I have been considering doing a fast for a long time now – and finally did it.
Last weekend I did a 3-Day juice fast and it was awesome.

A friend of mine recommended a very useful website, that is has all the instructions and recipes for “copying” the popular, but incredibly expensive BluePrint Cleanse.

“The BluePrint Cleanse is a ultra-hip detox program celebrities often use to slim down and get red-carpet ready. It uses the power of juicing to reset the body and can be delivered right to your door. Just carry around the bottles and you’re good to go.

Sounds great, huh?

The price? Just $65 a day, for a round of six juices. Yikes! Exactly. That’s almost $11 per bottle. I believe it’s a good product, but there is a way to get the same results from this program without that massive expense.”

–   Mitch, Homefitnessmanual.com

I basically followed the instructions for the 6-juices-a-day Renovation Cleanse, which didn’t sound too complicated.

I decided to do it for no more than 3 days, since it was the first time and I had heard from some friends’ experiences than one can feel somewhat weak after a few days, which doesn’t work great with going to uni and work. So doing it over the weekend was perfect.

Basically, you drink 6 juices a day, 5 different ones, the first one you repeat once more during the day. And you do exactly the same every day. In between the juices you can drink green tea or water. I really enjoyed the tea, since without having a proper meal this will keep you a little warm at least.

I bought everything I needed beforehand and used a standard  blender.

You won’t need to have a juicer.
What the website doesn’t explicitly say how exactly you get rid of all the pulp, though. I didn’t figure that out until I was halfway through the first day. Ouh, believe me, vegetable juices with pulp are really hard to stomach.

I almost quit until I realised that I could simply use a piece of cotton cloth to press out all the juice. After doing that all the juices were so much better and really, really tasty!

Since I couldn’t find all of the ingrediences or didn’t like some of them, I changed the recipes a little and left out some ingrediences. So my “what’s inside” differs a bit from Mitch’s version. You can find the full recipes here.

Here are the juices!

 The Green Juice. (Juice 1+3)

What’s inside:
green apples, cucumber, spinach, parsley, romaine salad, lemon juice

Is it tasty?
It’s hard to believe – but yes! This is the juice you start every day with and repeat once more during the day. It’s fresh and tastes mostly of apples and cucumber. Spinach and parsley make it look wonderfully green, but you won’t taste much of it.
My second favorite!

P.A.M. – Apple, Pineapple & Mint.

What’s inside:
green apples, pineapple and a bit of mint (for the taste)

Is it tasty?
It definitely is. Once I got rid of the pulp it was my absolute favorite!

Spicy Lemonade.

What’s inside:
lemons, cayenne pepper, honey

Is it tasty?
It’s tasty at first, but you can’t drink a whole glass of fresh lemon juice + cayenne pepper just like that. Drink it slowly!
Instead of agave nectar I added a tablespoon of honey, but it didn’t really dissolve. So I heated it up in the microwave – much better afterwards. The next day I just left out the honey at all.

C.A.R. – Carrot, Apple, Red Beet.

What’s inside:
green apples, carrots, beet, lemon juice

Is it tasty?
Well, not really. The first sip is ok, but it got worse afterwards. Beet is just not my cup of tea. But I got used to it rather  quickly. It wasn’t that bad at all any more on the third day.
Add a little bit more water and drink it cold  – that was much better.

Cashew Milk.

What’s inside:
raw cashews, cinnamon, honey (if you like)

Is it tasty?
Yes. But the consistency is a bit weird. You have to let the cashew soak in water for 6-8 hours before blending them, but there still will be tiny grains after blending, since the nuts don’t ‘dissolve’.
I’d definitely prefer nibbling a handful of cashew instead of drinking the milk. But it’s a nice treat after the beet juice.

The experience:

I’d definitely recommend this cleanse to anyone that would like to try a juice fast. The recipes are not to complicated and all in all pretty tasty.

For beginners I would also recommend sticking to the 3-Day fast.
Try eating less and no heavy dishes on the day before you start the fast, maybe skip dinner for some vegetables or fruit.

The first day was the worst. I wasn’t really hungry, just craving coffee and chocolate very badly, but it got way better on the second day.

For whatever reason I got really hungry on the third day, but since it was the last day it was pretty bearable.

I started to get headaches on the third day, as well.  Salt deficiency causes headaches and weakness. After I added hald a teaspoon of salt to the next vegetable juice, the headaches vanished immediately.

 

Résumé:

I myself don’t believe in the longlasting effect of so-called ‘detox-diets’, which is quite a marketing myth.
But drinking nothing but healthy, freshly squeezed juices for three days without consuming proceeded sugars, saturated fats etc. is a very healthy change and helps breaking some bad unhealthy eating or drinking habits.

I felt really energised during the juice fast. Before I used to feel rather sleepy all day and not really fit.
Well, the effect didn’t last, but the fast helped me to break with some of my bad chocolate and coffee habits. I’m quite a coffee junkie, but now am trying to fast coffee for a while longer. I also do drink more water or fresh juices during the day now.
And once in a while I try to swap dinner or dessert for a fresh vegetable juice.