If anyone follows me on social media (IG: @cwjuice) you’ll know that I started a 7 day juice cleanse last night. Although I planned on starting at 6pm, my day got away from me and I ended up eating dinner late, so I didn’t officially cut out solid food until about 9pm.
By the way, the longest fast I’ve done in the past was a 4 day fast, but that included 3 days of just water. The longest juice cleanse specifically I’ve done was 3 days. If (when!) I complete this 7 day cleanse, my next one will be for 30 days.
I will be making YouTube videos each day to keep a video blog of how it’s going. You can watch my pre-cleanse planning video here: https://youtu.be/fASysb0N8u8 Please subscribe!
I have a few basic rules:
Exercise every day. 45 - 60 minute rigorous cardio workout, 700+ calories per workout. I’m tracking this with my apple watch + heart rate monitor. I will be running, using my peloton bike, or doing crossfit (I may cut out crossfit depending on how I feel).
Weigh myself around the same time every day. Probably after I work out, since this is when I normally weigh myself. Obviously I lose a bit of water weight when I sweat, but I think tracking progress is more important than actual accurate weight.
Of course, don’t eat any food. This includes smoothies. I will only drink juice, as defined by the water pressed out of fruit and vegetables.
Here are some other points I want to make about my cleanse:
I’m not too worried about exactly what type of juice I’m drinking. I don’t have any rules about how much juice I should drink, or that it has to be 6 different recipes per day or anything. Yesterday I made 2 types of juice (a green juice and a carrot based juice) plus lemon ginger shots, and I will just drink juice as I feel I need to. I think people have a tendency to over-complicate cleanses. It’s more about what you’re not putting in your body, and less about having a specifically formulated cleanse with 6 different juices.
I will still drink coffee in the morning. If you think about it, coffee is basically coffee bean juice. Wait, does that mean I can drink wine??
My main purpose of doing this cleanse is because I want to prove to myself that I can do it. I also view this as a way to educate myself and others about juicing.
I will be posting YouTube videos on my channel here. I will also be posting updates on my Instagram story.
I welcome feedback and advice! Although I’ve been around juicing for a long time, I’m not a nutritionist nor do I claim to know a lot about doing cleanses.
It almost defeats the purpose of a fast for you to exercise. Your body is supposed to rest and heal and cannot do so as well when you are so vigorously exercising. It could also be dangerous, especially on a 30 day fast. Please reconsider. Please read ANY book on fasting to see why.
Hi again, Charlie. You asked for the names of some books that help with fasting. Here are a few: The Natural Way to Health through Controlled Fasting by Carlson Wade; Juice Fasting Bible by Sandra Cabot, M.D.; Fasting and Eating for Health, A Medical Doctor’s Program for Conquering Disease by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.; Juice Fasting & Detoxification by Steve Meyerowitz (this is my favorite); The Complete Idiots Guide to Detoxing Your Body by Delia Quigley. Most recommend mild exercise like walking, yoga, mild aerobics, deep breathing, biking, stretching or gentle body movement. Trampolining is fun & helps drain the lymphatic system.These things help to release toxins from cell walls. Rest as much as possible; by relaxing the body, you can detoxify properly, which the books go into in more detail. I hope this helps.
36 hours into cleanse everything going well so far. Did a 55 min Peloton workout yesterday for 713 calories, and ran 5.7 miles this morning for 821 calories. Energy good, mental clarity good, not feeling too hungry except for moments during the day, in which case I either drink juice, water, or salt water.
Weight difference: -5 lbs already. I think most of it is just because all the solid food is out of my body, and maybe I sweated extra on the run today. I imagine it will level out a bit from now on. There is no way I’ve actually burned more than maybe 1 - 1.5 lbs of fat already.
@Lynda_Potter Thanks for the advice and book recommendations, I will check one out when I have time. I discuss your feedback in my video above in more detail.
Excellent, Charlie !! I start mine on January 2nd… I’m doing a 10 day Cleanse in preparation for my annual January Juicing Class I teach at the juice bar. Have 55 sign ups for that already! I love being able to say, “I just finished a 10-day Juice Cleanse myself” when I teach the class so that participants can see that its totally do-able… and then, we get more Cleanse sign-ups afterward too.
Keep up the great work, after the third day you will hit that “nutrition euphoria” stage I always teach about, and the motivation to keep going is amazing from there.
Everything’s going well. Mentally sharp and not feeling unbearably hungry. Mood is good, not short tempered or anything. Energy feels good. Completed a 45 min Peloton bike workout for 756 calories.
Weight difference: -7 lbs from day 0. Really incredible how the weight is coming off. Makes me think that something I’m consuming as part of my regular diet is causing inflammation / bloating. I don’t think it’s possible that I’ve burnt through more than 2 lbs of body fat already.
If I were to be scientific a bout it, I would start introducing foods slowly one type at a time to see if any of them cause me to react. Don’t think I’m ready for that. I may plan a time to do that in the near future.
Excited that I will pass the half way point tomorrow at 9am since that will be 3.5 days. Woo!
Day 3 was hard, not going to lie. Was feeling tired and fatigued, and had to take a nap in the afternoon.
Day 4 was a bit easier, but I was a little emotionally unstable and felt short tempered. Feeling like my body needed something more than I was giving it, I decided to buy some nut milk at Whole Foods. Found some great stuff with only almonds, water salt, no gums or additives.
Weight Difference: -9 lbs from day 0. The weight loss has definitely slowed down from the first few days, but I was expecting that to be true.
I feel like I’m in the home stretch now tonight at 9pm will officially be the end of day 5. So basically only 2 days left!!
Last night was New Years Eve, but since I’m fasting we stayed in and watched the ball drop on my laptop in bed
There were some fireworks going off outside so we were able to see those through my window. Not so bad!
Today I woke up and had a ton of energy so I went and did crossfit. I was a little nervous I might end up passing out, but I did OK. I admit I am quite tired since the workout and had to lay down for a bit. Luckily it’s a holiday so I can do that.
So excited that tonight at 9pm my final day of the cleanse officially begins!! Wheww!
7 days on only juice and I couldn’t be happier with the results and how I feel.
I will admit that on day 6 I started having thoughts of ending early because “what’s the difference if I eat today or tomorrow? I can at least have a snack!”
But I didn’t give up. I knew that I have to update the juicing community on my progress, and I couldn’t live with myself if I gave up.
So thank you to everyone for keeping me accountable and keeping me on track.
I ended up weighing in at 200.5 on the last day, 10.9 lbs lower than day 1. Here is the chart of my progress (watch video above for a deeper analysis):
My skin has become noticeably more clear. There are definitely some foods in my diet that are causing me inflammation and bad reactions.
For my next vlog, I think I will track my progress as I try to figure out which foods are causing my inflammation, and eliminate those from my diet. I will probably do it this summer. Start raw vegan for a while, then introduce food groups one at a time.
Thanks again to everyone for following and sending me messages on IG and elsewhere, it really kept me motivated.
