My 5 day Juice Detox – How I did it, and the results

Welcome to the second of a three part post covering my juice detox experiment.

In the last post, you will have learned why I decided to undertake this journey, and some of the benefits that convinced me to try it.

Everyone chooses their own path to take, and for me, the path for this journey was clear.

I wanted to test my mental connection to food, and gain an understanding of my cravings and what they were caused by. To regain awareness and appreciation of food.

By the end of this second post, you will have a first-hand recount of my 5 day juice detox and what I experienced each day. You will learn exactly how I did it, so you can start your own cleansing detox today! I even took a video diary and kept a journal to share with you.

A thought for you to consider leading into this post:

Every detox experience is unique to the individual.

You can’t compare your results to someone else, or to preconceived expectations you have of the experience. It is totally unique to you.

You can get a glimpse of what I experienced below 🙂

 

How I did a juice detox, and how you can do it too

I didn’t put a lot of preparation and planning into this experiment. I knew why I was doing it, and I had the resources to get started, so I went for it!

I know that sounds simple, but I hear you asking “what steps were involved in doing it?”

Looking back on how it all turned out, I can see that I broke the 5 day juice detox process into the 5 simple steps as follows.

1. Pick a duration and set a date

Decide on a duration for a juice detox, and commit to it!

There are many durations you can pick, some as wild as 60 days! Some other (more realistic) milestones to choose from are 3, 5 & 7 day periods on a juice detox.

I picked 5 days of juice.

Why?

For me, 3 was too easy, and 7 days took me into a weekend. With the daily work routine and less social activity during the week, it made sense for me to conduct a 5 day juice detox during my working week.

The next step, committing it to my diary and preparing for my week off food!

2. Remove the temptation of food

Got your detox plan sorted? Great!

Now, go to your pantry in the kitchen, open the fridge, and take a good, long look.

All that yummy food needs to go!

I scheduled my juice detox into my calendar so I could be prepared. I spent the week beforehand making sure I used all available ingredients at hand, and not buying anything more to store in the house.

This activity was quite fun. It forced me to be more resourceful in meal preparation, and taught me improvisation and a form of delayed gratification.

I could normally have whatever I want. I just go to the shop and buy it! Not this time.

With my commitment, I had an understanding that I could have all that I wanted, but only after finishing the juice detox.

Donate to friends, hide in the freezer, feed to your cat. Do whatever is necessary to remove the temptation of food from your life so you can devote yourself to the detox.

NOTE: I found it very valuable to leave some simple, healthy items of food accessible, as it turns out my nutrition intake wasn’t enough. Nuts, seeds, and my favourite plant-based pea protein powder was my ’emergency’ stock.

3. Get equipped

I made my juice detox as simple as possible.

All you will need are the following 3 simple “ingredients” for 5 days of nutrition.

  • Fresh, filtered water – To remove the nasty chemicals that kill the good bacteria in your stomach (and lessen the cleansing effect of the detox), I filtered all my water. You can use any water filter of choice. I used an Ecobud Gentoo water filter jug, as it is Australian, and more importantly, removes fluoride from the water. You can read why removal of fluoride is important here. 
  • A vegetable based protein source – I used pea protein during my detox. Initially I planned to drink only juice, but I found my energy levels dropped to a point where I was feeling faint at times. I decided to use my favourite pea protein at these times (see my journal notes below). It is vegetable based, alkaline, and very easy on the stomach.
  • A wholesome, nutrient dense green vegetable juice – The most important part of the detox, the juice! I used Vital Greens for the detox. I’ll explain more in the next section 🙂

That’s it! Very simple, and that’s the idea – in making it simple, there are less reasons not to do it.

4. Choosing the juice

Choosing what is going to fuel your body through the 5 days of transformation is the most important step!

There are many ‘juice’ types you could choose to use. Options such as:

  1. Using a juicer, buying fresh fruit and vegetables, and creating yummy juices yourself
  2. Using a pre-packaged juice that is high in nutritional content, highly alkaline, and low in sugars
  3. Use a ‘green drink’ supplement.

In his ‘Get the Edge’ audio program, Anthony Robbins talks of using a ‘green drink’ supplement such as wheatgrass or barley grass to perform a juice detox.

Looking into this option, I liked it.

Why?

It’s minimalistic, requires very little time to prepare juices, and requires no special equipment.

It removed many of the pains I could experience when attempting the juice detox – time, money, and difficulty. I didn’t have a juicer either, nor did I want to make that investment just for this experiment.

I’d been consuming Vital Greens, a superfood supplement, for over 18 months, and was really happy with it’s taste and how I felt drinking it. Rather than choose to buy more ingredients (such as wheat grass), I decided to use what I had available, and try the Vital Greens approach.

How much did I use?

The recommended serving size for Vital Greens is 2 teaspoons per 200ml of filtered water.

In general, I used a single heaped teaspoon per glass (the teaspoon was heaped with as much that it could carry).

That’s what I did, and you can do it any way you like. There are plenty of awesome juice detox recipes and ideas out there to try.

Don’t spend too much time on it though, as you will find what feels right when you actually do it!

After all, there can always be improvement..

5. Moderating activity and affirming the objective

Morning runs, afternoon hill sprints, and weekend bike rides. Ahh the active lifestyle.

Does this sound like you? Great!

Although I made the choice to moderate the intensity of my exercise for the week, the good news is I didn’t stop, nor did I feel the need to.

You will see from my diary entries (below) that I still maintained steady exercise, which included:

  • Regular walks
  • Resistance exercise sessions (TRX and bodyweight)
  • Moderate intensity cardio
  • Yoga

Which wasn’t too different from my normal routine.

No matter what, I recommend taking it easy, as this is a very big deal for your body. Depending on your body type, your response to the detox may be more stressful than the next person.

So you’re and athlete and you worry about losing muscle mass and starving your body?

I’m not here to convince you otherwise. There is plenty of research to suggest the opposite, so long as the juice you are drinking contains enough nutrient. If it is still a concern, ask yourself:

Why am I doing this juice detox, and what is the transformation I want to achieve?

Remind yourself of the true reason for this challenge.

I was determined to test my mind-body connection with food, and experience the cleansing effect of high nutrient intake, so any loss of muscle was not a concern for me (and although I did not measure in any way, I do not feel I had any signs of muscle loss during my detox).

 

There you have it. Those are my 5 easy steps to make a successful juice detox experience for yourself. Here they are again: 

  1. Set a goal
  2. Remove the temptation of food
  3. Equip yourself
  4. Get the juice; and
  5. Re-affirm your objective.

Once I committed myself, the detox was simple to do. Sure, there were struggles with willpower (as to be expected when removing food from my life!), but I overcame these and learned so much from the experience.

I’ve got your interest now haven’t I! Are you wondering how I handled the experience?

Let’s look at my results 🙂

 

The results of 5 days on juice!

Now to the results!

If I could summarise the experience, I would say:

it left me feeling clean, clear minded, and with a thorough appreciation for the taste, texture, smell, and the social impact of food in my life.

It was an amazing experience, and I will be doing it again. More on that in the next post.

For now, enjoy my recount of the juice detox experience below.

My real life journal entries

Want to know what really happened over the 5 days of juice? Check out my raw diary entries below to see what I was doing and feeling through the detox process.

DAY 1 – 28/04/2014

Cups: 11111111
With protein: 11 (10 total )
Weight: 73.9kg

  • Energy already low from weekend holidays recovery
  • Starting to get stomach aches at 11am – I feel like solid food
  • Feeling fine otherwise
  • Going to toilet every 1 hour
  • Feeling light headed, but not hungry
  • Feeling hungry at 3pm. Had pea protein with drink. Much more fulfilling.
  • Feeling depressed and craved food. Had peanut butter and nuts before bed.
  • Recovering from lack of sleep. Depressed thought patterns and lack of drive (normal for me with lack of sleep)
  • Bed early at 8.30pm
  • EXERCISE – 12min intense TRX abdominal workout

DAY 2 – 29/04/2014

Cups: 1111111111
With protein: 11 (12 total )
Weight: 72.9kg

  • Feeling good. Green drink with protein to start
  • Went to toilet. Stool dense and green tinge. Felt very empty once finished.
  • Feeling a little hungry and light headed at 10.30am. Had another juice to get rid of this feeling.
  • Juice might be too potent. Urine is tone of yellow like too much vitamins. limiting to 1 heaped teaspoon per cup.
  • Feeling very calm and clear minded
  • Feeling faint while walking at 12.15. Had another juice.
  • Faint feeling continuing at 2.30pm. Thought about including protein powder, but held off. Another juice.
  • Mental clarity OK. Feeling some fatigue
  • Faintness intensifying. Notice sitting at desk. Caved and had 30g protein with green drink.
  • EXERCISE – castle hill. Felt drained at first, then energy stabilised once 10min in. Completed heavy cardio workout almost as normal.
  • Cheated and had a handful of nuts once home. Was really filling. Felt a little guilty.
  • Good energy. Bed at 10.30pm

DAY 3 – 30/04/2014

Cups: 111111111111
With protein: 1  ( 13 total )
Weight: 71.6kg

  • Excellent sleep. Woke up once to go to the bathroom
  • EXERCISE: 1hr Yoga before work. Feeling ultra relaxed.
  • Not feeling desire for solid food as much. Feeling content with what I have in juice.
  • No hunger. Feeling a little faint @ 2pm
  • Tough afternoon, really testing my commitment to the detox. The desire to have food, driven by boredom and dissatisfaction at work, is high, Reached a climax once arriving from work to an empty house. Caved and had a handfull of nuts. Tasted so good, but guilty feeling at surrendering to a very minimal urge.
  • Really highlighting what is in this for me – its a mental challenge. Pushing the boundaries of what I know about myself.
  • I turn to food when bored / depressed. It will be a good exercise to determine what things I can do to alleviate these feelings.
  • Weighed myself at 5.45pm. 75kg! I put on 3.5kg since 6am! What are the causes?Considering almost no solids ingested, this is very strange.Feeling tired and a little hungry before bed. Another juice! Very fatigued. Bed at 9.30pm
    • Stress
    • Emotional
    • Water retention due to the stress

DAY 4 – 1/05/2014

Cups: 111111111
With protein: 1111111  (16 total )
Weight: 71.3kg

  • Lost nearly 4kg overnight! Went to toilet twice during the night. Seem to have lost all water stored while I was sleeping.
  • Feeling very groggy. Possibly due to interrupted sleep.
  • Went for a short walk before work, practising deep breathing and gratitude.
  • Felt quite hungry and faint. Had a juice with protein. Feeling better. I think the extra calories in the protein helps. Maybe my juices are not potent enough?
  • Really quite faint @ 8am. I think my calorie intake is insufficient. Going to try increasing the strength of juice.
  • Feeling like on a cloud. Energy is average. Strange feeling where I have energy but am too tired to use it.
  • Lunch time. Green drink and protein. Starting to have more energy now.
  • Energy levels restoring. Feeling much better. Clearly need more calories, coming from protein powder
  • Feeling tons better after protein hits. Energy is elevated, although less than normal
  • EXERCISE – ride, mowing and some upper body strength
  • Weight – 72.5 @ 6.30pm

DAY 5 – 2/05/2014

Cups: 11111111
With protein: 1111  (12 total )
Weight: 70.9

  • Feeling intense gratitude for the experience. Feeling so “clean”. Hard to explain until you try!
  • Energy is much better with protein inclusion. Energy levels are good.
  • Did a set of chin ups and hanging abdominal raises and did not notice difference.
  • Energy levels during the day at work are OK, but still sub-normal, with light headed spells when walking after sitting
  • At 1pm I called an end to the detox.

There you have it. My 5 day juice detox experience wrapped up.

I touched on a few benefits in the video journal and in my notes, and there is a few more I will discuss in the next post. Stay tuned!

As with all things health and wellbeing, results are totally unique to YOU. I hope you enjoyed mine.

I would love to hear your feedback, especially those of you that are going to (or plan to) attempt a juice detox.

Until then, stay healthy, and don’t be afraid to try something different.

Magic happens outside the comfort zone….

Thanks for reading my work.

Like it? Please share with your friends on social media. The more people I can inspire, the happier I’ll be.

Until next time…..

Yours in inspiration,

Jason

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