Juicing: Day 1

Now that I had the basics down, today was my first official day on my 3-day juice cleanse. I stopped eating at around 6pm the night before, so I was ready to start juicing.

Juicing during the work week can be a bit difficult; waking up early to clean your fresh produce, juicing it, then cleaning up can take some time. Luckily, I had enough practice so I can generally wash, juice, and clean everything in about 15 minutes in the morning. Not bad.

Breakfast (8am): 6 Carrots, 2 stalks of Kale, 2 cups of Spinach, 1/2 a Lemon
I forgot to go to the store to restock on my fresh produce. So I used what I had left in my fridge to make my morning juice, which resulted in about 16oz; good enough. This was probably the worst tasting juice I've had so far; this is the juice that made me realize just how much good taste and sweetness even one apple brings to the mix.

Lunch (12pm): 1 Cucumber, 1 stalks of Kale, 2 Apples, 1 head of Broccoli, 1 Tomato

On my way home for lunch, I made a quick detour to Whole Foods in the Gold Coast and stocked up on fruits and vegetables. Total bill came out to around $50; not too bad for a couple of days worth of fresh, organic produce. Here's the haul:

With my new-found bounty, I made a cucumber, kale, apple, broccoli and tomato juice. Not bad! This was my first time juicing broccoli, and I have to say that it does produce a lot of juice. Definitely get the full stalk of broccoli, not just the crown; the stalk is where the majority of the liquid comes from. I was feeling a bit light-headed and definitely low on energy before this juice, but drinking it definitely rejuvenated me almost immediately. The taste was also great, and definitely had a noticeable flavor from the broccoli.

I decided to make a quick juice for the afternoon before I cleaned up and headed back to the office and made an afternoon snack (3:30pm) of  2 apples, 2 pears,  and squeezed juice from half a lemon. I put it in my bottle and planned to drink it around 330-4pm which I succeeded in doing as I was able to make it through most of the afternoon without feeling too tired. As expected, this was a great tasting juice.

Dinner (7pm): 2 Carrots, 2 stalks of Kale, 1 Cucumber, 1 Apple, 1 Yellow Bell Pepper, 1/2 a  Lemon

I picked up some bell peppers on my friend's recommendation and I'm amazed at how delicious and juicy they are. Just one bell pepper makes a great amount of liquid, and contributes a lot of sweetness to a drink. You can see that I used 1 apple, 1 cucumber, 2 carrots, 1/2 a lemon, 1 bell pepper (yellow), and about 2 stalks of kale. Enough to make 22oz of juice or so. Another great tasting juice that was helped by the addition of the bell pepper.

Day 1 Summary:

10 different types of fruits and vegetables today! Day 1 was done and I made it through without much difficulty. I never experienced any significant hunger pangs or extreme fatigue or weakness; just some mental "cloudiness" around 2-3 hours after drinking a juice and noticeable energy declines. I'm looking forward to Day 2!