OUR EXPERIENCE WITH A JUICE CLEANSE! What I wish I knew!!

Recently RG and I did a juice cleanse which we sourced from a little juicery in Cambridge.

I’ve wanted to do a juice cleanse for SO LONG!

We both had so many questions leading into the cleanse that we still didn’t really know the answers to prior to starting..

I’ve written this blog post to hopefully shed some light on some of the questions I would have loved answered prior to starting.

Hopefully this helps you if you’re thinking of doing a cleanse or maybe it will help you find the best time to do one!

First of all lets cover the ins and outs of the juice cleanse we did!

The kind of juice cleanse we did was strictly a 2 day juice cleanse. To complete our juice cleanse we were to have seven juices each day and these juices were the same both days, as a rough guess I would say each juice was around 300mls.

We weren’t supposed to have any food unless we were absolutely losing the plot in which case we could have a green salad, but neither Becca or I wanted to do this.

Each day started with a charcoal tonic, which is a very scary looking little number but much to both of our surprise just tasted like straight lemon! We LOVED this one.

The idea behind starting the day with charcoal is that charcoal actually binds to toxins within the stomach. The body cannot absorb charcoal so it passes out of the body through the feces, Amazing!

Ill admit this was a nice way to start the day and I would love to make my own to start the day with this occasionally.

The next three juices were..

Replenish

Detoxify

And

Revive

These 3 were very similar green juices. All were mineral rich and all were really tasty, actually none of the juices within our cleanse were completely awful and all were definitely bearable!

Next we had strengthen which was a very strong beetroot number (which Becca thought tasted like dirt, but I liked this one!)

We then had a health tonic which was a little orange number, I want to say it had turmeric in it, but don’t quote me, I’m not 100% on all the ingredients!

Next up was our last juice which was actually a milk (interesting, I know). The purpose of this, from what we gathered, was to provide our bodies with a bit more substance and protein before bed. By this time this was ABSOLUTLEY necessary and at this time of the night your basically gagging for something to fill your stomach a bit more!

We didn’t LOVE this one, but I’m not big on milk or even the texture of milk, but I imagine this would be some people’s cup of tea. It was a very nutty flavor + was pretty sweet!

Following this we could have this detox tea which was provided to us, however neither of us loved this so gave this a miss mostly.

OKAY SOOOO..

We got this little booklet (which was very cute + a nice touch) to go alongside our cleanse as a bit of guidance + extra information and this booklet noted that this cleanse should leave us feeling lighter, more energized and a sense of rejuvenation. Here is a little quote from the booklet…

“Cleansing also helps to promote healthier food choices and demonstrates how food impacts the body and your sense of wellbeing. It also enhances a deeper respect and appreciation of your body and its miracle systems of digestion, elimination and energy production.”

So that’s the concepts behind the juice cleanse we did..

Now here how we found it…

HOW DIFFICULT IS JUICE CLEANSING?

- One word, HARRRRRD! Juice cleansing is not for the faint hearted! That might be a little dramatic but, honestly it was not easy.

This was both of our first juice cleanse and I am SO glad we went with Becca’s idea to just do 2 days. It was a lot harder than we both anticipated.

There were a few reasons why we found it so hard.

1. You basically completely ditch your “food” routine.

This might not be a big one for everyone, but for us, food isn’t just breakfast, lunch and dinner, its also like.. ques for our body.

This probably sounds weird, bare with me..

When I get up and drink my coffee I feel like it signifies the beginning of my day, right? And then when I eat breakfast its like the fuel for my morning and then I can do all the things, whether that be work, study, whatever.

When I have dinner its generally about an hour or 2 before bed and this signifies to my body that its time to wind down for bed. So for me, food isn’t just about stuffing my face, its about signifying to my body different times of the day and its also about eating different foods to fuel whatever it is that’s to come next.

This was a BIG HURDLE.

Let me tell you juice at every meal did not do that same job.

I struggled with this the most I think.

2. You get HANGRY!

We flat with both of our partners who came home both nights and cooked themselves HUGE dinners which they ate in front of us. First of all, I hope your partners aren’t as mean as ours and if you would like to swap we could be open to that! And second of all, we were literally SALIVATING. So, yeah it was hard not to be sad and angry and everything in between.

3. You cant just go about your normal day.

You have to take things super easy as you don’t have a lot of energy throughout the day and by the end of the day your literally EXHAUSTED. The booklet did note that its best to take things down a notch during a juice cleanse and not do anything strenuous. The first day I did weights fasted in the morning (god knows WHY I thought this was a good idea) which I feel like could have added to the hanger and feelings of complete exhaustion. We both did the cleanse on days where neither of us were working so we could have pretty low key days, not that we really did (rookie mistake).

WOULD YOU SAY THERE IS A GOOD TIME TO DO A JUICE CLEANSE?

- I would definitely say there is better times to do a cleanse. If I were to do another I would NOT IN A MILLION YEARS do it whilst working! You don’t have a lot of energy and we both got pretty serious brain fog! Its super hard to concentrate and its hard to not be distracted by the cravings you get for food!! I would recommend doing it on days off when you can be pretty chill. Also I've heard people do them at the beginning of every season as like a reset before the new season which I think is a cool idea.

HOW DID YOU FEEL DURING AND AFTER?

- At the start we were both very excited but I feel like this turned to frustration veeeeeeerrrryyy quickly! Your body gets hungry and your stomach never feels full. The juices didn’t leave us feeling full, which i'm sure they’re not meant to, but I kind of had this assumption that they would, so we got frustrated and hangry with this. As I said we both got brain fog and intermittent headaches – the lady at the juice shop warned us of this! Dinner time of the first night we were completely EXHAUSTED + very sad we didn’t get to eat dinner. Perhaps we are just babies (not perhaps, we are) but you feel so so fragile and kind of on the verge of becoming very emotional.. It sounds silly but don’t judge us until your that far into a juice cleanse watching your partner eat a venison sandwich……

The next morning we both felt good! Didn’t wake up crazy hungry like we thought, and we both felt light and energetic. So much so that we went for a walk that morning along the river. This feeling didn’t last however and the second day was much like the first.. Intermittent headaches, fluctuating moods, brain fog and frustration.

After we’d finished the two days we both agreed we felt light and cleansed, I suppose! We also agreed two days was ENOUGH and were very excited to get to eat proper meals.

We both felt like it definitely did make us appreciate not only food in general but the role it plays and the effects it has on our bodies. Feeling fueled, energetic and focused is truly a blessing we get from feeding our bodies nourishing foods and prior to cleansing this was something we’d both started to take for granted. We both felt empowered and excited to restart our clean eating habits as well!

To put it in short most of the benefits were mental as opposed to physical! Yeah, we felt light, and cleansed and like our digestive systems were able to have a break, but it was the appreciation and realizations around food that I found most valuable, which is what was outlined within the cleanse booklet as some of the concepts behind the cleanse.

DID IT CAUSE A LAXATIVE EFFECT?

- OKAY this was a big question I wanted to know prior to doing a juice cleanse and my answer in short is it depends on so many things. A. Your actions leading up to the cleanse, B. What kind of cleanse and C. Your body!

I was surprised to find that it actually didn’t even make my bowels work at all which didn’t sit well with me (is that to much information????). For Becca, whom had undergone surgery a week prior to starting the cleanse it was really beneficial! She felt blocked up and bloated and like she didn’t have much of an appetite following surgery and the cleanse basically cleared all this! Her bowels worked both days, which she described as “you’re dream stool”!

WOULD YOU DO ANOTHER?

- I definitely would do another cleanse. It was a nice reset, I feel. However I am in no hurry! Apparently cleansing at the start of each season can be beneficial, and I can see why now, but I’m not jumping out of my boots to commit to another anytime soon.

Perhaps next time I would try another which potentially allowed some kind of food throughout, even just some kind of big salad for dinner! As I said we didn’t like the final milk which was the only juice with some substance so we kind of missed out on feeling a bit fuller before bed which is not amazing when your lying in bed with a gurgling tummy..

One last thing I wanted to touch on that I noticed throughout the cleanse was that I definitely do not think it would be appropriate for anyone who feels like they have poor body image or restrictive thoughts.

We in no way, shape or form did the juice cleanse to alter our body composition AT ALL. In fact, I’ve taken photos of myself pre and post cleanse to show you I look the EXACT same and if this is your motive, then don’t bother. I don’t believe cleanses should be done with the purpose to lose weight and I think that can be very detrimental to health because first of all that’s not generally what they’re for and second of all its not even necessary to do a cleanse to lose weight.

Pre Cleanse

Post Cleanse

We both did notice how the cleanse could be very detrimental to someone who already has poor body image or very restrictive habits, or is trying to come away from restrictive habits. A cleanse is essentially very restrictive for a short period of time and I imagine it could re-ignite some bad, restrictive thoughts and habits if these are still lurking in the background.

Becca and I stopped our cleanse after two days which left us feeling appreciative of food and our bodies but I feel if we had of carried on it could have stemmed into feelings of just wanting to go crazy and binge once the cleanse was over. So, be careful!

Anyway, I hope this was super insightful and helpful and I hope it hasn’t deterred you from doing a cleanse at all! We got our juices from Forage in Cambridge which is a super cute little store and was a great starting point for us rookies! I would recommend Forage for anyone wanting to try one for the first time!

HAPPY CLEANSING!

xx