After giving it a bit of thought I’ve decided once again to embark on a Juice Fast. If you remember I did one in January of 2013, and blogged all about it Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, and Here Overall I enjoyed the experience, but for some reason once it was over the things the thoughts that lingered with me the most were the negative thoughts. The hard moments, the cranky moments, the things I didn’t like, and I wasn’t interested in doing another juice fast anytime soon.
Well, it seemed like this year had one hell of a beginning for me. The decadent party food never seemed to stop, I’d get on a health kick that would last a few days or a week and then something would come up. Some reason for decadence and I’d fall right off that wagon all over again. Then we went on vacation, but it wasn’t the same as when we went to Montreal. The vegan restaurant were few and far between. We lived mostly on rice and beans and fruit which is what I enjoy, but then we came back and it was a tidal wave of decadence. Then I had some personal stuff going on - some hectic job related stuff, and the pressure of finishing my school project and I’ll be honest my eating became irregular and chaotic at best. I went from extremes of not eating anything at all, to eating everything! Up and down up and down, and add on top of it that I’ve been testing tons of recipes for 3 vegan cook books - well, I was just never able to get a handle on my eating long enough to get myself back on track.
It occurred to me in the middle of last week that this crazy cycle needed to end, and it needed to end now. I’ve been feeling ‘gross’ off and on for a while now. I’ve been feeling bloated, and gassy, and my stomach has been in all kinds of distress. These are not great feelings, and I haven’t felt very good about myself because of all of this. A juice fast seemed the most logical place to start, and so without spending too much time agonizing over the decision I jumped right into it.
I started Sunday, and I’ll be going for Six Days. Meaning I’ll officially be able to eat solid food again Saturday.
I was anticipating a lot of discomfort, a lot of crankiness, a lot of hunger and so far that hasn’t been the case for me. In fact, I’ve found this juice fast to be going very smoothly, and it seems much easier then the one I did last year. I’ve hardly felt hungry at all, except for when it comes time to my needing a juice, and yesterday it seemed ad though I didn’t even need that much. I haven’t so far experienced any negative effects. I was really tired yesterday, but I don’t know if that had anything to do with juicing or if it’s just because I’m still getting used to this new schedule. Or maybe it was because of the physical activity I engaged in yesterday. Who knows.
The weird thing, is that even though I’m not particularly hungry I keep thinking about the foods I want to eat. It’s strange not eating, and when you’re not eating it’s amazing how aware you are of the fact that you’re not eating. It’s amazing how many food related thoughts we have in a day. Interestingly enough right now the things I’m craving most are just raw vegetables, salads, raw cauliflower, carrots, olives, kale salad, almond butter. Nothing crazy, nothing decadent, I think this is a good sign, a sign that I’m getting on track already. I plan to follow my 6 day juice fast with a 5 day raw food cleanse, and hopefully that’ll set everything right again. But now you probably want to know about the juice right?
Well Sunday started off with a 20oz glass of water. Followed by a 8oz glass of Citrus Apple Juice from Julie Morris’s book “Superfood Juices.” this juice contains apples, oranges, and sea buckthorn juice. This was super delicious and a great way to start the day.
Mid morning I followed that with a 20oz glass of water and then an 8oz glass of Green Apple Kale Juice from the same book. This juice contains apples, kale, cucumber, celery and spirulina. Also quite tasty - though a bit ‘green’ for me, I added a couple of drops of liquid stevia.
In Mid afternoon I enjoyed 8oz of Carrot Dill Juice - from the same book - which consisted of carrots, dill, cucumber, celery, Swiss Chard, and hemp seeds. It’s not a pretty juice but it’s actually very tasty. I thought the dill would be too much, but this juice has a sweetness from the carrots, and a creaminess from the hemp seeds that can’t be matched.
Between six and seven-thirty for dinner I had 24oz of Cooling Kale Juice - from the same book - it contained honeydew, cucumber, kale, apple, mint and lemon and was so good! I really loved this one, not overly green, and very refreshing. I followed this up with a 16oz bottle of unflavored kombucha and that was that. At other points throughout the day I drank water, and it went really well. I felt great all day, and almost immediately I felt less bloated, and less gassy. Amazing how that works, in fact it might be a good idea to just do a 1 day juice fast each month.
As for today - Monday - I started the day the same way with 20oz glass of water. Then followed it with 12oz of citrus apple juice, and a 12oz glass of Celery Greens which is from the same book. This juice contains celery, romaine lettuce, kale, parsley, and lemon. I thought it was going to be really bitter but it was actually quite good.
Then I knocked back some more water and went downstairs to make another batch of juice for the coming days. Since I made Six bottles of juice, and each batch of juice made a little extra that didn't fit in each bottle, all that extra ended up being my lunch. So I had some Maca Yam juice, Some Fennel Mint Juice, Some Grapefruit Mint Juice, some Apple Broccoli Ginger Juice, some Ginger Greens Juice, and some Sea Bucthorne Beet Juice. - All from "Superfood Juices" and I'll discuss each in more detail on Day 3-4.
Even after sampling all those tasty juices I was still a bit hungry and so I made the Chia Lemonade also from "Superfood Juices" This is a mixture of 1 cup coconut water, 1 cup water, fresh squeezed lemon juice and Chia Seeds. Now I know Chia seeds are not juice, and probably don't belong on a typical juice fast, however I decided a small amount of fiber would be okay this time around, because i think the zero-fiber juice fast I did last year was part of why I found it so uncomfortable. When you drink only juice there comes a point where there's nothing left - or not much left - in your insides to get pushed out anymore, know what i'm saying? and that's a strange feeling, and can be somewhat uncomfortable. I like the addition of this small amount of fiber to keep things regular.
Anyway, that Lemonade kept me pretty full until dinner time, and at dinner I drank the Maca Yam Juice which was good, but a little starchy for my tastes. I actually juiced some carrots with the yam as well, since i didn't have 2lb of yams but only 1 1/2lb. Still you could really taste the starch - more as an aftertaste. However the maca, cinnamon and coconut really made it taste like a holiday drink. Like eggnog, or chai or something delicious like that. I also drank a quarter bottle of the Sea Bucthorne Beet Juice which I added a smidge of ginger too and it was delicious.
I'd say that day 2 went by pretty smooth, as smooth as day 1, and far smoother then expected.
I’ll keep you updated all week on my progress so stay tuned!
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