommend the juice detox? Well, how adventurous are you with food? When I booked it I clearly forgot just how fussy I am, because some of the juices were not enjoyable to me, but Kat also did the detox and her palette was hot to trot. I would also think about just how run down you are. My body was clearly in worse shape than I though, because the day after I had some, erm, unpleasant side effects of the cramping variety. If you like parsley in your juice and you want to feel all wholesome and smug, then jump on the Urban Remedy site, get your $20 off voucher and get detoxing.

Price: 1 day - $75, 3 day - $195, 5 day - $325
From: Urban Remedy (currently metro Sydney, but expanding Australia-wide shortly)
Why you need it: Clean your insides, clear your skin, give your insides a rest and take a break from cooking (and chewing).