How I detoxed on a raw vegan cleanse with juice
Since becoming a holistic health instructor in the wisdom of Ayurveda, I’ve been looking at all my assumptions about getting healthy in a totally new way. My body type needs more veggies and cool foods, so a raw vegan diet and a juice cleanse are really beneficial to me, but I also understand that it’s not right for everyone. In addition, no health routine should ever be painful; as I remain mindful in my body, I know it will send me signals whenever I am crossing the line into something unbeneficial to my health and balance.
So, I tried a juice cleanse last week.
But I didn’t strictly play by the rules.
I will tell you how it began and progressed, and how I overcame the biggest obstacles. If you’re considering a juice cleanse or a drastic diet, I hope this helps.
Motivation is Key
I signed up for the cleanse with a company, Perfect Foods, that mailed me the wheatgrass, sprouts, seeds for sprouting, and an assortment of other foods. They also offer coaching every week for their customers, and I think this is the biggest factor in the success of a cleanse like this. We get on zoom once a week with other participants and the company owner, and we talk about our goals.
If you don’t have accountability, then you won’t be motivated. Psychologically, if you know there are a bunch of people out there expecting you to succeed, then you’ll be more likely to succeed. I needed that accountability.
I am usually a person who goes all-in for things like this, but I must say that signing up officially for this cleanse and knowing it cost money was also a huge motivating factor. I could have just bought all the same ingredients on my own and a juicer, and figured out how to prepare all the meals. Sure I could have. I have a strong sense of motivation in general. But the fact that it was part of a program and I was committed was a huge and valuable component of the whole experience.
Starting Out Was Smooth
In the first two days, the program had me eating salads. Heavily plant-based food. I was so excited even after day one as I stood on the scale and saw I lost two pounds. After day three, I had lost about seven pounds. I felt so motivated to keep going!
In the “cleanse week”, the middle two days were juicing. This wasn’t so bad at first. (I speak about it more in the next section.) I actually never felt hungry. It was also delicious! I was content.
But after the fifth day, I began to fantasize about all the foods I was missing. It got mentally harder. And this relates to my next point: it was really hard to be around people who were shoving regular food in their faces.
Hanging Around With People Not on a Diet
I am a single mom. I still had to cook full meals for my daughter, and when I cook, I go all-in. I am an “all-in” kind of person. I make my own broth so that I never use processed or packaged foods. I spend a lot of time and effort in the kitchen in general. It started to feel downright ridiculous to be cooking my five-year-old daughter these delicious and labor-intensive meals that I couldn’t eat. I would watch her eat her food while I sipped on a juice. It was lame. It was hard.
On top of that, my two total juice days were on the weekend. I don’t recommend that to anyone — please juice on weekdays. Why? Because my friends and family kept getting takeout and shoving their faces with food while I sat there sipping my green juice. At one point I started making mental notes about all the foods I was going to eat at the end of the cleanse. I don’t think this was healthy at all. I should have just eaten the food with them and planned to pick up the cleanse again later, on Monday.
I think we need to stay comfortable while cleansing. After all, it’s a form of self-care. And self-care shouldn’t be painful.
If I had just eaten the food with them, I probably would have eaten way less, and I’d have been kinder to myself. In hindsight, I should have lived by the 80/20 rule, which is: stick to the routine eighty percent of the time and let yourself stray twenty percent of the time. Any routine that is restrictive can actually do more harm than good.
Final Thoughts on the Cleanse
Doing something for your health is an amazing act of self-care and self-love. Having proper motivation is key, so that means sometimes you can’t expect to do something life-changing without some kind of coaching or support. Also, it might be easier starting out than in the middle, so expect that hump halfway through. Lastly, don’t try a juice cleanse on a weekend for the first time if you have people around you who are eating take-out. It’s just silly. Let yourself stray sometimes if it feels like you’re restricting yourself too much.
