After a particularly long weekend of going out and eating anything and everything around me, I decided it might be time for a quick reset. I heard from friends that juice cleanses were a great, easy way to restart your system and get back to eating healthy, so I decided to see if there were any juice places nearby. It didn’t take long to find Southern Squeezed, a local fresh juice place that offers one, three and five day juice cleanses.
I’ll be the first one to admit that a juice cleanse is not cheap, even at Southern Squeezed it costs just over $43 dollars per day for the six juices you get in a cleanse. But, after thinking back to my weekend of Jimmy John’s, Cookout and Dano’s- just to name a few, I decided I needed to bite the bullet. So, on Tuesday, I went to Lady Street and picked up my three-day supply of juices. Here’s a timeline of my ~cleanse~!
Tuesday October 3rd, Mean Girls Day
8:30 a.m.- I woke up, answered emails and got ready for the day. I had to drop my car off to get repairs, but before I did that I knew I needed to pick up my juices.
9:30 a.m.- I picked up my juices. I got six juices per day, inclusive of three “green” juices for breakfast, lunch and dinner and three “snack” juices to drink between them. I remember thinking that six juices would never be enough, but boy was I wrong.
10:00 a.m.- I had just dropped my car off and started drinking my first drink. It took me close to two hours to finish it. Although six drinks may seem like nothing at first, I quickly realized how filling they were!
11:40 a.m.- I went to class and grabbed my second juice. The “snack” juices were a little bit better tasting than the green “meal juices.”
1:00 p.m.- I came home and wrote/edited articles for a few hours. I was still drinking my second drink of the day when I started. My roommate came into my room and ate everything bagel pretzel crisps. It took everything in me not to have a few.
4:00 p.m.- I drank another “meal” drink before heading to the gym. While at the gym, I did 40 minutes of cardio and some abs. If you plan to workout while on a juice cleanse, I’d recommend adding a protein powder to your drink.
6:45 p.m.- I picked up a black tea before our Her Campus South Carolina team meeting.
7:30 p.m.- After the meeting another one of my roommates got chipotle, so while she ate her chicken bowl, I sipped on a juice. I skipped my a “snack” and last “meal” drink for the day for the end-of-day almond milk drink.
All-in-all, the first day wasn’t bad. I didn’t feel very hungry or tired, but I was definitely ~tested~ a few times thanks to my roommates. I ended up only finishing four of the six drinks, so my goal for the next day was to space them out better and try to stick to a schedule.
Wednesday October 4th, National Taco Day
8:30 a.m.- I basically followed the same routine as yesterday—woke up, answered emails and got ready for class. Except for today, I grabbed a juice as soon as I woke up in the hopes that I’d be able to finish all six.
11:00 a.m.- I left for my first class of the day. As I was running out of the house, I noticed that I was still sipping my breakfast juice, so I grabbed my lunch juice before leaving.
2:20 p.m.- On my way to my second class of the day. I had finally finished my breakfast juice and started my lunch juice. I made a quick reminder to drink a “snack” juice when I got home. By this point, I felt really tired and noticed it was harder for me to concentrate.
3:30 p.m.- I went shopping for big/little reveal gifts with my grand little. I can’t believe I’m already a great grand big—where does the time go! I finished my second drink of the day.
4:30 p.m.- As soon as I got home I grabbed a snack drink. I had avoided my snack drink earlier today because it had beets and parsley in it, two things I’m particularly not fond of. My goal is to finish this drink and grab my last meal drink before heading to my last class. Spoiler alert: this drink actually ended up being one of my favorites!
5:10 p.m.- I grabbed another “snack” drink before heading out for my last class of the day. I finished my previous drink really fast because I started doing a “power minute.” I know that sounds so weird, but I’m not great about remembering to drink, so it ends up taking a few hours for me to finish a drink. This ~fun~ game was a great way to keep myself on focus for five or so minutes until I finished it. I noticed I got a lot more energy from drinking the drink faster, too.
7:00 p.m.- When I got home from class I grabbed my last “meal” drink and drank that while finishing work.
8:40 p.m.- Came back from getting a spray tan and slowly drank the last drink of the day with my roommates while they ate dinner.
Overall, this day was much better than yesterday. I remembered to drink all of the drinks. With that being said, I still felt really tired and had a hard time focusing in class. I didn’t end up going to the gym today because I was just too tired. Really proud of myself for not getting a taco even though it was national taco day and every bone in my body was screaming that I #deserved one.
Thursday October 5th, *thankfully* not a special holiday
8:30 a.m.- I woke up and did the same things I do everyday, except today was my roommate’s birthday, so I ran into her room and woke her up singing “Happy Birthday.” After, I grabbed a morning juice.
11:00 a.m.- I started drinking my second juice of the day—it was a light grapefruit drink. I thought it was going to be my favorite drink but it ended up being my least favorite. I sipped it, very slowly while I shopped at the Urban on Gervais Street.
2:00 p.m.- I grabbed a meal smoothie before heading to the gym. I drank this one really fast, I think it helped with my workout. I did 30 minutes of cardio and some weights.
4:30 p.m.- I sipped one last drink before walking into a meeting. Thank god this cleanse is finally over.
8:00 p.m.- It was my roommate’s birthday so I ~happily~ cut the juice cleanse short a few hours to celebrate with her at her birthday dinner!
Overall, the juices didn’t taste bad. In fact, I might stop by Southern Squeezed to grab a drink or two to supplement other meals. When it comes to the juice cleanse though, I wouldn’t recommend trying one. Yes, I lost a few pounds and an inch or two from my waist, but I felt tired and sluggish the entire three days. Well, almost three days! If you’d really like to try a cleanse, I’d start small with one day, then in a week or two, try three days. If all goes well you might even want to try five days.