Alex, our fantastic office manager really throws herself into her work, her family and her life.  Like the rest of us, she has little time but a huge capacity for living life and trying new things.  All members of the purplefish team are pretty similar in this respect and we embrace new trends, healthy living lifestyles (for the most part), and of course, a great love of food.

One of our favourite places near the office is the Juice Bar in St Nicks market.  Offering a great shortcut to juicing which doesn’t involve chopping, juicing and washing up, Alex has decided to give it a whirl this week.  Here’s the first of her three blog posts charting her experience.  (I would like to stress at this point that the rest of the members of the purplefish team have offered much encouragement…):

Living with a ‘master baker’ is great until you realise that guzzling chocolate cake smothered with deliciously rich butter icing on a daily basis is not the best for your health or your figure.  Warmer weather is on the way and I am most definitely not summer ready!  So, in an attempt to feel better, fresher and kick start my aim to be comfortable in my summer clothes I have embarked on a three day green juice cleanse.

Toast with lashings of Nutella was replaced this morning with juiced grapefruit, apple and kale.  This juice has a fairly strong green vegetable after taste but was perfectly palatable and I can’t see any problem having it for breakfast for the next two days.

Lunch, however, was harder to swallow.  Before I continue you need to understand that it is not just me who has a love affair with food.  The team at purplefish is also fairly food fixated.  I could handle watching Molly eat her homemade sandwich and Joanna enjoying a marinated chicken salad.  But, when Daniel sat next to me with a spicy flat bread crammed full of halloumi, humous and rocket I wanted to whip it off his desk, cram it in my mouth and feed my kale, broccoli, parsley, celery, coconut water and lemon juice to the Canadian Goose (nicknamed Burt) that has taken residence outside Molly’s window.

On leaving the office all I could think about was food!  The enticing aromas of St Nick’s market were particularly hard to ignore as I walked to my car.  I knew things were bad when I looked at a fast food poster and thought yum! But all was not lost, I still had my afternoon juice to look forward to.  This concoction of wheatgrass, cilantro, chlorella, cucumber and apple was pretty delicious and very easy to drink.  Things were looking up….

I had forgotten that on arriving home I would be met by two starving children.  I took the cheat’s option and ordered them a pizza.  I hate pizza, wouldn’t feel jealous and definitely wouldn’t be tempted to steal any…I have never looked so longingly at, or spent so long smelling a margarita, but I stayed strong.

While I wait for my next two juices of the day to defrost,  (oops should have taken them out earlier) I am thinking to myself, Alex get a grip!  I am so lucky to be able to choose what I eat, how much I eat and to have the option of a healthy, varied diet. So, once I have polished off juice number four (spinach, carrot, cucumber, celery, vanilla and coconut oil) swiftly followed by juice number five (fennel, romaine lettuce, courgette, pear and coconut water) I am off to bed ready to start tomorrow with a smile and a few more whizzed leafy greens.