The concept of a juice cleanse, or even raw vegetable juices was a pretty foreign concept to me until I moved to Toronto in September. Not owning a juicer, or having access to a restaurant that made them, my exposure to them was primarily through fellow bloggers who posted fantastic recipes or reviews, complete with mouth-watering photos. Needless to say, I was intrigued.
Moving to Toronto was, honestly, like being thrust into a vegan, health food world that I had only been on the fringes of before. Suddenly all the products I’d only been able to order online before were at my fingertips and the kinds of restaurants I’d only dreamed of eating at were no more than a subway ride away. So, at the recommendation and with the company of Janet, I gave Belmonte Raw a try and I was in love.
A relatively new establishment in Toronto, Belmonte Raw is a lovely little cafe in Leslieville on Queen St. East. It’s small with limited seating and a limited menu, but it changes daily and believe me, doesn’t leave you wanting. With 3 main meals to choose from with an array of juices, dessert and a few retail items for sale, you are sure to leave satisfied. Both myself and Janet got the combo where you had your choice of main salad, juice, and a raw chocolate and it was one of the tastiest, most satisfying meals I’d had in a while. Fresh, clean, filling and light. While on the pricier side, you know you are getting high quality, organic ingredients, so it’s worth it. I wish I had snapped a photo! The service was lovely as well, which I am learning is hard to come by in the vegetarian establishments in Toronto.
Anyway, while moving to Toronto has been fabulous, it’s brought a few old health issues to the surface, which I am guessing are in reaction to the heightened stress I’ve been experiencing as well a increased levels of pollution. My skin, digestive system and energy levels have been all out of whack and I needed SOMETHING.
Thankfully, Belmonte Raw came to the rescue in the form of a juice cleanse. I was hooked from the first raw vegetable juice I tried and it seemed fitting to enlist the help of this wonderful cafe.
A whole day of juices lined up and ready
The Cleanse Protocol
They offer cleanses at lengths of 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, and 21 days with either all raw food, all juices or a combination of the two. I opted for 5 days of all juices since I really needed a system reset and I always like to challenge myself.
Belmonte will deliver the juices to you every morning with a schedule of when to drink what. All the bottles are conveniently numbered so mix-ups are avoided. Each day included four 16oz. vegetable juices, one 16oz. citrus juice, one 16oz. cashew milk and 1 small elixir, with a Liver Cleanse tea each day.
Each day was structured similarly with a warm lemon water to start your day, a carrot-based juice as the first juice, a green juice mid-morning, the elixir late morning, cashew milk at lunch, citrus juice mid-afternoon, carrot-based juice early evening and green juice to finish the day, with tea and water being consumed throughout the day.
My Cleanse Experience
Day 1: I felt great! I loved the carrot based juice, so delicious and was shocked at how delicious the green juice were. The cashew milk was a lovely treat at lunch, which really helped being surrounded by people at school who are eating very aromatic lunches beside me. The juices were very well timed and I never felt hungry. Did some dry skin brushing, had a shower and went to bed feeling good.
the carrot and beet juice from Day 1!
Day 2: Woke up feeling great once again and noticed my stomach was flatter than usual- no digestive issues creating bloating! The day went fairly smoothly until later at night. I got really hungry around 9:30 pm but just had a glass of hot water and it passed. A slight headache as I was going to bed, but nothing very serious.
enjoying my citrus juice for the day
Day 3: Today was not so great. The juices were not my favourite since every single one had celery in it (which I’m not the biggest fan of, but that’s totally a personal preference) and they all felt lighter than previous days. I felt very drained and even walking took effort. I had a terrible headache and had cravings like mad. I took extra care to rest when I could and drink lot of fluids.
In hindsight, all of this makes sense. It’s probably the day when my body really got into detox mode and was releasing all of the toxins, making me feel terrible. It also makes sense that this day would be the lightest since you would want to ease in with heavier juices, then go lighter, then ease back out again.
Looks the same as the photo above, but it’s actually a different day, you can see the elixir is different and the juices were actually different too. I believe this was Day 3, with all the celery
Day 4: Felt much better today. The juice were more to my liking and my energy was back. In fact, I was feeling more energetic than I had in a while. I really started looking forward to all my drinks, especially the cashew milk- I gained a new appreciation for just how rich, creamy and tasty a raw nut milk can be! The day passed by without very much of a hitch- the only snag being that I volunteer with Marni Wasserman, an amazing culinary nutritionist here in Toronto, and I had to be around delicious, healthy vegan food all night and watch everyone else eat it! I was strong though!
one of the elixirs I received over the 5 days, taken as little shots!
Day 5: Today was hard again, but for different reasons. I was working all day, instead of being in school which meant I could not stick to a perfect schedule of drinking the juices. I ended up going way longer than I should have in between my elixir and the cashew milk and I just felt drained. I did what I could though and eventually after having my cashew milk and citrus juice, I felt much better. There were no cravings for food today which was wild because whenever I am working I always crave sweets! Nature of the job, being surrounded by delicious smelling, but unhealthy food.
Catching up on some blog reading and enjoying my dinner-time carrot-based juice.
General thoughts: The man who delivered my juices every morning was very sweet! The juices are delivered in glass bottles which I appreciated since I am always trying to reduce my reliance on plastic. My only complaint would be that the glass bottles made everything very heavy- so on days when I had to carry around my entire day’s supply all over Toronto, it was tiring and cumbersome. A small price to pay I suppose! I also think the cleanse was planned very well- I actually experienced pretty good energy the whole time throughout the cleanse except the one bad day, so I felt like I was getting all my vitamins, minerals and macronutrients. I feel like this would be hard to plan and execute juicing on your own, especially for a juice newb like myself. . The fact that they made everything for me made it easy and I loved that I didn’t have to think about anything
Overall results: I felt clean and recharged. My digestive system was reset and allowed me to start reintroducing things back into my diet to asses their impact on my system. My skin didn’t show any noticeable difference but it definitely gave me a good base to identify foods that might be aggravating it. I noticed a reduction in sweet cravings in the evening and increased satisfaction with smaller, lighter meals. I have a tendency to overeat so this was huge! Definitely feeling better and I got what I wanted from this experience!
Overall, if you are looking to do a juice cleanse in the Toronto area, I HIGHLY recommend Belmonte Raw. The owners are lovely and are only an email away through the entire process. If you want to get started, head over to the website and drop them an email. They will respond with all the information you need to choose the right cleanse for you and get going!
Definitely a great post full of useful information regarding the juice cleanse. Juice cleanse is a very beneficial thing for the human health in this hectic time schedule. People are busy in heavy workloads and it is tough to maintain their health but with the proper use of juice cleanse people can improve their immune system.Thanks for sharing this post with us.
I’ve been missing out on your great posts! I need to sign up for email updates again as I don’t get them anymore for some reason.
What an interesting post. Well done for sticking to the whole 5 day cleanse. That’s a really hard fast and I’m sure it did a really good job of cleaning your system out.
I tried a week of a juice fast before I started my raw food diet and I really struggled. I felt starving all the time, weak, dizzy and light headed. I couldn’t cope with it but I think I was very toxic at that time so eating more calories is definitely much easier for me. Saying that, I’d love to do something like that some time in the future. Half way to a water fast.
Toronto sounds fantastic. To have that service on your doorstep is amazing. Although I live in a city, it’s small and nobody in concerned about health where I live so there is no healthy restaurants etc. so this also makes me want to move to Toronto! Wow.
Sorry to hear your health problems came back. Stress can play havoc. Did you feel better after the cleanse?
A few people have said they aren’t getting my emails anymore and re-signing up isn’t helping! I have posted about it in WordPress support so hopefully someone gets back to me to help out. I have no idea what happened because I didn’t change anything.
Toronto really is an amazing city. I know it has a lot of work to do in terms of the healthy/vegan/raw scene but it’s doing a pretty good job! Having something available like this is just amazing. I never could have done it without someone doing all the planning for me.
You should probably come to Toronto, at least for a visit. We can visit all these amazing places :)
Yes old allergies and sensitivities are making their way back and the cleanse helped me identify them which is a start. Still having some bad reactions though. Hopefully it all sorts itself out soon! Thanks for your well wishes!
I’m so jealous!! I live in Dallas and we don’t have anything like that here! I’ve been wanting to do a juice cleanse for quite a while now, but I want to do a program like this where they prepare them for you (since I know nothing about juicing and the effects). So cool! You’ve inspired me :)
That’s a shame Rachel! We didn’t have anything like this where I lived before either, we didn’t even have a place to get juice! It was so helpful having someone do all the work for you- was definitely a key to my success! Hope you are able to find something where you are :)
So, I arrived in Toronto yesterday. That is all.
(or not really all, because I can't wait to visit Belmonte Raw!)
AMAZING! I hope you are having so much fun, we're pretty awesome right?
I'm hoping so. Time will tell. ;)
Oh my goodness this juice looks amazing!!! I think I could do a juice cleanse for 5 days but any longer might be a bit tough. I can’t wait to look into this!
It was really tasty Sunnie! I am now obsessed with juice, I need to get my hands on a juicer!
Oh I SO want to eat at Belmonte Raw! That’s another place on my list. I just need to spend longer down there! :) Looks like a great experience overall Gabby. I like how a juice cleanse can rebalance the mind and body and make me appreciate food even more. I’ve never had to work while doing a fast so I can imagine that must have been a challenge for you, esp lugging around juice. Well done girl!
It's such a lovely little cafe Heather, I think you'd love it! I can't wait to go back! If you are ever in town again and have more time to spare we should definitely go!
It was a challenge working while doing it, especially since it messed up the schedule they had lined up! But it was good at the same time because it helped distract me from the fact that I wasn't eating, which was helpful!
This review not only makes me want to do a juice cleanse – it makes me want to move to Toronto! What’s so great is that all the work of making the juices is done, you don’t have to plan anything or do stuff ahead of time (causing stress…) – and they sound delicious. I’ll bet more people would juice cleanse (myself included) if these lovely little bottles appeared at their doors each day!
Well, if you ever come for a visit, you just let me know and we will definitely visit this place! It's so worth it! Yes, the lack of having to plan anything was key, I don't think I could have done it if I was making them all myself!
Come to Toronto, you'll love it :)
These juices look so good!!
They were amazing, especially the carrot ones!
Wow Gabby, thank you so much for this incredibly thorough review! I have been wanting a juicer for so long now and I really would prefer to have tried a 5 day juice cleanse as opposed to the ACD to be honest with you. I love how you describe it as a reset to your digestive system. I feel like that is exactly what I need.
Were the juices all veggie based except for the citrus one? I’m seriously thinking about figuring out how to jump ship from one cleanse to another because I just don’t see myself being successful on ACD. Which means I’d have to get a juicer haha.
Anyway, I digress. This cleanse sounds amazing and I’m glad that it did help you out! Skin problems are hard to deal with, I just had some crazy rash appear on my face… and it’s so frustrating not to know how to deal with it! I hope that you’ll be able to find some answers soon!
Thanks again for the review!
Thanks so much Sarah! I am obsessed with juicing now, I just can’t get enough! I wish I had my own juicer so I could make them daily.
Yes they were all veggie based except for the citrus one and the cashew milk. Although the veggie ones contained apple and lemon sometimes. I’m sure if you wanted to try something similar without cashews and almonds instead to fit with anti-candida. And apples are low sugar anyway so not too bad!
I’m definitely on the road to figuring some stuff out which is great! Thanks for the support Sarah! I hope this helps you too :)
How is the ACD going??
Hey Gabby! Just out of curiosity, how much was this cleanse?
Hey Becky! Since Belmonte doesn’t post the prices on their website, I don’t want to post it on mine either but if you’re curious just email them and ask or I can send you the info in an email! Let me know if you’d like me to do that!
Wow, well done – I could never do a full (no food) juice cleanse…. I need to chew! Just doesn’t suit me, ya know? But this sounds fab… I would love to try a juice cleanse in conjunction with a little food :)
Skin/digestion/energy wise have you considered a vitamin C/niacin/MSM combination supplementation? Seriously, it’s VERY good stuff – niacin cleaned up a few skin problems (from coming off my other meds) SO quickly…. and Vitamin C is my new godsend in heaps of different areas.
OH and I just got a brush for dry skin brushing! Whoop!
Hey Lou! Yes not chewing is difficult! 5 days was ok for me but I don’t think I could do any longer. I just love food!
Thanks for the recommendations! I have been using MSM for a while, but I will definitely try it with niacin and vitamin C! I’ve been meaning to get some vitamin C for ages anyway! Hopefully it helps! You’re the best for offering up these suggestions, I really appreciate it!
Yay for dry skin brushing! Can’t wait to see how you get on!
Yay
What a great review. I have never thought of doing a raw juice cleanse…. I love juice but don’t know if I could live on it alone for 5 days. I don’t know if I would survive while still doing my normal day-to-day life. I can just salivate waiting until Christmas when my mom says I can have my grandmother’s old juicer. ;)
I thought I would have a hard time too but it was actually suprisingly easy! I think it helped that I was really busy and didn’t have time to think about it and that it was all made for me!
So jealous about you getting that juicer! I am so obsessed with juicing now, it’s so energizing!
I’ve often considered doing a cleanse, but I’m so deterred by the fact that you cannot eat! Have you ever heard of Hulda Clark’s liver cleanse? In itself, it’s a only 2 days that you alter your eating habits, but some say you should be taking herbs to cleanse both liver and kidneys in order to prep for it. I belong to a Lyme Disease group, so there is always info going on regarding what people do to feel better, as fatigue is one of the main issues. The liver cleanse, along with coffee enemas, high garlic intake, and paleo eating are all things I’ve read that benefit. I’m also curious about the cashew milk? I’ve heard cashews actually contribute to candida? Just wondering your thoughts… Great post! It was really interesting to read how you felt each day! I hope you continue to do better! :-)
Hey Lauren! I’ve actually never heard of that cleanse before, but all the principles sounds pretty on point- the coffee enemas, garlic and no grains seem like a good protocol especially when you add in detoxifying herbs! Those are so important, and this cleanse actually included a tea with many liver cleansing herbs in it!
The cashew milk was a bit of a surprise to me too but I think the main idea behind it was additional calories and protein. You’re right, cashews do contribute to candida. This wasn’t a cleanse that was specifically targeted towards that though and I have moved away from eating an anti-candida diet, so it wasn’t something I was concerned about. I definitely helped because the cashews made the drink so luxurious, it was a little easier to go without chewed food! I was worried I would miss eating too much but I found t wasn’t a huge deal, especially since I wasn’t cooking for someone else (I suspect you wouldn’t have that luxury!) and all the juices were ready to go for me, no effort required. It’s definitely not for everyone though- the company actually offers a raw food cleanse and a mix between a raw food and a juice cleanse so they recognize the difficulties people might have with only juice! For 5 days it was doable for me, longer than that though I would have struggled. I just love food so much!
Thanks so much for this thoughtful comment Lauren and I appreciate your well wishes :)