3-Day Juice Cleanse Diary

If you are new around here, I'm getting married in 22 days. Since January, I've cut simple carbs out of my diet - had about 15 pounds of weight loss - and since May 1st, I've been stuck. I tried giving up wine, working out everyday, saying no to my chocolate chip dessert....and nothing was moving the scale. It has been 8 weeks, and nothing has gotten me to a "new low".

Last week, after another frustrating weigh in, I decided to do a juice cleanse. I thought that it would maybe get me past this plateau that I've been stuck at for 8 weeks, and help catapult successful results over the next 3 weeks.

Juicing is really trendy here in Los Angeles so I was able to have the pick of the liter when it came to finding a juicing store that worked best for me. Pressed Juicery is the most popular - and the most celeb heavy - but it's about $50 more than all of the my other options, so I quickly put it to the bottom of the list.

I ended up choosing Juice Crafters in Brentwood. Their 3-Day Master Cleanse is $145 dollars, contains 7 juices a day, plus they include 1 free Aloe Vera water as well.

Day 1: Looking back, this was the hardest day. The first juice of the day "Greenset" is not my favorite. It's very ginger-y, and thick, and I had to take a sip of water after every gulp. The first day, it was hard to come up with my schedule of "juicing", but I found that I was drinking about every 2/2.5 hours, which did, admittedly, keep true starvation at bay. I tried to stay close to home and not do a whole heck of a lot. I didn't have enough energy to workout, and even a short walk with Roscoe made me feel a little tired.

The last drink of the day - the Almond Nut Milk, tastes very good. It's almost like a chai tea latte. I'm really sensitive to milk, and apparently almond milk is no different, but I was hungry and desperate. True to form, I was up the entire night with the worst stomach ever.

Day 2: I stepped on the scale and didn't even lose an OUNCE that first day. That really pissed me off, I'm not going to lie. I had a work breakfast that I had to attend, and while everyone was eating eggs and bacon around me, I stuck with tea. Shockingly it wasn't that hard. The juices started to become a little bit easier to get down, but I still took a nap at my lunch hour. I was really, really hungry at dinner time on this day, so I made chicken broth. Since I wasn't able to drink the Almond Nut Milk - which is the most filling juice - I figured it was ok.

Best damn chicken broth I ever did taste

Day 3: Down 1.5 pounds, but, nothing I've never seen before. I was pretty used to the juicing at this point, and I was just ready for this damn thing to be done with. I did have the chicken broth for "dinner" again.

Pros: 

• The biggest pro for me of this whole experience was that I did it. I set a goal, and I accomplished it. It was a great practice in self-control and self-discipline, and I need a little practice in both areas. I am really proud of myself for doing this - it was an easy feat. 
• It's a good break on your body. I wasn't drinking alcohol or coffee for 3 days, no junk food, chemicals, or processed food entered my body for 3 days. My entire digestive system got a break, hopefully cleaned itself out, and will be working extra hard these next few days 
• It made me crave really, really healthy foods. The entire time, the only thing I wanted was a large salad and some salmon. I'm hoping the cleanse helps me make really smart decisions for the next few weeks.
• It made me redefine hunger.

Cons:

• You don't get to eat. 
• It's expensive. It was $145 for three days ($48/day). Here is the way I justified it. Soul Cycle is $30/day, and I didn't do it this week, so really, it was only $85 for me ;)
• I thought for not eating for 3 days I would lose 6 pounds...but, when I got on the scale this morning, I'm still only 1.5lbs down. Which, honestly, blows my mind.
• It's really hard. I think it was easier to do because I work from home, and so I was able to manage my pace, stay close to the bathroom (I literally peed like 3-4 times an hour), and not have to commute.

Overall: I am really, really glad that I did it once. Like I said, I'm mainly just proud that I set out the goal to do it, and I did it. I didn't cheat, I didn't cry, I just did it.

However, I will not do it again. I do think, though, that I will do another cleanse closer to the wedding, it just won't be juices. I now know, that I could easily do a 3 day fruit and veggie cleanse, so maybe I'll give that a whirl.

In the meantime, I'm really, really looking forward to eating today.