Breaking The Fast...

Strawberries & Cherries
Man how I love Cherry Season!

Wow, I had no idea that I’ve been away for so long. I guess I’ve been busier then I thought, and when I haven’t been busy I’ve been really enjoying the freedom of being able to do whatever I want vs. writing essays, and studying. I forgot what free-time felt like.

I guess the truth is that you haven’t missed very much anyway. Since my Juice cleanse ended I haven’t been eating anything all that exciting. To break my fast I started off simple and small. Fruit and raw veggies, that was it. Then I moved onto more involved raw foods like big salads, raw hummus, raw pasta, raw sushi, that kind of thing. I did that for a couple of weeks and then I started introducing more and more cooked foods, lately we’ve been eating a lot of Italian theme food - a lot of pasta because it’s cheap and easy, and since we’re going on Holiday again in September cheap is good.

Zucchini Hummus Decorated with Salt Cured Olives 

I didn’t photograph everything I ate just after my fast ended but I did take a few photos. Mostly my breakfast was a bowl of Strawberries, blueberries or cherries - in fact this is till my go-to breakfast. Sometimes I would make a raw fruit smoothie using homemade raw almond milk, fresh or frozen fruit and dates. Lunch was usually raw hummus and raw vegetables - my favorite hummus was a delicious zucchini hummus but I also made a Macadamia nut hummus that was pretty good. Dinners were simple, a bowl of raw veggies over raw ‘rice’ such as in the ‘sushi bowl’ below, or I would make zucchini pasta and toss it in a delicious raw tomato or raw creamy pecan sauce. I didn't do dessert for the most part, although I did make the occasional fruit smoothie as a ‘dessert’ like snack.

I was feeling really good eating this way, now that I’ve been eating a ton of pasta, and less raw vegetables I really feel that weighed down sensation I was feeling before. I’m considering doing another short juice fast 3-4 days at the end of the month and then getting back to a mostly raw diet for a while, but we’ll see.

Raw Sushi Bowl
Cauliflower Rice, Mushrooms, Avocado, Onion, Carrot, Seaweed
Cucumber, Tamari, 

To make up for my prolonged absence and the shortness of this post I’ll post a restaurant review later this evening. It’s a place I tried recently and have been dying to tell you all about.

Juice Fast 2.0, Day 3 & 4...

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

Juice Fast 2.0, Day 1 & 2...

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!

The End of the Fast...

Wow, I really fell behind in posting this week. I’ve had so much stuff to share with you all but I’ve just been so busy lately that finding the time to sit down and write it all out has been somewhat difficult. Before moving onto other topics and other recipes I wanted to do a Juice Fast Conclusion post. I had meant to post it last week, but one thing led to another and, well you know how that goes right? So without any further adieu...

Originally I set out to do a juice fast because I was inspired. It sounded like exactly the kind of thing I needed in my life at that particular moment. I wanted to feel re-energized, and I wanted to break food dependence and bad food habits as well as clear up some persistent and annoying problems that had been plaguing me of late. I wanted to feel good in my body, while doing something good for it. Though these are the things I set out to achieve it never occurred to me that I would also learn so much about myself, and human eating habits through fasting. I am really amazed by the experience and am really happy I decided to take on the challenge. Despite the ups and downs I found this to be an overall good experience, and something I would definitely do again in the future, because I feel that I derived great benefit from doing it. Whether or not a juice fast will benefit everyone else however I have no idea. Nor can I claim that it’ll fix all that ails you, but what I can say is that it helped me. Of course if you suffer from any kind of health problems, or are on medication you should not try juice fasting without consulting your doctor and getting his or her okay first. Especially if you plan on doing a prolonged juice fast.


What I Achieved By Doing A Juice fast 

- The excessively itchy skin and itchy ears that had been bothering me for weeks cleared up around the second day. That’s not to say that I never get an itch now, but I’m not sitting around constantly scratching until my skin is raw, and marked and close to bleeding.

- The issues surrounding my navel have improved greatly. There’s no itching or redness, no infection. Although I think there are greater forces at work here then simply my diet. I have very sensitive skin, and I think the contact between my clothing and my navel has been one of the main causes of the irritation, which is something I’ll have to pay greater attention to.

- The sore gums and canker sores also went away I would say sometime around the first or second day, and they have not returned. I’m inclined to think these problems were due to sugar and chocolate indulgence.

- I’ve always been particularly gassy, and after a large meal it’s common for me to feel bloated too. After the first day I wasn’t either of these things. No bloat for the entire five days, and I wasn’t gassy. In the time since my fast has ended I have remained pretty free of bloat, and gas as well and for the most part my gas has been completely odorless. I am thinking that in addition to large meals being responsible for the bloating that gluten-containing products and sugar are also contributing factors.

- I’ve never had bad skin, and I’ve never suffered from acne. When I get pimples it’s usually one, or on a bad day two or three, but sometimes I get smaller blemishes beneath the surface of the skin. They never form into an actual pimple but it’s something that’s noticeable to me, and I find it irritating. At the time I started the juice fast this was happening under my left eye, and I had two pimples. Over the course of the fast my skin completely cleared up, and returned to normal. Not to mention my skin took on a healthier more robust and youthful glow. Since coming off the fast my skin has perhaps lost a little of that ‘glow’ but otherwise it remains the same, clear and blemish free.

- After about the second or third day on the fast I realized I had no mucous in the morning, and there was no need for me to clear my throat upon waking. This seemed like nothing sort of a miracle to me and I was pretty happy about it. I also didn’t sneeze once in the entire five days I was fasting. Since coming off the fast that hasn’t been the case. The first week off the fast I remained mucous free in the morning but I was following a primarily raw food diet that week. Now as I transition back to eating more cooked foods I find the mucous has returned, and though I am now sneezing less then I used to, I am sneezing again.

- I lost a total of 10 pounds. Not a pound of which has come back on since ending the fast. So that was a nice little bonus.

What I Learned By Doing A Juice Fast

- People really do not need to eat as much food as they think they do. You would be amazed at how full you can get on a 32oz juice and how it can keep you full for hours. We never think about liquids as food, or meals but really that’s exactly what they are, especially if we’re talking about some of the high calorie beverages that some people are accustomed to drinking.

- When and how we eat really is connected to our moods, and emotions as well as other psychological factors, even when we don’t think it is. I had never really considered that mood effects what and how we eat, but it does. If I’m in a good mood and feel happy I’m more inclined to eat something healthy. If I’m in a bad mood or feeling upset I’ll probably eat anything and usually I’ll eat something less then healthful. I know this is true of a lot of people but it never occurred to me that this might also be true to me. I’d never made the connection. It also became painfully clear to m on the fast that for whatever reason, everyday between 3 and 5 no matter when I’d eat lunch I felt ak ind of ‘crash’ and the desire to eat, even if I wasn’t particularly hungry. Before the fast I probably almost always indulged this ‘need’ without even thinking about it. Now that the fast is over I haven’t really felt that ‘crash’ not as severe anyway, and now I know that I can satisfy that need with water, herbal tea, kombucha or by reminding myself that it’s not really food that I’m interested int.

- People definitely do snack and eat when they’re not hungry. They snack and graze constantly between meals and I suppose I wasn’t much different. I may have been snacking on healthier foods but I was still snacking. Snacking is definitely a bad habit to get sucked into. Typically I would snack between the time of 3pm-8pm, and I was particularly bad about snacking at work, even if I wasn’t hungry. Since the fast ended however I’ve been really great about not falling into that trap again. Honestly most days I feel no need to snack anyway. Being at work makes the snack impulse a little harder to deny but I’ve come up with a great solution for when I’m there. Smoothies!  Seriously it works. I make a big fruit smoothie, divide it into two travel mugs and when I’m on breaks at work and want a snack I drink one. That way I’m filling myself with something nutritious that satiates me, and prevents me from snacking elsewhere. Also I’m notorious for eating chocolate at work, I almost can’t help myself but I’ve found another perfect solution to this. Dates or coconut date rolls! By them in the bulk section of your local health food store and bring along 3-4 of them to eat after I finish my lunch and bam! I don’t need chocolate when I have dates or coconut dates because my sweet tooth is satisfied and I don’t feel that crash that you do when the chocolate buzz wears off!

- It’s also true that the hungrier a person feels the more food they tend to eat. I know this is true in my case and so since I’ve been off the fast I’ve been trying to adopt the practice of Buddhist monks which is to eat my food slowly and with relish. When you eat slowly you allow time for your stomach to send signals to your brain to tell it that it’s full. I also try and pause for five to ten minutes after eating my food before deciding on whether or not to get a second helping. Or if I do get a second helping I make sure the second helping is very small. You would be amazed to realize that just because you feel really, really hungry doesn’t mean that you actually need to eat huge heaping plates of food.

- One of the most important things I learned on the fast was to listen to my body, and to actually understand what it’s telling me.

- Another thing I was hoping to accomplish was to retrain my tastebuds so that I could enjoy food after the cleanse without using so much oil, or sugar. I thought this would be hard, but it’s been surprisingly easy. First we’ll start with oil, I am using oil now that I’m off the cleanse, but I’m not using it everyday as I cone did, and I’m using less when I do use it. I don’t miss it. I have no interest in giving up oil for good and switching to an ‘oil-free’ diet but using less of it less often in favor of getting some of my fats from whole plant food such as nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut etc... appeals to me. As for sugar I haven’t touched the stuff since coming off the fast. I haven’t used white sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, raw sugar etc... I have only used a minimal amount of agave, or maple syrup to sweeten dishes when a sweetener was called for, and I’ve tried to use agave very, very sparingly anyway. I did bake a loaf and a batch of brownies last week and for both instead of using cane sugar as the recipe required I used date sugar. It’s less sweet then sugar and I find I actually like it more. I also use whole pitted dates to sweeten things, otherwise I simply rely on the natural sweetness of the food. I thought I would really miss sugar and crave getting it back into my life but instead when I look at sweet recipes I’m actually thinking about ways to decrease the sugar asked for or trying to decide how to switch it out. I consider this a big success.

- Also since the end of my fast I have been mostly gluten, and soy free. The first week after the fast I was entirely gluten free, and soy free except for using Tamari. The second week, and this week I’ve tried to remain both gluten and soy free because I like the feeling but I’m not strict about it. I’m not going to run out and buy certified gluten-free oats or worry about gluten-free condiments. I’m more interested in keeping away from bigger gluten items such as bread’s, breadcrumbs, pasta’s, pastries, and seitan. This has actually been pretty easy and I like experimenting with gluten-free flours in baking. I’ve come to really enjoy teff flour and I made the most delicious gluten-free, soy-free, sugar-free vegan brownies ever! Now, I don’t have a gluten intolerance and so I have no interest in being 100% gluten-free for the rest of my life, but I do feel better, cleaner and leaner when I’m not loading up on gluten, and so I like the idea of keeping gluten foods as ‘sometimes’ foods. As for soy, I have no soy allergy either but processed soy can really make you feel bogged down and so I want to stay away from that. I’ll still eat tofu, tempeh, edamame, and soy milk but perhaps - at least when it comes to tofu - with less frequency then before.

- Lastly, my first week after the fast I ate a mostly raw diet. The second week was more balanced with me eating mostly raw food throughout the day and cooked food for dinner. I like this set-up, and while I don’t have any desire to go 100% raw I think raw food is something that was perhaps lacking a little in my pre-fast life. Sure I ate salads, and fruits and raw veggies sometimes but it wasn’t everyday and it wasn’t in abundance. So I’m going to strive to include more raw foods into my diet on a regular basis. Again it’s something that makes me feel cleaner, leaner, lighter and healthier.

So I guess that about does it for lessons I learned on the Juice Fast. I hope you enjoyed my little juice fast adventure and I hope you learned something too!

Juice Fast Day 5...

Sweet Greens

Friday was my fifth and unfortunately last day of juice fasting. I had originally intended to do the juice fast for a minimum of 7 days but hoping to achieve a maximum of 10 days. However an unforseen event changed all that. Those of you who know me, know that I’m clumsy, very much so. I’m constantly dropping things, spilling things, falling over, tripping, stumbling, breaking things, hurting myself etcetera. Friday afternoon was just another clumsy misstep in a long line of them. I was frantically trying to get my things together before work, while simultaneously trying to organize the kitchen. My juicer was still disassembled from breakfast, and the parts were scattered over the counter top to dry. In a flash I decided I should hand dry the parts and put the machine back together before work, so as I scrambled to do this I accidently knocked one of the pieces off of the counter top where it went crashing to the floor - breaking. Yes, after less then 10 days I broke my brand new juicer! Can you believe it? I was so upset, heartbroken really. The piece that broke was pretty important, it’s the part the houses the blade and pulp basket, it also has the nozzle that directs juice into your glass. The juicer doesn’t really work without it. So a few tears later and a long story short we were able to order a replacement part, however there was no getting it by the next day and thus my fast was ended for me. Which sucks because Friday ended up being the best day of the fast!

8:30am - Woke up, felt very happy, and positive and looking forward to the day. However since I went to bed kind of late I was also feeling a bit lazy, and since I didn’t need to be at work for hours, and since I didn’t have anything pressing to do I decided to remain in bed with my husband and cuddle. It’s not often the case that we have a lot of free-time in the morning to cuddle and be carefree so when these opportunities present themselves I always try to take them.

10:30am -We finally got out of bed. I was still feeling pretty good. Happy, rested, rejuvenated. Though I’d gone to bed late I’d had a particularly good nights sleep..

11:30am - Made breakfast. 30oz Green Juice called Sweet Greens from Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” which had Apple, Kiwi, Lemon, Cucumber, Kale, Romaine and it was suppose to have dandelion Greens as well, but I didn’t have those so I subbed arugula instead. Man I really like juicing arugula!  Overall the juice was pretty darn good.

12:30am - I decided to make a 25oz fruit juice called Apple Twist from "The Art of Raw Living Food" by  Doreen Virtue and Jenny Ross. It had Apples, Pears, and Blood Oranges. SO YUM! Really, truly amazing!

Apple Twist

1pm - Went for a walk.

2:45pm - Started getting ready for work. I was feeling good, full of energy and positive. I wasn’t hungry yet but knew I would probably be hungry in a couple of hours. I debated making juice to bring with me to drink on my breaks but then realized I wouldn’t have enough time to make any juice plus clean the machine before I needed to leave. Instead I opted to make a coconut-wheatgrass-spirulina drink to take with me, and it was just around this time that I broke my juicer. I suppose at this point I could have ended the fast, but I was feeling so good that I was determined to make it a full five days at least.

6pm - Drank half of my coconut water-wheatgrass drink on break then went and bought a 16oz raw fresh pressed pineapple, apple, mint juice. This was fantastic! The juice was made by a company called BluePrint Juice and it was really phenomenal!

8pm - Drank a couple of glasses of water and a kombucha

10pm - Finished the rest of my coconut water - wheatgrass drink

Coconut Water-Wheatgrass-Spirulina

11:15pm - Upon arriving home from work I wasn’t feeling hungry at all, but I felt I should have something so I just had some herbal tea and a bit more coconut water. Plain this time, no wheatgrass.

12:30am - Went to bed.

Overall Thoughts for the Day - 

This was the best day by far. I felt positive all day, and aside from breaking my juicer I didn’t feel depressed or frustrated at all. I never once thought about braking my fast or even wanting to break it. I was looking so forward to achieving seven days, and feeling positive and confident enough in myself to think I could probably manage ten days after all. I was high on good vibes and I had a lot of energy which was nice. I don’t know if I would say I had more energy on Friday then on any other Friday, but I certainly started having more energy then I’d had on pervious days of the fast.

As for ‘Detox’ symptoms there were none, and I really mean that. No headaches, and there was no stinky vegetable breath, and no vegetable taste in my mouth. Not even after I drank my breakfast juice or any other juice or the wheatgrass. My mouth tasted clean, and my breath smelt normal, finally. I think I was more happy about this then almost anything else because that vegetable taste was really driving me mad. I still had a white coating on my tongue but it wasn’t as much, and of course all the other things still applied. Meaning the bacterial infection was gone, the itchy skin was gone, the itchy ears, the pimples, the gas, the bloating. Everything had cleared up and I’d even lost a little weight on top of it. I  felt really fantastic, light, and clean. It’s really hard to accurately describe just how good I was feeling, but I felt like I could do anything like I could conquer any task. I felt really alive. So I was pretty sad my fast came to such an abrupt end.

Juice Fast Day 4...

Iron Builder Juice

Thursday was my fourth day of juice fasting, - I know, I’m behind, I’d hoped to catch up over the weekend but things were a bit hectic.

8:30am - Woke up, felt positive, happy, full, and energized for the day.

10:30am - Made breakfast. I made the same Green Juice I’d been making the previous two days - the Bitter Detox juice - but this time added some collard green stems and a mango as well. I also followed with the same strawberry kiwi juice I’d been enjoying.

12pm - Went for a walk.

2-2:30pm - Enjoyed Kombucha, herbal tea and water

4pm - On hearing the results of my final exam for my Anatomy and Physiology Class I was pretty bummed out, and started feeling really depressed. I passed the final with a more then acceptable grade, a low A but I had hoped to do better. - Yes, I am a bit of an overachiever. - I started feeling frustrated and fed-up and didn’t want to do the fast anymore. I was upset about the test and wanted to eat - or more accurately ‘junk-out.’

5:30pm - Instead of giving into negative feelings and breaking my fast I decided to take a nap.

6pm - I was still feeling depressed, but also hungry so I made myself a juice. The Iron Builder Juice from Douglas McNish’s book “Eat Raw, Eat Well’ it contains beets, carrots, apple, and lemon. It tasted better then I thought it might although 32oz was a lot of it to drink. After drinking it and feeling full again I felt a little better, slightly more positive. I decided to take some time to relax and clear my mind. So I read.

9pm - I was feeling much better. I wasn’t hungry so instead I just had the same coconut water - wheatgrass - spirulina mix from the day before with a glass of water.

1:30am - Went to bed.

Overall Thoughts for the Day -

Par usual I felt great in the morning and as it drew nearer to the afternoon I started to come down, and began feeling depressed. The news of my final didn’t help matters and that just made my frustration and negative feelings worse. I really wanted to break the fast and quit, but by 9:30-10pm I was feeling good again. I’d taken some time out to relax and clear my mind and rethink why I was doing the fast in the first place. I forced myself to look on the positive side and reminded myself not to get so bogged down in silly details.

As far as ‘Detox’ symptoms go I still had the vegetable breath, and vegetable taste in my mouth, along with the milky coating on my tongue. However I started to notice other positive changes. The itchy skin and pimples had long since vanished already, but now I began noticing other things improving. Things that ad never even occurred to me. For starters, every morning I wake up and have a lot of mucous in my throat. I have to clear my throat a lot in the morning and it’s very annoying to me. This has been going on for years now, and it started after I moved to Chicago. I don’t have any diagnosed or confirmed allergies but I know this morning mucous has to do with the level of pollution in Chicago, as well as the climate.  Both of which were very extreme changes to me when I first moved out here from Vancouver, and both of them are things I still am not - and can not get - used to. When I travel I notice the morning mucous either goes away completely or lessens depending on where I am in the world.  Yet while on this juice fast the morning mucus went away. I also sneeze frequently, not all day long or anything and not always everyday but I sneeze enough to realize that while on the juice fast I hadn’t sneezed even once. Which I found notable.

Little realizations like this reminded me in my most desperate moments why I was doing the juice fast, what I was trying to achieve and what else I might be able to achieve. These things kept me strong, and I ended the day looking forward to the next, and what it might bring.

PS: Sorry, I only have one new picture for you today, since the other juices I drank are all stuff you’ve already seen.

Juice Fast Day 3...

Bitter Detox

Wednesday was my third day of Juice fasting and I certainly didn’t feel that ‘crash and burn’ that most people experience the first three days but I didn’t have the same kind of energy that I’d had on Tuesday either. It was kind of an up and down sort of day.

7am - Woke up, but I’d had a restless night and didn’t sleep very good so I decided to go back to sleep.

8:30am - Woke up again, but stayed in bed until 9am because my dog jumped into bed and wanted to cuddle. I was feeling bright, positive and full of energy upon waking.

9:30am - Went for a short walk. It was pretty cold and dreary outside, so much so that even my dog didn’t want to be outside.

10:30am - Made Breakfast.  I had the same breakfast that I had on Day two of the juice fast. The Bitter Detoxifier and the Strawberry Kiwi Juice. The only difference is that I added a blood orange into the fruit juice and it tasted fantastic!

Strawberry Kiwi Juice

12pm - My husband and I had some errands to do and so we headed out to get things done. We were out for a couple of hours and I felt pretty good, and positive the whole time. Was looking forward to the day ahead, and to relaxing under some warm blankets with a good book.

2:30-3pm - Drank a Kombucha

4:30pm - I started feeling depressed and frustrated with the fast. The same kind of feelings as on day one. Doubting myself and my ability to actually accomplish the fast, wondering why I was doing it. My brain telling me to eat even when my body wasn’t hungry. I wanted to give up and pack it in, I wanted to quit. I was feeling really tired so I decided to take a nap.

5:30pm - Still felt the same as earlier, the nap made me less tired but didn’t seem to dissipate the negative feelings I was having. I was hungry and so I made lunch. A 36oz green juice. No recipe, wasn’t in the mood to find one, and didn’t feel very inspired. Instead I just threw a bunch of greens into the juicer. Collards, chard, arugula, ginger, lemon, apple, romaine, and cucumber. My camera wasn’t in the kitchen as it usually is and I didn’t want to go upstairs to get it, so I neglected to take a picture. Around this time my husband was also making himself dinner - spaghetti - and that didn’t help my negative feelings. I didn’t even particularly want to eat spaghetti and yet I felt like breaking down and having some. I didn’t. I drank my juice which was mentally less satisfying then the other juices I’d drunk, but physically it filled me up and once I was out of the kitchen I was feeling alright.

6:15pm - We had to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things for juicing. While there I ran into some people that I know and started to feel that renewed positivity.

7:10pm - We saw a movie. My positivity went up, and I was feeling good about myself and proud that I hadn’t given up doing the juice fast. I was proud that I made it to three days even if there were tough moments along the way. Although I began wondering when the energy and sharper mental clarity were suppose to kick in.

Wheatgrass/Spirulina Coconut Water

10pm - Arrived home, and while I was a little hungry I wasn’t hungry enough for a full juice so I did what I had the night before and mixed some wheatgrass, and spirulina with coconut water. It was good, filled me up and kept that positivity going. This time I took a picture!

Overall Thoughts for the day

My positivity and negativity seemed to be in a constant battle today. Some moments I was super positive and super charged, while other times I was super negative and down on myself, wanting to quit. I didn’t feel as bad as everyone says you’re suppose to feel on day 3 but this was probably one of my least positive days. Although even with my negative thoughts I still found it easier mentally, emotionally and physically then day one, which was probably the worst day so far.

Aside from feeling a little more tired then usual I didn’t experience any ‘detox’ symptoms. No headache, or nausea or aches and pains. Although Since day 2 I have noticed a white film coating my tongue in the morning. This is apparently normal, a sign of detox. I used my tongue scraper to get rid of it. My mouth also constantly tastes and smells like vegetables, no matter what I do. I brush my teeth and for 20 minutes it smells and tastes fresh like mint, then it’s back to that veggie smell/taste. This too, is apparently normal, and I look forward to when this goes away.

I am starting to wonder if maybe my diet isn’t actually as bad as I think it is, but that it’s actually rather good. I mean I know I can make improvements here and there - everyone can - but I don’t really feel like I’m detoxing, and for the most part the juice fast has been pretty easy. The mental aspect of it is what’s hard, but physically - hunger-wise - it’s no problem. I also wonder if this means that I won’t actually get that extra energy and mental clarity that everyone talks about. Maybe my energy and clarity levels are exactly where they’re suppose to be? Maybe it’s only people coming off of the SAD diet that really experience those kinds of revelations. Since all the accounts of juice fasting and cleansing I’ve read have come from people who went into it as omnivores, smokers, coffee drinkers, food addicts and alcohol drinkers it’s hard to say. I’m not a smoker or a drinker, I rarely drink coffee, rarely eat fried foods, and rarely eat bread. I do eat a lot of other carbs like grains and beans but I don’t think I over eat them. I do use oil, probably more then I should sometimes but hey. Sugar is definitely my enemy number one, but when I think about how much sugar I consume compared to how much other people consume it certainly doesn’t seem to be as big of a vice for me as it is for others. So all of this makes me wonder, but maybe these other great benefits will come over the next few days. We shall see.

Juice Fast Day 2...

Bitter Detox Juice

Tuesday was my second day of Juice Fasting - I know I’m a few days behind, sorry! - and it went better then the first day.

10am - I woke up. I wasn’t particularly happy about sleeping in so late, but since I’m juice fasting I thought I’d cut myself some slack. When I woke up I was feeling happy and positive and not hungry which surprised me since when I was a little hungry before bed the night before.

10:30am - Since I still wasn’t hungry I downed an 8oz coconut water along with a regular glass of water and went for a walk.

11:30am - I arrived home and began making breakfast. Once 16oz Green Juice called The Bitter Detoxifier - from Douglas McNish’s book “Eat Raw Eat Well” Although I made a substitution. I had no dandelion greens so I used arugula for the bitter instead. Surprisingly I liked this juice a lot. I thought the arugula would be too much, and be off putting but I actually quite enjoyed the unique flavor. I followed this juice with 16oz of Strawberry Kiwi Juice from the book “The Art of Raw Living Food” by Doreen Virtue and Jenny Ross. This one was amazing. Very simple, just strawberry, kiwi, and apple. LOVED IT!

Strawberry Kiwi Juice

2:30-3pm - Drank a Kombucha

4:30pm - Got in a small workout. Only 25 minutes of hooping because I had to do some other stuff but it felt good, and exercising and having that kind of energy while on a juice fast made me feel positive and happy. Also tussled a bit with the dog after the hooping.

5:30-6pm - Made lunch, a 36oz Juice called V-5 Staying Alive Veggie Cocktail from the book “Raw Energy” by Stephanie Tourles. It had tomato, carrot, celery, bell pepper, and cucumber plus I threw a garlic clove in there. Again I liked this one alright but I think I would have preferred a smaller amount. Honestly I’ve never been a fan of V8 or Veggie cocktail’s even fresh pressed with organic produce the flavor doesn’t really suit my palate, but it wasn’t bad. I followed it with 5oz of straight mango juice. Since I had some mangoes that needed to get used. Man fresh mango juice is killer!

V-5 Staying Alive Veggie Cocktail 

9pm - I hadn’t been feeling hungry at all around the usual dinner time. Between 8-8:30 so instead at 9pm I poured out 13oz of coconut water and mixed it with 1 tsp of spirulina, and 1 scoop of wheatgrass powder. - Sorry I forgot to take a picture of this one! - It was less work then making a juice, and less quantity then most of my juice recipes make but still packed with nutrients. Since wheatgrass shots are aloud on juice fasts I figured wheatgrass powder mixed with coconut water would be just as good. It was actually really tasty, and filled me up.

11-11:30pm - Went to bed sometime around here.

Overall thoughts for the day -

I felt really good on my second day and I was surprised. I keep hearing that the first three days are the worst and that people are pretty well down for the count, but I felt happy, positive and energetic. I still felt that not eating was weird but somehow it didn’t bother me as much as it had the first day, and I have to say that every time I drink a juice that thought about eating goes away. The juice fills me up, it nourishes me, makes me forget about the mental aspect of eating and makes me positive. I feel positive because I know the juice is good for me.

No ‘detox’ symptoms except around 8:30pm I had a mild headache came on, but that went away after I drank my wheatgrass- spirulina -coconut water drink.

Juice Fast Day 1...

My Lovely New Juicer!

So before I get into the details of how Day 1 of my juice fast went, lets talk about what a juice fast actually is. Basically it’s a fasting method in which a person - in this case me - consumes only fresh pressed fruit and vegetable juices for a period of time. Some people do it for two days, some people for five days, some for seven and some for much longer.  During that time you don’t eat any solid food, you don’t drink coffee or caffeinated beverages of any kind. You also don’t drink store bought juice - fresh pressed juice from a juice bar is okay -  milks - non-dairy or otherwise - or alcohol.  You just drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice - mostly vegetable juice - and water, although many juice faster’s also allow herbal teas, and coconut water. On my juice fast I’m also making an exception for kombucha since it’s raw, vegan, organic, full of vitamins and minerals and full of health promoting properties.

Now, that might sound a little extreme to some of you, so you might be wondering why people do it. Well, there are a number of reasons that people come to juice fasting. Some people might come to it for religious or spiritual reasons, some may come to it to heal their bodies from chronic disease or chronic pain. Some may use it as a tool to help them quit smoking, drinking, or drinking coffee. Others still, come to it as an alternative method for treating cancer, autoimmune disease, and other incurable diseases. Although unfortunate I would also say that the majority of people drawn into juice fasting do it for the oft reported ‘weight-loss benefits.’ I say unfortunate because for me, deciding to make any health or lifestyle change purely because you want to loose weight is never a healthy attitude. Wether it’s going vegan, going raw, cutting out oil and sugar, or juice fasting the primary goal should always be about your overall health. Improving your health, and improving the way you feel. Weight loss may definitely be a part of that, it shouldn’t necessarily be your first - or only - consideration. I’ve seen it happen too often, when weight-loss is the primary or only goal people can’t make the changes stick, and therefore they never reap the full benefit of whatever it is they’re trying out.  You have to have a clear and direct purpose, and you have to want to make the changes. If you don’t really want them, or if you lack focus you just end up on some crazy yo-yo diet, obsessing about weight control and gaining it all back anyway.

I already mentioned yesterday what my primary reasons for trying out a juice fast are. I want to experience the renewed energy and sharper mental clarity that’s talked about, because I feel like I’ve been kind of slack lately. I want to reset my system and get myself back on track since I’ve been feeling off ‘on and off’ since coming home from holiday, and I want to clear up the before mentioned physical problems that have been troubling me on and off over the past couple of months. The itchy skin, the sore gums, the bacterial infection etcetera. On top of all that I also hope to retrain my taste buds to really and truly enjoy the natural taste of foods, so I can move away from using so much oil and sugar. Sugar is my enemy number one, and it is always my downfall. Even if I don’t eat a lot of it, I do eat a little of it often, and all that little adds up in the end you know? I would rather eat a little of it occasionally rather then eat a little of it everyday. I’d like to retrain my focus on the natural sweetness of foods rather then feel like I need sugar. I also want to retrain the way that I think about food and mealtimes, break bad food habits and food dependance. These things include snacking, and eating large portions of food even when a small portion is sufficient.  I want to incorporate more healthy habits into my usual routine and keep them for long after the fast has ended. So those are my motivations, and now onto Day 1.

Juice Fast - Day One.

9:10am - Wake up, feel good, refreshed and rested. Had a good nights sleep. Excited to begin juicing.

10am - Felt a little tired and the first pangs of morning hunger came on. I drank a glass of water.

10:30am - Went for a walk and felt really good. The weather was good in the 60's’F which made it feel like spring.

Green Machine 

11:20am - Arrived home, and began prepping my breakfast.

*** Note - So far this is shaping up like a typical day, except for the fact that I slept in. Typically I wake up at 8am or earlier go for a walk, do yoga and eat breakfast at 10am. ***

11:30am -12:00pm - Made Breakfast and cleaned up. I began the juice fast with a 16oz Green Juice called Green Machine from Any Phyo’s book “Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen” It’s spinach, cucumber, lemon, parsley, celery and ginger. It was pretty good and I enjoyed it. I then made a second 16oz juice this one called the Pink Sunset from the book “Eat Raw Eat Well” by Douglas McNish which was freaking amazing! Seriously! One of the best juices I’ve ever had.

Pink Sunset 

1:00pm - Went for another walk.

2:30pm-3:00pm - Felt a little hungry and so I drank a glass of water and drank a cup of Republic of Tea’s herbal Pineapple Lycee tea. Had a shower and felt great.

3:30pm-4pm - Made lunch. A 32oz vegetable juice called The Gardener from Kris Carr’s new book “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” containing carrots, bell pepper, lemon, kale, and radish. I thought it might be a bit spicy or bitter because of the radish but it was surprisingly tasty. However 32oz of it is kind of a lot and I think tastebud wise 16oz would have been preferable followed by 16oz of some other type of juice.

The Gardener

*** Note - I typically eat lunch between 2-3pm but again as I woke up late, my whole schedule was moved back.*** 

6:00pm - Drank 1 Kombucha while studying.

7:00pm - Drank 8oz of coconut water while studying.

8:30pm - Made dinner. I wasn’t overly hungry so instead of making a 32oz juice I made a 18oz green juice called Morning Glorious also from the book “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” containing cucumber, kale, romaine lettuce, celery, broccoli stems, apple and lemon. I thought the broccoli might give it a funny taste but it was surprisingly pretty good and I enjoyed it.

Morning Glorious

*** Note - I typically eat dinner anytime between 7pm and 11pm depending on what else has been going on in the day and what my schedule is like. So this meal didn’t fall outside the bounds of my normal day.***

12:00am - Fell asleep sometime around Midnight which is a little early for me since I’m usually a night owl.

Overall thoughts and feelings for the day - 

The day started off good. I was excited to start the fast and I was feeling positive. I was surprised by the fact that I wasn’t hungry at all except when it came close to meal times. It amazed me that juice could fill me up so well, and I suppose all the water, herbal tea, coconut water and kombucha didn’t hurt either. However by mid-afternoon I was beginning to feel a bit tired and lethargic. When I wasn’t studying and doing homework I spent most of my time laying in bed watching shows I had recorded on my DVR months ago and never got around to watching.

As the night went on I started to feel a little depressed and frustrated. I began to doubt myself and whether or not I could actually do a fast. I was thinking of breaking it and calling the whole thing off. I was looking for any reason to. The strange part is that all these doubts and negative feelings weren’t popping up because I was hungry, because I was no hungrier on Day 1 then I am on any other day of my regular life.  I felt this way because not eating is weird. We’re so used to eating constantly and for food to be all around us all the time that when it’s suddenly not you’re hyper aware of that fact. My brain kept telling me that I should be eating while at the same time my body was telling me it wasn’t hungry. So wanting to eat became purely a mental problem and I found that difficult to deal with both emotionally and mentally.

I suppose that is all a part of the fasting/detox process and is typical of what other people experience. Aside from all the mental stuff and being a bit more tired then usual, the only other actual physical detox symptom I seemed to have was a mild headache that came on in the late afternoon and persisted until I fell asleep. All the other negative side-effects that other people report experiencing upon fasting/detoxing - such as nausea, diarrhea, constipation, cramps, aches and pains, sore joints etc... - did not apply.

Stay tuned for Day 2.

I'm Doing A Juice Fast...

For years I’ve wanted a juicer, but something else - usually some other kitchen appliance - would always take priority. First it was a Vitamix, and then it was a really good food processor, then a dehydrator, and then it was no money, or vacation, or the holidays and it never seemed to be the right time. Add to that I didn’t know what kind of juicer to get, I didn’t really know anything about them, and on top of it I wasn’t certain how much use I’d get out of one. Sure I was intrigued by making fresh juices at home. I know a lot of people who do it regularly and swear by it. Sure I love fresh juices when I go to Raw restaurant or juice bars but those things didn’t necessarily mean I would get a lot of use out of my own personal juicer. At least that’s what I thought. Then there were the complaints. This model has wet pulp, this model doesn’t juice this or that fruit or vegetable very well, this model is difficult to clean, this model is loud and so on. It seemed like every model out there including the best of the best had some flaw that continuously mentioned.

And so, time and time again I was dissuaded  form purchasing a juicer, and each time this would happen I would sigh in defeat and dreams of a juicer would filter to the back of my mind. Where of course they would remain until some provocation would cause them to resurface. The latest provocation just so happened to come about because of my obsession with watching health and agriculture documentaries on Netflix. One night I was bored, and having seen almost all of these documentaries already I came across one I hadn’t yet seen, and until that point had, had zero interest in watching. The film in question was “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead” and the reason I had zero interest in watching it was because I didn’t think watching an overweight guy juice for weight loss would be very interesting or inspiring. However, that night I was bored, and with nothing else to watch I skeptically clicked the play button. As it turns out this film is about more then just juicing for weight loss, and much to my surprise I found it pretty inspiring. Though I’m not 400 pounds and suffering from all sorts of medical conditions that require me to be on various medications I have since last year been feeling a bit ‘off my game’ on and off. I’ve mentioned this before, it all started with my holiday in Europe last June, and once we got back I think we were pretty well off the healthy-food wagon. We tried to get back on and then bam I was on holiday again visiting my family in Vancouver. Since I was never vegan when I lived in Vancouver I obviously needed to try all the delicious vegan eats around town. Then of course vegan mofo hit and you know how that went. Then there were the holidays. So there were a lot of indulgence last year, and though we never ate particularly bad - and most of the time we ate really well - I still didn’t feel entirely right.

By the end of December I was back on track and January has been a wonderful month of healthy eating, yet still I wasn’t quite feeling like I knew I should. I felt better for sure, physically and mentally, but there were other minor things going on that I didn’t understand.. Itchy ears, itchy skin, sore gums, canker sores, a few pimples, gas/bloating and a bacterial infection inside my navel that wouldn’t go away. All of these things I’d either never or rarely experienced, which was enough to cause me to wonder. Though these things weren’t necessarily all happening at once, they kept happening and it seemed that every remedy I tried only succeeded in treating the symptoms but not the underlying cause. After I watched the film, and then did some of my own reading about the benefits of juice fasting I started to think that this was something I needed to do too. A simple reboot for my system, to get me back on track for real.  In addition to clearing up the problems I’ve already mentioned I also looked forward to experiencing the renewed energy, and sharper mental clarity I kept reading about.

Of course all the original reasons for my not yet owning a juicer still applied, and since the holidays were rather expensive for us this year, money was the main deterrent. Lucky for me January is the month where everyone and their mother decides to start eating healthy and live right. Which means in the month of January what goes on sale? Well juicers, blender’s and other such products. It also happened that I had a very nice gift card given to me by my husband for my birthday last year that I still hadn’t put towards anything. All the dominos it seemed were falling into place, and so how could I deny myself a juicer now? It was kismet. I believe in fate, and I believe that certain things won’t come to you or make themselves available to you until you’re truly ready. After years of wanting a juicer I was really, and truly ready for one, and so I bought one.

I ended up getting a Breville, considering my limited funds it was a good model that I could afford and I knew that if juicing didn’t work out for me I wouldn’t feel too bad about buying it as opposed to having spent $500 or so on the really ‘top of the line’ kind. Besides since I’m a juicing novice I thought this would be a smooth and easy way to become acquainted.. After all they’re highly rated juicers with few complains, and most people who’ve reviewed them online only have good things to say. When you see a ton of five star reviews it may not be a sure thing, but it’s probably a good bet.

My juicer arrived via UPS last Thursday, I knew it would, and I also knew that it was not a good idea to go into any kind of juice fast with a poor diet. So last Monday I started what I’m calling my pre-juice-fast prep. Which basically means I ate lighter meals, and more liquid meals then I normally do. A lot of low-calorie foods, and a lot of smoothie. Since the juicer came Thursday I started Friday off with a breakfast of 32oz of juice to see what that would feel like. A kind of trial if you will. I was amazed at how good the juice was and that It kept me feeling so full for so long. I felt so good after that juice that I decided to have a smoothie for lunch before work rather then a meal of solid food and then for dinner I ate some home-made pizza that was leftover from Thursday night’s meal. Saturday I did the same. Juice breakfast, smoothie lunch, a few chocolate almond cookies - home-made and practically raw. - No really the recipe was from the cook book Practically Raw by Amber Shea Crawley, fantastic recipe by the way! - and then an Arugula salad with tomatoes, onion and tahini lime dressing. Sunday I wasn’t feel that hungry or that well upon waking thanks to some rather bad cramps so I skipped breakfast but made a huge smoothie - pouring it into two travel mugs - to take to work with me for meals. I drank both at work, had a few more chocolate almond cookies, a kombucha and a raw chocolate power bar, then came home to a light dinner of roasted squash and some more of my Black Quinoa Arugula Bowl  from last week.

Thanks to the beforehand prep I was already feeling pretty good. Some of the problems mentioned earlier had already begun sorting themselves out. Namely the bacterial infection, the sore gums, the canker sores, the itchy ears, and the itchy skin. So I was feeling very excited and very pumped to get onto the juice fast pronto. I literally could not wait for Monday to come. Unfortunately because this post is getting a little long as it is you will have to wait to hear all about Monday, Day 1 of my Juice Fast tomorrow, so stay tuned!

PS: There will be pictures, I promise! And I’ll keep you updated about each day of the juice fast. What I’m drinking, how I’m feeling etc...