Whether or not any of you care or are reading about my juice cleanse remains to be seen so if you aren’t into reading about it, you can just skip along from this post because I got wordy in this one! But in case anyone’s curious, I thought I would share where I’m at with my juice cleanse and my journey to getting beyond the unhealthy eating habits I picked up over the summer. {Previous Posts: Evolution Foods Juice Cleanse Day 1 and Weight Gain and My Road to a Detox and a Possible Cleanse}
I ended up doing about 2 and a half days on the juice cleanse. I didn’t have a set plan in place for how long I would cleanse I can say for anyone considering – I think it’s good to have a previously approved juice cleanse plan in place before you start. I had done a juice cleanse with Blueprint Cleanse before and thought I could go my own way and pick up what was on sale at my local Whole Foods. I don’t think it worked out as well as the BPC did for me. The BPC came with a note about which juices to drink and when and doing it on my own… well, I faltered a little.
For starters, I think I didn’t drink enough juices. With the Blueprint Cleanse, I remember I felt like I was *constantly* drinking. Like to the point where I was like, ugh, another juice? every time I had to drink one. I think it was around 6 juices a day. On my own cleanse, I was doing 4 a day and it was too little. My calories for the two days I fully did it was somewhere in 700 and 800 range which is too low. And the only reason I even got to 800 calories the one day is because I drank the Blueprint Cleanse Cashew Cinnamon Agave drink (300 calories) because I was feeling empty and felt like I needed something with calories.
I think it’s fine to fast or eat lightly for a few days but after I woke up yesterday feeling VERY drained and dizzy and I decided that was it. I needed something solid. I ate a banana felt better within hours.
Not to knock a juice cleanse because I do feel that it was good for me in the sense that it helped me reset. (More on that in a bit) But I think for anyone considering a juice cleanse, consider this: what’s your lifestyle? I have two kids I’m taking care of daily, plus I workout pretty hard on a regular basis- around 5-6 days a week. Doing a juice cleanse may be good for me for a reset but it is definitely an adjustment in terms of my daily lifestyle.
I decided to eat again yesterday because I knew I would be going off on a group run with some friends today. You just can’t run 5 miles on 3 days of juice.
So all that said. I feel good. And doing the cleanse did have an impact. After my banana and coffee, we headed together as a family to a local farm called Wyebrook Farm. They are the classic farm-to-table spot. We hadn’t been but went on the recommendation of tons of other folks in my town. When we pulled up, we were all just drooling at the smells.
We waited in a line for counter service for about 45 minutes. This place is POPULAR!
So I was staring at the menu not really sure what to have. In terms of real food, I had only had a banana at this point, and a small tofu and quinoa salad the day before. I *should* have gone with either the Kale Salad or the Portabello Sandwich… but. The idea of the kale (which I normally love) after all those green juices was just too much.
I ended up getting the chicken salad because I knew I was running today and thought the protein might be good. I took the bread off (which looked home-made and amazing but I didn’t want the carbs) and took a bite of the chicken… and immediately bit into a bone. That it was it for me. I couldn’t eat any more.
My 7 year old ended up eating my chicken salad and I didn’t have anything. I found all I wanted was something vegetable. I wasn’t about to wait in that long line again and really, going to a beef-heavy farm probably wasn’t the best decision for me for my diet.
After we got home, I had a couple of pieces of some grilled chicken I had made the family the night before. By dinner, I was feeling like I wanted something healthy but I did want food. I made a version of my quinoa salad with tofu from the other day but added some mushrooms cooked in olive oil and put it all over arugula. It was DELICIOUS. Which tells me – doing this juice cleanse DID help me reset. I already am craving lighter, clean living foods and that’s how I hope to eat moving forward.
As far as another detox or doing something else next week? I’m putting it on hold. I may change my mind in a week or two and decided to order one of the detoxes I mentioned previously but I’m spent from the juice cleanse for now. And I feel that I have done so much with learning about nutrition and diet in the last 10 years that I feel confident I can be healthy for awhile without something specific. Everything in moderation. I don’t want to deny myself and get burned out. So for now, I’m aiming to eat less and to eat raw, clean foods and to go lightly with the dairy and carbs. My plan is to not allow myself to weigh in for 2 weeks. To just eat healthy, less & see how I do.
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