October 16, 2020
Hi there love! I hope life has been treating you well! Let’s just jump right into this! Have you ever done a juice cleanse? I have. About 5 years ago, when juice cleanses were just becoming popular, I watched a Netflix documentary called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”. The man on this show did something like a 60 -day juice cleanse because I guess he was everything listed in the title. And me, just beginning my health and wellness journey felt the need to jump on this train.
So I did a 5- day juice cleanse (which I only made to day 4). This was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. First off, I was new to juicing, so some of these green and savory juices tasted awful to me. In no way was I excited to drink the next one. Second, the man in the documentary took the whole 60ish days off to do whatever he wanted. I’m pretty sure he spent the first week just laying around. Well, I felt very similar (zero energy) but I still had to go to work and school. I felt drained and sick. And at the time, my diet wasn’t as healthy as it could’ve been. I kind of went back and forth between eating out a lot and then binging healthy food. On the fourth day, I ended up leaving work early because I felt so sick and did, in fact, end up getting physically sick when I got home. It was that night, at school, I got intense cravings for eggs and bell peppers (idk why I remember that so clearly). I could be wrong but, I think this was my body telling me fiber and protein were needed so I texted the guy I was dating at the time (who did the cleanse as well) and told him I was done and my cravings that needed to be satisfied. And let me tell you, that gave me a new appreciation for food because as simple as boiled eggs and bell peppers are, they tasted like a dinner from a 5-star restaurant that night.
What did I gain from this you might be asking? It taught me that a well- balanced, non- restrictive diet will leave you just as healthy and less in shock. Because if we eat healthy diets with plenty of unprocessed foods and maybe some items scarcely (I love me a little ice cream but like once every other week), our bodies are perfectly capable of cleansing and detoxing on their own.
So, you might be wondering now, why the heck I would do a full day of juicing after that whole spiel. And I’ll tell you right now it’s mostly because I just felt like it. The main benefit to juicing is giving your body a shot of nutrients that would normally be lost during the digestion process and consuming raw foods that we probably all could use more of. I’ll also say that I’d never do more than a day, that I know my reaction won’t be as intense because my diet is much more healthy now and that I did commit to doing pretty much nothing for this day. I also incorporated a few raw snacks into the mix to avoid the sick, hungry feeling. And basically, it felt like a normal day. I didn’t feel excessively drained or energized. But I know it was a nice little raw veggie and fruit day for my body and I’m happy with that 😊.
I really cannot emphasize enough that I don’t think juice cleanses are necessary and I don’t consider my day of juicing a cleanse. I would recommend just simply incorporating more fresh juice (not just fruit that’s pretty much a shot of sugar) into your lifestyle. I always make a fresh juice once or twice a week. So that being said I’m so excited to share with you the recipes I used for this! They’re all great to use on their own or together! Hopefully this is a nice little addition to your healthy recipe arsenal!
Lemon Water:
12 oz water
Juice from ½ lemon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Pinch stevia
Carrot Juice (serves 2):
10 large carrots
3 oranges
1 inch ginger
Beet Juice (serves 2):
2 medium beets
2 green apples
1-2 inch ginger
6 carrots
Green Juice (serves 2):
1 head celery
1 cucumber
Large handful of parsley
½ bunch of kale
1 inch ginger
1 green apple
1 lemon
This is the order I had the juices in, if you were wondering. I also had a whole avocado in between breakfast and lunch, about a half cup of cherry tomatoes with hummus between lunch and dinner and a few pieces of watermelon after dinner. Happy juicing!
xoxo
Amber
