After a summer that so far has been heavy on the booze and the subsequent less-than-healthy food choices and, having quite fancied doing a juice cleanse for some time, when the people at Nurture got in touch offering one of the Rock My Style team the opportunity to try their three day cleanse, I enthusiastically volunteered.
A couple of days later a box was delivered to my house containing the 18 juices, protein powder and pre and probiotic sachets that make up the Nurture three day cleanse, plus an everything-you-need-to-know booklet explaining how to do the cleanse, what you can expect whilst you’re on the cleanse and some healthy post-cleanse recipes. As I lined up the colourfully-packaged juices in my fridge reality dawned, I’d committed to eating no (solid) food for three days.
I love food. Shopping for it. Preparing it. Going out for it. And, of course, eating it. I get hangry when I’ve gone for too long without food (that’s hunger-associated-anger fyi, it’s an actual thing, just ask any of my friends who’ve been with me when it’s past my dinner time and the restaurant staff are refusing to seat us until our entire party arrive, so annoying). This wasn’t going to be easy. Here’s what happened…
Day 1 – Saturday
After a big night out on the Thursday I’d had a hangover-busting carb-heavy day on the Friday and woke up on Saturday morning craving a big brunch. And then I remembered I was starting the juice cleanse today. On a Saturday. What was I thinking?! It was all I could do not to drink all six juices in one go. Instead I took out the first juice of the day and sipped it slowly. The six juices are designed to give you all the nutrients you need in one day and contain ten (ten!) portions of fruit and vegetables. They’re all more than 50% fruit-based and so are mostly sweet and very easy to drink. Three juices later I headed to hot yoga, drinking one of the protein sachets mixed with water ahead of the class as advised. I made it through the class with my energy levels high but, back home, I started to feel tired. Like totally exhausted tired. I went to bed and slept for a couple of hours, waking up in the early evening. Still feeling low on energy I drank the remaining juices and decided to have an early night, going to bed with a book and feeling a bit sorry for myself, not to mention envious of everyone else who, judging from my Instagram feed, was out having Saturday night food-and-drink-based fun.
Day 2 – Sunday
On Sunday morning I woke up feeling much better than I had the previous evening but decided to skip yoga, instead electing to have a lazy morning reading the Sunday papers and sipping a juice every two hours or so. At around what would have been lunchtime, if I was eating food, I head out to meet friends and go to the Girl Effect Live event. Although at no point during the cleanse did I feel hungry it was hard to watch my friends eating their way through temptingly-tasty-smelling street food washed down with ice cold beer. But I stayed strong! There was so much going on at the event that I stayed a lot longer than I had intended and, over three hours without a juice later, I started to feel a bit faint. An emergency dash to Marks & Spencers for some carrot sticks (seriously, I could give a performing arts student a run for their money in the drama queen stakes) and my equilibrium was restored. However, instead of heading on to the evening part of the event I took the sensible route (which is most unlike me) and headed home to catch up on my juices. I went to bed at a normal time and slept soundly.
Day 3 – Monday
Waking up on day three my energy levels were back to normal, my stomach was flatter, and I felt lighter and less bloated. I worked my way through the now familiar mixtures of grapefruit, coconut water and Himalayan salt (Rehydrate); apple, watercress, cucumber, kiwi, ginger and mint (Refresh); pear, beetroot, blueberry, strawberry, carrot and lemon (Revive); apple, mango, passion fruit, pomegranate, lemon and kale (Re-energise) and spinach, kale, celery, parsnip, cucumber, apple and orange (Replenish) and powered my way through a busy day of work and a strong vinyasa flow yoga class. The booklet had warned that on day two I could experience, erm, looser bowel movements. This happened on day three (apologies, I know this is well into tmi territory but I figure we’re all friends here and if you’re considering a cleanse this is the kind of thing you need to know). It also says that you might experience skin breakouts and I did, although my skin has been a little temperamental of late so that might not have been anything to do with the cleanse. After a highly productive day I downed my final juice of the cleanse and went to bed, surprised that I’d made it to the end of day three with relative ease and, I’m not going to lie, looking forward to eating actual food the following day.
Post cleanse
I don’t weigh myself so I can’t tell you how much, if any, weight I lost doing the cleanse but I did measure my waist on the morning of day one and again on the morning after the cleanse. I’d dropped one and half inches. Apart from the exhaustion I felt on the afternoon of day one and the dip in energy levels I experienced on day two (which was totally my fault for not taking a juice out with me) I felt good throughout the cleanse and the three days passed surprisingly quickly. Following the cleanse I’ve craved nutrient-dense foods and my waist measurement has remained the same as it was immediately post-cleanse. It might not work for everyone but a cleanse could be right for you if you’re looking to reset your body and restart or kick start a healthier lifestyle. If you have a particularly busy and/or active life carefully consider when you do the cleanse. It could be a good opportunity to slow down, swapping high intensity workouts for gentle yoga classes for example. On the other hand you might prefer to keep busy to stop yourself obsessing about food…
You can find out more about the Nurture cleanse here.
Have you ever done a juice cleanse? How did you find it? Would you do it again? Do share.
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I once did the Fat Burning Soup diet and gave up on day 3 (disappointingly a day too soon to enjoy steak day (all 3 meals consisting of steak!). I can’t remember how much I lost, about 4lbs, but it was not worth it! It was during uni summer break and I was at my mum’s and good job, I did nothing but sleep and mope around with a headache for the whole time and watch the clock counting down to when I could next have my soup and various crudites!
This experience makes me very wary of a juice cleanse…as I was actually eating solid food on that and felt dreadful so would worry I wouldn’t be able to function at all during the 3 days. That said, I’m still tempted as I feel like a need a good detox and I think I’m more likely to stick it out if the juices are pre-prepared and I don’t have to buy a juicer and a fortune of fresh fruit and veg!
What’s in the sachets, is it lots of artificial stuff? I read an article about Herbalife and how bad it is for you so worry about protein powders and what not…
Sorry for that really long comment, am genuinely interested in this though so taking the opportunity to ask lots of questions! x
Please don’t apologise for a long comment, we love hearing from you, it’s great to know you’re interested in the things we cover! The probiotic is a natural bacteria supplement. I’m not sure about the protein supplement but will see if I can find out for you. I was concerned about how I would feel as I remember a colleague doing a juice cleanse (I’m not sure which one) and they were not very well at all on the evening of the first day and decided to not to continue with it. Are you in London? The Juice Well cleanses sound good and you can do them for just a day. Joe Cross from Fat Sick and Nearly Dead is involved. They’re much heavier on veg than the cleanse I did which appeals, as I know how good I feel when I eat lots of veggies. x
Haha how weird! I bought a juicer the other week and the Jason vale juice book! It’s a seven day detox though but the same principles as the ones you followed. I have yet to complete it but have been having juices for breakfast or lunch sometimes instead of meals and a healthy meal for tea. They are tasty but it’s hard when at work as they aren’t so good after a few hours and need drinking straight away really. I am going to give it a solid effort next week as I am on nights and don’t eat through the night at work so should be able to stick to it better! Fingers crossed it will detox me and leave me feeling lighter and healthier! X
Oh my goodness Alex, I don’t think I could do seven days – good luck! x
I often do the Jason Vale, 7lbs in 7 days one and it’s brilliant! First few days are a bit difficult but as soon as you can see the effects it spurs you on!
That’s two shout outs for Jason Vale’s 7 days plan, I’m going to have to check it out. And buy a juicer…!
So timely as I’ve been planning to do the Jason Vale cleanse before my holiday (and even treat myself to the £150 package where he (well, not him probably a JV minion) delivers it direct to your door, labelled up and ready to freeze. I’m worried of the impact on energy levels as I can’t afford the dip in productivity but the results I’ve seen from friends have been really encouraging and it seems to spur on healthier habits longer term.
Hmm, yes, I doubt JV himself drops off the deliveries… Good luck Lynne!
I’d love to have the will power to do this but really not sure I’d survive. Over far too many years to count (think I did my first diet when I was 11!!) I have tried so many different things but the juices appeal to me as more of a detox than a diet. Unfortunately I’m a complete grump when I don’t have food and already suffer from severe energy slumps and sugar lows anyway. Maybe I’ll just try replacing one meal with a juice for now as could cope with that and then get some of the nutrients. I think I could only do this if I could become a hermit for 3 days with no other temptation in the house but with 2 little ones I really don’t think this will be possible!!!! xx
Yes, it is hard to deal with real life when you’re on a cleanse! I think replacing a meal with a nutrient-dense juice, or having one alongside a light meal is a good way to go.
I have to say, given from your experience, that if I even attempted 5 mins of my Capoeira (a Brazilian fight/dance) class I would pass out – I won´t be attempting a juice cleanse for that simple reason as I love my thrice weekly classes 🙂 although I do like the sound of a slimmer waist! Congratulations x
Capoeira sounds amazing Lisa, and like a lot of hard work, I think you’re right, it would be hard to get through a class fuelled on nothing but juice! x
I loved reading about your juice cleanse!! I kept a detox diary during the Blessed Herbs juice cleanse which I’ve done before and will probably do again.
If you might ever consider doing one in the future, I do recommend the Blessed Herbs one – it’s a real eye opener!! Here’s my diary too if you’d like to read it. x Kate http://diamondsanddaisychains.com/detox-diary/