Ever thought about doing a juice cleanse detox? Or maybe just a simple one day juice cleanse? Read about my experiences and thoughts on the juice cleanse fad before trying it out for yourself.
My Personal One Day Juice Cleanse Experience
I am not really a fan of juice cleanses because I don’t think drinking only juice for a long period of time is good for you. With all the ‘juice cleanse’ hype I had been reading about, I must admit that I gave in and I decided to try just a simple one day juice cleanse. The previous week hadn’t been great for healthy eating, and thought maybe a juice cleanse would help me get back on track.
For the whole day of juice I used a 2lb bag of carrots, a whole celery, 3lb bag of oranges, a 3lb bag of apples, a lemon, and some parsley and spinach. I juiced it all at once, and I know that’s not recommended, and you should drink the juice as soon as you make it, but the chances of me pulling out the juicer every 2 hours was not likely, I wanted to give myself the best chance possible. I just bought a juicer on amazon, you can get them for pretty cheap now a days.
Keeping on Schedule
We had our first glass at 10am and I chugged the juice down. It wasn’t half bad. I have to admit I don’t like juice in general, not even plain ‘ol apple or orange juice, so I was happy that the juice wasn’t too sugary. At 11am I was already hungry. I drank about 2 cups of water while waiting for 12pm to come around.
At 12pm I ate 2 crackers with my juice because I felt like I was going to throw up for some reason. I chugged the juice and happily ate the two crackers. I was satisfied for quite awhile, I drank another cup or two of water as I waited for to 2pm to come.
When 2pm came, I wasn’t as hungry as I was at noon. I did notice the juice tasted way worse then when I started, most likely because it wasn’t fresh, or maybe I was sick of it. There was no way I would have lasted this long if I was making fresh juice each time, it would be too much of a hassle. I ate another cracker after the juice.
At 4pm I was pretty much done. I drank my juice and ate a cracker, I had to because felt sick to my stomach and grouchy. I was definitely ‘hangry’ (hungry/angry), even though I was chugging water.
6pm, I ate supper, we had boneless skinless chicken breast and salad.
My Final Thoughts
Honestly, I’m sorry I wasted the day on this juice cleanse detox.
I did end up losing 1.5lbs but it was most likely just water weight from running to the bathroom all day, and the fact that I had very little calories for the day. For the entire day, I drank well over 2 liters of water on top of all the juice. I really don’t think a juice cleanse is for me, I need food. I don’t think I could ever do it for a long period, partly because I need food, and partly because I just don’t think it is the ‘healthiest’ choice. I’ll stick to healthy, balanced eating.
Don’t get me wrong though, there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying a homemade, fresh juice once in a while! Just don’t rely on only juices to get you through a day in a healthy way.
Do You Need a Juice Cleanse Detox?
I’m going to get right to the point here… No. You do not need to do a juice cleanse detox. Our bodies do an amazing job of detoxing and cleaning out what we don’t need.
That being said, by eating healthy foods and drinking lots of water, we can help our bodies perform to the best of their abilities and detox naturally. There really is no need for us to go on a ‘cleanse diet’ of any kind. If you are choosing healthy foods and drinking water regularly, your body is already doing what it needs to.
In my opinion, there is no need to do a one day juice cleanse, a three day juice cleanse, a month long juice cleanse… You get the picture.
When you juice all your foods, whether it’s fruits, vegetables, or a mixture of both, you are not getting the full nutritional value of the food. You miss out on a lot of fiber and whatever nutrition is in the pulp of the food. Of course you will get some value from the ‘juice’, but eating a whole carrot is a lot of more filling and nutritional than juicing and drinking the juice from carrots.
It’s also important to keep in mind that homemade juices are going to be much healthier than a store bought juice, that typically has a lot of sugar added.
Restrictive Diets and Cleanses
I am thoroughly against fad diets and crash diets. I am a firm believer that you do not need any sort of weight loss pill or drink or wraps or whatever people are selling on your Facebook timeline. You do not need these things to lose weight and a lot of the time they actually end up working against you. There is no need to cut out entire food groups to lose weight either. When you do these things, you might drop some weight initially, but most of the time you end up packing on even more pounds in the end.
When we start cutting out foods or restricting our calories by crazy amounts, we are getting dangerously close to disordered eating.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also like:
- How to Spot Fad Diets
- The Truth About Detox Diets
- Safely Dropping the Pounds
- How Athletes Lose Weight
If I haven’t changed your mind about juices cleanses and you decide you are going to do one, make sure to talk to your doctor first. Especially if you are planning on doing a cleanse for a prolonged period of time.
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I am not about the juice cleanses either. I am about eating right. Of course even on those weeks I know was just blah, i just try to watch for a few days what I really am eating.
I’ve always wondered about how I would do with a juice diet thing. I never pictured it turning out well …I did envision something similar to your experience – all that liquid just seems like a bit too much! Maybe I’ll try it if I need to drop a quick pound or two 🙂
HANGRY! I love it – that is going to catch on fast!!! I am going to do a tea and juice cleanse this weekend. I usually have good results with health but like you said it is not real weight loss.
HAHA Hangry, I like that. I would be very hangry if I tried to juice all day. I would be starving even if I really wasn’t only because I don’t feel like I ate if I didn’t chew the food! I think I could become a vegetarian before I could juice all day!
I’ve heard a lot of people have been doing juice cleanses. I don’t think it would be for my either. I’d definitely be starving!! I’m having a hard enough time eating healthy.
I’ve never done any sort of cleanse like this. I drink a ton of water every day, but I don’t think I could do a juice only diet. Way to give it a try though!
I’ve been researching juice cleanses a little lately. I think doing a one-day cleanse once or twice a month would be a good way to clean everything out and start fresh. It DOES matter how you do it though, and I’ve read that you need to be drinking 24 oz of water between each juice to help clean out the toxins. It’s definitely a hard thing to do. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m going to be trying soon.
I had debated trying a juice cleanse after watching one of the documentaries on it. However, the more I thought about it I decided that it would help me in the moment but not as much later down the road. Finding a healthy way to eat sounds better (and easier, believe it or not) to me. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.