Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle After Your Juice Cleanse

When we think about our health, we often think about food and our diets… As you should! But that’s not the whole of it. Your diet plays a huge role, but you must also focus on a few other aspects of your lifestyle. The best juice cleanse is only if you keep up the results. 

What are the other aspects? We’ll tell you! Keep reading, and we’ll talk about them and give you some tips along the way. Ready? Let’s go!

Post-Juice Cleanse: What to Do

Get Your Sleep

Let’s start things out with a simple one. You should fix your sleep schedule! Sleep is vital and you should get decent hours of sleep after your cleanse. There are so many benefits of sleep – more than we can even begin to list here!

Sleep helps your immune system. You can help your body fight against diseases if you get adequate rest. Depriving yourself of sleep and working late all the time will weaken your body, and we’re sure you’ve noticed this at some point in your life. 

Water Is and Always Will Be Your Friend

We’re sure you’re more than hydrated after your cleanse, but you must remember to drink water. During the busiest of days, you may forget to take a few sips. Don’t let that happen! After your juice cleanse, your body is going to its “factory reset” settings. It feels like you’ve got a clean slate. Forgetting to add fuel to the machine (aka your body) is going to throw all that progress down the drain.

Plus, water has always been vital. The recommended intake for the men is said to be 3,000 ml and 2,200 for the women. This could change depending on the weather (particularly if it’s sweltering hot) and your activities for the day. But now you know the baseline!

Celebrate Without the Celebratory Drinks

See how we mentioned water and the need to be properly hydrated? We mean it. We know how much it feels like an achievement to finish your juice cleanse. But don’t go out and celebrate it by downing cans of beer or other alcoholic beverages. Again, fuel your body with essentials and not whatever drinks they’re serving during happy hour. 

We’re not saying that you skip alcoholic drinks entirely. We’re just saying you should give it some time before you do. So go have a glass with your friends if they’re celebrating a birthday – just not immediately after your juice cleanse. If you’ve just finished your cleanse, consider a mocktail. 

Gradually Increase Your Food Intake

So you’ve finished your cleanse, and you’re starving for some grub. Hold your knives and forks! You can gobble up something, sure, but it’s best to start with some light meals. Your body’s digestive system just took a long vacation. Let it gradually get back into peak working condition with something that won’t overwhelm it. 

Soups and steamed veggies are a great place to start. And no, that doesn’t have to be as boring as it sounds. Drink soups you like and season your veggies generously. Flavor can exist without compromising the quality of your meals.

Exercise. ‘Nuff Said.

People go on juice cleanses in the hopes that they lose weight. Though that’s possible, it’s impossible to maintain the lost weight without putting the necessary work in post-cleasne. That means you’ve got to eat the right stuff (we’ll get to that in a bit) and get moving! 

So what kind of exercise should you do? It really depends, but do whatever exercise you can manage. If you can only walk, then walk. If you could jog, even better. Any exercise is good exercise, especially if you’re starting with a clean slate. Don’t let others pressure you into taking on more than you can do. 

Eat the Right Stuff

Here we are, getting to the meat of it all (pun intended). So here’s what to eat after a juice cleanse. Based on the updated guide, you should aim to get fruits, veggies, proteins, grains, and dairy. This whole guide we’re referring to is actually called the Food Plate, which is the updated version of the food pyramid. Why was it updated? It’s because the food pyramid somewhat unintentionally conveys a hierarchy when, in fact, all food in it is equally as important.

A good diet is always ideal, no matter if you’ve just finished your juice cleanse or not. So take notes! Too much of veggies, much as they may sound great, will not always be good for you. The same can be said for any type of food, really. Too much of one thing is bad for you!

Go Forth and Pick Up the Right Habits

Now that you know what to do, all that’s left is to actually, well, DO!