Ok, I’m just going to come out and say it. I cracked.
If you have read about Day One and Day Two of my juice cleanse so far, you will know that I have been struggling. And today, I cracked. I couldn’t handle another juice.
I woke up and diligently made my first juice, but by the time I should have been making Juice #2, I was so over it. I looked over at my juicer with mild hatred. Making 12 juices a day for the past two days had really gotten to me and I literally dreaded the thought of cutting and peeling fruit and vegetables, juicing them and then cleaning up the whole mess yet again only to have to do it all over again later that day.
I started well. I just had another raw salad instead of a juice. But then my stomach must have gotten a taste for real life food and even though my fridge was chocked full of fruit and veggies – I needed Protein. Just quietly, this is most definitely the worst way to end a detox. So I took myself for a walk down to the shops and sat at a cafe and ordered a chicken wrap and absolutely devoured it – chewing solid food has never felt so good! About half an hour later though, I felt sick. Serves me right. I knew better than to eat something like that after only having juice or raw salads for the past few days. But somehow my stomach managed to kill all common sense at that moment.
So, my final thoughts:
Don’t attempt to do a juice cleanse yourself. As much as you think you’ll manage making 6 juices a day with your at home juicer, your energy levels get so low that it becomes a struggle to bring yourself to deal with the preparation and clean up that is involved.
If you want to do a juice cleanse by delivery, I would recommend that you don’t use Schkinny Manniny and that you do use Urban Remedy (if you’re an Aussie only, of course!). Last year I did Urban Remedy’s Level One, 3 Day cleanse easily and felt absolutely amazing afterwards and continued to eat healthily post cleanse. Something about the Schkinny Manniny one is just off, and that is only heightened by the do it yourself aspect. I have since spoken to friends who have done the Schkinny Manniny cleanse by delivery and were also forced to break the cleanse because of how immensely unsatisfying their juices were.
I am not a nutritionist so I cannot claim to know the difference between the recipes and ingredient order of both cleanse companies. All I know is that the recipes for the juices on the cleanse I used were not satisfying enough to sustain, they were also significantly thinner than my memory of the Urban Remedy juices, which (potentially only psychologically) could have had an impact on my perception of satisfaction. Having spoken to friends about the cleanse, I have been told about the importance of “food stacking” in order for things to sit right in your stomach and avoid discomfort. Again, I cannot claim to know anything about nutrition, but perhaps the order of ingredients in the Schkinney Manniny cleanse compared to that of the Urban Remedy cleanse played a part in my success, or lack there of.
I hope that I haven’t completely turned you off the idea of doing a juice cleanse or detox with my experience. Honestly, it’s all about trial and error and well, I found an error. But one thing I can say is that a good detox, seen all the way through, leaves you feeling refreshed, energetic, healthy, glowing and (yes, if you have some excess weight to lose) lighter. Personally, I have never chosen to do a cleanse for weight loss as I don’t feel I have any weight to lose so I wouldn’t really recommend it if that is your only goal. The purpose of most juice cleanses is to clear out all of the toxins from your body and leave you feeling revitalised and fresh while also being a positive way of kick-starting a healthy diet.
Good luck if you choose to cleanse one day, please feel free to ask any questions you may have about my experiences!
Eleanor x
my subjunctive 