I’ve been trying a juice reboot as proposed by Joe Cross for the last five days that consisted of four fruit or vegetable juices each day and five glasses of water. You’re not supposed to have any caffeine but I continued with my morning coffee (black not latte) and afternoon cup of tea and camomile tea in the evening.

Yes, I know that these faddy crash diets aren’t a good idea, everyone has told me that, but this was a quick fix to address a creeping weight gain brought about by hormones; lowered calorie deficit; and a summer diet of mini magnums and pasta. I could not longer fit into the small clothes I bought when I lost all that weight a couple of years ago, and I was starting to feel like a sausage in my “fat” clothes. It’s not just vanity, it’s a shrinking wardrobe of newish clothes I love, which I’m not quite ready to give away.

My Gen Z offspring exhort me not to buy into fat-shaming culture, and they are also correct, but the truth is that my 5’0″ frame feels much better when I’m not being squeezed by my clothes, and reducing my weight is probably much better for my long-term health and the short-term strain on my poor knees.

I bought a powerful centrifugal juicer which chewed through bags of fresh produce every day. I usually have a glass of freshly-squeezed in the morning anyway, but I added carrot or watermelon to that. (Anything with watermelon juice is lovely.) I’d have a greener juice made with cucumber or celery or mint at lunchtime. Beetroot juice is delicious but I wasn’t keen on juiced sweet peppers. I discovered that frozen fruit does not juice well so I made a smoothie with my frozen mango and pineapple and frozen cherries. I hope it counts. It was delicious.

Now, of course simply eating the whole fruit and veg raw without juicing them would, of course, have been nutritionally superior but chomping through such quantities of produce is time consuming, and much less elegant. Anyway, who eats raw beetroot?

It took me a couple of days to get to grips with the juicer parts. I kept missing off the tap, or forgetting to place my glass and consequently redecorating the kitchen, which became rather sticky by the end of each day. I did eventually work out a system whereby I lined the juicer’s waste bucket with a compostable food waste bag and carefully dismantled the juicer parts as soon as I’d finished juicing so that I could wash the filter immediately and capture all the juice that lurked under it. Yes, it was a bit of a faff but I soon managed to find a routine.

The dogs have really enjoyed the anticipation of carrot ends and apple cores, lettuce and even whole beetroot bits. One day Oscar even refused his supper, preferring to wait for my juicing offcuts.

And the results? Well, I’ve lost 3kg in 5 days. Will I keep it off? It’s well known that dieters usually regain all of their lost weight in the long term, which is why there are so many yo-yo dieters and the raison d’etre of the diet industry. For me it’s just been a little kick back towards the more mindful eating habits encouraged by Noom, and to self-discipline, and that’s a good thing in itself. I did not think I’d be able to last 5 days only consuming juice but I did. I really don’t think I could do the 7 days or 30 days advocated by others. I’m really grateful to B, my juice buddy, whose constant encouragement and support has kept me going.

The tastes, textures and aromas of food are a real joy of my life and smelling John’s slow-cooked pork or last night’s re-heated Thai curry from the fridge was miserable but I stayed strong, knowing it was only for a couple more days. Any longer would have been too much of a challenge for me, I’m sure.

A side-effect of this last 5 days has been that I’ve been vegetarian – vegan – for that whole time instead of feeling obliged to cook meals for the two of us that inevitably contain meat.

Would I do it again? I think the post-Christmas period always beckons, though there’s much less of a variety of fresh produce around then than there is in September, so this was the ideal time to do it. We’ll see.