So I decided to try a three-day juice cleanse. I once did one with my mom in my junior year of high school, which was over two years ago. The cleanse itself was pretty spectacular and I felt great; Although, I didn’t drink juice the entire time. What I mean is, I had fruit salad for dinner each night.

I didn’t expect to lose weight during the cleanse, because I know juice cleanses are short fixes and technically, only release water weight (unless they are longer than about a week). I had hoped to rejuvenate my body and cleanse any toxins I had in my body from eating out so often. Well it turns out I didn’t have any toxins and didn’t need to be cleansed?

I had six juices from Grind House Juice Bar, a small restaurant in Baltimore City:

Sweet Greens-apple/cucumber/celery/kale/lime/ginger

Hulk- cucumber/celery/kale/lemon/lime

Beet Street- beet/cucumber/apple/lime/ginger

Rejuvenation- beet/carrot/apple/ginger

Daily Detox- carrot/cucumber/apple/lemon

Mucus Buster- orange/pineapple/grapefruit/lemon/cayenne

Over the three days I intermixed the juices, but always started with a green juice, except on Friday.

Day 1:

So my first juice was sweet green, and I was feeling pretty good after my first few juice and then I became hungry. The juices were easy to get down. I just didn’t feel any different.

I was peeing a lot, but I always pee a lot (I drink tons of water). I felt comfortable working and doing the juice cleanse because at work I spend a lot of time on the computer sitting, not doing a ton of heavy lifting work. I also became very tired, which didn’t surprise me as in a juice cleanse you’re expected to be tired. When I got home from work I did some yoga, but I could tell my body wanted to go running.

My mind and body is constantly pushing me to go for a run because I love running, but I was scared to since I was not consuming enough calories so I decided on doing a one-hour yoga practice in the front of my house. I spent the rest of the night reading and I watched half of the Democratic National Convention.

Falling asleep was pretty easy, except I did feel hunger overtake me before falling asleep. I knew that the second day was supposed to be a day of energy which is what is expected during a juice cleanse, so I pushed the hunger out of my system.

Every article I read said day one is the hardest, but day two will be filled with high energy.

Day 2:

I woke up and felt pretty normal, not a huge boost in energy. I didn’t feel any different. I wasn’t super tired and my body was still itching to run. I couldn’t run though because I was worried about fainting since I would be burning a ton of calories I wouldn’t be consuming.

I drank my juices, and they were becoming annoying to gulp down since I was craving everything in my sight.

The Hulk juice itself took me an hour and a half to consume.

I was constipated and the only thing flushing out of me was water/juice.

I went to bed that night hoping to wake up and feel the effects of the juice cleanse, or at least feel something different.

Day 3:

I decided to stop the juice cleanse, and it was the best decision. I felt horrible about not running and I didn’t feel healthy. I felt the opposite of healthy. I was craving potatoes and chickpeas. Although I could have pushed the juice cleanse another day, there was no need too. I didn’t have anything to cleanse, so there was no point in cleansing.

I know there are documentaries and articles broadcasting the benefits of a juice cleanse, but for me it didn’t work because I guess I was already “cleansed.” Also, those documentaries follow weeks of juice cleanses, whereas mine only lasted a couple of days.

I did drink one last juice (The Daily Detox) and then eased into food by having a couple mangos and some kimchi. Then for dinner I dug into some delicious vegan nachos and devoured a slice of vegan almond raspberry cake.

I was even able to push myself to go for my five mile run and I felt amazing. The next day, after cleansing I was finally able to produce bowel movements, and decided juice cleanses don’t work for me.

See, I guess the truth is about juice cleanses, along with any type of “diet” someone is going to try, it doesn’t work for everyone. Maybe for some it will work, but having high expectations on weight loss or noticeable changes shouldn’t happen, because sometimes nothing happens. Be wary of articles telling you that a juice cleanse will make you lose eight pounds, because it’s just water weight and you could end up packing on that weight and more right after the cleanse.