3 day juice cleanse

As many of you may have seen, we decided to do a 3-day juice cleanse. Multiple people reached out asking what we were doing, what was in our juices, and if we liked it. So, here we are to tell you all about it. We will also include a juice meal plan along with a grocery list for you!

First off, we are in NO WAY health nutritionists, the sole purpose of this is to share our journey and how WE did our cleanse. Juice cleanses are a good way to “reset” your body after things like a vacation or the holiday season. Additionally, they are a good way to enter a new diet or healthier lifestyle change you plan to implement. It’s not really a smart move to do a cleanse and then completely ruin it by eating terrible the day after. Therefore, a nice light but healthy meal should do the trick. We would also highly recommend that you ease your way into the cleanse by eating healthier the day before you begin…. you’ll see why below.

Now, everybody does juice cleanses different depending on the length of days and how many juices they plan to drink a day. We planned to drink 3-4 juices each day and that was just our preference.

We used our Hamilton Beach Juicer (which we LOVE by the way!) linked here. We bought our groceries at Aldi, and Winn-dixie. Publix works just as well but sometimes can be on the more expensive side. Keep in mind, fruits and veggies DO NOT have to be perfect because you’re juicing them anyways.

Day 1:

Since I am (Shay) the one writing this, I’ll share MY experience and then I’ll share about Steph’s at the bottom.

I’ll be completely honest here, I thought I was going to do A LOT worse than I did on day 1. I mean, coming from somebody who DOES NOT in any way eat “healthy” and NEVER works out, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into or how my body was going to react. However, I woke up in the morning ready to get the ball rolling. I drank a glass of water with Apple Cider Vinegar before leaving the house around 8:30am.

I had a FULL day of graduate classes on my first day so, I had to bring ALL of my juices for the day with me. I packed them in my son’s lunchbox (no shame, it’s ADIDAS). I added some cooler packs and they stayed cool all day.

I drank my first juice at about 10am (mind you, I’m usually a late breakfast eater). It was good, I liked the taste and it also went down super smooth. I drank it all in about 20 minutes.

I didn’t start to feel “hungry” until about 12:15pm but I had planned to drink my next juice at around 1pm. The hunger wasn’t anything out of this world that I needed to control so waiting the 45 minutes wasn’t anything serious.

At 1pm like planned, I drank my second juice. This one had beets in it so the flavor was A LOT stronger (mind you I don’t normally really like beets) but it was actually easy to drink. This time around was a little harder for me to not have a craving to eat BUT I solely think this was because I was in a cafeteria sitting around people who were eating delicious smelling food (lol). I like to torture myself apparently!

At 4pm I went to my next class and started to feel hungry so, I drank my third juice which was just a snack juice. I had this extra juice because one or two of our juices made a little extra so we just stuck them in another bottle and designated those bottles our snack juice.

I was on my way home at 7pm and that is when I had planned to have my fourth and final juice. This was the hardest juice to get down and I’m not sure if it was because of the juice itself or the fact that I was just tired of drinking by this point. This one included carrots, turmeric, and ginger in the recipe which are all really strong flavors but again, nothing that I couldn’t drink successfully.

At about 8pm we started prepping our juices for day 2. I would say that I didn’t start getting “hungry” again until about 10pm. To fight the urge, I went to sleep lol!

Side note: I drank water with lemon throughout the day in between juices. Also, be prepared to go to the bathroom A LOT. After all, you are drinking a lot of liquid!

OVERALL THOUGHTS FOR DAY 1: Surprised that I successfully completed it, equally as surprised that I didn’t have a headache, and excited to get to day 2!

Day 2:

I woke up a little disappointed because I read all these things about how day 2 is the “honeymoon phase” and you’ll be energized. I woke up EXHAUSTED! I don’t know if that has anything to do with the fact that I just had a LONG day the day prior or what but I was tired!

Anyways, I drank another glass of water with Apple Cider Vinegar before heading out in the morning. This day I had a bit of an earlier start, so I drank the water around 7:20am.

I didn’t even really feel “hungry” but knew I needed to start so I had my first juice around 9am. I really liked this one because it had lots of different fruits in it.

Around 11:20am I was feeling hungry. This time more intense than the other times. I knew I needed to hold off a little though. I drank my second juice at 12:30pm, I had planned to have it at 12pm but I got a little tied up. I noticed I was past my scheduled time because I felt a headache come on around 12:10pm. It wasn’t a TERRIBLE headache but I felt it enough for it to bother me. I didn’t take anything for it, just drank my juice. I really liked this juice too, it felt very smooth and light.

My headache got worse and lasted throughout the day fluctuating in intensity. I would say it didn’t “go away” until about 8pm (mind you I’m a coffee drinker so it could be a result of caffeine withdrawal).

I honestly wasn’t in the mood to even drink my snack juice. I had a headache and as much as I was HUNGRY (really hungry) I was also tired. So, when I got home around 4pm, I decided to take a nap. When I woke up I had my third and final juice of the day (skipped snack juice today) which was around 7pm.

Later in the evening, I started feeling body aches mostly in my legs almost as bad as when you’re getting sick and your body starts aching. I read that body aches along with multiple other symptoms can be common. I took a bath to see if it would help, and it did. However, my headache came knocking back on my door. I also started feeling light-headed and nauseous. I drank some water and went to sleep for the night around 10:30pm.

Most people will probably wonder why I didn’t just give in and eat something or at least snack (because some people who juice say snacking on an avocado or nuts can help). Well, I was determined to get through this solely juicing and that was just my personal goal in this journey.

OVERALL THOUGHTS FOR DAY 2: THANK GOD IT’S OVER! Today was a really rough day for me…and i’m still really confused as to why this happened to me on the second day versus the first when most of the side effects are supposed to appear.

Day 3:

YAY, it’s the last day! I woke up a little less tired than yesterday but I was really excited to be on my last day after the day I had yesterday. I checked my weight and noticed I was about 3-4 pounds less than when I started on day 1 and my stomach also looked and felt much flatter.

I started my day again with a glass of water with Apple Cider Vinegar around 7:20am.

My stomach started growling at around 8:15am today but I decided to hold off on drinking my first juice until 9am.

At 9am I started my first juice, an all fruit juice which was super tasty. It did take me a lot longer to drink this juice than normal but I’m sure that’s just because after 48 hours of only drinking juice, I was over it LOL.

I started getting belly grumbles around 12pm but this time I actually pushed starting my second juice until 12:30pm. This was the hardest juice to get down just because of the combination of ingredients but I kept telling myself it was the last day and of course everything in it was good for me.

I had my third juice (snack juice) around 4pm which was a combination of two of our juices that made extra. Then I had my fourth and final juice around 7pm.

OVERALL THOUGHTS FOR DAY 3: I felt much less tired than yesterday, I did NOT have a headache at all, and I wasn’t as hungry throughout the day. However, I was SOOOO READY TO EAT THE NEXT DAY!

The morning after & results:

If I didn’t tell you I felt like a kid in a candy store I’d be lying to you. I HAVE NEVER been happier than I do now to actually chew real food. Keep in mind, we are now transitioning to a cleaner eating style (for a little while, lol) so my meals today will still be somewhat light.

I lost a total of 4 pounds over the three days, my stomach is flatter, and I overall feel less bloated. Today I also woke up much easier than I did over the last 3 days, and I’m feeling ready for the day!

Quick update on Steph’s experience: She didn’t have the same reaction as me for day 1. She actually had a massive headache most of the day which was probably her body telling her that it was in shock. This is why at the beginning I suggested that you ease your body into a cleanse by eating a healthier meal the day before. To be honest, I thought this reaction was the reaction that I was going to end up with because I actually eat worse than Steph on a normal basis. Also, I’ve tried to “eat healthier” before (maybe once or twice lol) and this is the reaction I ended up with…HEADACHES! She also says that she felt extremely hungry throughout the day. Day 2 for Steph was a breeze, she didn’t have a headache at all but she did still have some cravings. On day 3, she woke up feeling super energized and refreshed. She claims that her vision felt much clearer than usual also!

I wouldn’t suggest doing anything less than 4 juices ( including the snack juice-using leftovers) a day. We had originally planned to do 3 but thankfully our juices provided extra so we were able to have 4 a day. Like I’ve mentioned I felt minimally “hungry” (except for day 2) but I know anything less than 4 juices would have resulted in more hunger. This is why some decide to do 5 and 6 juices a day but for us, that was just TOOOO much liquid, LOL.

OVERALL: This goes to show that TWO people doing the exact same cleanse can have totally DIFFERENT results and reactions. Despite Steph’s rough first day and my rough second day, I think it’s totally doable and worth it. My body today after 3 days feels lighter and less bloated! I know that the cleanse worked because what goes in must come out amiright? lol. So, if you’re willing to give up the act of chewing for 3 days to really cleanse your body then go for it!

I hope you found this helpful and if you have any questions please do NOT hesitate to reach out to us– we’re happy to help! Now as promised, here is the meal plan and grocery list if you’re ready to take the plunge!