photos by Kaela Rodehorst Photography

Needless to say, I got a LOT of “why are you doing a juice cleanse, you don’t need to lose weight” questions last week. I just wanted to straighten a misconception within my explanation today – juice cleanses are not specifically about weight as much as they are about health.

Those that know me personally know that over the past two years, I’ve been struggling with many digestive issues including food allergies. You can develop allergies you’ve never had before at any point in your life – which totally sucks btw. I spent my entire life loving cheese and milk, and then BAM, two years ago I (literally) couldn’t stomach either of them. My sister has been lactose-intolerant her entire life, and I’m 99% sure my dad is but refuses to face reality, haha. So, after many nights waking up in agonizing pain after eating a dairy heavy meal, I have pretty much completely weeded it out of my diet. (I will have extremely small cheats when I’m feeling super brave though.)

Last summer specifically on our honeymoon in Greece, I started having episodes where my stomach would feel like it was filled with air – extreme bloating – such discomfort that it would cause me to completely skip meals. Just like with the dairy allergy, Jordan and I would go over what I ate and narrow down what the causes could be… Greece is a very carb loving country. Bread with every meal. Heck, bread was the meal! We later realized that gluten was causing me huge digestive discomfort.

So just knock the gluten out of your diet too, right? Ugh, if only it were so easy. I haven’t quite been able to quit bread or crackers or croutons, and the result is me just feeling really lousy all of the time. Not to mention, having a husband who eats whatever he wants all the time does not help when it comes to restrictive eating! I’ve been going back and forth for months over a juice cleans to “re-start” my digestive system. I knew that once I did it, that would be it. I’d have to start over with complete health in mind when it came to food. So, that’s what I decided to do – a digestive reboot. It was going to be tough and even tougher right after the cleanse, but with Mardi Gras and King Cakes out of the way, I was ready to do it.

So there you have it – why I decided to try a juice cleanse. Now want to hear the results? I’ll have a full recap of my 3-day cleanse later this afternoon, so head on back after lunch! 

If you have any questions or would like any insight at all regarding my experience with food allergies or think you could be lactose or gluten intolerant shoot me an email at [email protected]!