The Juice Cleanse Reset Diet (10 page)

If you’re suffering from a “healing crisis,” you may want to consider a colonic in order to remove toxins quickly. Colon hydrotherapy is a gentle, odorless, and clean process in which water flows gently into your colon via a tube. When the water is released, it carries accumulated waste out with it. The process is controlled by a certified colon hydrotherapist.

After years of counseling clients through our three-day juice cleanse, we’ve come to recognize commonalities in the way the cleanse affects people. It may vary by the day, but by day 3 you should be experiencing most of the benefits mentioned below.

You’ll begin your day with a glass of warm or room-temperature water with some fresh lemon squeezed into it. This is a habit you began during the precleanse phase, and one that you should maintain throughout the juice cleanse and for the rest of your life. You also increased your water consumption in the precleanse; you should continue this while on the juice cleanse, too. Drinking water between juices will help flush out the toxins. Do not skip drinking water; this is just as important as the juices.

On the first day of the cleanse, the green juices may take some getting used to, especially if you’re accustomed to drinking sugary beverages or pasteurized juices. Choose the recipes with more fruit if you’re having a hard time with the green juices at first. You may also feel like there are a
lot
of juices to drink. Try to be really disciplined about drinking a juice every two hours, even if you aren’t hungry yet. You want to keep your body consistently fueled so it becomes accustomed to burning calories constantly throughout the day. Also, if you skip a few juices and wait until you’re ravenous before drinking one, they won’t be as satisfying as when you stick to a schedule.

If you can’t get through all six juices, that’s okay, but even if you skip one or two, be sure to end your day with one of the nut milks. If you’re allergic to nuts, drink the hemp milk because it has the same benefits. Because the juice cleanse is calorie restrictive, a high-protein, higher fat juice (like one made with nuts or hemp) at night will be very important to helping you sleep well.

If you were really strict during the precleanse phase, you’ll likely be feeling great. If you had trouble kicking caffeine, or sneaked in a few processed foods, you may experience a dull headache, feel a little nauseated, or lack energy. These symptoms are perfectly normal. You’re removing the toxins from their hiding places in your cells and organs, and as they pass through the body on their way out, they may leave some unpleasant feelings.

You may feel hungry, as your digestive system is used to working and now doesn’t have much substance to break down. And you may feel unsatisfied because you’re used to chewing and you haven’t had the pleasure of chewing solid food. If you truly feel like you need solid food, it is completely okay to honor that feeling. Have a small piece of organic fruit, some cucumber slices, or half an avocado with fresh lemon. Eat mindfully, paying attention to how the food satisfies your hunger. Drink water after eating and then continue on with your liquid program.

Alternatively, you may feel super full from all the juice and water, especially if you don’t normally drink many fluids during the day. You may also be going to the bathroom every hour (number 1, not number 2!) because of all the liquids. That may be time-consuming, but it means your body is ridding itself of toxins, so embrace it.

You may find that you have lots of energy in the afternoon, or you may feel like you want a nap. If you’re able to nap, go for it. If not, and you feel you need energy, take a brisk walk for ten minutes.

If you feel bored because your evening isn’t taken up by preparing and eating food, use that time to reflect on what you have accomplished and to practice gratitude about all the positive things and people in your life. You could also use the time to go for a walk or to the gym. Movement will help speed the detox process.

On the second day, you’ll probably wake up feeling rested because you had such a great night’s sleep. You’ll also feel a little lighter and
possibly light-headed. If you didn’t feel hungry or tired yesterday, chances are that you will today. Take a nap if you feel like it. Go to the gym and get energized by that amazing spin teacher. Eat half an avocado with a spoon if you need to, and savor it as if it’s a bowl of ice cream. Congratulate yourself on being more than halfway through the juice cleanse.

You’ll again wake up refreshed from your great night’s sleep, and should also be feeling proud of yourself for making it this far. You’ll either be counting down your juices in anticipation of solid food tomorrow, or more likely you’ll be seriously considering extending the cleanse for a few more days. If you want to extend, you should definitely do it. In the first three days, there is a gentle release of toxins that restores balance to your system. On longer cleanses, you begin to repair your body on a cellular level, which helps you achieve a state of optimal well-being.

Regardless of whether you continue on for a few more days or move to the postcleanse phase, you have succeeded in resetting your attitude and mindset, energy level, metabolism, taste buds, digestive system, beauty, and perhaps weight. Those changes will be further reinforced during your postcleanse.

In order to start your juice cleanse, you’ll need either a juicer or a blender. Juices are made in a juicer and smoothies are made in a blender. If you use a juicer, it will remove all or most of the fiber from your produce, leaving you with only the liquid nutrients. This is the preferred method for the cleanse, as it will be the fastest route to giving your digestive system a break.

If you don’t have a juicer and aren’t ready to purchase one, never fear. You can make smoothies in your blender, and still give your body the benefit of all those yummy little nutrients and enzymes contained in fruits and veggies. The only difference is that the smoothies still contain fiber.

You may be wondering, “Don’t I need fiber in my diet? That’s what my doctor is always telling me.” Yes, in general you do need fiber to help your digestive system keep moving along. However, in the case of a juice cleanse, we’re looking to give your digestive system a little vacation. By removing the fiber, the vacation starts right away, like being on a remote island with no cell phone and no email. You begin to chill out immediately. By using smoothies, it’s like being out of the office but still connected to your computer; it takes a few more days to really feel relaxed. If you use a juicer, your juice cleanse will last three days. If you use a blender, you should stay on the juice cleanse for five days.

If you’ve decided to go the smoothie route, any blender will suffice, but the stronger the motor, the smaller the pulp will be and thus the more palatable the green smoothies will be.

Vitamix and Blendtec are the most common commercial blender brands. If you have either of these, all of the smoothie recipes will be easy for your blender, and your smoothies will have a fairly smooth consistency. If you have other household types of blenders, you may find you need to add more liquid to your smoothie to get it to a drinkable consistency, because the blender may not completely liquefy some of the fruit or the ice. You can add water, homemade almond or hemp milk, or coconut water.

If you choose to buy a juicer, you need to know that there are four main types, and you can feel comfortable in choosing whichever suits your needs and pocketbook best.

The most common type of juicer is a centrifugal juicer. This is the type you see at your local juice bar, or may remember seeing Jack LaLanne use on his infomercials. With this type of juicer, you feed the fruits and vegetables through a chute, where they come into contact with a shredder disk with sharp blades that spins at high speeds while grinding and grating the fruits and vegetables into tiny pieces. The centrifugal force generated by the high-speed revolution pushes the juice through a fine-screen sieve, separating the pulp from the juice and depositing each into a separate container.

The pros:

The cons:

Recommended centrifugal juicer models:

Masticating juicers “chew” the fruits and veggies to extract juice. They use a single gear, an auger with blades (teeth), to grind or crunch the vegetable and fruit fiber, slowly breaking up the cells.

The pros:

The cons:

Recommended masticating juicers:

This type of juicer uses two stainless steel twin gears to squeeze and press fruits and vegetables. It operates at very slow speeds, so nutrient value is high. The twin gears are very effective at squeezing the pulp, and produce a high yield of juice.

The pros:

The cons:

Recommended twin gear juicers:

The design and manufacturing of the Norwalk Juicer was prompted by Dr. Norman Walker, who is renowned for his research on the healthy benefits of eating raw food and drinking freshly made vegetable and fruit juices. The current model was developed in 1934. It’s essentially a combination of two machines, a grinder and a hydraulic press. The grinder first crushes and grinds the produce into tiny pieces inside linen bags. The hydraulic press then extracts almost all of the juice by applying pressure from two stainless steel plates onto the linen bags.

The pros:

The cons:

For the next three days (or five days, if you are using a blender) you’ll reset your body by flooding it with nutrients. Think of this time as a vacation from chewing. You’ll be feeding your body an abundance of healthy, nutritious juices. Once you get out of your head and begin listening to your body, you’ll find the juices immensely satiating, and your body will thank you.

Each day of the cleanse should include six (16-ounce) juices, with a minimum of two greens, one nut milk, and one alkalizer. We have provided several recipes in each category, and the recipes include readily available vegetables and fruits. Because enzymes and nutrients are not significantly damaged by freezing, frozen fruit can also be used if fresh fruit cannot be easily obtained. Those allergic or sensitive to nuts can use protein substitutes like tofu and hemp milk. If you don’t like an ingredient in a particular recipe, leave it out or substitute something else. Feel free to mix and match differently each day, or to stick to the same menu all three days. This is your cleanse, so do what feels comfortable for you.