After Day 2, I knew I was in the clear. I knew I was going to be able to finish the juice cleanse.

The other problem with Ginger-Gate was that I made the C.A.B. juice for night 2 and 3 at the same time, which means I needed to remake it. That wouldn’t have been an issue except I used my last apple! Ah!

Luckily I was able to improvise with some applesauce I already had in the fridge. I checked the ingredients and saw that the only ingredient was organic apples, and cheered! I think my juicer was happy that it had less work to do.

Day 3 was probably the biggest mental challenge for me. I kept comparing the mental challenge of the juice cleanse to that of running the half marathon. In both cases, I went from doubting myself to gritting my teeth and just getting through it. The only difference is that the half marathon took me around 2 1/2 hours and the juice cleanse was for 72.

As I went on, I starting learning the tricks of the trade and testing out ideas. A new approach was needed for Juice 4, the Spicy Lemonade.

The Spicy Lemonade is:

• 1-2 lemons
• a few squirts of raw agave nectar
• a dash of cayenne pepper

Day 1 I drank the Spicy Lemonade as is and it was pretty darn sour and hard to get down. I knew I would dread juice 4 of the day if I didn’t come up with some kind of solution.

My big idea: to freeze it!

And it worked!

I microwaved it for about 45 seconds to make it a little softer, and it was just like a lemon Italian Ice. It still tasted like sour-ass cayenne, but I was so happy to be using a spoon and chewing that it made the experience that much more pleasurable.

Afternoon of Day 3: the stomach problems set in.

I can’t bring myself to discuss bodily functions in depth on here for fear of scarring you for life, so just warning you: you might want to do some research on what a cleanse does to your digestive system before you do it. Unlike me.

Let’s just say it like Tuna said it, I was, “supa’ blown.”

Somehow, I was able to muster the strength to:

1. Prep my food for Day 1 post cleanse.

2. Enter Whole Foods, purchase a few food items, and leave without breaking in to the hot bar and shoving cartons of crab dip into my purse.

I passed the test.

It was finally time for my last “juice,” the Nut Milk.

The real BluePrint juice for this is some fancy cashew milk, but I was pretty content with the vanilla almond milk I bought for $1.99 and dumped some cinnamon into. I drank 1/3 of the carton each night. Day 1 I sipped it and thought it was kind of blah, but by Day 3 I was a whole new person with juice cleanse wisdom and remembering that I could use a microwave.

Microwave it for 2 minutes and you’ve got deliciousness.

Going to bed the night of Day 3 was pretty much like going to bed on Christmas Eve.

But hey – I did it!