If you’ve ever been to the Internet you’ll find that there
are about 10 million ways to do a juice cleanse. There’s juicing, blending, premade juice…
there’s juice only, juice with food… several combinations that make it difficult
to choose which one to try if you’re looking to reset your bad eating habits.
I’m writing this blog post over a couple of days because I
want to capture the “in the moment” feelings that I’m having while having some
time to reflect about it. First, a
little background and some tips if you’ve never done this before.
I chose the 3-day plan outlined in www.rebootwithjoe.com (that’s the guy
who did that documentary that they have on Netflix) because I was able to
choose my juices. He gives colors, so
you’re supposed to have Green at lunch time, a purple or red at night, that
sort of thing. I built my own plan using
the color system and came up with Katie’s 3-Day Juice Reboot.
SATURDAY
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SUNDAY
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MONDAY
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2 Glasses of hot water with lemon
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2 Glasses of hot water with lemon
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2 Glasses of hot water with lemon
|
4 carrots
2 oranges
1 beet
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4 carrots
2 apples
1 lemon
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1 apple
1 beet
3 carrots
Ginger
3 cups greens
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16 oz unflavored coconut water
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16 oz unflavored coconut water
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16 oz unflavored coconut water
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6-8 kale leaves
3 handfuls spinach
1 green apple
1 cucumber
2 celery stalks
1 lemon
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2 apples
2 cucumbers
6-8 kale leaves
1 handful parsley
|
1 zucchini
3 pears
4 broccoli florets
1 handful spinach
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1 cucumber
½ red cabbage
2 pears
2 lemons
Ginger
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1 red pepper
1 apple
1 tomato
1 scallion
3 kale leaves
1 lemon
1 lime
1 hot pepper
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1 cucumber
½ red cabbage
2 pears
2 lemons
Ginger
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1 mango
1/3 pineapple
3 cups spinach
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1 mango
1/3 pineapple
3 cups spinach
|
1 mango
1/3 pineapple
3 cups spinach
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30 red grapes
1 container blueberries
Mint
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1 sweet potato
2 peaches, pitted
1 red apple
½ container blueberries
Cinnamon
|
4 carrots
2 oranges
1 beet
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Herbal Tea
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Herbal Tea
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Herbal Tea
|
This website has several options, and I almost chose the Dr.
Oz/Reboot with Joe Hybrid that involved a dinner every night. Obviously I’ve been doing too much Chalean
Extreme because I figured, “Go [big] or go home.” I don’t need no stinking dinner.
I was right.
As you can see from the above plan, I started every day out
with a gigantic mug of lemon/ginger infused water. Then, a first breakfast juice, coconut water
for second breakfast, and then 4 more juices during the day ever couple to few
hours. Generally, I never felt
hunger. I didn’t “cheat” by eating a
meal, but I did reserve some of my fruit and ate it solid. For example, I had a banana at the end of Day
1 because I wasn’t sure how I would do through the night. I didn’t want to wake up hungry and go into a
crazy midnight eating binge. I also had
a banana during Day 2 as well as half an apple.
Day 3 I had half of a cut up pear (mainly because I already had a crazy
amount of juice and I couldn’t even think of adding more liquid).
So we have my plan.
Taking a look back at what I did to prepare, and my experiences, here’s
some advice I would give if you’d like to try a juice cleanse.
- 1. Follow the Directions of your Cleanse. Mine gave preparation tips (i.e. no caffeine, cut back on dairy the day before, increase water the week before). Follow them. They’re most likely there for a reason. Don’t spend the night before binging on hamburgers.
- 2. DRINK WATER! Believe me, you will get tired of drinking things. It’s a lot of drinking. But water is really important. Day 2 I did not have as much water as I did Day 1 and Day 3 and I could definitely tell the difference. Crazy headache. I woke up with a desert in my mouth on the morning of Day 3. You’re peeing constantly.
- 3. HAVE LOTS OF ICE. Some things you’ll be juicing sound ridiculous (I drank cabbage juice and it was delicious) but it’s really not that great at room temperature. Even if your fruits and veggies are cold, you’re running it through a machine that is not. I am one of those cave people without an ice maker (or ice trays, I kind of have a thing about my ice smelling like my freezer) so if you don’t have one, get yourself a bag of ice to start.
- 4. Do this when you have time off from work. Of course, that’s entirely up to your schedule, but I did this over a long President’s Day weekend on purpose. I knew that being at my desk would make it harder for me not to snack. Doing this at home and at the HG’s house made it so much easier to follow.
- 5. Don’t let this be the first time you’ve ever tried fresh juice. It’s like a health punch to the gut. Don’t let the first time you drink a bunch of juiced veggies be when you’re trying to do it for 3 days straight. Your body might not like it.
- 6. Be realistic. If you don’t think a juice-only cleanse is for you and you need one with a meal, those are out there. Do your research.
- 7. Don’t step on the scale until you’re done! It was marvelously exciting :D
As an added, humorous caveat…
here’s some observations:
- 1. Don’t go anywhere that doesn’t have a bathroom during your cleanse. When you’re not peeing your brains out, your gurgling belly is expelling all of the bad news that you’ve been hanging on to. Some colors may surprise you.
- 2. Don’t wear a thong. See reference above.
- 3. Activity is fine! I not once felt like my blood sugar was low. You’re just supposed to cut back from high intensity exercising. I did yoga, Hip Hop Abs, and Hip Hop dance class all fine. Okay, that wasn’t funny at all. I just needed an area to talk about bodily expulsions.
In preparation, mainly because we were expecting an all-day
snow storm on Thursday, I went to the store Wednesday night to purchase all of
my veggies and fruits for the weekend.
When I got home, I cleaned everything and used 2.5 gallon bags to parcel
up every juice individually. I numbered
my paper and numbered the bags with the day so that I could easily pull it out
of the fridge, cut or peel, and juice. I
wanted to make it as easy as possible because I foresaw some hanger pangs. I thought my blood sugar would be so low that
I would need the juice pronto.
I would recommend doing this or something similar just so
you know you have everything you need. I
noticed that I forgot one lemon that I wanted for my morning hot water. So, I just took a slice off of a lemon from a
bag from that day. I also noticed that I
forgot one cucumber… so I took a cucumber out of a juice that called for
2. I didn’t really need that much juice
anyway.
 |
| The Stocked Fridge |
 |
| The Other Beverages |
At the store I got the biggest veggie and fruits I could
find. I got jumbo navel oranges. The best thing about creating my own menu was
every single juice I really liked the taste of.
I had tried carrots in a green juice before and I really didn’t care for
it. But, carrots in a mostly fruit juice
is amazing. Carrot, apple, and lemon is
really good as is carrot, orange, and beet.
So here’s how it all went down…
·
DAY ONE – Starting Weight 143.2 lbs
I woke up at HG’s house after a wonderfully healthy
Valentine’s Day dinner that he prepared for me.
He drank his morning coffee while I sipped on a huge mug of hot water
with lemon and ginger while we watched US v Russia in men’s hockey. That first huge mug of hot water will really
get your digestive system moving. I
tagged along while he went to the grocery store, never once tempted by anything
there. I did have moments of fantasy
where I thought about bad food, but then immediately felt sick to my stomach
over having something heavy sitting in my belly. I enjoyed the juices from Day One and he even
tried sips of each one.
 |
| Day 1 - Beet, Carrot, & Orange |
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| Day 1 -Kale, Spinach, Apple, Cuke, Celery, Lemon |
Saying I had to pee all day is an understatement. I drank about 66 oz of water along with all
of my juices and the coconut water mid-morning.
I normally don’t pee very often on the weekend. It was pretty crazy considering every time
I’d go to the bathroom, it felt like the longest pee stream ever. I think I’ve talked enough about pee for the
time being… moving on…
 |
| Day 1 - Cuke, Red Cabbage, Pear, Lemon, Ginger (Pretty!!) |
As I said, Day One ended with a banana just to keep hunger
at bay. I was very sleepy when I
finished my herbal tea around 10, and I slept pretty well. I slept 7 hours and 22 minutes. I did no exercise on Day One mainly just
because it didn’t fit into my schedule very well. But I totally could have. No shakes or anything. I was completely satisfied.
DAY TWO
I didn’t wake up hungry, but my belly was definitely
moving. I woke up feeling less bloated
than I have in a very long time. One
troublesome thing I’ve dealt with over the weekend is I had a canker sore in
the very back of my mouth (that patch of skin connecting the back teeth to the
jaw. Drinking so much citrus Day One
didn’t really help it heal. It was so
sore it felt like I had a sore throat, but I didn’t.
 |
| The Hot Water |
 |
| Day 2 - Sweet Potato, Apple, Blueberry, & Cinnamon |
Pre-lunch time was a little more difficult today, but I
managed. I wanted to go out and about,
so I went to the bookstore and to the mall.
I walked past the Cinnabon and didn’t even flinch. I decided that not only was this juicing
cleanse pumping me full of nommy nutrients, but it was also forcing me to
exercise my willpower again. I had lost
so much resolve since Summer—this was a good way to get it back.
My final juice of the day called for a dry
spice—Cinnamon. Note to the wise. If you’re using a centripetal juicer, like my
Breville Juice Fountain, do NOT put in the dry spice before you start up the
machine. Not saying this happened to me,
but you, your floor, and your counter will all get attacked by flying cinnamon.
I slept over 8 hours this night. The trouble both nights was needing to get up
and pee nearly three times a night. I
tried to drink some water each time I got up on night two. I did some yoga on Day Two, but nothing too
strenuous. I went to the mall mainly to
have somewhere warm and out of the wind to walk around.
DAY THREE
I can’t tell you how glad I was to see the last day! Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying the juices,
but you have to clean your juicer after every juice. I’ve done dishes more this weekend than I
ever do (not joking). I woke up
extremely dehydrated, so the headache I’ve been battling much of the entire
weekend was doubly bad. I think I’ve
finally gotten over the caffeine withdrawal.
I can’t stress enough how you should constantly drink water.
 |
| Day 3 - Cuke, Red Cabbage, Pear, Lemon, Ginger |
 |
| Day 3 - Carrot, Orange, & Beet |
My body feels fantastic today. My midsection lost all the bloat, so I can
actually feel my body again rather than the layer of nasty that had accumulated
and muffined up in my jeans. I went to
the grocery today for food for the rest of the week and really tried to focus
on clean eating. That way, when I come
off of doing nothing but fruits and vegetables, I don’t throw up.
By mid-Day Three I no longer had the headache because I
really made strides to drink enough water.
I can’t stress this enough… DRINK THE WATER!!!
I tried a real workout today and it worked out fine. I did the Ab Sculpt routine on Hip Hop Abs
and Hip Hop dance class in the evening (between Dinner Juice and Evening Snack
Juice). Both workouts were fine and I
felt strong and energetic.
The morning after… what about weight loss?
Oh friends… I’m so
pleased. I got exactly what I wanted out
of this reboot. I’ve not seen a 130
number is so long…
This morning (Day Four, to keep track) I weighed 139.2. This is a four pound loss on the nose. FOUR POUNDS!
But I know this isn’t a sustainable weight loss. I’ll probably weigh more tomorrow just
because my digestive system will have stuff in it when I get on the scale. BUT this was a great way to make my body feel
great.
And I do feel great.
I can’t tell you how good it feels to just be in my body right now. I don’t feel as bloated and I feel… energetic
might be the wrong word, but definitely more comfortable in my own skin.
So far this morning I’ve had my protein shake like I
normally would. I drink it with almond
milk, so it wasn’t like I was throwing too much dairy on top of this
stomach. So far I can feel my stomach
moving, but I feel no vomiting coming on or anything. Here’s what I plan to eat today:
First
Breakfast: Protein Shake
Second
Breakfast: Vitacake with Banana and dab
of Peanut Butter (a smaller version of my usual)
Lunch: Green salad with a simple oil and vinegar for
dressing
Second
Lunch: Apple with cheese (one slice of
45 calorie provolone)
Dinner: Small amount of Vegan chili, adding
vegetables
Should be a
pretty good day. Getting protein back in
my diet. I would like to do Chalean
Extreme tonight, so we’ll see how that goes.
This third phase is a butt kicker.
Also, I’m wearing my size 4 pants to work today. Boom!
I’ll post again
soon. This reboot has really energized
me. Half Marathon training starts this
week. And I have some marathon
aspirations I’d like to discuss.
Any
questions feel free to post them in the comments and we can talk about specific
things. This is my very first time doing
any sort of cleanse successfully (i.e. not stopping mid-day two and scarfing
something foul).
