Post Summer Detox | Juice Cleanse

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook then you may have been aware that I have been burning the candle at both ends. After a break up of a relationship I think that is normal. Saying yes to everything has meant I was drinking and eating out almost every night of the week and going on crazy party holidays. Yes I have had amazing fun over the last 6 months but my body has not thanked me. After last week's four night drink-a-thon with one of my best friends I decided I needed a detox. I needed to give back to the body that had kept me going to all of those events and up until the early hours. 

My house mate suggested a juice detox. I am not one to believe in substituting all food for blended veggies, I can't see how this could be healthy. When I was researching the Juice Diet it was suggested that one should have six juices a day. There was no way I could do that. So we decided to swap two meals a day for a juice and have a light health meal in the evenings. I also knew I wouldn't want to do it for too long, four days was long enough and I really didn't want to be starving.

I finished the diet last week and I have to admit I do feel better. So I thought I would go through my routine and give you the ingredients to my pretty yummy juice. 

I start the day with a hot water and lemon, this apparently starts the cleanse. If you like lemon flavoured things then you may like it. For me it reminds me of Lemisp and I instantly feel like I am sick. At about 9:30 I have my first 400ml green juice, I can make this last me a good hour so I am not really hungry until 12:30. During this period I can have as much peppermint tea and cups of water as I like. But by 1pm I can feel myself feeling a bit tired and my stomach starts to protest. So I go for a little 10min walk and come back to drink my lunchtime 400ml green juice. This is the same as the breakfast one. 

I have admit that after that the afternoons were difficult. I was really hungry by about 3:30 so I caved in and had a banana, which I don't really think is cheating! Again, I drink lost of water and peppermint tea and that gets me right round to home time. This has become my favourite part, I actually look forward to making my dinner. I wanted to be as healthy as possible so I stuck to steamed or baked fish with lots of green veggies on the side. Then before bed another cup of hot water and lemon. 

All in all this hasn't been as hard as I was expecting, but then I did only do two juices a day. I would not recommend this for a long period of time, your body needs fat, fibre and protein. But the short burst I did made me feel less bloated and I saw a difference in the definition of my stomach. It wasn't really about weight loss but I did lose 4pounds over the week. 

Here are my ingredients to make 800ml of juice. It cost me roughly £6.50 a day (2 juices) to make but this is cheaper than buying them from a shop where they cost £4.00 each! You will need.

1 large handful of spinach

1/2 avocado

1/2 small lemon

1/2 pineapple

1 inch of ginger

1/2 cucumber

1/2 or whole large orange

3 Gala apples

Make sure you remove the skin of the orange, pineapple, avocado and lemon. Stick it all in a juicer or blender and then decant into your bottles.  

I am also starting a diet and exercise plan in a couple of weeks which has been personally created for me as a 6 week programme. So I will let you know how that goes with before and after photos. 

Has anyone else done a juice cleanse and can recommend any to me? Leave a comment!

Stay beautiful 

xoxo

p.s don't forget to follow me on Blogloving