5-Day Juice Fast | Everything You Want To Know
Happy Friday! Do you have any idea how *glad* I am that Friday is here?! I started a 5-day juice fast on Sunday and I get to eat this morning! Woot! This has been a really good thing for me. I really do feel physically better, more emotionally balanced and mentally clearer. That sounds weird, I know. But it’s a fact.
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Why did you do a juice fast?
I’ve been feeling kind of sluggish and blah lately and I really felt like my body just needed a good detox. My baby recently weaned, so it was the perfect time to start a good detox. I also watched Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead not long ago and the results from juicing were incredible. I was inspired to just go for it.
Did you follow a specific plan?
The short answer? No. I’m a free spirit and like to do my own thing. I used this handy tool called Google and read a bunch of different recipes. I thrive on creating delicious and beautiful things in the kitchen, so I just played with different ingredients and came up with combinations that I love.
How did you know what ingredients to purchase?
I used my “recipe” combination ideas to put together a master grocery list. I’m not going to tell you exact amounts of different ingredients because I mixed and matched fruits and vegetables to make all kinds of different combinations. However, I will tell you the main ingredients that I juiced for five days.
What juicer did you use?
A few months ago, I bought this Juiceman Juicer at Target for right about $70. It doesn’t have stellar reviews on Amazon, but I haven’t had any problems with it and I’m very happy with how it works. 🙂 Clean up is quick and easy.
Juicing Tips & Tricks
- Prep ingredients before you begin juicing. This makes the process go much faster.
- If you’re juicing for three meals a day, juice once and store juice in the refrigerator.
- Homemade juice doesn’t last very long in the refrigerator, so drink it within 24 hours or so.
- Clean up your juicer immediately following use. Dried pulp isn’t fun to clean up and you definitely don’t want to feed fruit flies.
- The key to enjoying juiced vegetables is including enough fruit, herbs and ginger root to give it a little sweetness and flavor.
- I’m a weirdo and I enjoy drinking colors – green, orange, pink. I don’t think brown looks as appetizing, so I focused on trying to drink colors that make me happy.
- I adore these 1 1/2 pint jars. They are the perfect size for juice on the go!
Can you share some of your favorite recipes?
Absolutely! Here are four of my favorites….
Delicious Carrot Apple-Beet Juice
Watermelon Cucumber Juice {with cilantro}
How do you feel since your juice fast?
Well, I feel a lot better. My tummy feels better and much less bloated, my energy level has increased and I’m not as emotional. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but if your liver needs to be detoxed it can make you act a little cray-cray. Not that I would know anything about cray-cray or anything. 😉
I lost at least eight pounds during the juice fast. I’m interested to see if any of it comes back when I begin eating again.
During my juice fast, I jumped on the trampoline, dry brushed before showers or baths and did Epsom salt soaks with amazing lavender essential oil. All of this helps with the detox process.
What is your plan from here?
I plan to eat Whole30 for a while and juice for one meal a day. We will see how it goes!
Have you ever done a juice fast? Do you enjoy juicing? Hit me up with questions and comments below! 🙂
Happy Labor Day Weekend-ing!
xoxo
Myra
You inspire me! I am not a juicer but have wanted to try it. I’ve watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and watched it make an impact on friends of mine. After reading you blog earlier this year I researched Whole 30 and we changed to a Paleo lifestyle. Thank you for sharing your experiences, you are making a difference 🙂
When I juiced several months ago, the kale did me in. Ugh! I made the mistake of sticking the whole thing–leaves, stem and all–in the juicer instead of pulling the leaves off the stem and just using the leaves. Your green recipe using spinach and celery looks much better to me! 🙂 And the tip about juicing once a day is great! It seemed that I was juicing and cleaning up all day long. Your tips will definitely help me toward better success the next time! 🙂 Thank you! 🙂
I was curious if you had any digestive discomfort during the fast. I have chronic digestive problems, and one night after drinking a celery, red pepper, and carrot juice, I was up all night with severe stomach cramps. That experience has made me very reluctant to try a juice fast, although I really wanted to before.
Are you still nursing? I’m just curious to see if you had any dips in milk supply if so.
ALSO, I keep expecting you to jump on the Trim Healthy Mama bandwagon! It’s right up your alley, by 2 AMAZING, Christian women and has made a HUGE difference in my family’s life! I’m sure you’ve checked into it, but it just fits into life so easily, I can’t help but highly recommend it 😀
I love juicing. it is the best I ever felt in my life. unfortunately the finances don’t allow for it right now. I have a juiceman and its fantastic. have had it for 4 yrs and no problems at all.
I’ve never done a juice fast but would love to someday! I have been thinking about investing in a juicer for some time now.
Ashley @ Wishes and Dishes´s last blog post ..Labor Day Weekend Recipe Roundup
I wouldn’t store juice…The antioxidants and other phytonutrients start to break down once they are exposed to light and air. Basically your micro-nutrient food will turn into sugar. Drink it up, quickly, preferably within 15 minutes of juicing.
Juicing is fun and after a while you start craving it. Fully Raw Kristina is a great source of recipes and encouragement. She has a great chart showing you which fruits and vegetable should or should not be mixed together. Young and Raw is also a great site with nutritionists formulating recipes, all well-researched.
Carrot, apple, spinach and celery is one of my favorites! Not as beautiful to look at as some juices but the benefits are worth it! Living Raw Foods and hacres.com are great resources.
Hi! I just want to tell you that juicing is wonderful. 8 years ago I found a Master Cleanse Juicing. It helped me so very much. You see, I have rheumatoid arthritis for 28 years now. Eight years ago I was in really bad shape. I ate all organic food, I took many “good” vitamins, I went to local pool to exercise. And I felt worst every day. By then I needed wheel chair in grocery stores. All doctors could do, is to give me more powerful pain killers, which I refused to take. And one day, as I was shopping in a Natural store I picked this small yellow $6.00worth book. It was Master Cleansing by lemonade juicing. I bought that book. And it saved my life. First I did 14 day fest on lemon, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. Three month later I did 20 days, then 3 month later 10 days. I continued to do this every three month for three years. I feel really good. I watch what I eat. I can walk 3 miles, swim, do household chores, where’s before I needed help with my clothes, and everything else. Now I do vegetable cleanse for 5 days every 2 month. But I have sensitivity to kelp and most salad greens, so I do carrots, beets, apples, ginger, celery, and dandelion greens. I am on completely gluten free diet. No red meats, specially beef and pork. Our daughters go on vegetable juicing and they feel so much more energetic after. So, I believe that everybody should look what works for them and do it. I spent thousand of dollars on all kind of natural products and vitamins. But most of them have gluten and dairy and preservatives, which were exactly, what my body was negatively reacting to. I forgot to tel, that dairy is poison to arthritic people. Person has to be dairy free for three month to see the difference. No cheese, milk yogurt, ice cream, Alfredo souse for pasta, or anything else that uses milk. I eat a lot of avocados, coconut oil, cucumbers, fish, shrimp. No fruits, except 1 apple a day, and watermelon. Fruits have to much sugar and acid in them. So, I thank, you for telling people about juicing, because if its done properly its a wonderful help for mankind. P.S. Some negative people trying to convince people that Master Cleanse harms people as we lose muscle on it, and I would like to tell everybody that I felt so good, that I started to exercise more that my muscle mess got much better, then it was before cleanse.
I just need to know how you felt during the juice fast I can’t put my life on hold so would I feel really crappy the whole time or would I be pretty much fine?
Oh Britt! Trust me. I can’t put my life on hold either. I’m a VERY busy mom of two little men. 🙂 I was fine Day 1. Day 2 I just wanted to eat something. I didn’t feel bad, but I wanted to chew. Ha! After that Days 3-5 were a breeze. I didn’t want to stop juicing except I wanted to eat/chew. I’m juicing one meal a day now and honestly I’m blown away with how good I feel. My energy level is amazing! 🙂
I read somewhere that you can make jello with the juice if you really want something to chew on. Have you heard about that, I have gelatin here, would that be allowed?
I’ve not heard of that before. 🙂
Hi. I was just wondering if you exercised during your fast? That would make me more hungry if I did. What do you recommend? Thanks so much for sharing with us/me. I just started your juice fast today. Thanks.
I exercised lightly. Just on an exercise bike. 🙂
Did you juice 3 times a day? What about protein….did you use any in your juice?
Thank you!
~blessings,
Kelly
You should consume about 4-6 juices a day with 16oz of water after every juice. Breakfast, lunch, & dinner and listen to your body if you start feeling hungry consume a juice drink. 🙂
Very timely, I’ve been planning to do a juice fast. I haven’t done one in a while due to finances. Do you only use organic fruits and veggies? I have also done the Master Cleanse that Alicia mentioned. I know if I can do that for 8 days that I can do a juice fast for 5.
Okay, I see so many recipes and so many people on the juicing bandwagon. I don’t know anyone personally who has done it so I have no one to ask this, but truly does this have one running to the bathroom nonstop? I work full time at a law office with public restrooms only. I don’t want to offend anyone (if ya know what I mean). I also don’t want to have to explain to my boss why I am away from my desk so much…
I didn’t have to run to the bathroom constantly, but it might be an adjustment near the beginning. 🙂
I did a juice fast once, for 3 days. Followed a few recipes. Was not bad and I love most of the juices. I use a VitaMix! So you get both juice and some pulp. Does renew one! Is harder the first day as you may think you are hungry. After that day, the body adjusts. Eventually I even lost a pound. I would not follow it for more than the 3 days and most likely not more than every other month or so. Use healthy vegetables and fruits and drink more water, too.
This post is sure inviting, I want to try this way of fasting, what I used to do is the intermittent fasting where you can eat only for about 8hrs and nothing for the succeeding 16hrs, I’m looking forward to this.
Studies show that people that use vegetable drinks in their diet do not gain weight as compared to those that do not do this. It is beneficial to those people that want to look slim and smart to use vegetable juice as a drink. Most vegetables have low calories and carbs. And also have a high content of water that is very beneficial to lose weight.