My First 3-Day Juice Cleanse Experience

I just finished my first juice cleanse with The Juice Truck and wanted to share my experience on Modern Mix Vancouver for anyone else who may be interested in “re-setting” their digestive system and giving their bodies a concentrated boost of nutrition.

First of all, I think it’s important to note that my juice cleanse wasn’t sponsored by a particular company in exchange for a blog post about my experience on Modern Mix. This one was all on my own!  Which is why I leisurely took my time and spent a good six months research and thinking about this before shelling out $195 for the 3-day cleanse from The Juice Truck.

Delivery from The Juice Truck
Juice Cleanse Delivery from The Juice Truck

The 3-day Juice Truck cleanse offers 7 bottles of cold-pressed juice each day for a total of 21 bottles of juice.  In order to maximize the benefits of a cleanse and properly flush your system, you have to drink the juices in the recommended order.  It works out to be $9.29 per bottle which seems expensive BUT when you compare it to other local cold-pressed juice companies (ie. ChasersGlory Juice Co., MELU Juice, etc.) you realize that approximately $10/bottle is the going rate for this type of juice.

So why The Juice Truck?  True to being a blogger for Modern Mix Vancouver, I wanted to support something local – all the juices from The Juice Truck are cold-pressed and bottled in Vancouver.  When I’m trying something new, I like as much information as possible before I get started.  The Juice Truck website seemed the most legitimate with information and instructions on the cleanse.

I also liked how they partnered with a nutritionist to create the Juice Cleanse:

PRE-CLEANSE

All 21 bottles of juice are delivered to you the night before (provided you live in North Vancouver, West Vancouver or the Vancouver lower mainland core).  Because the juices are “cold-pressed” they maintain the nutrients better than just blending juices with a blender.  Recommended shelf-life is only 3 days, so you must start your cleanse the next morning in order to maximize the benefits of the cleanse.

THE JUICE TRUCK CLEANSE: DAY 1

Will drinking with a striped paper straw make this juice cleanse more exciting?
Will drinking with a striped paper straw make this juice cleanse more exciting?

My cleanse began at 8am in the morning with “The Digestive“, which consisted of cucumber, apple, spinach, celery, parsley and lemon.  The most prominent taste, however, was celery.

You drink your juice in two-hour intervals.  By juice #3 (“The Energizer“) and #4 (“The Refresh“), it was taking me longer and longer to down a bottle.  At the rate I was drinking the juice, I rarely had more than an hour interval where I wasn’t drinking anything.

My favourite juice is the third one of the day, “The Energizer” which consists of Coconut Water, Pineapple, Mint and Ginger and E3Live (algae).  Of all the juices, this is the sweetest (from the pineapple).

By the time I got to the 6th juice of the day, “Protein Milk“, I was too full to finish it.  This was the heaviest of all the juices with 580 calories (!!), and 42 grams of “good fats” from seeds and nuts.  Think protein shake.  I don’t think it’s cheating on my juice cleanse if I can’t finish a certain juice.  It’s not like I added something to my cleanse – I was just too full to finish one of the juices.   I honestly think I’m getting more calories from drinking ultra-nutritious juice all day, than on a regular day with my average meals.

By 10pm, I was slowly drinking my last juice of the day, “Sleep Tonic” (pear, romaine and mint) which has nutritional properties to calm you down and prepare you for bed.

Love how the support I got from my friends included them saying, “Only two days left!”.  Two days left means I’m not even halfway done my cleanse.

THE JUICE TRUCK CLEANSE: DAY 2

By Day 2, the novelty of doing a juice cleanse had worn off.  By now, I know which juices I prefer and which juices are harder to swallow (ie. the 4th juice of the day, the “Refresh Tonic“, which has cabbage in it, and is a khaki green colour).  Pro tip: If you don’t like the taste of a particular juice, try drinking it with a straw so your tastebuds are less affected.

In the evening, I booked myself in for a hot stone massage in Yaletown.  Thought it would be a nice, relaxing treat for myself and keep my mind off food.  In fact, it’s encouraged to try an infrared sauna, get a massage, do yoga or go for a light walk while you are on the Juice Cleanse.  Getting a 90 minute hot stone massage while you are on a juice cleanse is like heaven on earth. Just being able to lay there (and not think about food) and relax, while warm stones are massaged into your muscles is a wonderful feeling. I highly, highly recommend it.

I love how with this Juice Cleanse, I don’t go to bed hungry.  After my (half) “Protein Milk“, and my 300-calorie “Sleep Tonic“, my appetite is satisfied.

THE JUICE TRUCK CLEANSE: DAY 3

My clothes feel a teeny bit looser and my stomach flatter.  I didn’t check my weight before the cleanse (because weight loss isn’t the point of this cleanse), but looking in the mirror in the morning, I do feel slimmer.

On Day 3, I think I was going a bit crazy because I could not stop looking at food sites or reading articles about food.  If I can’t look forward to a delicious, hearty, meal, what’s the point of living?!  Someone at work was microwaving pasta in the kitchen, I absolutely longed for this ramen burger posted on Mashable, I started looking at menus to restaurants I knew I’d be going to next week (ie. Cactus Club and The Acorn).  I also feel cold all the time – maybe from the weather, or maybe because I’m constantly drinking chilled juices straight from my refrigerator.

Day 3 was the most challenging.  In the evening, I started eating a teeny bit of food again – a couple of bites of Tempeh (soybean) which I was preparing for my salad lunch the next day.

Post-cleanse: Empty juice bottles.
Post-cleanse: Empty juice bottles.

POST-CLEANSE

I wanted to ease slowly back into regular food, so my first post-cleanse meal was organic greens with tempeh (soybean) and organic dressing.  However, I felt like as soon as I ate anything, I felt really bloated and I had a small cramp inside my stomach – but I’m assuming that’s my body getting used to solid food again. I also had two cups of soup from Happy Planet, it was heavenly to finally have something warm and comforting in my system.

A cleanse is a good way to physically and mentally reset your body. Knowing what a challenge I went through the past three days, I hope I will think twice before eating unhealthy foods in the future.

All in all, this was a good experience and a great exercise in self-control.  I hope you find my account of my Juice Cleanse helpful in deciding if you want to challenge your body and try it for yourself!

As mentioned, the cleanse I did was from The Juice Truck, but other juice cleanses you may want to check out include Chasers (edit: I don’t recommend it) or Glory Juice Co.

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6 Responses

  1. Hey Vanessa! This is Lily from high school… Saw your juice cleanse post from Facebook and I guess it’s better to post here.

    Questions:
    1. Did you feel unwell before the cleanse? If not, what prompted you to do a cleanse? You mentioned it wasn’t for weight loss.
    2. How do you know if it works? During these 3 days, has your skin gotten better? Did you feel like you passed out the toxins?
    3. Will you do a follow up? If it works then I want to try it too.

    p.s. Don’t bother going to my site, I haven’t updated in a while, hahaha

    1. Hi Lily from highschool! 🙂

      1. I didn’t feel unwell before the cleanse. I think I just wanted to learn more about my eating habits and see if I had the self-control to do this. As The Juice Truck cleanse is nutritionally balanced and full of calories, they say that if you have any sort of food/snack craving, it’s not actually from hunger, it’s from a habit of wanting to eat. I wanted to learn more about when my snack cravings strike, or if anything triggers it. I also wanted to see if I had the mental self control to go three days on just juice.

      2. I don’t notice anything dramatically different. I’ve read somewhere before that not eating solid food for 3-days during a juice cleanse won’t harm you, but it also won’t magically change your life. A 3-day juice cleanse definitely won’t have long term physical effects, but it’ll give you a “clean slate” to start and continue a healthier lifestyle. Seeing that it was such a challenge for me to go three days on juice, I’m hoping it’ll make me think twice before I snack or eat something unhealthy in the future. I also heard that junk food / processed food can be addictive and once you get all remnants of it out of your system, you (hopefully) crave it less.

      3. Will I do a follow up article? No, not beyond what I’ve written here. I don’t think I’ll be feeling the positive effects of the juice cleanse for more than a few days. If I feel better/healthier in the next few weeks, it’ll be because I made a conscious decision to eat healthier, rather than as a direct result from the cleanse.

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