The Important Lessons Gained From a 3-Day Juice Cleanse

I have tried many of the wellness fads and trends out there, including Whole 30, Dry January, and a 7 day plant-based, whole-food diet. But the one thing I hadn’t tried and was curious about was a 3-day juice cleanse.

This winter, when I came back home from a TV gig that had me living in Kentucky for almost 3 months, I knew I wanted a jumpstart that would help me quickly get back into a healthy routine. My sister-in-law and her husband had just finished a 7-day juice cleanse. While I wasn’t up for a cleanse that lasted an entire week, I figured a 3-day juice cleanse might be the reset I needed to get back into a healthy mindset.

After doing some research, I found a company that had a 3-day program and would ship the juices to my door.

Now that I’ve completed the cleanse, I want to share everything I’ve learned with you.

Just a quick disclaimer here: While I am a recent graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and have just earned my certificate as a health coach, I am not a doctor. Everything that I write about on this blog is from my personal experience. You should always consult your doctor before trying anything that could impact your health, especially if you are on medications, have an ongoing condition, or you’re pregnant.

What Is a Juice Cleanse and Why Do It?

A juice cleanse or juice fast is a diet in which for a given period of time, you are only consuming juices made from fruits, vegetables, and sometimes nut milks, while avoiding solid food.

Most juice cleanses are either 3 or 7 days long, although some people incorporate a day-long juice cleanse in their diets weekly or monthly. As I learned during my studies with the Institute of Integrative Health, we are all bio-individuals, so what works for one person might not work for you. That’s why, when you are trying something new, like a juice cleanse, it is so important to listen to your body in order to do what works best for you.

So why do people do a juice cleanse?

There are a few reasons. Some people do it as a quick way to shed a few pounds. While this is likely to happen even on a 3-day juice cleanse, that is not why I would recommend doing it.

The second reason people do a juice cleanse– which I do agree with – is the benefit of detoxifying the digestive system and your body.

And the third main reason is that a juice cleanse gives your digestive system a rest.

How Can You Do a Juice Cleanse and What Should You Drink?

If you are going to do a juice cleanse, I highly recommend doing a juice program with one of the many pressed juice companies out there. While you can do this on your own with juice recipes and a proper juicer, it will take much more time, energy, and effort to do it this way. Also, in a world where we are making a million decisions every day, sometimes it’s easier to just follow a plan and not have to spend any mental energy on deciding which juice you should drink next.

I used Squeezed for my 3-day juice cleanse, but there are a bunch of great options to choose from, including Raw Generation, Juice from the Raw – which you can get on amazon, Juice Generation, and Juice Press.

What I liked about Squeezed is that they had a simple, 3-day juice cleanse that came with easy instructions, and a specific order for drinking the juices. Each bottle is labeled 1 – 5. The 6^th juice, a more substantial, protein packed blend of cashew nut milk, dates, cinnamon, sea salt and safflower, is recommended either after a workout or whenever you’re feeling hungry. (Side note – I’m obsessed with this juice, it tastes like dessert!)

The Positive Benefits I Experienced from a 3-day Juice Cleanse:

1. My brain fog cleared up. I felt alert and sharp throughout the day.
2. My energy levels were consistent throughout the day. I still had my morning coffee, as I usually do, but I no longer had the mid-afternoon crash that I usually experience.
3. I had more time on my hands because I didn’t have to think about where my next meal was coming from and I didn’t have to worry about meal-prepping or cooking for 3 days.
4. Doing the juice cleanse had a positive impact on my habits and decisions – I was inspired to make more beneficial choices about my health and wellness throughout the day because of the healthy choices I made with what I consumed.
5. I lost 3.5 pounds, but please take this with a grain of salt, because as soon as you go back to eating a regular diet, you typically gain back some of the weight you’ve lost.

The Negative and Challenging Aspects I Experienced During the 3-Day Juice Cleanse:

1. A juice cleanse is expensive. I paid $94.98 for the 18 juices that comprise the 3-day juice cleanse. This price included taxes and shipping.
2. A lot of the time, I was hungry, especially on days 1 and 3. I ended up supplementing on those days with a small, vegan salad in the evenings, to feel more full before going to sleep. (I am one of those people who just can’t sleep if I feel hungry. As I mentioned above regarding bio-individuality, I added in what I felt was necessary for me to achieve overall success with this cleanse.)
3. The packaging of these juices is not great for the environment. The shipments come in cardboard boxes with ice packs, and the juices themselves are in plastic bottles.
4. My bowel movements weren’t as consistent by the end of the 3 days. I’m guessing this is because I wasn’t consuming any solid foods, but it made me feel like the detoxification part of the 3-day juice cleanse was not working as well as I hoped it would.
5. I constantly felt cold, especially my hands and feet. I realize that the dead of winter is probably not the best time to do a 3-day juice cleanse with pressed juices that need to be refrigerated. After doing more research, I discovered that some of these companies, like Juice Press, offer a 3-day cleanse that consists of soup or soup and juice. If I did this again in the wintertime, I would choose that instead.  

Would I do a 3-Day Juice Cleanse Again?

So, would I do a 3-day juice cleanse again?

The answer is yes, I would. I found the positive benefits outweighed the negative ones. However, I wouldn’t do a 3-day juice cleanse again in the wintertime. Instead, I would supplement with soups or do a full soup cleanse. But I think that a 3-day juice cleanse could be a great reset in the spring or beginning of summer, when the weather is warmer.

I don’t think I’ll ever try a 7-day juice cleanse. I know myself and that would be too much for me. However, I am thinking about occasionally adding a 1-day juice cleanse to my routine to help reset my digestive system. This 3-day juice cleanse proved to me that the positive benefits are worth it.

Have You Ever Tried a 3-Day Juice Cleanse?

Now I’d love to hear from you! Have you ever tried a juice cleanse? If so, what did you think?

If you’ve never tried a 3-day juice cleanse, are you considering it now after reading this blog post?

Please comment below and let me know what you think!

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