I DID A JUICE CLEANSE…
It wasn’t my first and it wont be my last.
As I am sat writing I have overdosed on bread and tortilla chips and I’m actually craving another one!
I’ve done juice cleanses before, mostly when I was first diagnosed, as a way to kick start detoxing my body. Now, I very rarely miss a morning juice, and I drink juice throughout the day, but I am too much of a foodie to manage a juice cleanse too often.
However, there’s nothing like being told there may be another tumor growing inside your liver to make you jump back on a detox asap!
As I have tumors in my liver, I like to give him a little break from time to time. The way I see it, that poor organ of mine has enough to do on a daily basis to try and remove toxins that might cause more cancer cells to develop, and trying to heal Mick and Keith, the least I can do is not over load it will all other kinds of stuff it needs to process!
THE REASON TO JUICE…
Juicing vegetables is the most effective way to deliver nutrients to your body quickly. It is like a powershot of vitamins and minerals. Anything in liquid form is much easier absorbed by the body, as anything solid has to be processed first through your digestive system before nutrients are delivered everywhere else.
By removing fibre from the vegetables you allow your digestive system to take a little holiday. Eliminating your body’s burden of breaking down the additives, toxin and pesticides consumed in our food.
When we chew vegetables nutrients are released. But when we JUICE vegetables, 3 times as many are released, approx 90% of the nutrients! There also a lot more benefits to juicing
1.It’s s a great way to get fruits and veg into your diet if your not a lover of eating them.
2. You are consuming vegetables in their raw state, rather than boiled, roasted, stewed, which means you get the full dose of nutrients that may otherwise be lost.
3. If you are having trouble eating solid food for any reason it is a great way to make sure you are getting enough nutrients.
It is always best to make the juice yourself. Don’t buy store bought juices as they are often loaded with sugars. A lot of store bought juices will also add a lot of fruit to make them taste more appealing, but excessive amounts of fruits juice is not good for you.
Juice cleansing is perfectly safe regardless of what may read/be told. People fast as part of their culture and religion regularly, so its not as crazy as it first sounds. But the key is, don’t be stupid. If you are 36 hours in and you think you are going to pass out, eat something. This isn’t an endurance test, it is supposed to help. If it isn’t helping, stop.
The Gerson therapy is a well know cancer treatment where patients drink 12 juices a day for however long the treatment course is, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year…some people do it indefinitely.
That’s a bit of a stretch for me, however I do try and include a few juices a day when I can. The motion of eating, and chewing and tasting food is far too precious for me to completely sacrifice it. However, a 3 day cleanse, or the unintentional 4 that I ended up doing, was just what the doctor ordered… or not as the case may be
I would like to preface this next bit by saying I am not a nutritionist, I am just sharing my experience. If you want to do a juice cleanse but you aren’t sure then do speak to a nutritionist, or a functional doctor about it.
BEFORE YOU FAST…
You should always do a pre cleanse before you fast. Eliminate caffeine, alcohol and processed foods for a 2-5, depending on how much of this you normally eat. If you don’t do this, you’ll essentially be going cold turkey which won’t be pretty!! You also might want to try and eliminate meat and dairy products for a couple of days before and up your plant based intake. I don’t eat consume any of this anyway so I jumped straight in.
THE CLEANSE…
The actual fast I did began Day 1 at 5pm and ran through to Day 5 3pm, so it was just short of 4 days in total.
I loaded up on all the stuff I needed which was copious amounts of the below, and random other vegetables I already had in my fridge.
Celery
Cucumber
Spinach
Kale
Beetroot
Carrot
Swiss Chard
Parsley
Ginger
Turmeric
The only fruit I include in my juices are;
Lime
Granny smith apples
6 x 400ml servings of juice per day is ideal for a cleanse like this.
For me, Juice 1 was straight up celery juice. Juice 2-6 was a combination of the above. I made one big jug in the morning and divided it between 5 bottles that I could take with me if I was going out or stored them in the fridge so they were easy to grab.
DURING THE FAST…
During the fast, I drank loads of water, and I also still drank herbal teas (without caffeine!) and had my super-green powder shot every morning.
Do not exercise on a cleanse. Unless you are superwoman! The idea is to give your body a rest. I still did some light yoga, but nothing too strenuous. I also pulled back on all my other therapies whilst I was doing it.
In my experience the first day is the toughest! But I find that if you space your juices well, you should be able to get in front of any hunger pangs. Try not to down them all at the first sign of hunger. It will pass.
Make sure you change up the selection of veg for each day so your juices don’t get repetitive.
BREAKING THE CLEANSE
As I said above, DO NOT push yourself through a cleanse. If you need food, eat food! Even if you need to cheat and have a little something just to help you keep going, do it. But make sure it is soft, easy to digest food.
That is also true of when you come to fully break the cleanse. Take it easy and come out of it gently. Whenever I cleanse for any period of time I always break it with a vegetable broth before I eat anything raw. The broth usually consists of the same vegetables I have used to juice. Celery, carrot, kale, with some potato, onion, turmeric and bullion.
When all is said and done, a juice cleanse is great for digestion, detoxifying and nourishing your body! The benefits are brilliant so its so worth considering if your body could do with a little reset every now and again.