South Beach, Weight Watchers, raw food, baby food – it seems like every year there is a new “miracle” solution celebrities swear by to lose weight. This year’s diet fad? The ‘juice cleanse.’
The juice cleanse consists of drinking juice for three to five days. The cleanse is associated with quick weight loss, ridding your body of impurities, making your skin radiant and in some cases, helping to clear acne.
You are expected to create your own juices during the cleanse and are allowed to eat bananas, apples, carrots or celery in between juice “meals” to help curb hunger pains. You can drink water, and water only. Yes, that means no tea, coffee, milk or soda. Celebrities swear by this diet, but have you been curious to whether it actually works?
Follow me on me three daylong cleanse! As a college student on a tight budget and limited funds to buy a juicer, I will be using my blender to go on the smoothie cleanse. I will be following the smoothie cleanse diet guide from http://www.detox-guide.com/smoothie-cleanse-diet.html.
I recommend consulting your doctor first as diets aren’t for everyone. I also suggest getting your fruit from Kroger, as they have a larger and fresher fruit selection. I took some bananas, apples and oranges from Shively dining hall to save money. According to JustCleansing.com, you should prepare for the diet a few days prior to when you intend to start dieting by cutting back on foods with a lot of sugar. This will help avoid a shock to your body.
DAY ONE
I started the morning (well, more like afternoon since I slept until noon) with a banana, and then made myself a banana berry smoothie. In the beginning of the day I felt fine and I thought to myself “this will be easy.” That was until I hit dinner when my stomach was growling so loudly proving that my mango banana smoothie was not enough. The key was to keep myself hydrated, so water became my new best friend. Plus eating a banana (or two) helped with the ever-growling stomach. By 10 p.m. I was exhausted, and craving hot wings.
DAY TWO
Surprisingly, I woke up feeling fine. I started the morning with a banana and a mango spinach smoothie (despite it’s unappealing green color, it was really delicious). Yet by lunch I was starting to feel the full effects of the diet. I felt drained as well as extremely hungry. It was as if the minute I couldn’t eat junk-food, that was all I was craving. I absolutely love any form of wings, so my biggest challenge was to fight the urge to run to BDubs and devour a plate full of chicken slathered in sauce. The lowest point of this diet was when I strongly considered making a smoothie out of chicken wings. I am not proud of this. I went to bed that night with visions of hamburgers and milkshakes dancing in my head.
DAY THREE
Three days seem so much longer when you’re only drinking smoothies. It was my last day but I feared it would be the longest. They key is to remember: It’s almost over. I recommend spending the day as I did, watching hours upon hours of television and experimenting with smoothie flavors. How does a mango strawberry carrot spinach smoothie sound to you? Gross? Well it is. Though I have to admit, probably not as gross as the hot wing smoothie would have been.
When I woke up the next morning I was thrilled to be able to eat whatever I wanted, although I advise easing your self back into food. Don’t start with super fatty or sugary foods because your body will react strongly against them. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience. Darn wings.
Needless to say, the smoothie diet cleanse was an adventure and I am proud to say I conquered it. Yet my results were disappointing. My weight loss was minimal and was gained back fairly quickly when I started eating normally again. My skin didn’t feel radiant and the diet actually caused my face to breakout, as if three days without real food wasn’t enough. The only feelings I had after the diet was hunger, exhaustion and to find that my love for smoothies was gone. But I have developed great skills in smoothie making, so I guess the benefit is I can get a job at Smoothie King.
My verdict: if you are like Regina George and “just want to loose three pounds,” then this diet is great for you. But other than that, the only thing you will get out of the smoothie diet is an empty stomach.