J U I C E C L E A N S E

 

Ok ladies, get ready for a long blog post! I have had so many questions I want to get to as many as I can for you!

After a MAJOR sugar addiction over the past few months, I decided I was sick of feeling tired, sluggish and bloated. I can be very, very strict when I want to be with my diet planning and have previously lost about 8kg and toned up a lot - but I am a little all or nothing and when I fall off the wagon, I fall hard! I exercise at least 5 times a week, but the saying 'abs are made in the gym, but shown in the kitchen' couldn't ring more true for me right now and I decided it was time to get nice and healthy again and rid my body of all of the toxins and sugar (yes, Marvellous Chocolate and Cinnamon Donuts I'm talking about you!!)
I had spoken with a friend of mine, Felicity, owner of instagram @nutritionhealthlife about her thoughts after she did her own juice cleanse and I decided to give it a go! How hard could 3 days be, right?!
I researched a few different companies and found their pricing to be quite high. I was looking at $300+ for the 3 days and thought I could maybe research some prices of fruits myself at local shops and farmers markets and give it a try on my own.
After I posted a picture of my fruit haul on instagram I had a lot of people emailing in questions so decided to do a blog post all about it!
Here is a picture of what I purchased:

I wasn't overly specific with quantities, but I purchased a pineapple, a rockmelon, half a watermelon, 3 beetroots, a large bunch of kale and spinach, a few bunches of grapes, a bag each of apples, pears and oranges, 3 bananas, 6 kiwifruit, 3 avocados, a few punnets of strawberries, frozen blueberries, frozen mango pieces, pressed apple juice, coconut milk and coconut water (This was HEAPS and I definatly could have bought half the amount of each! Also, I bought about three quarters of this from Harris Farm and it was only $25!!! It's defiantly worth giving your local farmers market a go!)

Here are my tips and recipes for each day:

- I cut up all of the fruit into small '20c piece sizes' and divided it all into large zip lock bags according to the recipes for each meal. 

- I then put breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and dessert for each day into 3 separate 'bag days'. (I will mention now that I didn't get through each of these meals and it turns out I now have all of my snacks, 2 dinners and 2 desserts left over because I wasn't hungry at all!) 

- After putting all of the fruit into the zip lock bags I put them all into the freezer. Blending frozen fruit makes the juices super smooth - I would say similar to a 'Boost Juice' consistency!

- I made sure I put the kale and spinach in the zip lock bags last so that it was easy to get out and was frozen together, as you should blend the kale first by itself with your liquid

- I think because I blended my juices, rather than using a juicer, I had to add a lot more liquid. I was adding one extra glass of water at a time until it got to a drinkable consistency because they were quite thick using the recipes. But, this is up to you and how you like your juice! This is also another reason why I have so much left over, because each of my meals made about 1-2L of juice with my extra water added in (you can see why I wasn't hungry at all!)

- Put your kale and spinach in the blender first with the liquid needed for the juice. Blend it on the lowest setting for about 30 seconds. This creates a vortex and pulls the greens into the blades, chopping them super fine, rather than having it on a high setting and pushing them out to the sides and keeping it chunky and hard to drink.

- I dry brush my skin every day and also had a detox bath at the end of day 2 as well to make this a full body detox. You can read about the benefits of detox bath's in our post here

- Have a glass of warm lemon water each morning when you wake up (you should do this every morning, even when you're not juice cleansing) as it is a great detox for your system and gets your digestive system ready for the day.

- Try to have a cup of green tea with each meal as well as 2L of water a day (also something you should do every day!)

BREAKFAST

1 banana

1 cup mixed berries or your choice of berry (strawberry/blueberry etc.)

1 kiwi fruit

1 cup spinach/kale

1/2 an avocado

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup water

1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds

- Add kale and liquid into the blender and blend on lowest setting for 30sec - 1min. Turn blender off and add the rest of the frozen diced fruit and flax seeds. If it is thick, add more water or coconut milk - whatever your preference.

LUNCH 1

1 green apple

1 pair

1 cup kale

1 cup pineapple

1 cup watermelon

1 cup grapes

1 pear

1 kiwifruit

200mL pressed apple juice with no added sugar

2 cups water
(I loved the lunch one, the pressed apple juice made it nice and sweet! The brand I got was 'Juicy Isle, Tasmania's Own' from Coles, but you could get any pressed apple juice you can find, as long as it has no added sugar) 

LUNCH 2

Same as above, but with a whole, grated beetroot added.

SNACK 1

1 apple

2 cup watermelon

1 cup grapes

1 cup orange

2 cups coconut water

SNACK 2

1 carrot

1 cup watermelon

1/2 cup frozen berries

1 cup grapes

1 cup orange

Ginger to taste

2 cups water

DINNER

1/2 cup mango

1/2 an avocado

1 cup blueberries

1 cup baby spinach

Pinch of cayanne pepper (I added a quarter of a teaspoon and it was super spicy!!)

1 tablespoon lemon juice 

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

1 cup coconut water

1 cup water

DESSERT 1

 1/2 cup greek or coconut yoghurt

1/2 cup coconut or almond milk

2 tablespoons cacao powder (not coco)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

DESSERT 2

1/2 cup greek or coconut yoghurt

1/2 cup coconut or almond milk

1 tablespoon chia mix (recipe below)

1 banana

1 cup crushed ice

CHIA SPICE RECIPE

5 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

5 teaspoons of ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 tablespoon stevia or similar

Now to answer some of your questions!

- Was I hungry?

Surprisingly, no! I was worried how I would feel, as I normally meal plan and eat every 3 hours so I thought I would be starving! I did notice at around 4-5 pm on the first day I was feeling a little hungry so could have had a smaller juice to tie me through from Lunch to Dinner

- Did the juices taste nice?

Yes! Don't let the fluro green colouring put you off! They were all delicious! 

-Did I lose weight?

I wasn't doing this cleanse to lose weight, but yes I did. After a few days of eating normal (and healthy) food again I have put most of it back on, so it's quite obvious that it was water weight that was lost. I am still however, much less bloated and feeling better than I have in a long time! I have also noticed I am not craving lollies or chocolate at all anymore (those who know me, know this is no mean feat!) And I am also eating smaller portion sizes. I feel like it has really reset my brain and how I think about food. It is fuel for our bodies and we don't need to over indulge and bloat ourselves!

- Would I do it again?

Definatly! Because I have so much left over I am actually thinking of doing it one day a week for a while because I love how I'm feeling!

- Can I vary the recipes?

Yes. Add in or take out anything you like. I got these recipes after scouring through many different websites and finding recipes I thought I would like and could stick to for 3 days without getting bored

Feel free to post any other questions below or to our facebook page!
Happy Juicing! Ami x