Juice Cleanse

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A few weeks ago, partly inspired by local EDH player Omar Hernandez, and partly encouraged by my girlfriend and a 50%-off deal via Living Social, I agreed to partake in a three-day juice cleanse for the first time. We looked over our calendar and the girlfriend and I picked Mar 28th-30th as the best time to do it. As something that many Magic players are not familiar with, I decided to share my thoughts.

Juice Cleanse – A Gamer’s Perspective

What is a Juice Cleanse?

A juice cleanse is a special diet where you only drink fruit/vegetable juices. You only do it for a short period of time. I went with a three-day juice cleanse, which is a good number for a cleanse. There are also seven-day cleanses, but those are a lot more intense. We will just be looking at the three-day cleanse. On each day your diet consists of six bottles of juice. They are numbered for convenience. You get to pick when you drink them, so you can work with your schedule.

The juices are a combination of fruits and vegetables. They are designed to be helpful to your body’s digestive system. It’s a very healthy mix of greens and sweets. This isn’t like the old V8 from the 1990’s which tasted like pureed vegetables. These actually taste pretty good. Here are the basics of the six drinks I had every day:

1. The breakfast drink was a hearty mix of greens (spinach, celery, lettuce) with some apple juice to sweeten the deal.
2. Morning snack is a spicy lemonade made with maple syrup and cayenne pepper. There are some popular cleanses which just involve drinking this for three days. Avoid that.
3. For lunch it’s back to vegetables but a little more balanced between fruit and vegetable. It’s also much sweeter than the breakfast drink.
4. Afternoon snack is a berry-flavored juice. It can be strawberry or something similar. It’s pretty light and watery and is pretty much a sweet fruit juice. Very delicious.
5. Dinner is the best meal of the day and usually very hearty. I went with a banana/peanut butter drink while my girlfriend had coconut/cinnamon. This is usually the most filling drink of the day and also the thickest in texture.
6. The final drink of the day is a repeat of #3. This is to give your body the nutrients it needs to get through the night until breakfast. Otherwise you’ll wake up starving.

So now you know what the three-day cleanse is all about. Along with water, tea, and/or coffee, this is all you’ll be consuming for 72 hours. But, there’s more. For the week leading up to and out of the cleanse you need to slowly ease in and out of the cleanse. This means gradually cutting out and then re-introducing dairy, meat, and processed foods. It’s a challenge, but it’s worth it.

Why Should You Do It?

The reasons for taking part in a cleanse are manifold. Some people do it simply to lose weight (you will lose weight). Other people do it regularly to try to stave off illness. However, what a cleanse truly accomplishes is kick-starting your body for a healthier lifestyle.

Let’s face it, gamers are not the healthiest bunch. Whether it’s picking up breakfast sandwiches at McDonald’s or chugging Mountain Dew for a late-night playtest session, we have plenty of bad habits. Most of them revolve around the food we put into our systems. That has an effect on our performance at tournaments and actually in life in general. Sitting down all day at a 9-round PTQ is bad enough, but adding a bunch of Pop Tarts and pizza just exacerbates the situation.

But, we’re also busy people. We go to Grand Prix events and PTQ events on weekends. We work on tuning our decks and testing matchups. We watch streams and read articles. It’s very difficult to just transition into a healthier lifestyle. That’s where the cleanse comes in.

You just pick a weekend that’s free. No PTQ to attend. No Grand Prix to fly to. You want three days where you can take care of your body. That’s when you can kickstart yourself into a higher gear of healthy living. For the week before you will want to slowly cut out some things like meat, dairy, eggs, and fried food. Then after the cleanse you can slowly reintroduce them.

But the goal ultimately is to not reintroduce all of those things. Leave some of them out, or reduce their quantity. You’ll see the benefits over time. Eventually, when you want to take another step, you can do another cleanse to kick-start the process.

How Did It Go?

I’m happy to report that my cleanse went very well. I had plenty of hunger pangs, but all-in-all I’m quite pleased. I did lose eight pounds which is a nice side effect, but more importantly I feel ready to restructure my diet into a healthier model. I’m not about to give up all the things I love to eat, but try to balance them out with some fresh fruits and vegetables.

Eating healthy means having more energy to last longer in tournaments. But, it also means generally having a sharper mind. You’ll also sleep better, feel better in general, and probably live longer. So, if you’re ready to start making healthy changes in your life, consider a juice cleanse to kick-start the process.

Pro Tour Update

Top 25 Update

Wake me up for Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx when this list will change significantly.

Grand Prix Beijing

The Quick Hits

• In their latest attempt to keep people interested in playing MTGO the fine folks at Wizards have announced that April will be Flashback Draft Month, featuring Odyssey, Time Spiral, Shards of Alara, Lorwyn/Morningtide and Shadowmoor/Eventide drafts. In short, a month of flushing your hard-earned tickets down the drain [Daily MTG]
• This week in her Quick & Dirty Cosplay series, MJ Scott delivers Teysa Karlov of Orzhov fame. She shares her secrets with the rest of us while her husband enjoys the costume for other NSFW reasons. [Gathering Magic]
• Mike Linnemann puts together an archive of his work archiving Magic’s artwork throughout the years [Gathering Magic]
• Here’s a look at how the gods of Theros interact with the plane through the artwork of the cards that depict these interactions [Magic Arcana]
• Jim Davis shares some entertaining stories about his life as a Magic player [StarCityGames]
• Chris Wynes ranks the top 10 lands in tournament history [PureMTGO]
• Chris Lansdell shares his experiences judging at Grand Prix Montreal [ManaDeprived]
• Check out all of the exciting Magic-related events happening in two weeks at PAX East! Although most of the Hipsters of the Coast staff will be at the Grand Prix in Philadelphia, I’ll be at PAX. Let me know if you want to come find me and tell me what an awful writer I am [Magic Arcana]
• ManaDeprived.com is proud to present it’s own Top 25 rankings exclusively for Canadians [ManaDeprived]

Wallpaper of the Week

It looks like whomever was picking out morbid wallpapers took the week off and someone with a much cheerier disposition selected Sunbond for a change of pace. It’s a very different change which I am very welcome of. 

Grade: B

The Week Ahead

The Grand Prix Circuit comes back to the States next weekend with a trip to Phoenix, Arizona. This is the Tour’s first trip to Phoenix since 2006 and only the third trip ever. The format will be Standard for a fourth straight week at a Grand Prix. As usual, a North American GP means a lot of Pro Players, so stay tuned to see if the rankings shake up at all.

What We Learned is a weekly feature here at Hipsters of the Coast. It is written by former amateur Magic Player Rich Stein, who came really close to making day two of a Grand Prix on several occasions. Each week, we will take a look at the past seven days of major events, big news items, and community happenings so that you can keep up-to-date on all the latest and greatest Magic: the Gathering community news.