Juice Cleanse

It’s been over a week since I promised you this post but I needed a small time-out so I decided to take one. I’m very happy to be writing this post for all my jewels. Thank you so much for your patience.

Last Wednesday, I decided to go on a juice cleanse like the one I did back in 2013 before embarking on the alkaline lifestyle. This time my motives were for weight loss and not just to change my pH levels from acidic to alkaline. I have been feeling pretty rubbish lately, feeling unwell more often and having a general lack of energy. The juice cleanse I followed was the one I learnt from the Alkaline Sisters and is simple and very effective. When I did this before, I was able to gain so much energy and had the additional bonus of weight loss. I had stopped using my scales and didn’t intend to do the same again this time.

My Objective

• Specific: Lose weight

• Measurable: 15lbs

• Achievable: I’ve done this before but never in the summertime when there are barbecues and lots of summer cocktails 😢

• Realistic: 2lbs a week for 7 weeks. Will lose more during the cleanse

• Time-bound: In 50 days, by August 19th
  

My Plan

The detox/cleansing plan is simple. Day 1-3 consist of the following:

• Breakfast: Carrot Juice

• Throughout the day: Green Juice

• Dinner: Beetroot Juice

On Day 4, a healing soup to get back into solid foods. The recipe for mine is here.

My Recipes

Carrot Juice

• 7/8 medium carrots

• 1 lemon

I served this juice on ice and it was very refreshing. It’s always the best juice of the day. It’s downhill from here.

Veggie Green juice

• 2 cucumbers

• 1 lime

• 3 stalks celery

• 1 bell pepper

• 1 avocado

• Handful of kale

• Handful of spinach

I juice everything but the kale, spinach and avocado and then blitz the juice with those in the my blender. I use my blender for this as that makes just over 1 litre of juice that I can drink throughout the day.

Beetroot juice

• 2 beets

• 1 lime/lemon

DIARY

Day 1:

I was very excited to start the day. The carrot juice always makes you feel like it’s going to be easy. However my first headache arrived at around 10:30am. As someone who suffers from migraines, I knew immediately that this was juice cleanse induced. It wasn’t sharp, just an annoying niggle. The only way forward was to drink a magnanimous amount of water to flush out my system.

The green juice was the juice I had throughout the day on cleanse days. It is purely veggie barring a lime. The headache left then came back at around 2pm by which point, I’d had 1.5 litres of water already.

Remind me next time to start my cleanse on a weekend. I’m sure it will get better. Surely the only way from here is up!

There were tonnes of temptation in the office as it was Canada Day. From cupcakes and ice cream to even fruit. I know that last one sounds silly but I couldn’t have any solids.

My mind was a bit scatty and it would take me a few seconds to compute what questions I was being asked by people. However, I did almost all of the tasks that I had been set that day. Amazing what a little bit of juicing can do. Guess it was because I was finding another vice other than food.

Dinner was the burgundy red beetroot juice on ice. I had 3 litres of water that day and the headache from the afternoon was truly here to stay. Went to bed content and hoping Day 2 would be headache-free.

Day 2:

On Day 2 of the juice cleanse, I was still going strong but feeling rather lethargic. It was definitely not as bad as Day 1 though, juicing in that 32 °C weather.

I was so exhausted from yesterday, I worked from home. This was obviously best given that the headache was still around. I was also pretty snappy which I didn’t understand because my mood was totally different in 2013 when I did this cleanse. Didn’t want to spread that foolishness around the office. I was miserable all day and felt uncomfortable. The heat certainly didn’t help.

I was so hungry and had dreamt of all sorts of food including pork which I don’t even eat anymore. I decided that evening to have 1 celery stick to curb the hunger. I didn’t feel this was bad at all considering the emotional rollercoaster I was experiencing. At the end of the day, everyone is free to make adjustments based on their own bodies. We are all uniquely individual and must embrace who we are.

I had promised not to weigh myself during the cleanse but the weight loss was already evident as I felt lighter. I was shocked to see that I was already a 5th of my way to my 15lb target and had lost 3lbs in one day. Obviously that was just water weight. This is because a lower intake of calories means that my body used up its glycogen to produce energy. When this happens, the water that it is bonded with is also lost.

I started to get bored of the green juice so decided to vary it for Day 3.

Day 3:

I was the happiest on Day 3. Here’s why:

1. It was the final day of the cleanse

2. I had made so much progress and lost weight

3. My mood and energy was much improved

4. And my green juice had two apples in it 🙂

I’m super stoked about my progress so far. Yesterday was hell.

I had so much energy today partly because I had worked from home and not exerted myself with the journey into work. My mind was much clearer than the mush I was experiencing on Day 1. I feel lighter and certainly happier.

Noticed my hayfever wasn’t so bad since the cleanse either. Added bonus. I’m not surprised because the first time I did a juice cleanse, my apple allergy, which I’d had since I was 8 or 9, disappeared. Then again it may be because I’d been indoors all day.

On Day 3, I was halfway to my goal and had lost half a stone (7 lbs) and actually considered going another day or so.

That plan was soon rebuffed as I realised it was the weekend and I was determined to make it fun. I also had a my Goddaughter’s Christening so there was no way I was going to juice. 🙂

Day 4:

I had the healing soup twice today. I didn’t have too much of an appetite. I had so much to do around the house and was overwhelmed. I also had to pick up a cake for the aforementioned Christening. I was going to bake some banana bread but didn’t as that was far too tempting.

I really just wanted some peace and quiet on Saturday but that was not going to happen because the town carnival/festival was happening and there were floats and trucks full of people going down my street with the loudest music. Traffic was held up for a huge portion of the day and there was the loud blare of the Sam Smith tribute act performing till around 6pm. Luckily I love Sam so it could have really been worse.

The soup was yummy and very filling. I went to bed early and was all prepped for an earlier rise than normal for the Christening.

If you do try this juice cleanse, let me know how you feel afterwards. I’d love to hear about the variations you made considering everyone is different. You may not like the same things I do and may have ideas of other things that work better.

I hope this helps you achieve your health goals jewels.

Thanks for reading!