you’re finally setting aside time for that long-awaited juice cleanse and your Pressed Juicery juices are in the mail. So…how are you going to prepare for it? In the time leading up to your juice cleanse you have the opportunity to set the stage for how successful you will be on your cleanse, and how efficiently your body will be able to detox. How you prepare is just as important as whether or not you complete your cleanse. We suggest starting your cleanse off right with this pre-cleanse food menu.
In order to properly prepare the body for a juice cleanse, it is necessary to eliminate the intake of hard-to-digest, toxic foods, and replace them with easy-to-digest, healing foods. Eliminate refined sugar and flour, animal products including dairy, packaged and processed foods, and fried foods from your diet. Instead, include plant-based foods, including soups, salads, smoothies, gluten-free grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, and fermented foods. By making these changes, you can ease the body from solid to liquids, without the typical shock to the system. Plus, these foods promote the movement of toxins through the body, preparing your system for a deeper cleansing process.
By following these guidelines, the body can focus on increasing the functioning of the main detoxification pathways (kidneys, liver, and intestine), which is essential to maximizing the effectiveness of your juice cleanse. The more the body is able to move toxins out of the body through these pathways, the more efficiently toxins are safely removed, allowing you to reap more benefits on your cleanse.
A Day’s Worth of Pre-Cleanse Recipes
Start preparing for your juice cleanse with the following menu. We recommend beginning 3 days prior to your cleanse.
Breakfast
Calming Chamomile Smoothie: With chamomile to calm the stomach and the nerves, and banana to boost your minerals, this smoothie will ease you right into a juice-filled routine.
The Berry Belly Blaster: Rich in digestive-supporting nutrients and weight-loss-promoting agents, this smoothie will be the start of reaching your health goals while on your cleanse.
Mint Chip Green Superfood Smoothie: Just because we love you, this is your last hoorah. You know, that decadent last splurge before you jump on the cleanse train. The catch? It’s still super healthy, packed with spinach, bananas and mint, to help get your body used to the idea of a liquid, nutrient-dense diet.
Lunch
Earthsprout’s Nordic Superfood Salad with Citrus Dressing: Bursting with fiber-rich veggies like Brussels sprouts and apples, this salad is perfect for jumpstarting the digestive system and getting those toxins moving.
Raw Pistachio Persimmon Salad: Alive with enzymes, this raw salad helps the body start cleaning house and prepares you for the real deal… the juice cleanse.
Fall Harvest Soup: Complete with the anti-infective properties of garlic and the gut-supporting probiotics of miso, this raw soup is also easy to digest, making it a staple of the pre-cleanse diet.
Dinner
Stuffed Roasted Apples with Roots, Steamed Greens and Pumpkin Seeds: Swiss chard and kale for cellular detox, beets for supporting liver cleansing, and pumpkin seeds for a zinc-promoted immune boost, this dish is the ideal food combination for getting all systems prepared for cleansing!
Horiatiki Salata (Greek Salad): Replacing your typical meat-laden meal with a giant salad is one of the basics of pre-cleansing eating. Loaded with yummy ingredients like olives, capers and tomatoes, you won’t even miss your regular heavy fare.
Cauliflower Couscous with Roasted Almonds and Apricots: A simple solution for cutting out the grains, this couscous made from cauliflower is the best way to start cleansing. Full of fiber for binding and moving toxins out of the body, this dish is not only detoxifying, but deliciously filling as well!
