Day 3 of my Juice fast was Tuesday, and it went off pretty smooth. I got home from work at around 8am, and was pretty hungry by then so I tucked into a large jar of the Sea Buckthorn Juice from “Superfood Juices” that I’d made the day before. This juice really was scrumptious, but then I’m of the opinion that you really can’t go wrong with Orange + Beet + Ginger. Know what I’m saying?
For Lunch I enjoyed the Grapefruit Mint Juice that I’d made the day before, and it was quite tasty. I love grapefruit juice anyway, and it worked pretty well with the mint, much to my surprise. I also enjoyed another Electrolyte Chia Lemonade.
In late afternoon I enjoyed a Kombucha, as well as another raw-probiotic drink called Kvass. Kvass was a bit hard to swallow, but maybe it’s because I got the ‘roots’ blend, which is beet, sarsparilla, ginger and some other stuff. It was a bit sour for my taste.
For Dinner I enjoyed a bottle of Carrot Goji juice which was a surprising blend. Throughout the day I drank water of course, and lots of it.
I woke up on Wednesday - Day 4 - feeling pretty darn good about the world and about myself. I was feeling so light, and so good. Almost from the start of Day 1 I’d begun to feel better. My skin itched less, and it looked more clear by day two. My stomach felt flat, not bloated, I had no gas, and even though I sweated profusely at work It didn’t have any odor other then the clean, musky scent of sweat. My insides felt clean, and I felt strong and invigorated. I began my day with a bottle of Carrot Dill Juice, followed by a bottle of Green Apple Kale Juice. I drank a lot of water and enjoyed a long walk. I made another batch of juice to last me for the next couple of days.
Lunch was a sampling of the following - Watermelon Goji Juice, Carrot Lucuma Juice, and Lemon Chard Juice. I was running low on produce - specifically greens - and so I had to rely on non-green juices for this batch. Still I was enjoying the excitement of experiencing new juice combinations. Unfortunately, and very suddenly out of the blue I began to feel a bit ill. I’m not sure why but around noon my stomach began to feel ‘funny’ I wasn’t nauseous, or bloated, I didn’t have to go to the bathroom but I felt some kind of gastronomical distress nonetheless, followed by a sudden sensation of light-headed-ness.
Even though I had a double helping of juice for breakfast I thought maybe this was due to not having enough to eat. So I downed a bottle of ginger kombucha - hoping the ginger and the probiotics would help settle my tummy. Which indeed it did, but it did not make me feel any less-light-headed.
As the day wore on I felt more and more light-headed, and then dizzy. My head felt like it was full of cotton balls and bees. Very fussy, very buzzy, very heavy. I felt weak. Everything seemed to take great effort. - Talking, walking, even breathing seemed laborious. I had not experienced these feelings to such an extreme on my previous juice fast and so I didn’t know what to make of them. I needed to take my dog for a walk, and so I went - for just a short 15 minute jaunt around the block and it was hard. My legs felt like lead, picking my feet up off the ground and moving my legs forward was a challenge. They felt so heavy, and yet at the same time I felt as though I had no legs at all, I couldn’t feel them properly, as though they’d fallen asleep. My motor skills were not good. I came home, I drank more water, I laid on the couch silently reading. I spent most of the afternoon on the livingroom couch. It was grey and overcast outside and suddenly I felt chilled to the bone. I was so cold, shivering even though I was dressed in a hoodie and was wrapped in a blanket. I cranked the heat and it did not relieve me. I moved from the couch to my bed and burred myself under masses of blankets. Finally I was warm, but so very tired and weak.
I stayed like that all day, and only got up for lunch which was a glass of the Fennel Mint Juice which I’ll be honest, I did not like. Fennel is a vegetable that’s hit or miss with me, but I wanted to try it anyway. For me it was too strong a taste in this juice. I followed it with some water, and some tea. Lots of hot tea to warm me up inside and out. Mostly peppermint tea, but also some herbal hibiscus tea.
Dinner was Apple Broccoli Ginger Juice which was much tastier then I was expecting. I enjoyed it, with water, but did not feel much better. I went to bed early. I woke up at Eleven, and did not feel much better, but I had to get ready for work. I took two steps towards my alarm clock to turn it off, and nearly passed out. I probably would have lost consciousness completely except when I dropped, I fell against my bookcase and I think it was that hard thwack that woke me out of it. For a few minutes I couldn’t see anything or say anything, my ears were buzzing. I sat silently until my eyes refocused and I could move again.
My first two hours of work were hard, I felt bad, not as bad as I had in the afternoon but still not so great. Light-headed, weak, my body felt heavy. At 2am I took a break and enjoyed some water and a bottle of Lemon Chard Juice. It was very green, but somehow tasty anyway. After that I gradually began to feel better. My next 6 hours of work went pretty smooth. I didn’t feel as weak or as dizzy, I thought I was getting better.
My shift ended at 8am, and maybe 10 minutes before I punched out for the day I began to feel strange again. My husband had slept in, and so I had to wait for him at work, I hung around and talked with a couple of the guys I’ve made friends with. As we talked I felt worse and worse, dizzy, light-headed and everything felt heavy and numb again. I had to sit down. My husband finally arrived to collect me and we went to buy groceries. I couldn’t quite manage this simple task, and so I sat down in the café and waited for him to finish up.
As far as hunger goes, I was not hungry at all. The juice kept my hunger pains at bay, and kept my needs in that regard completely satisfied. Nothing I did however seemed to make me feel any less dizzy or any less weak. I didn’t want to quit the juice fast, I was enjoying the experience up until day 4, but since my job is a very physical one I realized that it did not make sense to continue on like this, feeling so ill. Not only did it not make sense but it was potentially dangerous, I could hurt myself, or do irreversible damage. My husband insisted that I break the fast and eat. At first I was very reluctant to do this, but he insisted, he said “At least eat some fruit, something, anything.” the more he talked the more I saw reason. So Mid-morning on Day 5 I broke the fast. I was sad to do so, but by afternoon I was feeling much, much better. I’ll talk about my breaking of the fast tomorrow.
Before I go however I just wanted to say that I don’t want my experience on day 4 to dissuade you or scare you away from fasting. I’m not scared at all, in fact I plan to do another short 3 day fast at the end of the month since I didn’t make the full 6 days I’d initially planned on. Everyone’s body, needs and experiences are different, and I never felt this way on my first juice fast. I think this time around it maybe had something to do with low blood pressure, my blood pressure is quite low to begin with and it might have dropped much too low due to fasting. It might be better for me in the future to do shorter more frequent fasts vs longer infrequent ones. You have to find what works for you, and I still maintain that under normal circumstances fasting is a transcendent experience.
You can Read about Day's 1 and 2 Here
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