Tips and Tricks for a Juice Cleanse
Health has always been a priority and for most of us we want to look and feel our best. I decided after a few months of toying with the idea to go ahead and take the juice cleanse plunge. It was not exactly what I expected, however I think everyone's body reacts a little differently. Sharing with you guys my own experience may help if you are looking to do one in the future or even considering one right now. There were pros and cons, but in the end it was a good restart for my body.
Here's video talking all about it the experience:
First of all, I'd like to preface this with the fact that I'm hypoglycemic and at that a 3 hour one. That means my blood sugar spikes after eating so my body produces extra insulin. Then, my blood sugar plummets. This causes a variety of issues from constantly carrying small snacks if I'm not intaking enough calories or sugar through beverages. It also can make me overwhelmed, fatigued and sometimes even shaky. Obviously not the best feeling nor do most people around me appreciate this hangry side.
Juicing was a little bit of a stretch for me due to the fact that my body processed the juices quickly and I was feeling pretty hungry within two hours or so. For the first day, I chose to start them around 9am and finished all 6 bottles around 8pm that night. Day one was too terrible, but I wished I had eased into the process by swapping a few meals out a few days before with a few juices.
Day two and three were tough. I ended up eating salad and soup on both as an extra meal. I stayed away from dairy, meat, and gluten. I still woke up every morning hungry and although I usually eat breakfast, I usually eat after I workout. By day four I decided it was time to start incorporating food back in. I still stuck with vegetables and fruit, but had a couple of servings and cut back to four bottles. Day five was similar to day four. By day six I started adding protein in. I did finish all six bottles for each day (30 total) but decided moving forward I would need to do a mix of juices and solids so my blood sugar wouldn't spike.
So now let's talk about a few pros. The best part is by day three my skin was really clear and had a slight glow. I also felt like I lost a ton of bloating. It did overall reduce bad food cravings and instead replaced it with the desire to put selective things back into my body.
Here are a few tips for a juice cleanse:
Start with intention on why you are choosing to cleanse. If it's just to lose weight, I wouldn't recommend. I was choosing it for a body reset, so when some of those cravings happened I had more water and tried to push it off for an extra thirty minutes.
- Be prepared to drink tons of water. It's recommended to help the juice cleanse.
- Slowly start introducing food back into your diet and just go with one food group at a time. It took me about 10 days to consume meat (which was chicken) from the day I started.
- Go light on exercise at the beginning until your body adapts. I didn't start exercising until Day 3 and by Day 5 was back to running.
- Have a juice instead of a snack every day leading up or following to help your body maintain.
- Finally, take magnesium. This vitamin helps replenish what's needed if you regularly eat meat.
Hope these tips help. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to do a juice only diet for a few days, but I am making really big strides to incorporating at least one smoothie every day. As for future changes, I've made the decision to try a (mostly) keto diet to assist with my blood sugar issues. After doing a lot of research I can still have a mostly plant based diet with natural fats and lean proteins occasionally. I'll be posting more about this in weeks to come!