Juice cleanses are all the craze right now in the fad diet world. I can't tell you how many women's magazines I have picked up in the last few months that all have an article about the juicing craze and juice cleanses. Heck there is even an acronym now F.O.I.J. translates to fuck off I'm juicing for those of us offered solid food while doing a cleanse.
So here is my two cents on juicing and cleanses.
I bought a juicer a little over a year ago (see I Heart My Juicer for more on that) and I love it. I use it a minimum of 3-4 times a week as part of my regular diet. Something in my body balances right when I start my day with either a big green fresh-pressed juice or a loaded fruit smoothie. Ideally this is after a morning yoga session, but sometimes there are mornings I just want to stay in bed for that extra hour. One day it'll be second nature, but for now, I have my days where I fight having to get up the hour earlier. Regardless of the yoga, I always juice or make a smoothie.
Since juicing has become a normal part of my everyday life there are noticeable changes. I feel better, my skin is clearer, that internal luminescence they say comes with juicing (apparently I have it, or so I have been told), my bowels are more regular and just the sheer amount of veggies I am consuming, by volume alone, has to be good. It is known that even vegetarians can't get the recommended daily intake of veggies by eating them alone, so why not drink them?!
As for cleanses, I do them often. I use a cleanse as reset in a sort of ways. When I have been off or not eating as healthfully as I would like or if my bowels just seem agitated continuously, I will do a cleanse to calm everything down, give my digestive tract a break and come back to center. Many cultures actually rely on fasting as a reset in a way, some are religious practices, but for others fasting/cleansing is very common way to stay in tune with your body. And I use a cleanse for that exact reason, being more in tune with what my body needs.
Juice cleanses do wonders for me. And yes there is a right way and a wrong way to do a juice cleanse. Like I said I have juice in my daily life and I think everyone should, you really don't what your missing until you do, but a cleanse ups the ante. The common time frames are a 3-5 day cleanse, 1 week (~7-10 days) cleanse or a 21-day cleanse. Each one has completely different approaches.
A 3-5 day cleanse is the easiest and just a quick booster. I will often do a cleanse over a weekend, where I actively chose to be reflective, focus on me, my physical, mental and personal health, by doing lots of yoga and writing, as to not ask too much of my body. Yes there is some mild headache and weakness, but both you can work through if you plan accordingly. I find it much harder to juice during the work week. I would highly recommend not doing your first juice cleanse during work.
On a 3-day cleanse you'll want to juice up to 5 times per day. There are tons and tons of juice recipes online, but the goal is get as much variety in your veggies as possible to get the most amount of nutrients. Dr. Oz featured a juice cleanse plan adapted from Joe Cross, who is the focal point in the book and documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I have tried his plan and it nice, especially because of all the variety, so you don't get bored, and you are surprisingly full on this plan. This plan is a great starting place for some one's first cleanse. However, I base my cleanses on what is fresh, organic and in season, I also prefer not to add fruit to my juices, I know it makes them more palatable, but I prefer to leave fruit out. During a cleanse you will want to consume mostly vegetable based juices, you
can drink fruit juices, but avoid them in large amounts as much a possible, the goal is to
strip the body of toxins, like sugars, and too much fruit juice during a
juice cleanse can give you a sugar rush and make you jittery, not fun.
On a 3-day cleanse you don’t eat solid foods, don’t drink caffeinated beverages and no alcohol, but drink lots of water and sip your juices throughout the day, consuming them roughly in 4 hour increments. To me a 3-day cleanse is a breeze, but I do them often. So for those that are new to the cleanse concept, a few heads-up: The first day you might have some stomach growling (drink your juices throughout the day slowly to minimize this and maximize nutrient absorption along with lots of water), you might have a slight headache and some lightheadness, but nothing too bad and you will pee a lot! But that is a good thing, your body is flushing toxins, so pee away. Day 2 you will wake up feeling lighter and energized in a way. Keep it up, 5 different juices throughout the day, intermixed with lots of water and herbal teas. Some people like coconut water, but I find it too sweet and jolting to the system. Your lightheadness should be much less annoying today, no headache, your grumbly tummy barely noticeable, you will still pee a lot, and you might not poop, but this nothing to be alarmed about. Day 3 you will feel great. You should be like this is a cinch, I am holding strong, but midday you are going to be like uhh, more juice, I am sick of juice! At this point I tune into my body and see if the cravings for food are real or something I need to work past. So after day 3 I decide to go 1 or 2 more days or to stop.
If you chose to extend to 5 days you will want to introduce more foods, such as yogurt, vegetable broth, kefir, etc. for a bit more substance. Depending on your time frame, 3 up to 5 days, you will want to listen to your body, it will tell you what is right for you. You can always build up to more days next time. Don't push yourself too far. And just so you know each cleanse is better than the last, they only get easier and you learn to love the feeling of being hungry and being OK with that, but also knowing your system is purging. That hungry mechanism is so easily overridden in our day to day by eating on the run, or eating too much because it tastes good, or you are indulging after a long week; having a reset to remind you that hungry is not a bad feeling, but is a way for you to know when it is real, and not you are just thirsty, or bored, or stressed.
After any cleanse you can’t just jump back to eating everything and anything. You will want to ease back into solid food. Eat mostly vegetables again but now in solid form. Not a whole lot of snazzy cooking methods either, but lots of greens and slightly sauteed veggies in EVOO, otherwise don't go crazy with the herbs, spices and added fats. You might also want to add some brown rice for fiber and protein. You’ll want to do this diet out of the cleanse for a day or 2, slowly introducing your regular eating habits in about a week’s time. Though remember cleanses are about resetting. So I often feel the need to be extra nice to my body and help it as much as possible; for me that means no alcohol, caffeine, dairy, meats for as long as it feels good. You will notice you get fuller faster. You aren’t as hungry all the time, which helps me tune into the consciousness of am I really hungry?
If you want to go for a week-long (7-10 day) cleanse you will want to juice again, up to 5 times a day, but eat 1 meal a day. That meal should be very easy to digest, relatively simple in preparation and contain mostly veggies. For however long you are on the cleanse, I recommend eating a very limited diet for up to 1 week after.
Lastly, there is the 21-day cleanse and longer. This is more of a celebrity, I need to lose weight type-concept. A 21-day cleanse is not for the faint of heart and definitely not for first time juice cleansers. I’ve never done a 21 day cleanse, as 3-5 days or even 7 days is more than sufficient for me to reset, but then again I never go too far off my daily balance to justify 21 days and I am not trying to lose weight. 21-day cleanses are often pitched as necessary to use a professional juicing company to maximize ample nutrients, however that is expensive and it seems counterproductive somehow, to me; in the re-balancing of self and being reflective, by willingly spending an exorbitant amount of money to purchase a fad juice cleanse package. Juice at home it is SO much more green and you know what is going into your juice, you made it! With that being said, I am sure there are plenty of resources available online to properly do a 21-day cleanse at home, but I have yet to see the value in doing one.
With the exclusion of the 21-day cleanse, if you consume 5 different, varied juices a day, you will never pass out as some people fear, at most you will be lightheaded and little sluggish, but otherwise it really is not that bad. And for me the benefits on the other side, make it so worth it.
My default juice and smoothie recipes:
Juice
3 carrots
1 bunch parsley
2 stalks celery
kale (how much is hard to measure, but it is a lot) or spinach, or both
1 beet
a section of cucumber
fresh trimmed wheatgrass (again hard to measure, but a few bunches snipped)
sometimes I will add an 1" of fresh ginger depending on my mood
If you need to you can add an apple, a piece of pineapple, or some ice and a squeeze of lemon at the end if you need to make it less "green" tasting.
Smoothie
1 banana
organic mixed berries (enough to cover the banana in the blender)
2 large spoonfuls of yogurt
1 tsp chia seeds
1 T. flax seeds
1 generous squirt of liquid trace minerals
a hardy shake of the bottle of bee pollen
2 tsp. spirulina
fresh trimmed wheatgrass or a handful of spinach
enough oj or local apple cider (when in season) to get everything blended together
Blend until smooth
