How to do a Juice Fast - A Quick Guide to Juicing with Plenish
Just how do you do a juice fast? A juice cleanse can help you reduce your intake of inflammatory foods like alcohol and caffeine and flood your system with vitamins and goodness from the produce within the juice. It can give you a time out from unhealthy eating and kick start better habits. If this sounds like something you need, read on, and we’ll guide you through how to do a juice fast.
Clear your diary. As you’ll be avoiding alcohol and food during your cleanse, it can be difficult if you have social engagements. A cleanse should only be followed for a short period of time so you could follow a cleanse when you have a window of quiet days. A 3 day cleanse is very popular.
Get your cold-pressed juices or juice cleanse ingredients delivered. During a juice fast, it’s recommended that you abstain from solid food. You’ll need to plan the length of the juice fast you want to do and ensure you have a juicer and enough fruit and vegetables to do the plan you want to follow. Alternatively, order pre-made juices to be delivered to your home. Plenish have a selection of different cold-pressed juice cleanses that can be delivered to your doorstep and placed in the fridge at home for the length of the cleanse. This second option is, of course, much more straightforward than finding yourself knee dip in spinach and kale, and it’s great if you are short on time.
Prep for your cleanse with healthy eating. A few days before you start your cleanse, it’s a good idea to wind down your intake of caffeine, alcohol, processed and salty foods. If you are a regular coffee drinker, caffeine withdrawal can cause headaches, so it’s best to ease into your juice fast gently. A focus on eating healthily in the days leading up to your cleanse will prepare you for the fast.
Set your juice cleanse schedule. It’s a good idea to start your day with hot water and lemon. On a Plenish juice cleanse, you usually have around six bottles of juice to drink, which are 500ml each. Each contains around 1kg of organic vegetables and fruit. (It’s mainly vegetables) Here’s an example juice cleanse schedule from Plenish:
7 AM – Start your day with hot water and lemon
8 AM – Drink a Lift Juice or, if you are making your own, a leafy green vegetable-based juice. Lift is a sweet green juice with 62% vegetable content. It’s full of leafy greens like spinach, kale and romaine lettuce. It’s important that your first drink of the day is packed with vegetables to keep sugar content low.
Drink a glass of water
10 AM – Drink more green juice. On a Plenish cleanse, this would likely be Boost: Essential Green Juice or Fuel: Hard Green Juice. Boost has 75% vegetable content, and Fuel has 96%. This helps you to pack in nutrients during the day.
Drink a glass of water
Lunchtime – you may want to add more colour to your lunchtime juice and drink the rainbow. Using different fruits and vegetables helps you intake a broader range of vitamins. On a Plenish Cleanse, try either Shield or Pump. Shield contains carrots, apples, lemon and ginger. Pump contains beetroot, carrots, cherry and lime.
Drink a glass of water
2 PM – Time for juice 4. On a Plenish cleanse, this is often Kick – a spicy and hydrating juice made of lemon, chilli, coconut and lime. The perfect mid-afternoon caffeine-free pick me up.
Drink a glass of water
4 PM – Time for juice 5 and to get back on the good stuff. Adding another juice at this time can help to keep your nutrient intake high and to stave off any hunger pangs.
Drink a glass of water
8 PM – On a Plenish Cleanse, the last drink of the day is usually Savour. It’s a healthily indulgent treat for the end of the day made with dates, organic cacao, maca and cashew milk. If you feel particularly hungry during the day, you could split this and drink half earlier on.
Drink another glass of water before bed.
You can still exercise. It really is ok to exercise during a cleanse but you may wish to follow a lighter schedule and listen to how your body is feeling. You are likely taking in a lower calorie intake than you do usually. It’s probably best to avoid intensive HIIT training and heavy weights and concentrate on yoga, pilates, walking and other gentle activities.
Give your body a bit of TLC. While you are taking steps to cleanse your body, it’s also an excellent chance to take care of yourself physically and mentally. Take time out to meditate, get a massage, take a nap or apply a facemask. Cleansing is about feeling your utter best inside and out.
You might get some side effects. The side effects of doing a juice cleanse can be great and not so great. You might feel an increase in energy and feel lighter. Your skin may start to glow. However, if you have been drinking coffee regularly, the lack of caffeine could bring on a headache. Drink lots of water and, if needed, have a cup of green tea which has a low level of caffeine. You may feel cold; this is a common side effect because your body creates heat every day through the digestion of solid food. Drink herbal tea to help you warm up and keep hydrated.
After the juice cleanse. After you cleanse, you will likely be looking forward to eating meals again. Wake up your digestion system slowly and introduce one food group at a time – keep packing in the plants to your diet to maintain a healthy uptake of vitamins and nutrients naturally.
We hope this guide gives you all of the information you need to do a juice fast with Plenish. You can find out more by reading the most frequently asked questions about our juice cleanses or discovering our different types of juice cleanse. You might also like these immunity-boosting smoothies, which make a great first breakfast following a cleanse.