A few months ago my son started talking about juicing and the very healthy drinks he was making every day. This is the person who lived on Hot Pockets and soda at our home not so long ago.
Then a health newsletter I subscribed to mentioned the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead . I watched it and was thinking about incorporating vegetable and fruit juices into my diet. What pushed me into action was a Groupon offer the next week for a 3-day juice cleanse at 60% off. It seemed like someone was trying to tell me something.
Supplies for the Cleanse
The business sponsoring the Groupon deal is a local entrepreneur who delivers all the nutrition for the three days including 3- 64 bottles of green juice, 3 detox soups and six containers of protein supplement. They were all nicely labeled and delivered right to my door early in the morning.
Instructions were very detailed and a little onerous. In order to get the most out of the program, you were supposed to keep the exact intervals (and order) laid out in the two page document.
What I didn’t count on was the pre-cleanse recommendations to cut out meat, gluten, dairy products, oil and more for two days before the cleanse. I did ignore this as it was Valentine’s Day week and I didn’t want to miss out on a celebration with my honey.
The Fasting Diet
The first morning I was so excited to get started and quickly adjusted the times on the instructions to match my wake-up time. The green drink only had 26 calories per serving and there were four servings a day. It tasted fine although was much weaker than the juices I’ve had at Robeks Juice and other places.
The protein mix was the big disappointment. I could hardly get it down. The taste was worse than the preparation for my colonoscopy! The first day I made it through. The second day, I substituted it with a protein green drink and the last day I downed only one.
I really liked the detox soup. There was definitely lemon in it although it had a yellow-green color. In between these servings there was lots of water to drink all day long! I’m guessing the daily caloric intake was about 350. Not much!
Juice Cleanse Experience and Thoughts
I did get caffeine headaches the second and third days and these were resolved by a mug of green tea. I was hungry but never felt weak or lethargic. What I didn’t anticipate was bowel issues the second day. Let’s just say I was glad I didn’t have to go anywhere.
Unfortunately, when my husband grilled a hamburger for lunch the third day, I broke down. The smell from the George Foreman was too good. I ate half a hamburger patty with chili. Otherwise, there wasn’t too much temptation and I did fine.
The cleanse came with the option to do 5 or 7 days instead of the 3. I’m really glad I choose the lower number. The nutrition in this cleanse was just not enough plus the protein mix was gross. I’m game to try another business for a juice cleanse in the future.
The good side was I felt good and had a 4 1/2 pound loss (at least temporarily). We’ll see how much of it stayed with me at the next weigh-in.
Have you ever tried a juice cleanse? Did you like it?
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I had no idea that you could find a company to set up a juice cleanse for you. I’ve done juice fasts in the past, but that was with us buying the vegetables and fruit and juicing them ourselves. Our juicer broke and we can’t afford a replacement yet. When we do, I would like to do the fast again.
Khaleef, there are a lot; even some national sites. Just google “juice cleanse delivery”.
I’m interested, but I think I’ll have to wait until our kid is grown up a bit. 3 days seems doable. It’ll be an interesting experience.
I can’t imagine doing this while making food for a family, although I’m sure some people do. I will definitely do it again with a different company — maybe in six months.