Juice cleanse, juice fast, whatever you want to call it–For (almost) four days all I consumed was juice. The benefits of such an endeavor are that it’s supposed to cut back on your cravings, rid you of your toxins, and improve overall health. Let’s cut the B.S. okay? I wanted to lose weight fast.

Over the course of Labor Day weekend, I indulged in exorbitant proportions. So much so that I ended up gaining back weight that I had worked for over a month to lose! It was heartbreaking–I needed a push to get me back on the healthy eating wagon, and what better way to punish myself than with a juice fast? Besides, all the celebrities are doing it, and that’s good enough for me!

I looked at several different companies, such as Blueprint and Ritual Cleanse, which both offer organic produce. However, the costs were hefty–$200 for a 3-day Blueprint, and even with a discount code, I was looking at about $165 for Ritual. I couldn’t justify the expense.

After looking at juicers on Craigslist (they run about $50 used), I ended up asking my mom if she had one, and *ta-da* FREE Juicer to borrow!

The Cost of a DIY Juice Cleanse

I had to buy A LOT of produce to get my juicing on. I used the Blueprint recipes (also listed at the bottom of this post) and calculated how much I needed for three to four days of juicing. You’re looking at SIX juices a day, each day, in this order:

• Green Juice
• Pineapple Apple Mint Juice
• Green Juice
• Spicy Lemonade
• Beet Juice
• Cashew milk

That’s a lot of juice. Typical cleanses last three days, bad-asses go for five. Since I’m a half-ass, not a bad-ass, I figured I would shoot for four.

I ended up spending about $65 at the Farmer’s Market, plus $12 at Costco for all my produce. If I had known that Whole Foods was having an organic apple sale for $1.50 a pound, I would have saved $15 (instead of paying $3 a pound at the farmer’s market)–you need a LOT of apples for this cleanse (I think I bought like 10 pounds worth).

Tip #1: Wait for a sale on apples to do a DIY cleanse since that’s what you’ll spend the majority of your money on.

So, about  $77 on produce total, but again you can probably do it for about $55 if you shop a little bit better than I did (I had a $3 whole pineapple, a $3.99 bag of organic spinach, and a romaine lettuce leftover plus a bunch of lemons and a few other stragglers).

Review of a DIY Juice Cleanse

This was my typical schedule on the Juice Cleanse:

8 a.m. Green Juice
24 ounces of water
10 a.m. Pineapple Apple Mint Juice
24 ounces of water
12 p.m. Green Juice
24 ounces of water
2 p.m. Spicy Lemonade
24 ounces of water
5 p.m. Beet Juice
24 ounces of water
7 p.m. Cashew Milk

Tip #2: It’s important to drink a ton of water in between juices to keep yourself hydrated.

You can also score a lot of great recipes for a juice cleanse by picking up a copy of 101 Juice Recipes. The author is a popular juicing fanatic by the name of Joe Cross.

Day 1

For the first day of my cleanse, I actually purchased the first two Blueprint juices from Whole Foods the day before. The farmers’ market is on Saturday morning, so I figured the pre-bought juices would hold me over until I could get home to juice up my own concoctions. I also ended up purchasing the Dr. Oz juice at the Whole Foods juicing station for my third juice–it contains the exact same ingredients as the Blueprint juice, except you need to add kale. And it was cheaper ($7) than Blueprint ($11) and fresher too!

Tip #3: Whole Foods will juice your produce for you for a $1.50 fee per juice. You may have to schedule a time though if you want to do a whole cleanse.

This is what I did right for my first juice day: I started on a day that Eric was working a 24-hour shift so that I would not be tempted by any of his food.

This is what I did wrong: Everything else. Seriously. I ran 10 miles that morning (per my half-marathon training plan) and I was definitely light-headed on that last mile, having had only the first green juice to sustain me. I know it was stupid, but I was on a mission! No pain, no gain right? (Plus I had a bowl of pasta the night before as my carbo-load, hoping that would balance out the juice the next day–I make no excuses for my stupidity).

I also was super busy on Saturday. On the first day of my cleanse, I ran 10 miles, went to the Farmers Market, went to Costco, went to Whole Foods, came home and juiced enough for two days’ worth, went to get a massage (which helped a little), got a pedicure, and hung out with family. No wonder I had a splitting headache at 3 p.m. that would not go away. I ended up passing out at 8 p.m. I felt really really horrible the first day. Like my head was pounding and I was praying the rest of the days would not be like this.

But one thing I did not feel? Hunger. That’s right. This whole time I was worried that I would be hungry, but I was actually shocked by how not hungry I felt. Granted, I never had that full feeling, but I never really got hunger pains. Still, I was hoping Day 2 would be better.

Day 2

On day 2 of the Cleanse, Eric was home from work. He came home at 8 a.m. and made eggs with turkey meat, and man oh man did it smell good. He also made coffee. You’re not allowed to drink caffeine on the cleanse. Lucky for me, I’m not a coffee addict but enjoy it occasionally. I stuck with my juice though. It kind of sucked to drink green juice while he was scarfing down yumminess, but it wasn’t that bad.

I also took Day #2 a lot slower than the first day. I stayed in my pajamas most of the day and didn’t leave the house, except to walk Bentley. A Prison Break Marathon on Netflix kept me occupied.

I was happy to say that the juices kept me full throughout the day. I did sneak in a few cashews (maybe 10?) because I figured if I’m drinking them, then eating them is the same thing, right? By the end of the day though, I was kind of over it. Eric would make a burrito, and it would smell good, and even though I wasn’t hungry–because I wasn’t–I really just wanted food. I wanted pizza, I wanted a burger, I wanted cheese, for all things holy, I wanted to CHEW!

As I went to bed on Day 2, I had no idea how I was going to make it two more days…

Day 3

Day 3 actually was probably the easiest day. I was at work and it was a Monday. I hauled a cooler with all my juices in it and just drank a juice about every two hours or whenever I started to get hungry. Being at work definitely made it easier since there was no food and no kitchen to tempt me.

Eric was on another 24-hour shift that day, so I went home and took it easy. I had my cashew milk and curled up to watch Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, a documentary on juicing and two men’s journeys on losing 100 pounds doing a 60-day juice cleanse. Pretty impressive stuff.

I basically watched it because I needed motivation!

Day 4

I wanted to give up on Day 4, but I had a whole day’s worth of juice in my fridge. Plus I had just watched the documentary, and I’m not gonna lie, the numbers on the scale were exciting to see.

I was over the juice though, and decided to break my fast in the evening, with a plate full of roasted broccoli and cauliflower.

Overview

All in all, I lost 4 pounds on the fast and it brought me to my lowest weight of the year. However, I know all those critics and Negative Nancies are all like “It’s just water weight!” so I purposely waited a week to see what my weight would be and if I would gain it all back.

Well, I did gain it all back, because I was so excited to be done with the juice cleanse that I went crazy and ate EVERYTHING in sight. It was very counterproductive, I know.

So, the next week, Eric decided he wanted to do a juice cleanse too. So we did one together, but this time, we only stuck with it for one full day and then incorporated salads and veggies for lunch or dinner.

I have kept up with the juicing. Almost every morning (I would say 5 out of 7), I start my day off with green juice for breakfast, and then I like to have pineapple juice in the afternoon for a snack. Continuing to juice has helped me get to my lowest weight since last year.

Obviously, amazing results can be achieved through an extended juice fast:

Source

However, so can any person who severely restricts their calories for 60 days. Maybe I’m just jealous that I don’t have the willpower to keep it going for 60 days, but for me, this was the boost I needed to jump-start my weight loss again. I have been stuck in a rut for the past year, and I needed a little push to help me get motivated to continue eating healthy.

While juice fasting is hard, I did not really go hungry as long I kept drinking juice and lots of water. However, I like this new balance of incorporating juicing into my everyday life. It really helps with the cravings, and even better is that I am getting lots of good nutrients. Whenever I eat crap food now, I definitely feel like crap and I don’t appreciate it that much.

For example, I’ll take a bite of donuts and then feel disgusting for about an hour afterward. So I don’t crave donuts as much.

Blueprint Recipes and Reviews: Does it taste good?

Green Smoothie

• 5 Ribs of Celery
• 1 Cucumber, Halved
• 2 Large Green Apples of Your Choice
• 3 Kale leafs
• 1 Ounce of Lemon juice
• 1 Handful of Parsley
• 3 Romaine leafs
• 1 Handful of Spinach

It tastes like pickle juice. I like pickles. I think this really depends on whether you like pickles or not. I actually forgot celery and just left it out, still tasted fine, and it produced a lot more than 16 ounces, depending on the size of your produce. I chose big cucumbers (how do you like them apples?)

Pineapple Apple Mint

• A Third of 1 Pineapple
• 2 Large Green Apples of Your Choice
• A few pinches of Mint, to taste

Seriously? What’s not to like? Pineapple, Apple, and Mint yummy!! Add some rum and make it a mojito! (but not during your cleanse).

Spicy Lemonade

• 14 ounces of Filtered Water
• 3-4 juiced medium Lemons
• A few Dashes of Cayenne Pepper
• 1 Tablespoon of Agave Nectar

I don’t like spicy foods (yeah, I know I’m not a real Mexican). The first day, I just dumped the cayenne in there–who knew such a tiny spice could provide such a big flavor?! On the second day, I just did a pinch. This is sort of the blah drink. Not bad, not great.

Beet Juice

• 1 Green Apple of Your Choice
• 2 Beet, with the greens left on
• 3 Large Carrots
• 1 and 1/2 Tablespoon of Ginger
• A 1/2 ounce of Lemon Juice (to taste)

This was by far the hardest drink to get through, and I like beets. It’s not so much that it tastes bad. I actually think it tastes okay. It’s that it’s such a strong drink and one of the last ones of the day. By the time 5 p.m. rolls around, the last thing you feel like drinking is the beet juice. On all four days, I left a little bit of the juice because I just couldn’t finish it.

Cashew Milk

• 4-5 ounces of Raw Cashews
• 16 ounces of Filtered water
• 1 Tablespoon of Agave Nectar
• 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon (ground)
• 1 two-inch piece of Vanilla Bean (or 1 teaspoon of extract)

This is supposed to be your dessert for the day. And it really is yummy, but I would suggest you have a really good blender to get those cashews all chopped up. I couldn’t finish this drink on any of the days because I just wasn’t hungry.

Read More

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  My Relationship with Food and Our Journey toward Clean Eating
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