My juice detox.

After my super unhealthy last few days in France (did you see the amount of cream on everything I ordered?!), I decided to undertake a juice detox. Mum bought me a juicer especially for my return back home! Obviously she's seen the pictures.. 

So a juice fast for 3 days - how hard could it be?

First off, buying the quantity of fruit and greens BEFORE I EVEN STARTED was eye opening (and expensive!). But this amount of goodness must surely do me some good, yes?

Day One: 

Start with a cup of green tea for a slight caffeine hit. I need my caffeine! 

Breakfast juice: 
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. flax seed
1 punnet raspberries
A handful of spinach
1 Tbsp. almond butter
Squeeze of lemon
1 mashed banana (bananas can't go in the juicer due to their make up)

I really enjoyed this juice! The almond butter gives a depth and a thickness to the otherwise watery juice, but even without the sweetness of the raspberries makes it taste good. I didn't enjoy the texture of the mashed banana in it - it's lumpy and you have to eat it at the end. Reminds me of baby food.. Yuk. You don't notice the spinach at all, so I'm getting in my veggies without realising!




Lunch juice:
4 celery stalks
1 cucumber
2 handfuls kale leaves
1/2 green apple
1/2 lime (put this in the juicer last)
1/2 mugful quinoa milk (or any non-dairy milk you have on hand)
1/3 of a fresh pineapple 

















This juice is a lot more green than the breakfast juice so I feel like it's probably better for me - less sugar, more goodness. That being said, I prefer the morning juice - probably for that exact reason! With this juice, the pineapple is a necessity - it brings the only sweetness to the drink.

I repeated the breakfast juice as I was feeling a touch peckish.. And to be fair, these juices do curb your appetite! I've not felt stupidly hungry all day.. It's more a mental thing, I think. I feel like I should eat, not I need to eat.




Evening juice:
1/3 of a fresh mango
1 punnet blueberries
1 1/2 mugfuls coconut water
2 handfuls kale leaves
1 cucumber
A squeeze of lemon
1/2 avocado
1 Tbsp. flax seeds

























This was nice, and the fact it has avocado in really fills you up for the rest of the evening. I went to bed feeling fine - I hate going to bed hungry! However, I did develop a bit of a headache but I was warned this would happen.

Day Two:

Woke up feeling light and clean.. I know that sounds weird, but I did. No hunger pangs and I slept better than I'd done in a while.

Green tea again.

Morning juice:
1 mug water
1 Tbsp. flax seed
2 punnets raspberries
A handful of spinach
1 Tbsp. almond butter
Squeeze of lemon

I omitted the mashed banana because I didn't like it, so I put in an extra load of raspberries. For some strange reason this juice was half the size of my breakfast juice yesterday, which I don't quite understand but hey, tasted good. I may have licked the spoon of the almond butter.. That's not cheating, right?

Lunch juice:
4 handfuls kale 
2 apples
2 handfuls spinach
1/2 cucumber
2 celery stalks
2 carrots

1″ ginger

Not the most attractive juice - in fact it looks like puréed grass. However this is my favourite so far! The ginger gives it a nice hit, but the juice just tastes so... fresh! It's all the tastes of summer: freshly cut grass, warmth on your neck. I think I've put the message across that I like this one! 

Dinner juice:

1/2 handful kale

1/3 of a fresh mango

1/4 of a fresh pineapple

Small handful of blueberries

1 Tbsp. flax seed

1 apple

This is basically just a green coloured pineapple juice - it's fine. Nothing to write home about though. The flax seeds didn't get crushed as well so I ended up with a sort of paste left at the end, which was rather icky. 

Day Three:

I woke up fairly hungry so I went straight for my morning juice and skipped my green tea - I'll save that for later.

Morning juice:
2 apples
1/2 cucumber
1 punnet blueberries
1" ginger
1 Tbsp. flax seed
Squeeze of lemon
1 handful kale

I may have overestimated 1" of ginger so that's all I can taste in this morning juice! Not overly pleasant I must admit. I do enjoy the colours of it though - reminds me of a cocktail!





























Lunch juice:
1 apple
2 stalks celery
1/2 punnet blueberries
2 carrots
Good glug of coconut water
1 handful kale

This was an unusual colour, but it tasted fabulous! I enjoyed this one massively, and didn't need an afternoon juice before having my evening one, though I did have a probiotic yoghurt. 



























My final juice! Also known as, using up what was left in the fridge:

1/2 cucumber
1 green apple
1/4 of a pineapple
1/3 of a mango
A handful of spinach
A small handful of kale
1 punnet raspberries
1 Tbsp. agave nectar

I whizzed up the ingredients and found it rather bitter, so I added in the agave syrup which improved it no end! Even my mother (who detests these juices and the idea of a juice detox) said she could drink it a couple of times a day if she were to undertake one.. Oh how one can change! 

So in all, it's been challenging - I definitely thought of packing in the towel on at least 3 occasions, but I'm so glad I didn't! I don't know if it's done me any good, but I certainly feel fresher - and as a bonus, I even lost 4lbs! I don't know whether I'd do any longer than 3 days, but I'm definitely going to aim to do at least one day a week - probably Monday, after the weekend binge..