The Juice Cleanse Reset Diet (2 page)

Many years ago, we were inspired to make dietary changes for ourselves, which started us on our journey to founding Ritual Wellness.

Having been diagnosed as a teenager with a rare syndrome that prevents my ability to digest animal protein, I developed an interest in diet and wellness. Being a vegetarian in upstate New York definitely made me different, and as an athlete, it was a challenge for me to make sure I was eating the right foods to sufficiently fuel my workouts and enough protein to rebuild muscle teardown. I developed an interest in cooking, experimenting with food, and learning about nutrition as a way to take control over my diet and health.

As a career, however, I pursued a more lucrative path. I got my law degree, became a member of the bar, went to work in finance, and was running a hedge fund by my mid thirties. For the next three years, it was like a fairy tale; the market was booming, and so was my career. I was splitting my time between Newport Beach, California, and New York City. I was training for a fitness competition, working out with a personal trainer five days a week, doing Pilates the other two days, and working ninety hours a week. Four years later, everything had changed. The market fell out from under us and I developed pneumonia. Three rounds of heavy antibiotics cleared the infection but left me as sluggish and lethargic as the winding-down hedge fund. I knew I needed to make a change to regain my health.

Marra, who was my Pilates instructor at the time, suggested juicing, but I found it to be tedious and time-consuming. Although I loved creating new recipes, I didn’t enjoy cleaning the juicer! I searched the country, trying to find a cleanse that was organic (without fillers or artificial ingredients) and that had enough nutrients and protein to allow me to continue with my fitness training. It didn’t seem such a product existed.

As a full-time Pilates instructor in Newport Beach, California, I had many clients who were slim and toned, but who did not make their health and nutrition a priority. Lori was one of those clients. I saw how the antibiotics and stress of her job had worn her down, so I suggested she use juice to heal and rebuild herself, because that’s what worked for me when I was in a similar state.

While in college, I had been diagnosed with celiac disease. At the time, it was much less common, and not well understood. I lost excessive weight, became malnourished, lacked energy, and constantly struggled with bloating and stomach pain. When I discovered I was allergic to gluten and wheat, I was thrilled to have the answers to heal myself but confused about what to eat. My Italian family was even more confused, since pasta was a staple in my household. I began to study nutrition, especially books promoting healing through diet. I discovered how juicing could repair the damage that gluten had caused to my digestive system and how I could get back on the path toward optimal health by changing my diet.

After an accident left me with a back injury, I began taking Pilates as a method of rehabilitation and strengthening. I obtained my Pilates certification and, after graduating from college, followed my heart to Paris to be part of the team that set up the first Pilates studio there.

When I returned to California, I began my private Pilates and wellness practice, and met Lori when she became a client. When she told me about her difficulties finding a great juice-cleanse product that she could buy instead of make herself, we realized that there was a hole in the market. The idea for Ritual Wellness and the Reset Cleanse was born.

Over the next year, we both obtained our nutrition certifications and began developing formulations that included the best ingredients for cleansing and detoxing while flooding the body with organic nutrients. We tested the recipes on everyone we knew to make sure the juices tasted amazing and people achieved their desired goals of reduced weight, healthier cravings, and increased energy levels.

Since we founded Ritual Wellness in 2010, we have developed a nationwide client base. We ship fresh, cold-pressed, organic juice cleanses daily to executives, stay-at-home moms, students, actors, athletes, and everyone in between. We’ve been thrilled by the successes people have experienced on our juicing programs and we’re honored that we get to share our passion for health with so many people. Perhaps most rewarding, though, are the amazing testimonials we receive from our customers every day. Whatever their reasons for embarking on the Reset Cleanse, our clients have all experienced similar results. After three days of drinking organic, raw juices, they tell us they feel reset—whether it’s their attitude toward food or their energy levels, metabolism, taste buds, cravings, digestive system, weight, or beauty—they feel like they’ve jump-started their overall health. Many of our customers claim that it’s easier for them to make better dietary choices following the cleanse; they feel like they’ve been set on a healthier life path. They have a newfound zest for life! And anytime they feel themselves slipping back into their old unhealthy habits (which happens to the best of us), they do another Reset Cleanse to get right back on track.

The Juice Cleanse Reset Diet is the program we developed from all of our research, experience, and first-hand observation. It provides a simple and easy way to help you reset your attitude, energy level, metabolism, taste buds, weight, and beauty. We’ll talk more about what it means to reset all of these areas in the next chapter, but generally speaking, this is about producing weight loss and new levels of health, youth, and energy without resorting to quick fixes or invasive procedures.

After years of guiding people through our home-delivered Reset Cleanse, we have learned a lot about what support people need, what works, and what doesn’t. We developed the Juice Cleanse Reset Diet to provide a bridge for you to get from where you are now to where you want to be: the slimmer, younger-looking, more energetic, healthier you. Many of our celebrity clients have used our juices to prepare for a movie, slim down for a wedding, drop baby weight after the birth of their children, or get red-carpet ready. Professional athletes have enhanced their performance and rebuilt after injury, and many of our clients have used our Reset Cleanse products to reset their eating habits after letting them slide on vacation, to jump-start a weight-loss program, or to treat a health issue.

People have the most significant and lasting results when our three-day Reset Cleanse is used as part of a seven-day plan. We start with two days to prepare your body and mind for the cleanse, and then give you two days to ease back into eating solid food after the cleanse. We will tell you everything you need to know
before
you start cleansing, and we’ll even give you a short quiz to help you determine what type of cleanse is right for you. (Don’t worry, there are no wrong answers and our Juice Cleanse Reset Diet works for everyone, whether you’ve been eating junk food for the last twenty years or you eat completely raw, organic, and vegan.) And since we don’t want to leave you hanging after you successfully complete the seven-day program, we give you lots of tips and advice for maintaining your new way of eating and living. And finally, since we all want to look our best before a special occasion (like a wedding, a high school reunion, or even a big work meeting), we’ve included three bonus resets that we call “supercharged resets”; these intensive three-day, ten-day, and twenty-one day programs will create dramatic results.

As you embark on this plan, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to follow, how satisfied you feel, and how much energy you have. You will also be surprised to experience an effortless change in your cravings and thoughts about food and what you put into your body. The Juice Cleanse Reset Diet is highly adaptable to any nutritional style. If you like chicken, you will continue to eat chicken. If you’re a vegetarian, you won’t need to introduce meat into your diet. You will simply learn how to eat in a way that keeps your body clean following your reset. You will also learn how to easily work exercise into your reset and how to sustain those eating and exercise habits for life.

This is a groundbreaking way to return your body to optimal health and fitness without depriving yourself of the nutrients you need or disrupting your daily routine. Our easy, accessible recipes and preparations are perfect for you anywhere, anytime. Seven days from now, when you reflect on how much better you look and feel, you’ll realize that your results are sustainable for the rest of your life. Are you ready to reset? Let’s get started!

We all have a different reason for starting a cleanse. What’s yours?

Whatever your particular reason, your goal is to be your best self, and the Juice Cleanse Reset Diet is the bridge to your goal. We will give you a road map to achieve your ideal weight, rejuvenate your beauty,
regain your health, or rev up your energy level. We will help you strip away and overcome all the obstacles in your way.

If you have tried other diets, eating plans, or protocols in the past with only limited success, or only to go back to your old bad habits, you’re not alone. Keeping off the weight, and sticking to your resolution to eat healthier, is more than just a choice. Your body, habits, thought processes, and daily choices have been conditioned a certain way over days or months or years. Before you can change, you need to reset those patterns. No matter how hard you work at eating and exercising right, other programs can’t get you what you want because they don’t supply the
real
missing link.

The Juice Cleanse Reset Diet is a jump start to new habits and renewed health. “Resetting” your system is the single step that creates fewer cravings, lasting weight loss, increased energy, glowing skin, and a healthy body.

While our bodies are generally very adept at removing toxins, sometimes all of the toxins in our food, the air we breathe, and the everyday products we use to clean our houses, wash our hair, and moisturize our skin are more than our bodies can handle. Different circumstances and toxins can overtax our digestive system and our cleansing organs. Maybe you have experienced the aftereffects of a night of too much drinking. It seems it takes the entire next day for your body to get rid of the toxins and for you to start feeling “normal” again. Or maybe you have been out to a great restaurant with friends and you overindulged in fried foods and dessert. That night, you have trouble sleeping because your stomach is rumbling and upset. Or you may have taken antibiotics and other drugs to help your body recover from an illness. As a result, your energy is low and you feel sluggish from residual chemicals.

These are occasional challenges to our bodies—drinking too much, overeating, taking medications—but imagine what happens when we constantly overload our bodies with various toxins. We constantly feel less than great. We become accustomed to feeling sluggish and having a tummy ache. Waking up with a headache or the sniffles seems completely normal. We get used to sleeping poorly and feeling tired. These toxins need to be cleaned out before we can stick to our resolve to be healthy. Each cell of your body—from your internal organs to your bones and muscles, skin and hair—needs enzymes, vitamins, and minerals to stay healthy and youthful. When those cells are filled with toxins, they have no room to take in enzymes, nutrients, and vitamins. Your cells cannot tap the full potential of those little powerhouses. Once the toxins have been flushed from your cells, however, your body will be receptive to all the nutritious goodness contained in the fruits and veggies in your juices or smoothies. And because the juicing and blending processes break up the cell walls of the produce, all of those nutrients are free to flood straight into your cells like liquid sunshine—rejuvenating, healing, nourishing, and resetting.