In the past couple of years, juicing has become all the rage; however, I never really jumped on the bandwagon. Now, since quite a few friends have come through with their juicing efforts and have seen marvelous results, I am ready to bite the bullet.
Even though my life consists of drinking lots of water and eating loads of fruits and vegetables, the past couple of weeks I just have not felt great. On top of this we spent eight days in the children’s hospital with our oldest daughter, where I slept on a couch with my overbearing cuddling husband; which was the width of two of his shoes (size twelve). Do the math and you will realize how uncomfortable and squished we were.
While we were there, I obviously was not able to cook our typical dinners. Instead we ate the expensive, not good for you food that restaurants cook. We were in downtown Memphis as well, where it can be hard to find places that have salads, or serve vegetables that are not fried. We ate the best we could, but definitely in a way that our bodies were not use too. Ever since then, I have not slept well and my body has felt BLAH; so I finally decided I would try a juice cleanse.
I gathered all the ingredients I needed for the 3-day cleanse and plan to start this week. If anyone would like to join in, I would love to know your results when finished.
If you are not very familiar with what a 3-day juice cleanse involves let me fill you in. A juice fast involves drinking juice made from fruits, vegetables, and herbs, to try to rid your body of toxins and boost your overall health. Most dieticians do not recommend juicing longer than three days. A purchased juice cleanse can be quite pricey, which is why it is great to do it yourself.
Some of the benefits you will notice include: increased elimination of harmful waste/toxins, a boost in immunity, more energy, clearer complexion, increased metabolism and improved organ health.
Juicing is not for weight loss, and although you will notice a couple of pounds gone, they will likely come back once you go back to solid foods.
Rules for the cleanse are quite simple: nothing but juices, green tea, or water for three whole days! The first thing you need is a juicer. I received a Magic Bullet as a gift, so this is what I will be using. Either a juicer or a Magic Bullet can be expensive so if you do not own one consider borrowing one from a friend or relative.
Once started, the juices will need to be spaced out to about one every two hours and are supposed to be consumed in this order: Green juice, P.A.M. (pineapple, apple and mint), green juice, spicy lemonade, C.A.R. (in some mysterious language, C.A.R. is the acronym for apple, beet, carrot, ginger, and lemon), almond milk. The recipes I am using are based on posts from Home Fitness Manual and Organic Beauty Talk.
Green juice – 6 stalks of celery, 1 cucumber, 2 large green apples, 3-4 large kale leaves, 3-4 large romaine leaves, handful of spinach, handful of parsley, 1 lemon
P.A.M. – 1/3 of a pineapple, 2 large green apples, and a couple pinches of mint (do not use more)
Spicy lemonade – 16 oz. of water, 3-4 lemons, 2 dashes of cayenne, 1 TBSP. agave/honey
C.A.R. – apples, 2 beets (stalks and all), 3 large carrots, 1.5 TBSP. of ginger, 1 lemon
Almond milk – drink 10-12 ounces of unsweetened almond milk.
Drink as much water and green tea as you want, and no alcohol. You can workout, keeping it moderate and low key. Try to pair down on unhealthy foods the week before and after.
I look forward to hearing results. Happy juicing!
April Sherrill is a staff writer for the Hamilton County Herald. Contact her at april@dailydata.com.