Howdy yall... this post has been haunting me. I've been trying to finish it for the last week and a half but between the Jewish holidays and finishing up my taxes and dealing with the barrage of hideous noises coming from the construction on my balcony, this post has been continuously tossed onto the back burner. Well today it all ends. I really want to tell you all about my experience on a three day juice cleanse, so here goes...
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to report while it was challenging, it was very doable.
There are many variations of a juice "fast" or cleanse. I would say that they key to motivating yourself and staying on track is to find the cleanse that works for you. I based mine on one from Dr. Oz with some desperately needed modifications I found after the first day of trying to choke down my "lunch" for almost two hours. I was warned by my best friend before hand that he and his gf had tried the same cleanse and that there were some pretty disgusting "meals" ahead of me.
I was actually advised by someone who shall remain nameless to stay home and take it easy while doing the cleanse, as they experienced extreme explosive diarrhea when doing a similar cleanse and suffered from terrible head aches. I will not confirm or deny said side effects as it really depends on your own body. I will admit to some strangely coloured stool, and a mild pre bed time head ache but it really wasn't as bad as I expected, mind you I'm not addicted to coffee or sugar, which can make your cleanse much more physically challenging.
Some of you are probably asking why a juice cleanse? Well, it's a great way to give your digestive system a break, to help eliminate toxins from your body and restore your immune system. As some of you loyal readers know I've done a bunch of food based cleanses in the past however this is the first time I've done a juice cleanse. Any cleanse takes some effort and a lot of prepping in advance. This cleanse was fairly easy as long as you are diligent about drinking your next "meal" within three hours of the last one.
In the week following the cleanse I ate a vegan, gluten free diet. Its important to start slow so you don't shock the system with eating too much food or foods that are too difficult to digest. As much as I love eating meat I really enjoyed eating a vegan diet. I never felt sick after a meal and had absolutely no stomach aches - which is something I felt a lot before doing the cleanse. Since then I have started to incorporate meat a few times a week and dairy in the form of Greek yogurt and goats milk cheeses, but in very small amounts. The only time I've had a stomach ache was Monday night, which was the first night of Passover - I ate a few bites of a matzo ball soup which I'm positive had some sort of bullion powder or cube, since I felt bloated and awful very shortly after eating it. That stuff just kills my stomach and contains MGS which is terrible for you. One of the benefits to doing the cleanse is being able to to reintroduce food slowly so you can have a better understanding of what foods effect you negatively.
Some of the modifications I made were combining juicing with blending, adding/replacing some creamy/fatty fruits, and instead of the additional snack smoothy I made a fresh vegetable/ fruit juice using fruits and vegetables not listed on the sheet below. I did not work out during the cleanse but in retrospect I could have easily included a work out in the afternoon. You will need a good blender or magic bullet to complete this cleanse, a juicer is a bonus.
TIP: juice your celery, kale stems and cucumber.
TIP: add 1/2 an avocado or banana to your lunch smoothy and heat you coconut oil before blending.
TIP: Replace one of your daily servings of flax seeds with chia seeds.
TIP: snack juice using beets, carrots, apple, ginger etc...
Happy cleansing, Passover & Easter to you all. xo
Sounds really cool! I might have to give this a try :)
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