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My 3 Day Juice Cleanse

Why a juice cleanse?

In the past two weeks, I traveled to Florida to visit my parents and then came home. Once I was home I found that I was really struggling to get back into my normal daily routine. I was feeling no motivation to exercise and was giving in to unhealthy cravings way more than I should.

The book that inspired me

I finally realized I needed to do something about it before this becomes my new normal. So I checked out all of my favorite healthy cookbooks most of which I stole from my dad because, HEY! Cookbooks are expensive! Anyway, I came across Giada De Laurentiis’s Feel Good Food. This entire book is based on the one question we have all wondered about her– how does she cook all this amazing Italian food and still look like that?

There was one section in which she addresses the effects of traveling. She talks about how traveling and being off of her daily routine can make her feel lethargic and not like herself when she returns. I thought, “Oh my god it’s not just me!” She describes the exact same feeling I was experiencing. I have coined the feeling “travel stomach” with my friends because when we travel, we eat and drink too much. So when I get home, I just feel heavy and tired.

My plan

After reading this on Monday night, I decided that the next morning I would begin a three day juice cleanse based on information provided in her book. I started my plan just with what I had in my fridge until I could send Nick to the store to get all of the juicing ingredients.

Here is what my grocery list looked like:

Day 1:

Starting off day 1, I woke up hungry, so I was a little apprehensive. I began questioning if I could do it or not- and I hadn’t even started yet! I don’t know about you, but will power is not my strongest quality. If you need someone to go out to dinner or happy hour with, I’m your girl! This comes with it’s pros and cons!

Nap time for the kids is workout time for me, which is about 12:00 everyday. I am very into my Peloton routine and didn’t want the juice cleanse to affect my progress, so I continued with my workouts. However, I was worried about the potential lack of energy because I wasn’t eating nearly as many calories as usual. Check out my workouts in my article Stop, Drop, and Get a Peloton Now! On Day 1 I felt completely normal in my workout!

Day 2:

Day 2 was great! I had plenty of energy and I noticed that I slept amazing after Day 1. This continued again on night 2. I was worried about my energy level for a workout, so today I decided to do a 15 minute ride and 45 minutes of yoga- and I still felt amazing!

Day 3:

By Day 3, I was feeling like a rockstar! My overall thought processes were much more positive than normal. I was so happy and I was so proud of myself for getting this far, and I continued to have a lot of energy. There was an obvious change in my confidence. The kids loved this because I had so much energy we played all day long. After yesterday’s workout went so smoothly, I decided to push myself, so I did a 45 minute ride and 20 minute strength class. I even had a PR on my ride!

My Results

Over the three days I lost 7 pounds.

I gained so much energy! Seriously, I was playing with the kids all day– and I mean I am playful, but I was like bouncing off the walls. I was excited and happy and present in every little thing we did together.

My sleep was the most noticeable change for me. It was a drastic switch! I did my nightly PMR (Don’t know what that is? Check this out PMR: Why you need to discover this NOW!) and then didn’t open my eyes again until the morning. I am an anxious person, so I have trouble shutting my brain off. Not once was I tossing and turning thinking about weird random things that normally keep me up at night.

My skin seemed drier than usual, which I have read is a normal side effect. MOISTURIZE, MOISTURIZE MOISTURIZE. Take care of your skin!!! And more importantly, HYDRATE! I tried to drink more water than usual, but even that didn’t have a noticeable effect.

My favorite result is that after these 3 days I feel back to the “before vacation me” who was on track to meeting her goals and motivated to better herself. I also noticed a major change in my mental state. I felt calm and balanced, which often gets thrown off if I have been eating badly.

Final Takeaways

Would I do this again? IN A HEARTBEAT! Look at it this way, I am day 1 off the cleanse and I have kept up with the cleanse– BY CHOICE! The juices and smoothies were so good and I had some ingredients left over, so I made more!

Make at home or buy a cleanse? I have participated in many cleanses that I have purchased directly from a juice company. I have a harder time with those because they send you about 5 juices for each day. Each one is different for each day, and there are always 1 or 2 that I have trouble even stomaching–like, have to hold my nose and just chug it. What I did enjoy about making them myself is that I chose 2-3 juices that I thought I would like and I made those a few times. This way I never dreaded it!

Moms, one MAJOR plus of this cleanse: The juice making became an activity for me and the kids. Seriously, we could kill an hour all involved in each step. They had SO much fun and so did I. My two year old was even drinking all of the juices!

Cost: Overall, I spent less on this cleanse than juice cleanses I have purchased in the past.

Cons: The one issue I can see other people running into with this cleanse is time. It takes a good amount of time to make the juices and smoothies. Smoothies are usually super quick, but the juices take a little bit longer. My sister is interested in following the same plan I did, but doesn’t have the same amount of time available. She is going to come over and we are going to make them and bottle them ahead of time! I will keep you posted on how that goes and how well they hold up.

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