Juice Fasting: Blueprint Cleanse, Master Cleanse, At-Home Juicing and More

The Blueprint Cleanse is a company in New York City that designed 1-, 2- and 3-day juice cleanses, and which helped make juice fasting popular and mainstream rather than something done only by natural food freaks, celebrities and socialites on crash diets.

Blueprint Cleanse delivers in New York, and also delivers all over the country with FedEx. It is the model for other similar juice cleanse programs that make juice fasting easy for people who do not have a juicer.

Basically, the Blueprint Cleanse supplies six 16-ounce juices each day and a specific order in which to drink the juices. Depending on how hard core a person is, they may have two or three green juices. Green juices are considered by many to be more intense — and healthier — than the fruit or nut juices. The nut juice is usually the last juice of the day.

Green juices are mixtures of things like kale, parsley, celery, spinach, cucumber or other dark green vegetables. You may also want to add fresh ginger root or lemon juice to add flavors.

Fruit juices can include apple, pineapple, carrot, beets, lemon or lime juice. Add ginger or grapes or mint — get creative!

The key is that you only consume these juiced nutrients during the fasting period of your juice cleanse.

Consensus is mixed on whether or not juice fasting works either as a way to lose weight or as a way to detox.

I happen to believe that, done correctly, juice fasting can work both as a diet tool and as a health, detoxification tool.

Why do I think this? Well, of course you will lose weight if you seriously restrict your calories for a few days. It is true that you mostly will lose water weight, so don't be fooled into thinking you have lost tons of fat when your scale registers 4 pounds lighter. But you will have lost something, and your body will tap into other energy stores to replace the energy it is not getting in the form of calories.

My number one reason why I believe that juice fasting helps a diet is that when you do not eat solid food for a few days, your stomach shrinks so you are not as hungry when you get to eat again. If you are careful to eat only small amounts of food when you are back on food, there is no reason your stomach should grow back to its previous size, so you will eat less, thereby consuming fewer calories. I also think the austerity of committing to a juice fast gets you ina determined, resolved state of mind that is helpful when it comes to resisting temptation and making your diet work.

I also believe that juice fasting helps you cleanse your system. I do not think it is some miracle cure, and I would be skeptical of any claims that juice fasting has major benefits for your liver or can flush out the detritus of decades-old feces. That's just too much to expect, and it is true that our bodies are designed to detox naturally. Eliminating toxins is simply what our bodies do.

But not eating solid foods for a few days and drinking up to 75 ounces of juice, not to mention water and herbal tea means you are filling your body with liquid. That liquid has to come out, and it flushes a lot out with it.

In moderation, and done right, juice fasting is safe.

A key to any safe and successful juice fast is that the person get enough calories to keep all vital bodily functions going. Whether you are doing this to lose weight or to feel healthier, you need calories.

To make sure you consume enough calories, and remain somewhat balanced, it's best to drink a mixture of green juices and fruit juices, and even to add in a nut juice which will give you some protein and fat. Fat is necessary for healthy bodily functions, and nut fats are all natural.

You also want to ease into the fast by eating all-vegetarian the day before starting the fast and the day after finishing it. This will help prepare the body for the shock of the juice fast, in which it gets extreme amounts of vitamins and minerals all in liquid form.

As with anything, the key is moderation and it is unwise and perhaps unsafe to do a juice fast for any longer than three days without first consulting a doctor.

I like to do a few juice fasts every year. I'll probably do one early in a new year as well as one in the summer. I find that juice fasts are a great way to get my eating back under control and to recommit to a healthy lifestyle and healthy eating routine. Simply getting myself psyched up in advance for the juice fast makes it easier. I say play any mental games that help!

I'm rarely hungry when I do a juice cleanse. I remember hearing that before I did my first fast, and I thought that was baloney. Yet it's true. One reason I think I don't get hungry is that I drink the juices steadily through the day. I pour a small amount of juice in a cup and fill the rest of the cup with water. This keeps my stomach full. Also, I reckon that when I do a juice fast, I am still getting at least 1,000 calories a day.

That said, while I do not get hungry, I really, really miss chewing when I do a juice cleanse. By the last day of it, I want food not for taste or calories or to fill up, but simply because I long to chew.

The other secret to a successful juice cleanse is to sweat during it. That will speed your metabolism and the release of toxins. After all, your skin is your largest organ. I have managed to run when I have done juice fasts in the past, though I prefer long walks. I also have done bikram yoga. Do not hesitate to sit down or take a break if you feel at all light headed when exercising during a cleanse. An easy cheat to sweat without doing cardio is to sit in a sauna or steam room. This will open your pores more effectively than just about anything else.

If you can't get a good sweat going, scrub vigorously with a loofah in a hot shower, as this will also activate your skin.

If you decide to do a juice fast, good luck! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.