5 Ways To FAIL On A Juice Detox

I'm not a bandwagon dieter. I believe very simplistically that if you burn more calories than you take in then you'll lose weight. I'm so overwhelmed by the South-Paleo-Clean-Eating-Gluten-Dash-Daniel-Beach craze that I'm pretty skeptical and jaded about any popular diet trend. But I read about Ebony's results of her juice detox, last week, I was super impressed. Impressed because that's my girl and I know that she wouldn't lie to me--well us. Impressed because the results seemed legit. Impressed because it actually looked attainable. So I gave it a try. My goal was to juice for 2 meals a day---for 4 days, only drink water, and have a clean dinner. Sounds easy enough right? Well I totally FAILED! Here's why:

5 Ways To Fail On A Juice Detox

1. Forget about that juicer- I don't own a juicer. Yeah....I was probably destined to fail from here. Ha-ha! I borrowed a friends for day one and made Ebony's Sweet Cucumber Juice. Which was surprising good. The other 3 days I drank Odwalla Juices which are pasteurized and have far less nutritional value than I realized. I'm allergic to bananas, which seems to be in EVERY store bought veggie juice known to man.  What was I thinking? *hangs head*
2. Workout like a maniac- Then I ran 10k on the first day. I felt awful. Light headed, stomach cramps. Headache. The works. I didn't take into account that with such a drastic change in my diet, my exercise regimen would need to decrease. *hangs head*
3. Don't drink enough water- On Day 2 I realized that one meal a day wasn't going to cut it for my active lifestyle. So I increased to 2 solid meals and 32 oz of juice daily. But, I kinda forgot to drink more water. I didn't feel as awful, but not all that great either. *hangs head*
4. Skip meal planning- I ran out of juice by Day 3. I didn't want to cheat so I had to run to the grocery store. Which wouldn't have been a big deal except I was swamped with real work, mommy duties, and everything that could go wrong went wrong. I ended up fasting until I could buy more juice which of course didn't happen until just before dinner time. *hangs head*
5. Give up many other vices at the same time: It's no secret that I love my coffee and chocolate. I do have to admit that I did have a cup of coffee on the first day. To my defense, kinda, I forgot that I couldn't have it until I took the first sip. Then I thought, oh fudge, I might as well drink it now. Ha-ha! I do have good news: I was able to ditch coffee for the last 3 days of the detox though! 

What I Learned From My Juice Detox Fail:

1. What it means to be full: My first "regular" meal after detoxing was 3 slices of my favorite veggie pizza. I felt worse that day than I did on my first day of the detox! I never really understood why I felt so sluggish, tired, and blah after overeating until now.
2. What it means to have will power: This experience has taught me that moderation might not be best for me. I'm better able to completely eliminate my contact with coffee and chocolate than to have it in moderation because my self control is quite pitiful.
3. What affect food has on my energy levels: I haven't felt this energized since before I had kids! No more 3'o clock crashes that required coffee to reboot. No more feeling too exhausted to function after dinner. I was able to better focus and concentrate when at work and decompress at home. 

Will I try a juice detox again? Meh...I'm really not sure. I haven't figured out if I want to invest in a good (read: expensive) juicer yet. But I have given up coffee and chocolate completely since ending this detox. I'm drinking only water or fruit + veggie smoothies daily. AND I've laid the smack down on my snacking. Even though a failed on the juicing expect, I loved the mental clarity that this detox gave me.

Have you tried a juice detox? How did you do?

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KLP

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