Day 23: Detox #30DaysofGOOD

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Welcome to The GOOD 30-Day Challenge (#30DaysofGOOD). Each month, we challenge our community members to do something that will improve the world around us—and our own lives. The challenge for October? To get healthy. In an effort to help us all rise to the occasion, we're going to assign one small task every day. Each morning, we will post the challenge on GOOD.is and Twitter, along with a testimonial from someone on the GOOD team who's already completed it. We invite you to complete all 30 mini-challenges with us! Today, we challenge you to:

Detox.

“Detox” is a pretty vague thing to be assigned to do, but in my case, the ambiguity was perfect. It meant I could customize my diet however I wanted.

After some research, I decided to do a week-long hybrid raw food/juice fast. With raw fruits and vegetables, I’d be getting wholesome nutrients and antioxidants to support my health, and by ingesting them in juice form, I’d be giving my digestive system a breather an opportunity to cleanse my insides of all the toxins and waste I’ve accumulated in my 24 years of consuming.

I stocked my fridge full of fresh organic produce and got my juicer all set up, I was ready to tackle the week.

Breakfast juice: Amazing—I should do this every day for the rest of my life. Better than coffee. I was high off the stuff.

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Lunch juice: Pretty unsatisfying, especially when my co-workers went out for delicious sandwiches. But I survived.

Dinner juice: I wanted to die. After a long day at work, getting into my building and smelling my neighbors’ cooking—then juicing my kale, grapefruit, spinach, yams—just wasn’t doing it for me. The internal struggle was rough, knowing that no one would find out if I snuck down the street to In ‘n’ Out and got myself a juicy Number 3.

Fast-forward five days. I feel really good. I’m distracted by graphic burrito fantasies, and my co-workers are pleading with me to eat (I think I’ve become a bit ornery). But actually, I’m not that hungry, my body is happy, and I’m realizing that most of my appetite is just in my mind.

I cheated a couple times. I didn’t beat myself up about it, and each day I started fresh. I’m sure this kind of diet is much easier to do if you don’t have to be around any temptation at all, but it was still pretty fun. Thanks to this challenge, juice is now a delicious part of my health regimen.

-Julia Panayiotou

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Ready, set, go! Good luck completing today's challenge. Share your experience on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook by using the hashtag #30DaysofGOOD, or let us know how it went in the comments section below.

Tomorrow's challenge: Spend 20 minutes outside.