Lifestyle

Juice cleansing can give you the vitality, energy and digestion you’re looking for…

(Scroll to the bottom for $ off the cleanse I did)

After the detox symptoms pass and the will power succeeds, that is…

Spring is the time for re-sets, refreshers, transitions, and switchovers. I love it.

It’s also the perfect time to get your cleanse on. I used to think it would mess with the metabolism, but now I’ve learned that a short juice cleanse can be the thing to do if you need a digestive re-set.

Here’s the thing. Food takes energy to digest, which takes away from the energy it needs to support other important bodily functions, so it’s good to give your digestive system a break every now and then. Fasting and cleansing allows the body to work on other ‘house cleaning’ besides digesting, assimilating and eliminating the last snack or meal.

There’s no doubt about it, you will experience some detox symptoms. This is your body clearing out toxins and excess waste.

Why do a juice cleanse?

We are constantly putting food into our mouths. 3 meals a day, snacks in between. Many of these foods are acid-forming and inflammatory. Our body sometimes needs the time off from digestion, assimilation and elimination, to start working on other important aspects of being a bad-ass body!

While we sleep, our body works on cell rejuvenation and toxin removal (once our dinner is digested, which why it’s a good idea to eat a couple hours before sleeping). This typically leads to waking up feeling puffy, with white on the tongue and flem in the throat. The body is ‘cleaning up the yard’ as efficiently as it can while it doesn’t need to focus on digesting food or expending energy elsewhere. This is why it’s recommended to give yourself a fasting time of 12 hours from dinner to breakfast. Eat a couple hours before bed, then listen to your hunger signs in the morning and eat when you’re actually hungry. This has been proven to lead to longevity, prevent cancer and disease and help digestive issues.

While we juice cleanse, we’re fasting while still fuelling our cells with a super-dose of enzymes, nutrients, antioxidants, and minerals that will help breakdown diseased tissues in the body. Aging and disease come from biochemical suffocation, that happens when our cells aren’t getting enough oxygen and nutrients to eliminate wastes. Juicing will give those cells that oxygen and sweet nutrients directly!

Rather than using energy to digest, your body will be able to focus on:

• cell rejuvenation and restoration
• alkalinizing
• reducing inflammation
• enhancing your immune system
• replenishing the micro-biome (9/10 of our cells are bacteria, 1/10 are human. Since most bacterial cells live in the gut/micro-biome, we need to keep them happy by providing their home with phytonutrients and micronutrients)
• balancing hormones (leading to a better mood)
• clearing up skin issues
• detoxifying the liver
• reducing cravings
• showing you what allergies and sensitivities you have
• getting in tune hunger signs and teaching you how to eat intuitively
• lowering blood pressure
• increasing blood circulation
• decreasing blood fat
• decreasing athertosclerosis (plaque build up)
• pulling toxins from your cells and your liver
• breaking down stored, circulating chemicals
• creating new essential substances in your liver

Other benefits you may feel:

• motivation to get sh#t done
• an urge for change
• a better understanding of the connection between your body and the food you fuel it with
• clarity – easier to make big decisions without being masked by food distraction and digestion
• you will drop a few pounds, but this will be temporary. The long term affect of easier weight maintenance comes with the digestive system and micro-flora replenishing benefits you’ll get!

What to expect?

It’s not all rainbows and butterflies. There’s a good chance you’re going to feel some symptoms during the detox period, especially if you’re coming from a diet with animal products, lots of caffeine, sugar, or alcohol. But, stay strong! They will pass and you’ll feel better than ever. It may take longer than a 3 day cleanse, but any kind of short term cleanse can act as a jump-start you to making healthier choices and crave better things (like whole plant foods).

Cravings can be physical additions (especially when it comes to refined sugar and dairy). But, sometimes it’s your body telling you that you need a certain micronutrient that you’re low in. A juice cleanse does wonders for combatting cravings of any kind. Detoxifying from these foods will take will power, but you may just come out on the other side as a free bird!

Detox symptoms:

If you feel any of these, they should only last a 1-2 days if you have them. If you do a longer cleanse and on day 4 these symptoms continue to worsen, stop the cleanse and start introducing whole plant foods again.

• hunger (when you’re hungry, try to get in touch with yourself and ask ‘what am I hungry for?’, then try to distract yourself from the kitchen callings)
• bad breath
• congestion
• digestive upset and farts
• crazy dreams from your body releasing poisons overnight
• headaches
• low energy
• break outs
• diahrea
• fogginess/light-headedness
• fatigue
• cravings
• white coat on tongue

Sounds nice right? Have no fear… maybe you won’t experience any of this at all. But if you do, it won’t last and unfortunately, it’s necessary. Just like you clean up your closet, your body is cleaning up it’s business.

Warning: all the juice may turn you green…or create the urge to give yourself more self care (take a bath, do a face mask, oil your hair)

How to:

• Use a straw (for teeth protection)
• Sip, don’t chug
• Minimal exercise (light jogs/walk/yoga), or keep to your regular but add in strained, homemade nut or seed milk.
• Drink water all day… a lot of it
• Drink herbal tea
• If you need something to chew on, go for something easily digestible (add chia or hemp seeds into your juice, eat a fresh fruit or veggie – cucumber is best)
• If you feel the need for something creamy, or if you continue to work out in some way, make your own nut milk to sip on
• If you’re up for it, get a colonic or enema while you’re at it! Your colon (23 feet long) can hold old fecal matter for years. Juicing will help dislodge toxins and build up, but an enema will help bring them out of you…leaving a colon that is able to absorb nutrients again. It’s important to drink a lot of water, or do colon hydrotherapy to get rid of those toxins before your colon absorbs them back into the system.
• Keep yourself distracted if you feel the urge to reach for the cookie jar (go for a walk, tea with friends, work on your passion project, hobby it up, take a bath, clean out your closet, go see a movie, meditate, call your grams…)
• Take a sauna or get a massage to help along the detoxification process
• Optional supplements:
  • milk thistle – helps liver detoxify and repair
  • niacin – helps detox from chemicals in your system
  • B12 – every day
  • spirulina and/or chlorella – microalgae for extra detox
• Get yourself a tongue scraper! Not only for the juice cleanse, but every morning. It just scrapes off the build up on your tongue first thing in the morning. This stuff is bacteria and waste built up from the night of detoxifying.
• Get your self a dry skin brush. This is another way of detoxing. Your skin is your biggest organ and it is continuously detoxifying and shedding old skin. Get that stuff off so it can do it’s job more efficiently. Dry brushing also increasing lymph flow (your lymph is what is pumped when you work out and sweat, but this is another way of triggering it to work it’s magic for your immunity, fat loss and detoxification!)

My 3-day experience:

Day 1:

• Feels: Slight head-ache around 2pm. A bit foggy while working away. Went for a super easy jog, drank another juice and felt better.
• Digestion: great! No fogginess or lows from digesting.
• Exercise: 5 minute yoga and 15 minutes of exercises on the VibraFit (oscillating/vibrating machine that’s amazing for blood flow, muscle contractions, detoxing)
• Hunger: Wasn’t hungry. Missed the chewing though.
• Tummy: a bit loud as I was falling asleep, with all the liquids moving around
• Added home made hemp milk to the day (about a cup in total to my herbal teas), partly because I wanted something creamy, and also because I ran today. It’s ok to add a bit of protein from milked nuts or seeds on while you cleanse.

Day 2:

• Feels: Woke up naturally at 6:30 with clarity, energy, motivation. 5 minute meditation (trying to do this more consistently…). Minimal congestion, some white on the tongue. Flat tummy! I usually wake up with a bit of bloat from dinner still, which is why I always start with a big mason jar of water and wait a couple hours to eat breakfast. No head ache. A bit of puffiness under the eyes still, first thing.
• Hunger: only when I was making food for Davey. It’s the smell and being around it! Otherwise, I would be content and energized enough from the juice noots (nutrients)
• Digestion: smooth. Not too many trips to the bathroom. No burps or gas.
• Exercise: HIIT in the AM, 1.5 hour skate ski in the afternoon. Felt fatigued near the end (more than normal)
• Had homemade hemp milk in my bengal spice tea throughout the day again

Day 3:

• Feels: Woke up easily at 6:30 again. Slept great (I usually do). Barely any morning congestion! Flat tummy.
• Afternoon/evening: A bit of a head ache. Sooooo tempting to cave to the craving of crunchiness.
• Hunger: Getting in tune with my hunger pangs. Realizing how much food cravings are emotional/comforting/for happiness over just plain hunger. Once I have a juice, the hunger signs are gone. The body just wants nutrients to live off! I did feel a bit ‘floaty’, but kept myself busy and out of the kitchen/house.
• Digestion: smooth sailings. No bloating or digestive fatigue.
• Exercise: 15 minute HIIT.
• Realization: asking myself “what am I hungry for” when I feel like I want to eat. Usually it’s not actual hunger, but that comforting feeling of eating a meal, chewing, enjoying food with people. Instead of having that to look forward to, I think of other things that can give me joy and keep me busy. This is why I feel more productive on juice cleanses. I keep myself busy with stuff I’ve been putting off for a while… Cleaning the truck, cleaning the closet out, writing more. But, this also makes me appreciate food even more, and how grateful we need to be for each meal (can’t wait to get back into the kitchen to create).

Day 4 – introducing food back into ma life (Keep it light-what to eat to break the fast): 

• Feels: Woke up again at 6:30 easily, with a bit of congestion this time (body eliminating toxins). Flat tummy again.
• Exercise: Morning HIIT for 15 minutes + 7 minute yoga flow before breakfast. 45 minute before lunch.
• Food on the day of re-introducing food should be simple, easily digestible and full of plant nutrients.
• Breakfast: Simple smoothie bowl to re-introduce fibre! Kale, Spinach, Carrot, Ginger, Banana, Blueberries, Spirulina, Maca, Water. Loud tummy!
• 2nd Breakfast: Small portion of Jules Fuel blueberry cacao overnight buckwheat oats + banana with hemp milk. Turmeric hemp milk latte
• Lunch: Green Moustache Superfood salad
• Dinner: Butternut Mac + Peas, with a mega salad
• Dessert: Apple + 2 medjool dates

Want to try a juice cleanse out? 

The ‘Chief’ juice cleanse I did was made by Be Fresh. 6 juices a day for 3 days (there is a 1 day option, too).

Order it right to your door from Spud Vancouver!

Use this code at the check out for 20$ off: CRVAN-MURJUB.

Let me know if you do it! Tag me @hookedonplants on instagram to connect if you need support;)