I did A 3 Day Juice Cleanse: Nekter Juice Bar Review + Win a $25 Gift Card

My 3 Day Juice Cleanse Review

Recently I completed a 3 Day Juice Cleanse. I tried a new juice bar called Nekter Juice Bar. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Nekter, they are based out of Southern California (Orange County to be exact). They recently opened a new store in Manhattan Beach which is right in my neighborhood so I’ve been wanting to try this new juicery out. I’ve been there to get smoothies and juices before and was happy with their juices and their prices.

For my 3 day juice cleanse I had a choice of doing the regular cleanse or a more advanced one. Each cleanse supposedly has 15 pounds worth of vegetables in it each day which I think is pretty awesome. Talk about a rush of nutrients to your system. I chose the 3 Day Organic Cleanse which Nekter describes as a “more intense cleanse” and for those who are looking for a deeper cleansing process. Well, considering this is my 6th or 7th  juice cleanse – I figured why the heck not. I can do an advanced 3 day juice cleanse no problem. This ain’t my first rodeo!

Now, one thing you should know about me is that when I set my mind to something – I really commit and do it. A juice cleanse is no different. There is no thought of cheating or giving up at any moment while I’m cleansing. There is just completing the 3 day juice cleanse and getting it done. And in all seriousness, what is 3 days in your life? NOTHING! It’s 3 days where your body gets to stop focusing on digesting food and give your digestive system a break so your body can focus on healing.

I decided now was a good time to do a juice cleanse because I was feeling bloated and gross from Halloween and eating sweets and candy at various parties. It was starting to cause some unwanted sugar cravings which I decided needed to be nipped in the butt immediately before it spiraled out of control for the Holidays. Here is my 3 day recap.

Juice Cleanse Day One:

I woke up and already had a rumble in my tummy. Not good when you’re about to start a 3 day juice cleanse. I didn’t get a chance to pick up my juices the night before, so I jetted over to the Nekter Juice Bar Manhattan Beach and picked up 3 days worth of juice. Each day came in a green insulated cooler bag which was a nice touch. It was quite a challenge carrying three bags worth of juice and walking a puppy back to the car. To top it off, Kona had to go #2 while I was carrying all the juice back to the car. Seriously? What timing!

When I got to the car and got puppy buckled in, I grabbed juice #1 and sipped it on my way home. It was more like gulping because I was hungry. And starting a juice cleanse hungry is kind of scary. Thankfully by the time I was done with the first drink my hunger had gone away considerably. The juice had apple, grapefruit, celery, kale, parsley, spinach, and mustard greens in it. And boy, I could really taste the mustard greens!

I began my work for the day and broke into Juice #2 around 10am. Nekter calls this their Skinny lemonade because it has filtered water, lemon, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and agave in it. Mmm…spicy and good. I like spicy.  I continued to crank through my morning which was good because if I wasn’t busy I probably would have been thinking about the cleanse more.

I popped open Juice #3 around noon. It had carrots, celery, kale, parsley, spinach, and ginger in it. It reminded me of a V8 juice but fresh and much better. I don’t know why it reminded me of V8 juice since I don’t think I’ve had one of those in 20 years. What can I say…weird things happen when you do a juice cleanse.

At 2:30pm I had a meeting with a client. They had Halloween Candy. I wanted to reach my hand in the bowl but I refrained. Instead I drank Juice #4. It was kind of like the spicy lemonade, but with beets. Mental toughness. I had some insane sugar cravings like I haven’t had in a while. I even told my friend I was craving a brownie. This was funny because I can’t even remember the last time I had a brownie. I am sure they have gluten free brownies but I’ve never had one. My friend Christine replied to my brownie comment and said “well, this is why you’re on the cleanse so you can get rid of the cravings.” Oh yeah. Duh. Back to cleansing.

At around 5pm the sun was already starting to go down (thank you, daylight savings time). I popped open juice #5 which was a green juice made with celery, lemon, apple, kale, parsley, and dandelion greens. I liked it. I also like when I am on a juice cleanse and the sun goes down because it means another day of cleansing almost done. It’s kind of spiritual for me.

I had a going away party for a friend so I grabbed juice #6 and took it with me to keep in the car. The final juice of the day is a nut milk with cashews, water, dates, cinnamon, and nutmeg in it. I loved this drink because it was nice and thick. I drank half in the car and kept the other half in my insulated Nektar tote bag in the car. I went to the party and while everyone was having drinks around me I didn’t even feel a longing to grab a drink or have an appetizer. When I decide I’m doing a juice cleanse I really focus and zero in on doing the cleanse and getting it done. I am proud of my determination.

After I left the party, I drank the rest of juice #6 on my drive home. So far so good. One day of cleansing in the bag. My stomach already feels less bloated which is always a good thing.

Juice Cleanse Day 2:

I woke up and had Juice #1. The mustard greens tasted better this time around. I was feeling good but craving some coffee. The Nekter juice cleanse says you can drink Green Tea while on the cleanse so I went for a walk with the puppy to a local coffee shop and grabbed an iced green tea (only tea, no sweeteners). I drank it on my walk home. At around 10am I cracked open Juice #2. I really like this juice because of the spiciness and the turmeric in it. I could easily drink one of these every day and I know ginger is a good antiseptic and turmeric is great for reducing inflammation. Yum.

As I was working I started to get hungry so I drank some water. At noon I cracked open my third juice. This made me happy because I realized at this point my 3 day juice cleanse was halfway over. I can do this!

The afternoon went by fast mainly because I was so busy. I worked until around 7pm and then got ready for soccer. Yes, soccer. I’ve played soccer while on juice cleanses before and while I don’t play as hard as I normally would, it still feels really good to get outside and sweat. And sweat releases more toxins. All good things. I was prepared to buy an extra juice in case soccer made me super hungry but it didn’t. I had half of juice #6 before soccer and the other half after. The nut milk felt good like it was coating my stomach. Secretly I am planning what my first “breaking the juice fast” meal is going to be.

Overall I am feeling good and love how noticeably less bloated I am. I also noticed my skin has some new blemishes popping up which I am not happy about but wonder if it’s a sign of my body detoxing.

Juice Cleanse Day 3:

The morning went by very quickly. By the time I knew it, lunchtime had arrived. I had lunch plans but told my friend in advance that I was on a juice cleanse and only going to have tea. I drank juice #3 right before we met for lunch and I ordered a pot of mint green tea. It was kind of weird only having a pot of tea at lunchtime, but like I said – once I am in a cleanse I get in the zone and there’s not stopping me. Is it hard? Yes. But it’s what I have to do to stick with it. My friend Fern was very cool about me only having tea at lunch and we had a great working lunch and conversation. Thanks, Fern!

We had lunch aka tea at Urth Cafe and afterwards I found myself checking out a Raw food restaurant a couple doors down where my car was parked. In the past, I haven’t broken my juice fast properly and I wind up getting a huge tummy ache. This time around I really wanted to do it right. My doctor had advised me to try a raw vegan diet for a couple days post cleanse. Perfect. I went to the restaurant and asked if they had food that would still be good if I ate it tomorrow. He gave me a couple recommendations, one being zucchini noodles. Mmm…zucchini noodles. I told the guy at the restaurant that this would be one of my first meals after a 3 day juice cleanse and he said the noodles would be bland enough where they’d be easy on my tummy. Excellent. I ordered zucchini noodles and a bottle of coconut water to go as my post juice fast meal. When I got home I immediately put the food in the fridge so I wouldn’t be tempted to eat it! The whole time I was at the raw food restaurant I kept thinking how I would gladly eat super clean raw vegan foods after a juice cleanse and how much easier it would be than doing a juice cleanse. Already my mental and physical body is resetting and craving super clean foods again. Excellent. I love you, juice cleanse! Do I want to become a raw vegan? Hell no. But it’s good to take a sabbatical from meat every now and again.

My husband’s own version of a juice cleanse.

On Thursday afternoon I was feeling really good and powering through my work to do list. I sat and took a break around 5:30pm and had my 5th juice. Almost done! My husband came home around 7:30pm and cooked a turkey burger for dinner. It stunk up the house but I didn’t even mind – I was casually sipping on my final nut milk of the cleanse. YUM.

On Thursday evening my husband made me laugh. As he saw me drinking my last juice of the juice cleanse, he wanted to show his support by drinking his own version of a juice cleanse. Too funny!

I have to admit, I was excited to go to bed so I could wake up and break my fast. I’m feeling great though and don’t want this feeling to go away when I reintroduce food back into my system.

Post Juice Cleanse

Friday morning I woke up eager to break the fast. But I didn’t want to feel yucky from eating the wrong thing. I woke up early and took puppy for a walk BACK to Nekter which is a little over a mile away. Why? Because I decided to break my fast with a smoothie. I broke the fast with a Pumpkin Pie smoothie from Nekter. It had pumpkin, cinnamon, dates, and nutmeg in it. It was not sweet at all which was just what I needed. I drank the smoothie and bought a bottled “Sweetie Pie” juice to have later in the day.

I decided not to have coffee just yet so I continued drinking green tea. I had 2 cups of green tea in the morning. At around 11:30 I was hungry again so I had my zucchini noodles. I also ate them with a couple hemp flaxseed crackers. They are full of fiber and since

Breaking the fast!

juice cleanses tend to not have a lot of fiber, this was something I wanted to make sure I got in my diet post cleanse. The zucchini noodles were fantastic and I found myself feeling overwhelmingly full from them. So much that I wasn’t hungry again until almost 5pm!

On Friday evening I wasn’t sure what to eat for dinner so I decided to cut up a bunch of veggies from our CSA Produce Box this week and roast them. I cut up sweet potatoes, squash, peppers, carrots, and kale. I seasoned them with a little bit of olive oil and spices and put them in a baking pan covered in foil and baked for 30 minutes. They turned out delicious. Look at my masterpiece to the right.

Overall I am feeling great and even days later I continue to feel the benefits of a juice cleanse. I got rid of some stubborn water weight from poor eating over Halloween and I helped to reset my cravings and not want bad things. The Nektar juice cleanse was one of the best juice cleanse I’ve had and I really loved the drinks. I’ve tried many juice cleanses over the last several years and this is definitely one of my favorites. Thank you, Nektar!

Nekter Juice Bar Giveaway

I’ve teamed up with the folks at Nekter Juice Bar on an exciting giveaway for my readers. One lucky reader will receive a $25 Gift Card to Nekter Juice Bar. Their locations are mainly in Southern California but you can order juice cleanses online and they ship nationwide. Enter below for a chance to win. Enjoy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Conclusion

The Nekter 3 Day Juice Cleanse worked great for me. But I do know that juice cleanses are expensive and you can save a lot of money by doing your own cleanse at home using your own juicer (or Nutribullet) and fruits and veggies that you buy from the grocery store. You can even be super cool and get these nifty glass bottles to put your fresh, homemade juice in. If you don’t have a juicer, there are plenty of good ones on the market. I have the Breville BJE510XL Juice Fountain which I think works great although it can be a pain in the butt to clean sometimes. But isn’t that the gripe with any juicer?

Best of luck to you on your cleanse and as always, feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have!

*Disclosure: I worked in collaboration with Nekter Juice Bar on this post. I told them I wanted to do a juice cleanse and they were kind enough to give me a complimentary 3 day Organic Cleanse to try out and review as well as offer a gift card to my readers. So awesome! This post also contains affiliate links, which means I will earn a small commission if you choose to purchase something using my links.