DIY Juice Cleanse

I have been wanting to do a juice cleanse for the longest time and now that I’ve been stuck at home during this quarantine (and snacking and eating more than usual), I thought it would be the best time to try one. I’ve read that some of the benefits of a juice cleanse include:

  • Boost  to your immune system
  • Increase in energy levels
  • Reducing inflammation
  • Release of toxins from the body

I opted for a 24 hour juice cleanse because I’ve never done one before, and I wanted to start off with a short and easy one. If you know me, you know that I love to cook and try new things in the kitchen, so this was one venture I wanted to undertake.

When I set my mind to doing something, I will go all out and try to do it as best I can. The plan was to start my cleanse at 8 pm and finish it at 8 pm the next day. Then, at the end of the 24 hours I would have a small salad for dinner before going to bed.

I knew that in order to be successful, I needed to prepare my juices in advance. There are 3 main items you need to make your own juices. These are:

  • A Juicer
  • Bottles or Liquid Storage Containers
  • Fruits and Veggies

Thankfully, my sister owns a juicer and I was able to borrow it for this endeavor. The juicer I used was the Breville – Juice Fountain Plus – Multi shown below. It was super simple to set up and use. The cleaning was also very easy, which is always a good thing!

Next, I needed to find something to store the juice in. Because I like to go all out, I wanted six 16 ounce glass bottles with removable caps like they have at the juice bars. I found these shown below on Amazon for a great price ($20). They were perfect! But you definitely don’t need these glass bottles, any container can work.  

Lastly, I needed to prepare a grocery list and submit an order with HEB Curbside.  The grocery list below is enough to make six 16 ounce juices, which is what you’ll need for this 24 hour juice cleanse. 

I started preparing the juices the night before my juice cleanse day. It took me about 2 hours from start to finish. The recipes (shown in the images below) were pretty simple and the juices came out very tasty! For a 24 hour juice cleanse, I needed a total of 6 juices. The lineup included:

 

  • 2 of Green
  • 2 of Orange
  • 1 of Lime Green
  • 1 of Almond (Dessert)

The goal was to give my body a 24 hour rest from digesting food. The plan was to have my last meal before 8 pm the night before the juicing day and have a small salad the next day at 8 pm. The juicing day schedule went like this:

 

  • 8:00 am – Green
  • 10:00 am – Orange
  • 12:00 pm – Green
  • 2:00 pm – Lime Green
  • 4:00 pm – Orange
  • 6:00 pm – Almond
  • 8:00 pm – Small Salad

The Results

Surprisingly, it wasn’t too difficult to complete the 24 hour juice cleanse. The only time I felt overly hungry (and irritable) was in the morning around 9 am, but once I drank the second juice I started feeling more and more full. I also drank plenty of water in between juices and this helped curb my hunger until the next juice. I wasn’t sure if at 8 pm a salad was going to be enough, but it was and I fell asleep that night feeling satisfied.

Giving my body a detox and digestive break was exactly what I needed after recent poor eating habits that I’ve had as a result of this quarantine. I didn’t notice much difference in energy levels, but I did feel lighter and less bloated. And although weight loss was not my motivation for this juice cleanse, I ended up losing 2.6 pounds and 0.5 percent of body fat. In all, it was a good experience and I am very happy with the results. I will try to do this about once a month from now on.

If you’re wanting to try a juice cleanse, I suggest you give this one a try!

xoxo – Marce