Today is Day 2 of my 7-Day Spring Cleanse. So far I feel pretty good, energized and well-rested. I have been getting to bed by 10:30pm each night and I begin waking up at 6:00 am. I give myself a little time to wake up, I drink some warm lemon water and then I practice yoga. The last two days I have taken classes on YogaGlo, an amazing online community that is perfect for a home practice. Since I much prefer the essence and energy of a class at a studio this has been perfect for me, now that my budget doesn’t exactly allow me to keep up with the 5-6 days a week at the studio, that I was doing in Buffalo. I plan to go to 1-2 classes a week at local studios but for the rest of the days practicing at home is going to be what works best for me and YogaGlo will definitely be a part of that practice many of the days. YogaGlo is a membership based site that offers classes taught by some of the very best yoga teachers. HD videos of the classes are cataloged on the site for you to search through by style, level, length, teacher, body part, and more! You get unlimited classes!! Anyhow, this isn’t a PSA or a sponsored post, I just love their website and their services, especially now more than ever. My favorite teachers on there are Kathryn Budig and Tiffany Cruikshank. I love their Vinyasa Flow classes, they remind me so much of the yoga I practiced at East Meets West in Buffalo.

So in addition to my warm lemon water each morning and 60-90 minutes of yoga, I have been trying to start my day with a simple cleansing juice. Yesterday since I hadn’t yet stocked up on my organic produce, I went to local juice bar here in Long Beach, Revive. The lovely young lady working the counter, Faith, turned out to be a very knowledgable health coach and she and I got to chatting about cleansing and juicing etc and she told me about their “Master Shot” which is made up of ginger, lemon and cayenne. She mentioned she suggests this to all of her clients, as the perfect way to start the day when cleansing. From the Revive menu “Ginger: contains anti-inflammatory properties making it helpful for pain relief, it reduces nausea and neutralizes stomach acids, is great for motion sickness, helps balance out the equilibrium and improves digestion. Lemons: beneficial for the liver, are a natural diuretic, anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-diarrheal.” From what I have read elsewhere, supposedly cayenne pepper stimulates your metabolism and helps to break-up mucus and other other stored toxins in your body. Cayenne also aids in proper digestion and delivers powerful B and C vitamins to the system during it’s cleanse. Faith also told me when cleansing it is best to consume your fruits in the morning and your vegetables in the afternoon/evening. Better for digestion. I definitely will be back to Revive Juice Bar. Any place that has someone that knowledgable about their job and what they are serving, plus who is that excited by what food can do for our health, is a place I will love to support.

This morning after I drank my warm lemon water first thing and then I practiced 60 minutes of detoxifying yoga, I made a quick shot of the lemon ginger cayenne concoction by just juicing 1 lemon with 1 two-inch nub of peeled ginger and then I added about 1/4 teaspoon of ground organic cayenne pepper and mixed it well and drank it down. After the shot I made this beautiful and tasty juice as my breakfast. A Pink Grapefruit, celery, fennel and strawberry sunrise cleansing juice, also slightly inspired by my trip to Revive yesterday.

Grapefruit is great for stimulating digestive enzymes, increasing your metabolic rate, lowering your insulin levels and making you feel fuller. Strawberries are wonderful for the nervous system and keep your glands happy. Celery helps fight off infections, it lowers bad cholesterol, cools the body and reduces cravings for sweets. Fennel is great for easing intestinal cramps and reducing inflammation.

[print_this]Sunrise Spring Cleansing Juice
Makes 1 large serving
Always juice organic vegetables when juicing, especially when cleansing

• 1 large pink grapefruit
• 2 stalks of celery
• large handful of strawberries
• 1 bunch of fennel stems (Though the entire plant can be juice, I was saved the fennel bulb for another recipe, and used just
• the tops in this juice)

Juice all of the ingredients. Serve immediately with ice, if you wish.[/print_this]

I have been posting what I am eating at every meal over on my Facebook page. Most don’t require recipes or measuring, which is why I am not posting recipes over here very much. Have you been keeping up with me? Anyone else cleansing right now?