Happy Fourth of July! Hope you all enjoyed your long weekends. I enjoyed mine, although I had to work a little each day, especially on Monday. For some reason I have to work over every long holiday weekend — what is up with that?! I did get to spend a good amount of time out in the sun, so being sun-tired combined with stressed from work means Tuesday blags is late tonight. But worth it.

As you might know I’ve tried Blueprint Cleanse twice and Organic Avenue once. What I haven’t had a chance to discuss yet is that last month I tried the new kid in town in the world of the juice fast — Cooler Cleanse. A collaboration between Salma Hayek and Eric Helms (founder of Juice Generation in NYC), Cooler Cleanse officially launched earlier this year. Their history, from their website:

Since 1999, Eric Helms, founder of Juice Generation, has offered the ultimate juicing experience in New York City. In 2008, he received a very specific challenge from friend and fellow juicing devotee Salma Hayek. She asked him to custom-blend the perfect detoxifying drinks: raw, nutrition-packed juices that would improve her cleanses to make them as effective—and enjoyable—as possible.

Using his top-of-the-line hydraulic press, Eric created a rich array of nutritious concoctions from organic, sustainably grown produce. Salma taste-tested and reviewed them all. The process took months as what started as a friendly challenge evolved into a dynamic collaboration to create their dream line-up of detox drinks.

The result of their efforts is a cleansing program that is easy to accomplish, ultra-fresh and absolutely delicious. To complete the cleansing experience, they worked with some of the best nutritionists and vegan chefs in Manhattan to develop additional raw-food menus, always using the premium-grade ingredients on which Eric built the success of his stores.

So it sounds great, but Blueprint Cleanse also sounded great and well, I really disliked their green juice. I drink green juice every day but BPC’s was just too sickly sweet. I think it is the apple. Organic Avenue was okay but the delivery was annoying and expensive. I was excited to try Cooler Cleanse to see if it was any better, since it is very helpful to me to have a juice fast that I like because of my GI illness.

Even though my stomach has been feeling much better than the last few years, sometimes I still feel really badly. A  juice fast helps get me on track again. In fact, right before I had four months of feeling almost completely better, I did a juice fast. I really believe it is a good tool for resetting and getting back on track to a better stomach and healthier habits.

For those of you not familiar, the hydraulic press used to make these juices retains the most vitamins, minerals and enzymes so you are essentially drinking vitamins and nutrition and health and rainbows and unicorns. Drinking your meals also gives your digestive system a break so your body can use less energy digesting and more energy absorbing nutrients and healing. Check out the reasons you might want to try a juice fast.

While on a juice fast, you will miss the act of eating but you will probably not feel hungry. There are SO many vegetables in these juices and they are just so filling. Sometimes I am not able to finish a whole day. I do recommend getting the advice of a professional before starting any cleanse and following the instructions on easing into the fast — and out of it. And please read the SIX BIG QUESTIONS, which has valuable information on who should — and shouldn’t — cleanse.

So last month I checked out the Cooler Cleanse website and decided that instead of the standard 3-Day Cooler Cleanse, I would instead go with something I thought was a fantastic idea — the Custom Cooler. In the Custom Cooler, you can choose exactly which juices you want from their menu. If it is your first time cleansing, I would absolutely recommend going with their 3-Day Cooler Cleanse because the juices (and the order) are carefully selected for the purpose of, well, cleansing. In my case, I’ve been around the juice fast block a few times and I know what I like and I know what I need for my specific stomach problems. And that is why I ordered three days worth of Custom Cooler.

Before I go on I just want to say that I receieved no discount or free cleanse to try. I paid in full because I wanted to try this out.

And . . . I loved it.

Seriously, their Essential Green juice. SO GOOD. Like real green juice. Not sickly sweet or overwhelming or very veggie-tasting even. I read that Salma Hayek went through many green juice taste trials before they perfected their green juice recipe. (The secret ingredient is pear!) I also tried some other juices from their menu.

I really loved the Pineapple & Ginger juice. I drank it on my first of three days and wished I had ordered it for all three. But then I also loved the fruit juices I ordered for the other two days — the Pineapple Mint and Waterlemon Lime. Uh, yeah, how could I not? The Essential Red was all right, not my favorite. I tried the Almond Milk and the Brazil Nut Milk. Both were good and sweetened with dates only, so they weren’t as sweet as other cleanse’s  nut milks I’ve tried on cleanses that contain agave. There is a debate going on about whether agave is good or bad for you so it was nice to avoid that whole issue and stick with a true natural sweetener. That said, these nut milks really are not as sweet as you might be used to, so prepare yourself. While they were a great treat at the end of a long fast day, the “dessert” feeling was a little lost. But I still thoroughly looked forward to and enjoyed the nut milks.

Would I do Cooler Cleanse again? Definitely. Would I choose them over their competitors? Yep.

I really enjoyed their juices, the convenience of their delivery and the fact that they offer a Custom Cooler ($60/day — but think about buying a few margaritas and dinner!).The typical 3-Day Cooler Cleanse ($58/day) contains six juices a day. This is the sample menu.  They also have a 5-Day Cooler Cleanse for the more ambitious of you and a Raw Cooler ($62/day), which delivers a full day of delicious raw-food meals and drinks. And if you do the Raw Cooler you get SMOOTHIES. They look so good. You can read about the different types of cleanses here.

Want to try Cooler Cleanse for free?

Enter for a chance to win a FREE 3-day Cooler Cleanse.

Here’s how:

• Leave a comment here telling us why you deserve a 3-day Cooler Cleanse (one entry)
• Leave a note on Cooler Cleanse’s Facebook wall telling us why you deserve a 3-day Cooler Cleanse (two additional entries) – don’t forget to Like them!

Be creative! Or be honest. Or be . . . something. There is no random number generator at work here —  I will work with the Cooler Cleanse team to select a winner (your extra entries mean your answer gets has more weight) and I will announce the winner here on Tuesday, July 13. You must be a US Resident to enter, and if you are selected as a winner and live outside the NYC area, you will have to select a cleanse date beginning after July 19 when nationwide shipping begins.

In NYC and want to try a juice fast and save some cash? Get 10% off your Cooler Cleanse with the discount code ESSENTIALGREEN. This code is valid through July 19 for NYC local delivery only. I’ll be using that code for myself.

Okay, so remember — leave a comment here and on Facebook for a total of three entries to win a free 3-day Cooler Cleanse! This prize is worth $189 with delivery or $174 with pickup. Good luck!

[All photos taken from the Cooler Cleanse website]

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