Too often after a night out or a vacation full of food and drinks, I think to myself, “I want to do a juice cleanse.”
There’s nothing like throwing off your schedule to make you consider a hard reset in the form of cold-pressed juices.
But if you decide to actually pursue such action, you’ll probably learn pretty quickly that there’s more to doing a juice cleanse than just deciding you’re in the mood for fun, colorful juices that are basically a liquid salad.
In fact, a juice cleanse takes a decent amount of planning and preparation.
That’s where the internet comes in. Fortunately, all the information you need to plan your juice cleanse is at your fingertips, starting with this article right here.
So grab yourself a glass of water, take a seat, and start taking notes. Here are our best tips for how to plan out the best juice cleanse for you and your lifestyle.
Ask the Questions, Do the Research
Before you get started, there are a couple of questions you’ll need to ask yourself and decisions you’ll need to make.
Will You Buy Your Juices or Make Them Yourself?
The first decision you’ll face is whether you plan on making your own juices or buying cold-pressed juices from a company that specializes in juice cleanses.
Both routes are popular, and there are pros and cons to each.
Making your own juices is significantly more work, but it also allows you full control of every ingredient included in your cleanse, every flavor. Not a fan of carrots?
Keep them off your menu! When you make your own juices, you also know exactly what’s in them and can be confident that the ingredients list is fresh and natural.
If you opt to purchase cold-pressed juices, you give up some of that control over your cleanse, but due to the sheer amount of options out there, you’ll still be able to customize your juice cleanse pretty well.
Most juice cleanse companies have a few different pre-made plans for different kinds of cleanses, but they also offer individual juices, allowing you to build your own cleanse if you want.
So if you’re looking to focus just on green juices, you could build a cleanse consisting of just those.
In buying your juices, you trade full control over your cleanse and ingredients for the convenience of having them already prepared.
It’s all up to you and your priorities. And, of course, the juicing equipment you have at home.
Do You Want Just Juice, or Added Extras?
The next important question is whether you want your juice cleanse to be just the classic juiced fruits and vegetables, or whether you want to add some extras to supplement your cleanse.
When making this decision, it’s important to consider your lifestyle and activity levels.
For example, if you’re highly active on a daily basis, a pure juice cleanse might not be your best option, as you may need a little more substance to keep you going.
In that case, you could choose to include low-calorie nut milks in your routine, like unsweetened almond milk or cashew milk.
These give a little boost in protein and a change in flavor, so it might be just what you need to get through the week.
If you’re thinking that still may not be enough for your lifestyle, you could add in a plant protein supplement, like pea protein.
This will give you even more sustenance so you can remain active without feeling the effects of the lower caloric intake quite as much.
Prepare Your Body & Mind
It’s all about practice. A big part of planning your juice cleanse is the preparation.
Going from a 2,000 calorie diet full of proteins and fats and carbohydrates from solid foods to a liquid diet of significantly fewer calories a day is a big jump.
If you want to see success, you should ease your body and mind into it by eliminating a few things from your diet in the week leading up to your cleanse.
For best results, plan on eliminating these items before your cleanse:
- Alcohol
- Dairy
- Sugar
- Processed foods
- White flour
- Caffeine
- Red meat
- Gluten
You can eliminate these items one-by-one and start doing so a little sooner, or eliminate them all at once in the week before your cleanse.
Whatever your style, this elimination process is a key factor in a successful cleanse as your body will be more prepared to handle the major change in diet that’s coming.
It’s also important to prepare your mind for the mental aspect of a juice cleanse.
Such a strict and extreme dietary shift will test your mind in unique ways.
You may experience cravings, mood swings, headaches, tiredness, lethargy, and, of course, hunger; building the mental fortitude to get through these rough patches is crucial.
Practice positive self-talk and mindfulness in the period leading up to your cleanse.
You’ll need to teach yourself how to get through the cravings and hunger, you’ll need the ability to keep your eyes on the prize, and you’ll need to be mentally present and able to enjoy the juices for what they are when you’re replacing a burger with a bottle of juiced fruits and vegetables.
It’s a mental battle as much as a physical one, so do your homework on mental preparation, too.
Add this mental training to your overall plan and you’ll have a much better experience during your cleanse than if you neglect the mental aspect of the challenge.
Make a Schedule
Timing your juices throughout the day is just as important as drinking them, so having a schedule is one of the keys to a successful juice cleanse.
As we mentioned above, you’re going to be hungry and you’re going to have cravings, and sometimes, you’re going to want to reach for your next juice sooner than is recommended just to kick some of those cravings.
Making a schedule ahead of time will help you drink your juices at the recommended intervals throughout the day.
This kind of consistency will help with the mental aspect of a juice cleanse.
Most guides recommend drinking your juices no sooner than two hours apart, and no later than three.
Spacing out your juices in this way will get your body and mind on a schedule, keeping your blood sugar at adequate levels to get you through to the next juice.
Decide on the Extras
Another decision to make ahead of time is whether or not you’ll allow extra, low-calorie snacks during your cleanse.
These might be raw veggies, berries, or even clear soup broths.
Preparing your body beforehand by eliminating the items we mentioned above will help you decide whether or not you should include extras in your cleanse.
That elimination process will give you an idea of what your body needs and whether or not you’ll be able to make it from juice to juice with no snacks.
If you decide to add some supplemental snacks, make a list of those allowed snacks beforehand and stick to it, adding them into your daily juice schedule.
If you stray from your list and your schedule, you might just derail yourself and lose your determination to keep going with the cleanse.
Conclusion
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve likely picked up that a juice cleanse takes a lot more planning than just ordering a few bottles online.
Any website or person can offer you advice on what specific juices they like, but ultimately, planning your cleanse is about knowing your body, your lifestyle, and your limits.
So do your research and know your options.
The first step in completing a successful juice cleanse is to start making a plan. Good luck!