05 Oct Clear skin, energy and weight-loss: The 411 on doing a juice cleanse

Deni needed a proper detox, so she trialled a juice cleanse. Here’s how she got on – and what the European juice board says about juice.

I’m a huge advocate for smoothies in the daily diet but also believe in the power of juices, especially green ones, and doing cleanses from time to time (that’s drinking juice and juice alone for a set period of time).

Smoothies are just the best. From personal experience, I find a balance of greens, fruit and some nuts works fantastically as a meal. I like to make at least one a day using my Nutribullet, starting with a banana, greens and veg, adding berries, plant-based protein powder, nuts and some flax oil.

There is also place for simple orange juice in the diet, according to the official European body for juice (yes, really).

A spokesperson for Fruit Juice Matters spoke to me about the health benefits, and said that OJ, as well as being hydrating, provides lots of Vitamin C, which plays a major role in the protection of cells from free radicals – aka, it’s a powerful antioxidant. You get the recommended daily amount from just 150ml.

There is also place for complex juice in the diet – juice with multiple plant ingredients with a variety of health benefits.

For a fully detoxing effect I trialled a Plenish level 4 cleanse, which aims to provide lots of nutrition while giving the digestive system a break, leaving you feeling full of energy despite the lack of solid food.

This highest-level cleanse is very low calorie at 790 per day and limited to three days. It’s designed to be a serious alkaline balancing act, antioxidant boosting and anti-inflammatory.  It came in at £178 for three days (that’s six raw, organic, cold-pressed juices a day) and in my box there was also a cleanse user manual and information, and a glass straw.

Deni tried a Plenish cleanse

Day one was a challenge as I struggled to convince my body to go with the juicing flow (I was hungry!). I’d already been reducing my caffeine intake so I had a mild headache, but not too bad. I was very grateful when it was night time and time for my ‘dinner’ drink – a slightly thicker nut ‘milk’ juice.

Day two I woke up more tired than normal, but soon got into the flow of my day. Concentrating on work was a challenge until day three, when my focus was on point. The feeling of lightness in body felt fantastic and I slept very well, waking up naturally. I eased myself back onto solids with some melon on day four – my first day post-cleanse.

During the course of the cleanse and for a couple of days after my skin cleared up a lot and my eyes got bright and shiny – this is a sure-fire sign of a good detox.

Deni tried a Plenish cleanse – Bikini Girls Diary

I’ve been saying this since #RAWGUST (do check out my piece on this), but I think eating as much raw vegan food as possible is a fantastic aim for long-term healthy eating – this includes smoothies and some juice.

If you choose to buy a juice cleanse over a few days, this will be an investment into short-term weight loss and detoxification, and can be a remarkable nutrition re-education.

This is what I urge you to take away from it. Focus on HOW you are feeling and looking during and after this cleanse, find out WHY and employ those principles into your diet and ethos around eating.

If you want to give this a go yourself, use  my reader discount code Deni15 which will give you 15% off your order from the Plenish website. They also do fab nut ‘milks’ (cashew is the best) and probiotic drinks.

Enjoy! xox