Ian Nicoud, 22-24 March 2024
Preamble:
This is my 5th juice cleanse and my 3rd JuiceBrothers cleanse; only once have I completed 5 days (semi-successfully) and find 3 days to be a sufficient challenge and benefit.
I received my juice shipment on Tuesday (20 Mar) and upacked the first day of juices into the refrigerator, while I stored the remaining 2 days in an insulated cooler. My intention was to thaw in the refrigerator for 48 hours and the other juices in the cooler for 3 days, then to start the cleanse on Sunday.
What ended up happening is that the juices in the insulated cooler thawed just as fast as those in the refrigerator, so I started the cleanse on Friday (22 Mar) instead, so that the remaining 2 days could be moved into our small Dutch refrigerator.
In the future, I will opt for a Saturday delivery and start the cleanse on Monday.
Day 1 (Friday):
I find straight ginger shots too abrasive on my throat, so what I do is to take my first sips off the Master Cleanse and then add the ginger shot into the bottle. I start my cleanse at 8am and try to finish the boosted Master Cleanse by 8:15. I then refill the bottle with room temperature water and drink this over the course of the next 45 minutes to an hour.
I plan for the Easy Going at 10am and if needed, I make an herbal tea around 9 to bridge between the juices. I ended up drinking the Easy Going at 10:30 and again refilling the bottle with room temperature water to drink over the next hour. I had an herbal tea between 11:00 and 11:30.
Because I enjoy the Dragon’s Breath and care the least for the Celery Juice, I slammed the Celery juice for lunch at 13:00 and will have the Dragon’s Breath between 14-15:00 and drink the Force of Nature for dinner between 17-18:00. Drank a detox tea at 15:30 and half the Dragon’s breath at 16:30.
Force of Nature and remaining Dragon’s breath consumed between 18:15 and 19:00.
One thing I always forget is how cold I get when doing these juice cleanses. Hot tea definitely is the way to go between juices. Things are definitely already moving, and I have to pee every 25 minutes.
I warmed (and aerated) the Vanilla Sky at 22:30 for desert before bed at 23:30.
Day 2 (Saturday):
I woke at 06:15 with an urgent need to relieve myself and then just got on with my day. I started the Master Cleanse (again boosted with the ginger shot) about 07:45 and then took the dog for a long walk to the park. I should have known to stay closer, as after about 45 minutes I really needed to pee and still had about 1.5km to reach home; however, we made it back fine and I started my Easy Going around 09:45. I took it pretty easy most of the day, but did need to run out for some errands (timing my trips with a stop at the house every 30-45 minutes to pee). Again, I had the Celery Juice at lunch and saved the Dragon’s breath for “dinner” around 17:30. I find day 2 is always the most challenging, and while I was very hungry, I didn’t develop a headache as I have during previous cleanses. Being out at the shops made it more difficult, as the sight and smell of food at my green grocer and cheese shop were unbearable. I think that the addition of some bone broth might be a nice way to provide some protein (and warmth) during these cleanses – something to think about adding to the JuiceBrothers assortment!
I had my Force of Nature around 18:30 and again warmed my Vanilla Sky around 21:30 before heading to bed about 23:00.
Day 3 (Sunday):
I was up at 02: 30 and again at 06:30 to pee, but was able to go back to sleep easily enough and had a bit of a lay-in until 07:45 before showering and starting the day. My Master Cleanse + ginger shot got going around 09:15. The morning was such a challenge because my wife was baking banana bread and carrot-zucchini bread, which smelled so good! I managed to abstain, knowing that my cleanse was coming to an end and the hunger pains were overall less today than yesterday. However, my wife said that I’m not allowed to do another cleanse, because I get really “hangry” and short-tempered. Maybe a weekday cleanse or another approach can work better for me…
I kept to pretty much the same schedule as the previous 2 days, again having the Celery Juice at lunch and then having the Force of Nature for early dinner so I could save my favorites for last – Dragon’s Breath and Vanilla Sky.
Overall, I feel like I achieved a pretty thorough cleanse after only a day and a half and didn’t have some of my “normal” side effects, so perhaps I have been doing a better job of eating cleaner. I ended up loosing 2kg (in body fat, according to my smart scale) and maintained my usually hydration of 50.5%. I do think that doing a cleanse during the work week, when I am busy and not hanging out around the house having to confront the refrigerator and pantry would make the cleanse easier. I may also consider ordering another 3 day cleanse, but keeping 2 of the days frozen so that I can do a 1-day cleanse over 3 consecutive weeks. I’m just not sure that I have space in my freezer to store 10 bottles of juice. I’m also evaluating various fitness wearables so that I can correlate quantitative data about my health with how I feel after making lifestyle decisions, such as a juice cleanse or intermittent fast. Ideally a continuous glucose monitor would be a part of this experimentation.
My thanks to Timo and JuiceBrothers for the opportunity to do another 3-day “Deeper” cleanse!
