If you start your day with green smoothies or juices, you know that there really is no better way to wake up, feeling energized & refreshed, it’s obviously good for you. Juice cleanses are a way to feel that way for more than just the morning, and reset from the sluggishness of a nutritional slump.
So, how good for you is a juice cleanse? Is it a good way to lose weight? What is the best way to juice? Can you do too much? What if you don’t have a juicer?
Juicing detoxes have been proven to be healthy and effective. On the other hand, if your goal is to lose weight, this is not a quick fix, and may not be so good for you (no crash diet ever is, right?), and there are several reasons for that. There’s never a quick fix, so if you do lose some weight quickly when you juice for a few days, the pounds (or water weight) are unlikely to stay off once you get back on solid food, especially if you don’t keep up the healthy habits. There are nutrients, like fiber, that you get less of when you have only the juice of fruits or veggies. You can really reap the benefits of a juice detox if you focus, plan, and ultimately do it right. A good idea is to pre-cleanse for a few days before starting the detox. This will help your body get ready, and it won’t be such a shock to your system-you’ll feel better. You can do this by eliminating processed foods, and decreasing animal products as much as possible (smoothies, anyone?). If you are a pretty healthy eater, the pre-cleanse can be done for 2-3 days. If you are looking for a hard reset, aim for 5-7 days of pre-cleanse. Then get ready for your juice detox.
Fruit does have sugar, and anyway you slice it, sugar is sugar. So, keep your juices vegetable based.
When juicing with greens, you don’t want to overdo it. Greens are great, as we know, but if you have nothing but your greens for a long long period of time, it may affect your thyroid, they can interfere with iodine absorption when you have a ton of them. For most of us, this is not really a worry, but keep this in mind when juicing. Basically, don’t overdo it, and keep it balanced.
Greens are our go-to when we think of juicing & smoothies, so what do we do?
Variety. There’s a lot of healthy options for red juices and orange juices. Waking up with a carrot ginger juice may just keep you looking forward to your day, and your juicing journey. Detoxing with beet juice will also keep you right where you want to be for achieving your goals. Here’s the top ingredients for any juice cleanse:
- Celery
- Cucumber
- Ginger
- Lemon
- Parsley
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Beets
- Apples
- Chard
- Spinach
- Turmeric
- Kale
- Mint
We’re not saying to avoid greens, in fact it may still be a component in a lot of your juices, just don’t limit yourself.
If you’ve never done a juice cleanse before, or if it’s been a while, one or two days may be just enough to kickstart you. From there, you may want to repeat every month or two, and increase a day each time. There’s not really a need to cleanse for more than a week, unless you have other goals, and are really a juicing expert.
Using organic veggies is really the only way to go. This is a detox, after all. Always better to make your own juices instead of buying a premade cleanse, so you know everything is fresh and nothing unnecessary is added.
If you don’t have a juicer, you’ll need to add water, or coconut water to start, the softer and smaller items next, then the harder to blend last. Start on the lowest speed, and finish on high. To get just the juice, run everything through a fine mesh sieve, cheesecloth, or even a strong napkin (or fold into just a couple of layers so the juice goes through.
We’ve got the tools to help you get going with our juicer’s detox box, and recipes for the best juice cleanses.
Carrot & Cucumber Juice Beet Energy Juice