ALI MARGO

Our great friend Ali Margo (aka Aspen Princess), Aspen Daily News columnist and freelance journalist shares her personal health and wellness story on the blog today. Ali’s writing is honest, smart and engaging - and she’s also just really funny! We love her perspective on healthy living, and feel like her journey is one that many of us can relate to. Read on for her story about her experience on our 3 Day Juice Cleanse, and then head over to her column – if it isn’t already, it’s going to become one of your favorites, too! 

MARGO: DRINKING THE RAINBOW ON A FALL JUICE CLEANSE

I count the minutes until 7 p.m., when it’s time for my sixth and final bottle of juice. I’m on a three-day juice cleanse and the last concoction of the day is cashew milk with cinnamon and Himalayan Sea salt. After drinking five bottles of things like celery, kale and collard greens, this tastes as decadent as a milkshake.

I let the thick liquid slide down my throat, savoring every gulp. I can taste the cinnamon and let it warm and soothe my tummy which, I’m not going to lie, has been a little rocky with all the juice I’ve consumed over the last 24 hours. But that’s kind of the point of a cleanse.

Fall is an optimal time to cleanse. Like the trees shedding the glory of their golden leaves to prepare for the dark, cold, stillness of winter, I too needed to let go of this weight I’d been carrying around, like an extra layer I couldn’t take off, to prepare for the change in season. For me, winter isn’t dark — it’s when I come alive. I am built for the cold, with a thick middle, short extremities and tiny hands and feet, kind of like a penguin. My element is the mountains, the high altitude, the dry air, and of course, the snow — the more the better.

I have always been a believer in nutritional healing and have done many different types of cleanses over the years, but after buying one too many supplements on social media that promised to burn fat/clear skin/grow hair, I really wanted to avoid manufactured powders (because you can’t really know what’s in them) and do something with whole foods. 

Instead of buying a juicer and the volume of vegetables it takes to juice, I turned to my good friend Lisa Cohen at Tuesday Foods, a plant-based meal delivery company in Carbondale that offers a juice cleanse once a month. I chose the three-day cleanse, which comes with six bottles of cold pressed, raw organic juice per day and a menu with detailed descriptions of each concoction, its benefits, and the order in which to drink it. 

The delivery appeared in a neat insulated black bag on my doorstep and inside were pretty glass bottles filled with bright colored juices. They had names like Emerald City, Ruby Spice and The Hulk. Each day started with straight celery juice followed by a second super green formula. Then you get into your sweet mid-day varieties, the Golden Sunshine (carrot, ginger, lime, pineapple, orange, turmeric) and The Ruby Spice (a surprising beet juice with carrot, apple, turmeric, ginger and garam masala). Then it’s one more supercharged green before the creamy, rich cashew milk of your dreams. You also get an immune boost to shoot throughout the day.

Without getting too personal, my body released plenty of toxins — suffice it to say there was plenty of “flushing” going on. Still, I never felt hungry and really did enjoy these flavorful drinks that clearly had been formulated to deliver the best possible results. I loved the three-day option (you can also do one or five-day programs) because it was short enough to stick with but still effective. 

When the cleanse was over, I was surprised to realize that the first thing I craved was more juice. Full disclosure: I went for a smoothie instead.

I felt lighter, leaner and clear. My skin glowed, the whites of my eyes were bright, and my favorite pair of jeans fit again. In yoga I felt more space between my joints, more length in my muscles and more lightness in my poses. It felt good to disrupt my bad eating habits and to reset. The best part was my taste buds came back to life after having been dulled from too much sugar and too many processed foods, recalibrated to a place where an apple or a spoonful of avocado flesh tastes like the most decadent thing in the world.

At the completion of my cleanse, I also got some myo-fascial release bodywork from Alya Howe, my dear friend and teacher who can read my body like a road map and somehow untangle all the knots and the gunk and the stickiness from my muscles and nerves. I indulged myself in some skincare products from Osmia, including an obscenely expensive sandalwood and ginger scented body mousse that smells so good I want to eat it. I ordered equally pricey non-toxic deodorant from Salt & Stone and organic haircare from Oway. 

It's hard for a lot of women to put themselves first, simply because it’s ingrained in us to take care of everyone else. But it’s truly a luxury to take the time and spend the money to work on ourselves. Lucky for me, I have no problem putting myself first, if for no other reason because I know if I’m the best I can be, I’ll be much better for the people I love.