Let's draw a scenario here quickly: you generally eat very healthy, exercise regularly and pride yourself on being nutritionally savvy. You've normally got your diet down to a T, but lately you've been feeling a bit sluggish. You've been indulging a bit more than usual, had more coffee than usual, and the weekend extravaganzas with wine and chips is taking it's toll as well.

In comes: a juice cleanse.

A juice cleanse is the perfect way to hit refresh on your out-of-control eating habits and get you back into the game. But it doesn't stop there...I personally love doing cleanses whenever I want to recalibrate my taste buds (read: when I've been eating too many sweets and need to STOP), have a busy week ahead and don't want to meal prep or want to prep myself for summer/holidays etc.

I used to do juice cleanses regularly when I lived in Switzerland (as I worked for a juice cleanse company), but ever since I moved to Australia, I haven't really gotten around to it or felt the need for it. But before going on holidays recently, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to cleanse my system. I chose the GREEN 3-day program from Lucky You Cleanse, and I'll explain why in a second.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of juice cleanses, what to look for in a cleanse and hot tips on how to get the best out of it, check out this blog post "Do we really need to detox"?  for all the details. Here, I'll just keep it short and sweet.

Why cleanse?

Because your body will love you for it. Every time I cleanse, I am astonished over and over again by how amazing I feel afterward. Day 1 and 2 can be a bit rough but by day 3 you will feel re-energized, less bloated and light. Of course, if you are not used to eating clean and healthy, you might struggle a bit more and get some side effects (hello coffee withdrawals), but after day 2 those should be gone as well.

Toxins are everywhere - from the food we eat, cosmetics we use, air we breath. As healthy as we think we are, we will always be exposed to toxins that accumulate in our body and can cause an array of issues. Our body has it's own detoxification system and does a wonderful job at doing so, but once in a while, we need to give our body a hand so that it can reboot and do its job well. When you're not eating solid food, the body can use the energy it normally uses for digestion for other important rebuilding and maintenance work. When you detox, you:

• Rebalance your body

• Feel light and energized

• Recalibrate your taste buds

• Alkalize the system

• Give your digestion a break

• Help your skin glow from the inside

• Create healthier habits

What to look out for?

If you are already dedicating to a cleanse program, there really is no point in compromising on its quality. Ideally, you will want the juices to be organic, cold-pressed and unpasteurized to get the best results and truly reap all the benefits. Why? Well, organic is self-explanatory I hope. Cold-press is important as well, otherwise the vitamins and minerals denature and that defeats the whole point of the cleanse. Same goes for pasteurization - it ruins a lot of the nutrients, and your juices won't deliver as many nutrients as they otherwise would.

LYC offers amazing cold-pressed, unpasteurized juices, so that already ticks the right boxes. But what is also incredibly important is the composition of the juices. If your idea of a juice is a sweet concoction of apple, mango, banana, kiwi, then think again. That will do your body no good, because it's essentially fruit sugar without the fiber. While the sugar from a whole fruit gets absorbed into the body slowly, fruit juice gets absorbed and sent to the liver very quickly, causing a fast spike in blood sugar levels. And we don't want that!

That's why I always look for juice cleanses that have as little fruit as possible. While LYC's CLASSIC cleanse is great for beginners, I definitely recommend their GREEN cleanse if you're serious. It contains almost no fruit, yet the juices taste absolutely delicious. And the last drink of the day is a sweet, protein-packed nut and date “mylk” that will fill you up before bed time.

Bonus point: LYC juices come in recyclable glass jars, so mumma planet will thank you as well.

It doesn’t stop there...

While your cleansing, it's important to help your body with the detoxification process in any way that you can. Here are some of my favorites :

• Begin your day with the juice of ½ lemon in 250ml warm water - this helps with digestion

• Move your body to support the exretion of toxins

• "Chew" your juices - take your time, drink mindfully and notice how they fill you up

• Infrared saunas – (at my fave Nimbus & Co if you live around)

• Dry body brushing

• Oil pulling

• Drinking chloropyll water

• Using a neti pot

• Drink water like it's your job - at least 3-4 liters of water a day

• Drinking lots of herbal tea

• Using detoxifying essential oils

• Colonics

• Float tank (at my fave Koa Recovery if you live around)

• Massages

• Reading

• Journalling

Challenges

For me, the biggest challenge always is getting past the mental barrier of not having food. You are certainly getting all the nutrients and enough calories, but social settings and activities can be tricky when you're not allowed to eat anything solid. So it's best to plan your cleanse when you don't have a lot of social commitments! I also notice that I'm not as physically strong, which definitely has an impact on my workouts. On that note: it is recommended that you don't do strenuous exercise during a cleanse and stick to walks, yoga, pilates etc. During this cleanse with Lucky You Cleanse, I was in the middle of my 6W2S program, so I actually just kept going with the usual workouts and it was totally fine, but I wouldn't recommend this to everyone.

Results

I already mentioned this, but I always feel like a million bucks after a cleanse! I was sleeping so well, had so much energy, was super productive, my skin looked amazing and I was literally craving zero sugar after the three days. My favorite juice is the Red Spice; the combo of beetroot, lemon & cayenne is just epic. I'll definitely be doing more cleanses with Lucky You Cleanse in the future, probably as a reset after the silly season...

If you are keen to try LYC yourself, here are just a couple of quick pointers:

• They deliver the freshly made juices straight to your door step

• A 1-day cleanse is $75 and a 3-day cleanse is $225. You can also do 2, 4, 5 or 6 day cleanses.

• If you want to try the juices before committing, head to Woolsworth, they stock them there.

Happy juicing everyone!