My 3-day juice cleanse

Happy New Year! I figure many of you have a list of resolutions and more than likely eating healthy and/or getting fit may be on that list. It's definitely on mine this year. Yes, I went through the Pilates certification program, but my schedule was crazy busy that I know I didn't work out as much as I would have liked to and I consumed way too much bourbon as a result of stress, travel, and just a ton of social events. December in general was a heavy social month for me, and I got to the point where I felt my body needed a good detox. I decided to do a quick 3-day juice cleanse in between Christmas and New Year's, so I thought I would share my experience and thoughts with you in case this is something you've been thinking of doing yourself!

Image credit: Source Juicery website

We have a great juicery nearby called Source. Honestly, I knew absolutely nothing about cleansing or juicing. I've never done it before and had never researched anything. So when I was looking at the Source Juicery website  it was really easy for me to just choose the one called the "3-day Beginner Cleanse." Everything is already picked out so I didn't have to worry about figuring out what juices or waters I wanted. I literally just had to order the cleanse and voila - it all comes in a nice package. I planned to add on the meals and protein balls also, but I ordered this the last day they were open before Christmas (and closed until after the new year), so they didn't have any food left. That was fine since I could buy my own food, but I was bummed because, hello, how convenient would that have been!?

I got 12 juices - 4 to drink each day, along with 2 hydration waters for each day that I could sip on as needed. They filled this box for me and placed all the juices in order, which again was great because it takes away any kind of guesswork. Three juices and one nut milk each day and I just had to drink them in the order they gave them to me. 

You will see that the juices are date stamped. They were meant to be consumed starting the day or day after I bought them, but I pushed it a bit. I got these on Saturday the 23rd, and I am realistic and knew juicing over Christmas was not happening. I started on the 26th instead. I realize that the more days that pass, the more nutrients end up getting lost in the greens, but, I kind of didn't have a choice since the 23rd was the last day Source was open, and I really wanted to detox last week. So.

My grocery list for snacks:

 --Raw veggies: Cauliflower, snap peas, carrots, mushrooms

 --Garlic hummus and a 4-pack of single serving sized guacamole

 --4 chicken breasts

 --Chicken broth

 --Eggs

 --Mixed nuts

Credit: Source Juicery website

Again, I'm not going to even pretend that I am an expert on juice detoxing, so I'm sharing the helpful info and tips that are on Source's website. I will say that I definitely would not have survived without my snacks! There is no way I would have been able to go on just juice alone, so if I have any advice, that would be my first. Also, I didn't have to go into the office; I worked from home all last week. For whatever reason I don't get as hungry when I work from home, and I wonder how successful I would have been had I actually done this during a regular work week. That's not to say I wouldn't ever try it during a regular work week, but I didn't feel like this detox was really that bad, and some of that may be due to the fact that I was out of my normal routine. 

Here is a breakdown of a typical day:

 --10am - Juice #1 Sweet Green (spinach, cucumber, pineapple, pear, lime) plus one hardboiled egg. I don't think technically I am "allowed" to have egg yolk, but I was a rebel. And I love eggs.

 --11pm - Hydration water #1 Chamomile mint. This was a hard one for me to drink because I am not a fan of mint in general. I can eat/drink mint, but it's not my favorite. I finished it, but it was tough!

 --12pm - Snacks. Raw carrots (they were sliced into carrot chips), snap peas, with a single serving of guacamole.

 --1pm - Juice #2 Bloat Away (fennel, celery, pineapple, ginger, and lemon) plus a grilled chicken breast just seasoned with salt and pepper. This juice was also hard for me to drink because I realize I don't like ginger. But it was better than I had expected it to be based on the ingredients. The husband tried it and all he could taste was celery! All I could taste was the ginger.

 --3pm - Juice #3 Refreshmint (kale, pineapple, apple, mint). I was afraid of the mint in this one, but didn't taste it at all. Sweet green had been my favorite juice from here, but I ended up liking this Refreshmint even more!

 --6pm - Hydration water #2 Chamomile tea. This one was great! Definitely more watery tasting with a hint of tea. It was refreshing. Plus I had my carrot chips and mushrooms with some hummus.

 --8pm - Juice #4 Cashew Cookie (cashew, figs, cinnamon, vanilla, Himalayan salt) - I am not a milk drinker, so I was dreading this the most! I just tried to imagine it as an iced coffee. It surprised me though, I liked it! It really wasn't bad at all!

I won't go through every single day because for the most part the snacks and juices were redundant. Although, juice #2 was different each day and there was one #3 juice and one milk that was different, so I'll list my thoughts on them below. 

 --Zinger (guessing this is carrot, ginger, and cayenne) - This was super good. Way better than I thought I would be. I had never tried carrot juice ever, but this was pretty yummy!

 --Upbeet (beet, orange, carrot, apple, ginger, lemon) - I was frightened for this one to be honest, which is weird because I love beets! The color is just so. Dark! But it was really, really, good. Super good actually.

 --Supercharge (kale, spirulina, green apple, turmeric, lime) - This may have been my favorite of all of the juices! Even better than the Sweet Green and the Refreshmint!

 --Aztec nut milk (cashews, dates, cacao, vanilla, cayenne, Himalayan salt) - This was not as good as the Cashew Cookie in my opinion. It definitely tasted more chocolatey than how cinnamony Cashew Cookie was, and it was spicy! I could really taste that cayenne!

I only worked out once in this three days - I did a pretty difficult Pilates workout and I didn't feel any difference in my normal energy level. Also, in terms of meals, I did end up warming up some broth and adding chicken breast, carrots, and mushrooms to make me feel like I was eating a real warm meal. That was the biggest thing I missed! Warm comfort food when it was 9 degrees outside! Outside of that, I solely snacked on the raw veggies and mixed nuts.

Ok, so what is my bottom line opinion? I would do it again. For sure. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I would try to plan it on days I didn't have to go to work if at all possible. Snacks are definitely key to keep from becoming hangry. My bowels were extremely productive (TMI, sorry) which surprised me because I felt like I ate nothing yet my bowels were probably more productive than if I would have eaten regularly all day! I guess that's why they call it a cleanse, eh? I'm thinking I will do this more regularly. Maybe once a quarter? We'll see. But I definitely want to do it again.

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Linking up with: Oh, Hey Girl!, What I Wore Wednesday, Gina and Amy Ann for Style on the Daily