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Skinny Limits Juice Cleanse Review

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I eat a lot of protein.

 

It’s my thing.

For my goals, I need to eat all the protein.  It’s muscle fuel while I’m trying to build.  It’s also hard on the body to digest that much protein continuously (it’s been months and months of packing it in).  When Skinny Limits reached out and offered a 3-day juice cleanse for review I decided it was the perfect time to… well, be cleansed.

Skinny Limits Juice Cleanse

Prep

You’re supposed to prepare yourself for a cleanse.  Skinny Limits suggests you cut out things like alcohol, caffeinated drinks, animal products, wheat, processed food, and sugar prior to starting.  I didn’t do that… but I typically don’t eat many processed foods.  They also say to drink a lot of water, which I do anyway.

I did begin the day as recommended with a mug of hot lemon water and cayenne.  I actually enjoyed that on these cold mornings!

Skinny Limits Juice Cleanse

Taste

The juices were quite good!  Each one include 1-2 fruits, so they had a good level of sweetness.  Click here to see the Variety Juice Cleanse I tried.

My favorite was the Crescent Moon (cashew milk).  It was like dessert every night, so no surprise there.  I also loved the Pure and Simple green juice and the Scorpion Lemonade (with cayenne).  The only one I didn’t love was the Lotus (beet juice).  I do eat beets, but it was a lot.  All of them are far superior to soda.

Skinny Limits Juice Cleanse

Activity

They say during the cleanse you should not exercise intensively.  I did a 30 minute incline walk one day.  Soccer the next.  Then I got bored and lifted on day 3.  Maybe not a good use of time – I didn’t last long and then I had to take a nap.  Whoops.

I made sure to do it during the week where I wouldn’t have a lot of down time.  I hoped work could occupy my mind enough to distract me from eating.  It did somewhat… I was insanely focused and productive on day 2.  That was the sweet spot – by day 3 I took wanted a nap.

Day 1

I started strong, but by 11am I was hungry.  I was also freezing all day.  I ate some grapes and almonds.  It was an emergency.  My reading material probably didn’t help:

Skinny Limits Juice Cleanse

Energy-wise, I felt run down.  Everything was an effort.  I gave up and went to bed at 10:30p and slept 9 hours; this is unheard of for me, as I normally force myself to get into bed by 1a.

Day 2

I woke up refreshed after my 9 hour slumber.  I wasn’t starving, but 30 mins later the hunger pangs struck.  After the first juice I felt better, but only for an hour.  This may be TMI… but I was fully expecting to poo a lot.  I just had a typical morning #2.  Maybe I’m not toxic?

The rest of the day I spent hungry and cold.  I ate some more nuts and drank a kombucha.  I played soccer and was really, really exhausted.  Despite the cold, I turned my favorite juice – the “dessert” cashew milk – into ice cream by blending it with ice in my Vtiamix.  It was good!  I added additional cinnamon, vanilla, and ginger to make sure the ice didn’t water down the flavor too much.

Skinny Limits Juice Cleanse

Day 3

The final countdown.  I almost gave in after the second juice.  BUT if I could make it 2 days, I knew I could finish the third.  I ate more almonds and chewed gum.  Still no major poos to report (you know you’re curious!).  My skin had some breakouts.  I read that breakouts are not uncommon as your body rids itself of toxins.  So, I suppose I was toxic.

Did I mention it was cold?

Skinny Limits Juice Cleanse

19 degrees!!!

By that evening I had a headache and my stomach was growling.  I went to bed at 10… the sooner I slept, the sooner breakfast time would arrive!

 

Would I Do It Again?

Probably, but only a couple of times a year.  It wasn’t easy.  You shouldn’t do it while you’re training for something; you’re not going to feel like moving a whole lot.  If you’re recovering from an event or coming off a period of excess (holidays, vacations, etc), I think it’s a great thing to try.  Skinny Limits makes it really easy – the package is shipped the day before you start, and they detail which juice to drink when.

This should NOT be a thing you do to lose weight.  Juicing for 3 days isn’t going to magically make you reach your goals in that department.  In my opinion, it should be used as a tool to reset and to help your body heal.

Also, chewable food is marvelous.  They say to ease back in to solids, but I was so hungry after a day of lifting I ended the first day back with spinach pasta beef bolognese handmade by a friend.  There may have been a glass of wine (or 2) involved. 😉

handmade pasta

***

Being so clean and then fueling with homemade pasta did some good – I hit a PR on the flat bench chest press Sunday!

Would you ever try a juice cleanse?  For what purpose?

Do you perform better after a big carb-y meal?  It works 90% of the time for me, but I’m always surprised!

 

Comments

  2. I like to chew my food. That’s why I hardly ever even make smoothies. (Well that and the cleaning the blender thing.) Though I’d be curious to taste the juices.

  3. It would be really hard for me to do a juice cleanse. I say that, but I’ve never tried. I should. BTW, how many grams protein have you been eating a day, prior to cleanse?

    • I eat about 1.5x my body weight in grams of protein. A “normal” person who works out should have .75-1x.

  6. like i said before, i’ve had to do a cleanse for colonscopy and it was brutal not to eat for 36 hrs. And cooking for my husband just sucked. I wanted to eat with him. But, more power to ya! and whatever makes you feel good, right? I’d do that cleanse for a day, for sure! or just drink the juice haha

  9. I think I’d do a juice cleanse if I had the chance to sleep in and go to bed early. Does that make sense? Right now I am awake from 4:30am to 9pm, which is just too many hour to try and do a juice cleanse.

  10. I always think about doing these juice cleanses cuz they seem so trendy and stylish….like I’m too cool for food, so I am only gonna drink liquids lol.

    But then I think, well I’ll feel super tired and not be able to workout, so I am not sure what purpose that would serve.

    Although, I think that it would be good to do after a time of eating a lot of junk, I just think that it mayyy be a little extreme for me. I don’t do well when I get super hungry hahah! But I’m sure I’ll try one down the road, but since I’m in school and have to walk everywhere with a super heavy backpack, I’m not sure that I would be able to make it to my classes without passing out haha

    Have a great day!!

    • It is just a good way to clean yourself out and reset. It was a tough 3 days, but the energy I had after was unreal!

    • I just met someone who is doing that. I need to follow up and see if she thought it was effective.

  12. I am really not sure that I could do that. I would be like you and feel so rundown. Although maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I dialed my workouts back, but man. It just sounds hard. Like you said, maybe as a “reset” after some fun filled holidays. Good for you girl! I don’t think I could have done it haha

  14. I am so glad you did it & not me – well, I would never do it.. unless they offered my tons & tons of money to put me out of my probs with that. 🙂 I just never had the need or want to do one. My personal feeling is if you are eating healthy & right with whole foods, veggies, protein, healthy fat, your bod will cleanse itself.. 🙂 Plus I like to eat food too much! 🙂

  21. Interesting! I was curious to see what they recommended as far as activity goes for the days you’re on the cleanse. i figured it would be minimal! I can’t imagine working out on little to no food! As for me, I don’t think I’d do a cleanse. I love juice, don’t get me wrong! But at this time I don’t really feel the need to detox and juice cleanses just seem so restrictive to me. If I got hungry while doing one, I wouldn’t want to feel guilty for eating something. Depriving my body of it’s needs is my least favorite feeling!

    Thanks for sharing your experience with us though!

    • It’s weird… I felt hungry but not deprived. That doesn’t seem to make sense, I know… but I did feel l was nourished.

  23. I totally had the cold thing too when cleansing!! I was freezing all day.
    And I always went straight back to big meals lol – cause that was what I was dreaming about all the time during the cleanse!! 😉

  24. I did one about a year ago as a sort of experiment/ restart and it wss hard at the time. But I found for months after my sweet tooth was gone, which was a amajor win for me!

  26. Interesting that you were cold the entire 3 days – that is pretty much enough for me to not want to try it since I’m cold all the time anyway!!!
    And I always thought that a cleanse was just a form of drinking laxatives but fortunately it doesn’t sound like the case at all.

  27. I tried the Isagenix 9-day cleanse about a year & a half ago. It is protein-type shakes you have 2x a day (breakfast & dinner) and then you eat a clean meal for lunch (ie. salad). It really did work and I lost 9 lbs on it but obviously you gain it back once you start eating normally again. It helped me shed a few lbs before my cousin’s wedding where I was a bridesmaid, but I probably wouldn’t do it for weightloss again since diet & exercise is the only real way to go.

    • I know someone who did that! She has lupus though… was hoping it would help with her joint pain. I don’t think it did…

  28. I would certainly do a juice cleanse. Solid food doesn’t do well with me anyways so I think having a few days of just liquid would actually be great for my digestion and make me feel tons better!

    What’s funny is that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone actually follow the prescribed “ease back in” phase after a juice cleanse. I’m not harping on you, because like I said, I don’t think 99% of people do it. But, it also makes me wonder how much better someone could feel if they followed it step by step all the way through.

    • I actually did feel great after – my energy level was crazy high for a week. Even now I still feel like I’m digesting and sleeping better.

  30. Congrats on sticking it out Laura! I am not sure I could do a whole 3 day fast – maybe a one day – and I would be starving for breakfast the next day. Other than oats, am not big into carbs, but I could eat a stack of oat pancakes or a dozen oatmeal cookies or a basket of oatmeal muffins anytime 🙂

  31. I LOVE Juice cleanses, I just signed up for one + it always helps me jumpstart my healthy ways although I am pretty good at doing so it kinda gives me more motivation! When I move back to the states I will have to check out Skinny Limits! Lots of love!

  32. Thank you for your honest review!!

    I have been contemplating a juice cleanse for quite sometime, and actually looking into Skinny Limits! I am almost at the end of completing the Whole 30 (cleaning eating with no dairy, gluten, added sugar, and minimal chemicals) so I feel like this is a good time to hit the juice.

    Did you compare this brand to others? Just curious!

    • I’ve done an Arden’s Gardens 2-day cleanse before too. They only have 1 juice you drink – the variety made it easier!

  33. I’ve never tried a juice cleanse and don’t really think I will any time soon (but never say never!). I do, however, like to drink whole juices (blended together in my Blendtec vs. a juicer) regularly. It just makes you feel a tad bit healthier!

  34. Thanks for sharing your experience! I always, always get cold when I haven’t had enough to eat – it’s the worst feeling and you just CAN’T warm up no matter what! Thank you also for sharing that this isn’t meant for weight loss – I think the combination of the Master Cleanse (crazy, in my opinion) with all the marketing of various cleanse companies has made people believe that everyone will drop 100 pounds just from doing a 2-day cleanse. Um … no. BUT … I am very interested in doing one just to try the experience and reset my body after my marathon in a few weeks. I’m definitely consuming more sugar than I’d like and definitely using marathon training as an excuse so I think it may be a good reset after that!

    • I think this would be a great thing to do after a big event – especially one that is so taxing on your body and requires a diet different that your “normal.”

  39. Yup, I know the feeling of getting cold because you did not have enough to eat…. difficult. You did it, and you were sensible to get some solid food when you needed it. I’m thinking something like this might be good when you (us over-50’s, anyway) have to do a colonoscopy prep— you have to be on low-fiber foods for 3 days and clear fluids the last day, this could work and be better than the usual suggestions.

    • That’s what Lindsay Cotter said! She had to do that and most definitely isn’t over 50. 😉

  41. Great recap- I have been wanting to try a cleanse for a while but have never pulled the trigger. (Love the reading choice-I can see why that might not have helped!)

  42. way to stick through it girl, we know juice cleanses are tough!

    we have done them in the past. For us right now we like to have a juice daily and enjoy other foods too!

  43. Get it girl! I’m intimidated by cleanses. I tried a two day once and totally failed, but need to try it again because I love the idea of a “reset”. If you’re still having breakouts come see me and I’ll give you a facial! I”ll give you one anyway because they’re awesome!!!

  44. Love your honesty! Like I told you before, I admire your persistence, dedication, and ok, I’ll go there, craziness for taking this on! Now, can I have a bottle of that cashew stuff to pour into my bowl of cereal? 😉

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