Juice cleansing, AKA juice fasting or juice dieting, is a health and wellness practice that involves short-term (and/or intermittent) fasting periods during which a dieter consumes only raw vegetable and fruit juices. Juice Cleansing is a diet strategy that people undertake for weight loss and various other health reasons.

Juice cleansing significantly reduces calorie intake, but it is not a complete fast -- during a juice cleanse, you still provide your body with nourishment, but that nourishment is restricted to raw juices, water, and herbal teas. Juice cleansing requires temporary avoidance of certain types of foods, allowing only densely nutritious and detoxifying raw juices. One of the wonderful benefits of drinking densely nutritious raw juice is that unhealthy cravings are greatly reduced and the appetite becomes smaller; raw juice helps stabilize your blood sugar, and your brain gets messages from the body that its nutritional needs are being met. This makes juice cleansing much more appealing to many people than a complete fast, which allows only water. Juice cleansing/fasting can significantly help reduce inflammation and bloating, which has all kinds of positive effects on our overall health and wellness, and brain function.

Nutritional science is showing that fasting, intermittent fasting, and partial fasting can all have beneficial effects on human health when used appropriately. Fasting can greatly assist with blood sugar regulation and stimulate cell growth and regeneration which speeds healing and improves the functioning of various body systems.

Cleanse Smart by Getting The Mind Ready

Juice cleansing is a type of diet where someone only consumes juices from vegetables and fruits. With the limited amount of self-care time people have at present, and the copious amount of toxins our bodies take in regularly, it is uplifting to know that there’s always a quick and relatively easy way to detox and renew your commitment to improved health. . However, juice cleansing isn’t a fix-all, and it is vital to take steps d to better understand your pre-cleansing eating habits so that you’ll use the cleanse to kick-start a new routine that prioritizes consumption of raw healthy plant foods. Remember that the ultimate goal is to sustain healthy habits and use food to support our body systems, avoiding repetitive cycles of fasting when sick but then falling back into old, unhealthy habits.

Before diving into a fuller description of the process, let us introduce you to various standard cleanse durations. This will help you match your time commitment with your health and wellness goals.

1-2 day Juice Cleanse

If you are someone who wants to devote yourself to achieving a healthier version of yourself, but you’ve faltered in the past because of unexpected or challenging life circumstances, this quick cleanse is ideal. A one or two-day juice cleanse interrupts bad eating habits, flushes the body with beneficial nutrients and enzymes, and gives overloaded systems a break from their regular workload. Just 1 or 2 days of fasting can significantly reduce bloating and inflammation.

3-4 day Juice Cleanse

A 3 or 4 day cleanse is perfect for people who want to delve a little deeper into detox. . If you worry about the toxic load your body is bearing and feel strongly that you should begin engaging in much greater self-care, a 3-4 day cleansing duration can be your ticket to success as it provides adequate time to flush out toxins such as caffeine, alcohol, food additives and chemicals. . People primarily seeking weight loss often find that a 3- or 4-day juice cleanse is a dramatic and effective way to kick off a much longer battle against the bulge.

5-day Juice Cleanse

If you are someone who nourishes your body with only a limited amount of plant-based food, and you want to make a significant commitment to a new way of eating, this slightly longer cleanse period might be right for your reset. A 5 day cleanse can rescue a person from the harmful effects wrought by overconsumption of pre-packaged, processed, and overcooked foods, breaking bad habits, and shifting the palate to appreciate more healthy plant-based and fresh offerings.

7-day Juice Cleanse

Are you the type whose long-term indulgence in sugars, sodas, junk foods, and fast foods has resulted in the development of chronic illness or disease? If so, that is a shame, but the good news is that simple and straightforward dietary changes can solve many health problems. A week-long juice fast is a “therapeutic retreat” strategy that might be just what you need to reclaim your health and begin the long healing journey. A 7-day cleanse period is a big commitment, and a clear signal to yourself and others that you mean business and are determined to take back your health. . During an entire week of fasting, your body systems, and taste buds will experience significant change, and by the end of the week, you will likely feel greatly empowered to continue down a healthy new road.

Cleansing the Body of Toxins

Understanding the process of juice cleansing will help you to achieve maximum results. . Whether you are an amateur or a more advanced juicer, keep these pointers in mind and plan your cleanse mindfully to ensure a worthwhile experience that will benefit your body.

Before Cleansing

Waiting is often uncomfortable for people, and many of us just want to jump in and start an initiative once we have decided on it. Careful preparation is not always fun, but it is an integral part of successful juice cleansing. Once you have figured out the cleanse period and intensity that will suit your lifestyle and wellness goals, you can then plan an appropriate pre-cleanse strategy. A good pre-cleanse strategy outlines additional actions that will fortify your systems and prepare your body and mind to handle the shifts that it will be forced to undergo.

Stay Hydrated

Water is essential before, during, and after your juice cleansing as it keeps the cells hydrated and resilient. It also flushes toxins and minimizes potential irregularities that might happen to your body. 8 glasses of water per day are the recommended intake. We acknowledge that not everyone is keen on drinking copious amounts of “boring” fluid, so we offer healthy variations to try You can amp up the flavour and sensory experience of your glasses of water by adding fresh mint, freshly-squeezed lemon or lime juices, diced strawberries, or other fruits that offer some subtle flavouring. Avoid products that add chemical flavouring ingredients and/or sugars to your water. Try steeping a large batch of your favourite healthy herbal tea and keep it in the fridge to have constant access to “healthy iced tea” during the course of the day.

Take Rest Periods

Sleep helps your body achieve internal repair and restoration. Being well-rested also prepares the body to adapt to the changes it has to face during the juice cleansing period. Meeting your first cleansing day with just the right amount of sleep can provide you with the fortitude to endure any discomfort caused by a lack of customary food intake. An 8-hour rest each night is one of the ultimate keys to health. Shorter rest periods interwoven with periods of exertion during the day can soothe the nervous system, improve digestion, and facilitate a deeper mind-body connection that supports healthy living.

Cut Back Acidic and Processed Foods

Bringing your body closer to an alkaline state is one of the goals of juice cleansing. It is highly advisable to begin a few days before your cleanse avoiding caffeine, alcoholic beverages, processed foods, junk foods, animal products, and processed sugars. This will wean your body off some of these harmful and addictive substances and go a long way to help your body adjust. Being proactive can help you avoid unnecessary pressure and discomfort during the cleanse. Citrus fruits, green vegetables, nuts, and whole grains can help alkalize your body, so boost your consumption of these in the days before the cleanse.

The Power of Raw

Choosing truly raw vegetable and fruit juices that will provide beneficial nutrients and enzymes to your body is vital to successful cleansing. Green juices that are low in sugar provide excellent nutritional value and help regulate blood sugar, so these are a favourite choice for cleansing. The raw factor is important to understand -- the vast majority of store-bought juices are pasteurized to extend shelf life far beyond the natural life of healthy fresh juices, which is 3 to 5 days when refrigerated. Pasteurizing juices may be done using heat, pressure, or radiation, all methods that kill the microorganisms that are potential food pathogens, but that also kill the healthy microorganisms that our bodies need, and damage and deplete various other nutrients. Heat is the most damaging pasteurization method, but all the methods of pasteurization deplete beneficial elements. Of particular importance to consider is the central role that digestive microorganisms play in maintaining human health, and the fact that healthy raw plant foods enrich gut flora, but not when pasteurized. Raw vegetable and fruit juices are a nutritional powerhouse, but that description no longer applies when the juice is processed to achieve a shelf life of 30 days or longer -- consider pasteurized juices “dead”.

Pasteurizing to achieve a longer shelf life in foods helps businesses, not bodies. Freezing and dehydrating are the only ways that we can extend the shelf life of plant foods significantly without compromising nutritional value. This is why Nutes uses freezing, not pasteurizing, in the manufacturing process. Nutes Smoothies and Cold-Pressed Juices are not pasteurized; they are offered frozen, and this allows them to be stored for up to a year while still maintaining their wholesome, raw goodness.

Nutes offers many frozen juice blends that will surely meet even the fussiest juice connoisseur’s standards, and their line-up includes four stellar green blends. Pretty Green lends a hand to those just getting started on their juicing journey, as this blend features adequate sweetness and tartness from added fruits to satisfy most palates -- it is the sweetest of the Nutes green blends. Pretty Green contains kale, spinach, collard greens, pear, green apple, and lime. It’s energizing, nourishing, alkalizing, and detoxifying. At the other end of the sweetness, the spectrum is the blend Phyto, a hardcore purely green juice, with no added fruit ingredients. For some people, Phyto is an acquired taste, but most people do find that their palate naturally begins to prefer less sweetness once a healthy diet is established. In between these two greens along the sweetness spectrum, Nutes offers Electric Green, a fantastic vegetable juice blend with just a hint of fruity sweetness, and the wonderfully detoxifying, nutrient-rich Iron Frog, a parsley-heavy green juice blend made delicious with pear and citrus.

Buying Nutes Frozen Organic Cold-Pressed Juice will make your cleanse preparations infinitely simpler, but if you have the time and inclination to make your own juices, that is highly recommended, as the closest you can get to fresh-pressed is the best. Be sure to use a cold-pressed machine, as cold-pressing is the least damaging method of extracting juice, and produces the most nutritious juice. If you won’t have time to prepare juices daily during the duration of your cleanse, you might wish to use freezing to extend your juice’s shelf life, but remember to avoid freezing in glass to avoid breakage and wastage. If you must use glass, be sure to leave plenty of room to accommodate a volume increase as the liquid transforms to a frozen solid.

During Cleansing

The much-awaited time is here! To ensure that your system will benefit from this juice cleansing period, keep in mind that consistency and calm application of willpower and best practices are the keys to keeping yourself on track.

Water And Sleep On Check

Keep drinking eight glasses of water daily, and be mindful of the amount of sleep you get. . As your body adjusts to a radical change in diet and does the work to remove toxins from inside you, rest and hydration will save you from possible negative and damaging side effects like energy drops, mood swings, body aches, and excessive irritability.

Healthy Juice Intake

Nutes recommends starting the day with bright juices that contain citrus and are high energy, as this is your “breakfast” (literally, breaking your overnight fast). Afterglow, Candle, and Calming Flame are good choices for morning juices. If you’ve opted for an all-green juice cleanse plan, both Pretty Green and Iron Frog work well as morning blends. Throughout the middle of the day, stick with low sugar green juice blends like Phyto and Electric Green, as these types of juices are dense with nutrients that help you function well, but don’t create blood sugar spikes that might make you feel unstable or produce unhealthy cravings. End your day and enter into your overnight fast with a grounding, calming, rich, and earthy juice blend, like Beet Generation or Transfusion.

Try to stay on schedule with your juices. The quantity of juice that you decide to drink is a personal decision, Some people find it effective to drink at least six 12 to 16-ounce servings, spaced approximately every two hours, from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Frequent and regular juice consumption is often adequate to satisfy the body’s fundamental energy requirements, so those regular activities can be undertaken. If you decide to proceed with a more severe fast, consuming less juice, be aware that you might need to modify your regular activities and provide your body with more rest and your mind with less stimulation than normal.

Avoid Heavy Exercise

Minimize rigorous activities to preserve energy and avoid burnout, especially if you’ve chosen a cleanse plan with a more minimal daily quantity of juice. You can bank on light exercises being acceptable and even beneficial to your cleanse experience -- activities such as yoga, walking, and stretching will aid your lymphatic and circulatory systems and boost your body’s healthy responses to temporary food deprivation interspersed with periodic flushes of nutrients and enzymes from raw juices.

Skin Brushing and Sauna

Offer yourself some skin brushing before and during a shower. Water is your best friend during a cleanse, applies both externally and internally, and exfoliating your skin helps remove dead skin cells and open up your pores. If you want to level up your relaxation and detoxifying activities, try a gentle activity that makes you sweat, like spending time in a sauna. Just be sure to stay hydrated at all times!

Be Kind to Yourself

Will power is important, and self-denial is healthy, but be sure to listen to your body. Some mild headaches or bowel irregularity is normal and not unhealthy, but juice cleansing/fasting should not cause you severe discomfort, and it’s ok to stop or interrupt the program if your well-being seems compromised and your system is struggling mightily to adapt to the changes. Without undertaking the extreme measure of fasting, you can still reap great benefits and detoxify your body by simply shifting your food choices toward a raw, plant-based diet.

After Cleansing

Congratulations on making it through your cleanse! After detoxifying your body and helping restore healthy functioning to various body systems, it is time to return to a more ordinary routine, but with an eye to making permanent improvements to your lifestyle. . The transition period might feel difficult, and it is wise to reintroduce food groups slowly, to see how your system responds to each kind and weed out possible enemies to your long-term well-being. Ease your way back and be patient and gentle with your actions, maintaining mindfulness that will allow you to recognize and understand the changes occurring in your body.

Make Intermittent Fasting a Regular Practice

Fasting is an age-old health practice that is currently getting a lot of renewed attention and scientific validation. It is now considered advisable to use cleansing and fasting periodically, as these health practices have proven benefits. The “periodic” schedule that you choose is a personal decision and can vary widely -- for example, some people undertake one multi-day fast seasonally, while some have one regular fasting day every week.

Beyond The Hype

People are becoming more conscious of their health nowadays, and most health-conscious people now know that raw juices and fasting are both individually beneficial, and also that the two can be paired to great effect! Juice-cleansing is very popular now and has been helpful to address a variety of issues and problems. Decades ago, Jack LaLanne (the “Juice Tiger”) showcased the benefits of raw juice and sold juicing machines to help others access the juicing lifestyle, and following in his footsteps today, people like Joe Cross and Jason Vale are famous witnesses to the healing power of juice dieting. Both Cross and Vale healed themselves of debilitating chronic illnesses by juicing, and are now dedicated to spreading the word and empowering others to achieve good health through raw, plant-based dieting. Although criticisms of fad diets are often valid, proper juice cleansing and general consumption of raw vegetable and fruit juice are highly encouraged as one of the soundest and simplest ways to obtain health benefits through food and diet choices. But if you have any qualms or suffer serious health conditions, by all means, seek professional medical guidance to determine if juice cleansing is a good plan for you.