I’ve mentioned multiple times on the blog that the primary reason I do juice cleanses is that they help me get out of unhealthy eating funks by getting cravings in check. (To put things in perspective, I only do them a couple times a year and have never done one longer than three days–I’m by no means a juice extremist.) Do those funks ever happen to you? For me it always starts with being super busy and stressed with work. I de-prioritize cooking and grocery shopping (and sleep), and start eating quick, grab-and-go snacks like granola bars (most of which are high in sugar) and then before you know it, I’m craving five cake pops from Starbuck’s a day (they’re magical and all but…).
Most of the time, I just snap myself out of it with a good night’s sleep and a morning workout, but every so often I’ll do a half day or full day of juicing to help get me back on track. If you browse Groupon sites, there’s almost always an awesome deal on bottled juices, but if you have your own juicer, it’s not hard to do a quick reset yourself. 
I wanted to share an easy way to do a one-day juice reset at home. One day of juice certainly isn’t a quick miracle fix (for weight loss, cravings, or anything really), but it’s a great length of time if you just need to pump the brakes a little, or if your schedule and activity level makes longer juice cleanses overwhelming and unrealistic. I’m not a doctor and not qualified to tell you if this is right for you, simply sharing what works for me. 🙂
My Easy, Cheap One-Day Green Juice Plan
The idea behind this juice plan is to make things as easy and cheap as possible. Instead of making six different juices, each with different ingredients, I drink the same green juice concoction all day, mixing in some lemon water, tea and more water, and then I finish the day with a “dessert” juice so that I feel satisfied before bed. I mean…as satisfied as one can feel after drinking a sweet potato (LOL).
Here’s your step-by-step guide for prepping:
- Go grocery shopping (list below) and if you don’t own mason jars or other airtight liquid containers, invest in some (you can find them super cheap at stores like Home Goods). I like to do my shopping trip the day before I’m going to juice.
- The morning of your reset, make your green juice. Depending on the size of your juicer’s pulp catcher and liquid container, you should be able to make a day’s worth of green juice in three batches. Divide up the ingredients evenly into three piles (you wouldn’t want to put all the lemons through the juicer in the first batch, for example). Fill your mason jars up as you go and remember to empty your pulp container after each batch so that there’s room for the next.
- Rinse the main parts of your juicer (no need to scrub it down yet; you just don’t want any green remnants going into your dessert juice). Make your dessert juice and seal it in a mason jar.
- Clean your juicer. Put all your pretty juice jars in the refrigerator.
Notes on juicing:
- Scrub the produce clean before you juice it. You don’t need much prep beyond that except to remove the stem end of the carrots and to cut off the peel of the lemon (this isn’t totally necessary, but it can add a bitter taste. I usually cut most of it off but leave the white stuff underneath the peel).
- If any of the leafy greens are covered in soil (spinach bunches are always like this for me!) you can soak them in a bowl of water before rinsing—that helps a lot to remove the dirt.
One-Day At-Home Green Juice Cleanse Grocery List & Recipes
The following will make you roughly six 12-oz cups of green juice and one 12-oz cup of sweet potato dessert juice.
- 2 bunches kale
- 2 bunches chard
- 2 bunches spinach
- 4 lemons (3 for the green juice, 1 for your morning water)
- 3 apples (2 for the green juice, 1 for the dessert juice)
- 3 cucumbers
- 1 big bunch celery
- 1 bunch parsley
- 3” turmeric root (you could sub this for ginger)
- 1 medium-large sweet potato
- 4 carrots
- Cinnamon (if you don’t already have it in your pantry)
Shopping at Whole Paycheck Foods and buying all organic produce, this cost me $27.95. Not too bad for a day’s worth of fuel!
Juicing Game Plan for the Day
By my calculations, there is just about 1,200 calories in this day’s worth of juice. Depending on your height and activity level, this might satisfy your usual caloric intake or it could be on the low side. For me, especially because I’m so active (not trying to be a bragasaurus rex—it’s my job to move!), this is low. Plan accordingly. Maybe you decide to juice on a rest day; maybe you opt for some light yoga or a long walk; maybe you feel totally energized and workout as you normally would. Bottom line—listen to your body and don’t push it. This isn’t a punishment for your body!
On that topic, I also wrote a whole post about my thoughts on timing a juice cleanse (spoiler alert: NOT before your bachelorette party, sorry). 🙂
So back to your day of at-home juicing. Here’s your game plan:
1. Start your day with a big warm glass of water with a fresh squeeze of lemon in it. Sip this down while you juice your produce for the day. 
2. Are you a coffee addict? Have a cup. If you can without severe headaches, I’d try to limit yourself to just one cup though. And if possible, I’d opt for tea instead of coffee. I’ve been obsessed with Your Tea lately—it’s organic, yummy and easy on the stomach (unlike coffee which sometimes leaves me with that burning acidic feeling). 
3. When you’re hungry, drink a juice. In between juices, try to drink a glass of water. You’re going to be peeing a lot today, so you might want to plan ahead for that. 🙂 
4. A couple hours before bed, enjoy your dessert juice. I try to stop drinking at least two hours before bed so that I don’t wake up in the middle of the night needing to pee.
If you’re starving throughout the day and the juice isn’t enough, first ask yourself if you’re really hungry or you’re just bored and miss chewing on something. If you’re really hungry, have a piece of fruit, half an avocado, or other plant-based snack. 
Do you make your own juice at home? Have you ever done a half-day or one-day juice reset?
Disclosure: Your Tea sent be a bunch of their Tiny Tea as part of a paid sponsorship, but my opinion is not biased in the least—I’m seriously obsessed with this tea. Like two cups a day, can’t stop, won’t stop.
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I’ve never done a juice cleanse but I do make myself a giant green smoothie everyday to go with breakfast. That’s why I have never regretted my Vitamix purchase. It is magical and changed my life.
This is exactly the post I needed! I am the exact same way and often just need to hit the reset button on my mojo but never want to spend an arm and a leg on pre-made juices. THANK YOU! Definitely saving this for the next time I need to hit reset!
Love this! That many juices would’ve cost more to buy so that isn’t a bad price. I’d love to do this but don’t have a juicer haha! Do you do anything w all the pulp or just toss it? Also did you ever choose a winner for that last big giveaway? 🙂
I’ve baked the pulp into muffins and even tried making crackers with it–both turned out great, but it’s a lot of effort so it admittedly doesn’t happen often haha. Yes–the winner was emailed last week 🙂
I could easily do this on one of my days off. Sounds tasty. Except the cukes. Not a huge fan. :-/
You could definitely omit them–just compensate with another produce that has a high water content (celery is a good example)
Great post Nicole! I’ve been looking for a easy to follow juice guide and you’ve provided it! I love the grocery list too. I also like that you recommended doing this while planning on being home all day. Will definitely be trying this.
This is an awesome post. You make juicing totally approachable and that sweet potato dessert juice looks amaze!
My juicer is terrible for leafy greens. Do you think these juices would work in the Vitamix?
I haven’t tried in a blender, but I have friends who swear by green juices in their Vitamix–I’d give it a try!
Whole Paycheck Foods- Thanks for the chuckle (so true). I NEED A JUICER! I havent because I have zero room in my kitchen for another gadget but I think I need one. Thanks for all the info!
I hear ya–my tiny kitchen is about to burst with appliances! 🙂
I use a Vitamix blender. Can I use the same recipes or do I need to modify it for a blender?
Hi I was wondering if you actually have the recipes for each juice, or did I just miss them?
Okay now I see it. LOL so we need I was thinking this was a week juice plan…Going to do this tomorrow since I already have everything!
How much do you mean by bunch?