I USED to Love Juice

Today was weird... Woke up to chunks of snow falling from the sky... I wasn't expecting snow. I hate the snow. Luckily, it disappeared by noon. I was not in the mood to be housebound.

Today was just the today of a weird week - it fit right in... This past weekend I also didn't eat... which is weird... for me especially. I did a juice fast.

Lemme tell you about it.

So, the whole juice fast idea started with a friend - a crazy friend who decided she was going to do the Master Cleanse (you know, only drink water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayanne pepper for 10 days...) - I thought she was kinda crazy, but like a good friend, I wanted to be supportive. I decided I would do a juice fast at the same time she did hers.

Have you seen the movie: Sick, Fat and Mostly Dead? Well I have, and I had wanted to try a juice fast ever since. The movie was crazy - these two, rather large men, and a normal sized woman, did nothing but drink juice for between 10 days and 4 months. We're not talking over the counter juice. Nooo.. I'm talking about go buy organic fruits and vegetables and a juicer and make juice in your kitchen, kind of juice. Fresh juice isn't robbed of all its enzymes and nutrients, like OTC Juice is, that's cause OTC Juice is pasteurized.

This was my one "orange" juice I had. It carrots, mango, orange, apple and grapes in it. Oh and in the background you can see my gallon of purified water I drank each day.

 

The goal of juice fasting is three fold: the supposed internal cleansing of the body, the end to an addiction to caffeine and shedding a few extra pounds.

Here was a typical day of my juice fast:

• Morning: A juice consisting of 1 apple, 1 orange, 1 beet, handful of spinach, and 1 carrot. 
• 11am: The juice of 1/4 head cabbage, 1/4 green bell pepper, 1 tomato, a handful of spinach and kale. 3pm: The juice of 2 carrots, 1 orange, 1 celery stalk, 1/2 mango, chunk of ginger 
• 6pm: Another juice, this time of 1/4 head of romaine, some cilantro or dill, a handful of grapes, 1/3 cucumber, 1 lemon, and a radish
• 9pm: A warm mug of Smooth Move mint tea 

 This (above) makes, this (below) - Breakfast or lunch juice

 This (above) makes, this (below) - a lunch or dinner juice

And that was that.

When I had to go to work, I would make double the juice in the morning, and take this little jug with me. I put the coozy on it to keep the light out and to keep it as cold as possible during transport.

 A double recipe was A LOT of plant matter...

 My Nalgene bottle has a sweater :) My mom made it for me

I lasted four days. (oh, and so did my friend on her cleanse - I started a day before she did, and didn't tell her I quit)

I quit for three reasons. 1, it wasn't very much fun. 2, I was hungry, really hungry. And, 3, I ran out of the $50 worth of organic fruits and veggies I had bought, and I wasn't excited about buying more....

All in all though, it wasn't all that bad. Days 1 and 2 were kinda hard, with the constant, gnawing, hungry feeling and wild mood swings. But, day three I had quite a bit of energy and was mostly normal feeling. I had lost 3.5 pounds by this point too. By the end of day four, I just didn't want to do it anymore... I made some squash soup, and that was that.

I wouldn't say I would recommend this, but honestly I don't think it can hurt. There is the misconception of "what about protein and fiber" - both are actually present in vegetables... don't worry. And the "drastic cut in calories." I did the math, I think I was consuming between 500-700 a day, depending on the type of drinks I made. I noticed I was feeling TOO hungry on day two, so I went and bought some grapes to add to my drinks, and that totally helped.

The most important thing I learned from this: I. Love. Food. (oh, and I can do just about anything I set my mind to :)