I’m going to be totally honest with you – juicing is hard. So hard, that I only lasted a 2 out of the 3 days.  It’s not that your necessarily hungry {because drinking 6 juices in a day with a full glass of water in between doesn’t leave too much room in your tummy}, it’s that you realize how integral eating is to your day. Eating is all about the social interaction as much as it is about the food for me, which made the cleanse extra hard. 

I ultimately started the cleanse to help my body feel better after a few weeks {more like months} of feeling lethargic. Although I did feel a little bit better those two days,  I hated the taste of most of the juices. Rather than drinking all 6 a day, I was only stomaching my way through about 4, which wasn’t quite giving me the sustenance I needed. One of my friends told me after I was craving cupcakes, “your body is worth more than cupcakes”, which after thinking about it is totally true. I just realized that my body was also worth more than not so delicious juice and the absence of solid foods – even for just a few days. 

So, even though I didn’t last through the whole 3 days, I did learn a few things I found out along the way.  To make sure your juicing adventure lasts, here are a few tricks I learned…

Before your cleanse: 

Get your body ready: The days leading up to your cleanse are just as important as the actual cleanse days. A few days before you start, get rid of coffee, alcohol,  fatty meats, and as much sugar as possible. Although it’s painful and makes your 3 day cleanse into a full week affair, you’ll cut down on cravings during your actual cleanse and be much more successful.

Identify your goals: This is the biggest thing to think about before you cleanse. Figuring out why you’re doing it will help you stick to it, or help you realize that it’s not for you. My main goal was to feel better since I had felt lethargic for awhile, but a lot of people do it to have higher energy or shed a few pounds quickly. Identify what you want to achieve and check in if you’re achieving that every morning and evening.

Tell people: Before you start cleansing, let your friends, family and co-workers know you’re committing to a cleanse. You’re bound to get a little on edge after only drinking liquids for a few days, so hopefully a little pre-warning will help soften the blow. I wasn’t too grumpy, but I hear most people are 🙂 Plus, it’s nice to have people who are supporting you while you’re on your juicing adventure – a support system always helps!

During your cleanse: 


Social Situations: Since most social situations involve food, things can get kinda awkward when you’re on a cleanse. The easiest way to avoid temptation is to try and schedule coffee dates and going out to before and after your cleanse. I found it really tough to be at dinners or parties without eating anything, so next time I would try and avoid them all together. If you do have to go, make sure to have a juice handy to soften the blow of avoiding those tasty snacks.

Drink lots and lots and lots of water: My biggest takeaway from the cleanse was that I don’t drink nearly enough water. We all know 8 glasses a day will keep the doctor away, but I didn’t realize how much water that truly was! Make sure you drink a glass in between each juice to fully soak in all the cleaning goodness {yes, that’s the scientific term I’m sure}. To make it easy, I rinsed out each juice bottle and immediately filled it up with water in-between new juices.

After your cleanse:


Ease back in: Even though you’ll want to eat an entire cake after your cleanse, make sure you ease back into your normal routine. Just like before the cleanse, take a day or two to reintroduce solid foods into your diet. Focus on eating raw veggies and fruits, and avoid refined sugars, alcohol or caffeine. I didn’t do such a great job on this, and I had a killer belly ache for a few days…

Reflect: Whether or not you made it 7 days, or 2, it’s good to reflect on how the cleanse worked for you. Go back to your pre-cleanse goals and see how you did! Even though I didn’t quite make it the whole cleanse, I did end up feeling like I had accomplished a good part of what I set out to do. If anything, I became more conscious of the food I was putting in my body, and have continued to be more aware than I was before. I’ll take that as a small victory!

Have you ever tried a cleanse? How long did you last, and how did it work for you?