My First 3-Day Juice Cleansing Experience

I just finished my first 3-day juice cleanse!  Hooray! 

If you follow me on twitter @xlicious, you might have read some of my random tweets about the juice cleanse over the past few days.

I just recently got interested in juicing because of the documentary that I watched on Netflix, you can read about it in my post here. Instead of going spending $200-300 on my ideal juicer, I decided to borrow a juicer from a family friend first and see if I would actually make good use of it. The juicer that I borrowed was the Jack LaLanne’s PJEB Power Juicer Express (Amazon ~$85). It’s not the best juicer (I would imagine), but it does a pretty decent job.

Don’t know what the point of a juice cleanse is? Read the wiki.

In order to do a DIY juice cleanse, you must find a recipe to follow. The 3-day cleanse recipe that I choose to follow was the one from Healthy Blender Recipes. Making your own juices can still be quite expensive, but it saves you a ton of money in comparison to ordering bottled juice cleansers from a juicing company who charges $130+.

The day before I decided to go on a 3-day juice cleanse, I went shopping for organic produce. After, I separated each day into 3 separate bags to make things easier on myself. Haha, I like to feel organized.

Here is my shopping bill. The total was $101.23 for a 3-day juice cleanse for 2 people. We accidentally bought more than we needed. The actual cost per person should be around $45 at most. There are lots of other places where you can get cheaper produce from, but we were being lazy so we just went to Whole Foods.

When choosing veggies, you should opt for pesticide free organic veggies. Some vegetables have more pesticides than others according to the Environmental Working Group. Here are some veggies that you should try to get in organic if you can (worst ones are listed first): Celery, Spinach, Kale, Collard Greens, Lettuce, Carrots, Cucumber (peeling the skin helps).

For three nights, we juiced the next day’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner juice. You shouldn’t prepare juice for a juice cleanse any more than just the next days. The juice cleanse is most effective if you drink the juice fresh. Anything older than 24 hours would have drastically lost most of its nutrients. Also when storing, you must seal the juice in an air tight container.

If you never juiced before, this is what the remaining fruits and vegetables look like after its been put through the juicer.

A few things that you need to know in order to do this cleanse:

• In the morning when you brush your teeth, make sure to also brush your tongue
• At least 30 minutes before your breakfast juice, drink a cup of hot water with freshly squeezed lemon juice in it
• If you get hungry anytime during the day, you can try drinking a cup of hot herbal tea
• No, you may not eat any thing else what-so-ever
• You need to strain your juice and dilute it with equal parts of filtered water
• You must drink each juice slowly and allow your saliva to mix in with the juice
• Cleanse the pores of your skin daily with a fiber bristle brush or scrubber in a circle motion
• Try doing a colon cleanse or enema/double enema (I did an enema on day 3, first time ever!)

I think the first day is the hardest day because it is the easiest time to back out. Since you haven’t committed much to the 3-day cleanse yet, you are more likely to wander off and eat something. It was pretty tough for me, but since I had a buddy doing the 3-day cleanse with me, we helped keep each other motivated!

Breakfast Recipe – “Clean Machine” Morning Cleansing Green Juice

• 1 green apple
• 2-3 handfuls of spinach or kale (I did 1 handful of each)
• half lemon (yellow peel removed)
• 2 inch piece of burdock root (I didn’t have this since Whole Food’s didn’t sell it)
• 1/2 inch of ginger root (unpeeled)

My Thoughts
It was lemony, tangy, smooth, and easy to drink.

Ease of Drinking (1= hard, 5=easy): ☕☕☕

Lunch Recipe – “Rhapsody In Red” Midday Cleansing Juice

• 1 green apple
• half a large English cucumber
• half a medium beet
• half inch piece of ginger

My Thoughts
So it appears that I bought the wrong beet because my beet did not turn my drink red like it’s supposed to be. Oh well~ This drink isn’t as tasty as the last either. It has a strong bitter taste and a slightly acidic aftertaste. It smells exactly like that it tastes like. Btw, if I had the right beet, it should turn your insides and everything that comes out red or pink. But you shouldn’t worry, theres nothing wrong with that!

Ease of Drinking (1=hard, 5=easy): ☕☕

Dinner Recipe – “Alkaline Ecstasy” Evening Green Cleansing Juice

• 1 cup of spinach or kale (I did a half cup of each)
• 1/2 a cucumber
• 2 stalks of celery including the leaves
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 a green apple
• 2 inches of a burdock root (I didn’t have this)

My Thoughts
Carrots? This drink smells mostly of carrots. There really isn’t much flavor, it just tastes like watered down carrot juice. This was the easiest to drink out of Day 1.

Ease of Drinking (1=hard, 5=easy): ☕☕☕☕

By the time you’ve reached day 2, you might as well keep going because you are basically half way through. A few things that I’ve noticed is that i have tiny little white pimples popping up all over my forehead! WTF!! But it wasn’t too bad since they were super easy to pop and they didn’t leave any bumps or scares, weird huh? Another thing I noticed is that I have super heightened smell. Usually I can’t smell anything, but it seems like my smelling has greatly improved!

Breakfast Recipe – “El Cubano” Pineapple Morning Cleansing Juice

• one-quarter pineapple
• half cucumber
• half lemon (yellow peel removed)
• 6-8 sprigs of mint (optional, I didn’t use this)

My Thoughts
Smells refreshing and sweet.. oh its the pineapples!  This tastes a lot like fruit juice. It has a hint of sour from the lemon. It’s easy to drink and sort of tastes like lemonade.

Ease of Drinking (1= hard, 5=easy): ☕☕☕☕☕

Lunch Recipe – “Vegetable Magnetism” Midday Carrot Squash Cleansing Juice

• 4 carrots
• 1 cup peeled butternut squash (Whole Foods didn’t sell this either, unfortunately)
• half a cucumber
• half inch piece of ginger
• sprinkle of cinnamon

My Thoughts
This drink is very orange and smells like carrot juice, even more so than Day 1’s dinner juice. It definitely tastes like carrot juice too. Oh but guess what, it’s probably because it is made mostly of carrots! It has a slight acidic gingery aftertaste. I preferred breakfast’s juice over this one.

Ease of Drinking (1=hard, 5=easy): ☕☕☕

Dinner Recipe – Raw “Glorious Greens” Evening Cleansing Juice

• handful of broccoli
• 3 large Romaine lettuce leaves
• handful of cilantro
• half lime (green peel removed, I accidentally used a lemon instead for this one)
• 1 packed cup of fresh spinach leaves
• 1 apple

My Thoughts
Green and smooth. Tastes like apple juice made from green apples. It’s not sweet though and has a leafy smell to it. The juice is surprisingly easy for me to drink. I totally thought it would taste much different based on the smell of it. This is my second favorite drink for Day 2 since I’m not a big fan of carrot juice.

Ease of Drinking (1=hard, 5=easy): ☕☕☕☕

Yay, I’ve reached day 3! Now you’re just so excited and you can’t wait to eat something and you start creating a list of stuff you want to eat first. When I looked in the mirror this morning, I realized that my skin looked amazingly healthier. It had a new glow and color to it, looked smoother, softer, and more even toned. Another thing I noticed is that my vision improved!! Wow, the wonders of drinking fresh fruits and vegetables. My boyfriend who did the juice cleanse with me also claims that his back pains from an injury a few weeks ago had entirely vanished and that he has also noticed an improvement in his vision.

Breakfast Recipe – Morning “Cucumber Cool” Cleansing Juice

• 1 whole cucumber
• 1 green apple
• 1/2 a lemon (yellow peel removed)
• handful of cilantro

My Thoughts
This juice smells like cilantro and is very green. The strong lemony flavor masks the taste of everything, but I can still taste a slight hint of the apples. There is no bitter taste and it’s easy to drink.

Ease of Drinking (1= hard, 5=easy): ☕☕☕☕

Lunch Recipe – Raw “Lawn Clippings” Midday Green Cleansing Juice

• half a cucumber
• handful of parsley
• 2 handfuls of kale or spinach (I did one handful of each)
• 1 green apple
• half a lemon (yellow peel removed)

My Thoughts
It smells nasty, like a bunch of leafs! I can smell the kale and I don’t like the smell of kale! However, after I tried the juice, I realized that lemon really does mask the taste of stuff. What would I do without you lemon? The juice is quite sour for me, but there is no bitterness or acidy taste.

Ease of Drinking (1=hard, 5=easy): ☕☕☕

Dinner Recipe – Raw “Transcendent Tonic” Evening Detox Cleanse Juice

• 1 packed cup of Swiss chard or spinach (I think I used half of each again)
• 2 stalks of kale
• handful of parsley
• half a cucumber
• 2 stalks of celery
• a little garlic and ginger

My Thoughts
FRAK! This drink smells bad, looks bad… and unlike the other juices, it tastes hella bad. I had an instant gag reflex and I wanted to throw it up but couldn’t. I actually ended up failing the 3-day juice cleanse here because I couldn’t get myself to drink this last drink. I fail.

Ease of Drinking (1=hard, 5=easy): ☕

~*~  ~*~

So what did I gain from doing a 3-day juice cleanse?

• I lost a little weight
• hopefully I shrunk my stomach
• detoxified my body of all the junk that I’ve been putting into it
• my skin now glows, is softer, smoother, better color, and more even toned
• I gained some confidence believe it or not
• my smell and vision have both improved

I started off at 110 lbs. on day 1, and ended at 105 lbs. on day 3, for those of you who are curious about weight. I’m 100% sure that my weight will return to 110 lbs. however. But this doesn’t bother me since my goal wasn’t to loose weight, but to detox my body and to become healthy again.

After my last juice meal on day 3, I did a colon cleanse at home. It’s my first time doing it and I honestly had no clue what to expect. You can buy a kit for this probably at your local pharmacy. I got the Rite Aid brand for about ~$17. You can also do this professionally for a lot more, but I realized that the results probably aren’t that much better. If you are still confused on what a colon cleanse (aka hydrotheraphy or enema), it’s when you fill your colon (aka through your butt hole) with water to flush out your body.

Like I said, this was my first time doing it and I instantly dropped 4 lbs from doing it once. It doesn’t hurt at all, but it feels really weird when the water starts to fill your insides. Once you have taken in all of the water, you simply let it all out. Supposedly it smells really bad when you do this, but mine didn’t smell. I think it was because I had been on the juice cleanse for the past 3 days. Anyways, doing a colon cleanse is supposed to be good for you and also aids in weight loss if thats what you want. I suggest that you check it out if you are brave enough to!

 

~*~  ~*~

I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey through my first 3-day juice cleansing experience! It was a great one and I probably won’t be doing another one for a while. But I am planning on juicing regularly and perhaps replacing one meal a day with fresh juice. I hope that I have inspired you to live a healthier life! Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for reading!
xoxo Sarah