Juice Fast Day 5: Lack of Planning

One more successful day of juicing. Well, mostly juicing. Actually my solid foods outweighed my juices today. I should maybe think about changing the name of my juice fast to potato fast because that's the direction I'm heading. Potatoes are my new obsession!

Due to my lack of planning, I didn't have anything to eat or drink except water for an 8 hour stretch. I was a little hungry, but it passed pretty quickly and I made it through the day just fine. My calorie intake today is the lowest since I've started the fast.

Here's what I ate and drank today:

6:30 am - water

7:30 am - hot water with lemon

9:00 am - freshly juiced orange, apple, and my new favorite sweetener ginger

10:00 am - banana

11:00 am - an avocado, vegetable broth, and a banana

1:00 pm - water

3:00 pm - water

5:00 pm - water

7:00 pm - baked potato topped with salt and pepper

8:00 pm - water

I will have more time to plan my meals tomorrow evening. Hopefully.

Juice Fast Day 4: Bye-Bye 6.3 Pounds! I Won't Miss You

I weigh myself every Monday morning and this morning I was down 6.3 pounds from last week! Hallelujah! Now, I know what you're thinking right now: that's just "water weight," and she will gain it all back as soon as she goes back to her regular diet. But, here's the thing: I'm not going back! Yes, I will go back to having more solid foods in my diet, but I am 98% convinced to go vegan. I feel so fabulous and satisfied drinking mostly juices, how easy would it be to transition slowly into a solid plant-based diet?

It's the end of day 4 and, as I sit sipping my warm vegetable broth, I am feeling physically fabulous.

Here is what I drank/ate today:

7:30 am - hot lemon water

9:00 am - citrus blend

11:00 am - almond juice

1:30 pm - citrus blend

3:00 pm - fresh pineapple (thank you to my coworker, Mae, for bringing healthy snacks to our meeting)

4:00 pm - sweet greens

5:00 pm - 1/8 cup of chipotle peanuts (this can of peanuts is sustaining me!)

7:00 pm - beet juice and some raw vegetables served at a church function

10:00 pm - warm vegetable broth

And now bed! I'm hoping for a good night's sleep. I have been using sleep aid to fall asleep for years I tell you, and I have given them up with this juice fast. Last night, I could not sleep for hours, so I lay in bed praying my worries away instead. Tonight I am hoping for some good quality sleep.

Juice Fast Day 3: So Much Energy!

It's the end of day three and I feel fantastic! I don't know if it's the detox from caffeine or all the healthy juices, but this is beyond any expectations I had for benefits.

6:40 am - my eyes popped open and I was wide awake. I had planned to sleep until 7:30.

8:00 am - hot lemon water.

9:00 am - citrus blend.

11:00 am - almond juice.

1:00 pm - citrus blend.

2:00 pm - TMI - things are really moving along.

2:30 pm - 1/8 cup of chipotle peanuts. This isn't on the cleanse, but I'm listening to my body and my body really wanted something crunchy and salty.

3:30 pm - water

4:30 pm - sweet greens

5:30 pm - family dinner, so I sat with the family and ate a baked potato topped only with salt and pepper. 

8:30 pm - I have two juices left and no appetite. I choke down the beet juice while writing this post. I really hope beets are healthy because the taste had better have some payoffs.

I enjoyed my potato so much last night and again tonight, I decided to look into the potato cleanse. Ha! It's actually a thing. I think I might transition into that next. I am feeling so great without caffeine and animal products, so I am thinking of revisiting veganism (which I tried last year but gave up after about 5 weeks.

Juice Fast Day 2: The Nastiest Juice

It is now the end of the second day of my 10-day "juice" fast. I put "juice" in quotes because I have made the executive decision to allow any fruits or vegetables, whether juiced or whole after attempting to drink the nastiest juice I have ever tasted and the fallout of which I had absolutely no desire to drink any more juice for the rest of the day; however, I wanted to keep the fast going - it's only day two - so I had to bend the rules. I think allowing whole fruits and vegetables will not have a detrimental effect on my desired outcome of cleansing and resetting my appetite. 

Confession: I was having difficulty sleeping last night, and I got up and ate a few handfuls of chipotle peanuts and a banana.

TMI: things really "moved" along this morning. I think I just flushed a pound or two. 

So, here is how my day went today....

7:30 am - I got up and drank 12 ounces of water; then went back to bed where I lay for almost two hours not wanting to get up and figure out what to put in the juicer.

9:15 am - I poured myself a mug hot lemon water and crawled back in bed with a magazine. I do love the weekend!

10:11 am - first juice of the day. 20 ounces of freshly juiced citrus (orange, lemon, lime, ginger). I made a twin batch for my teenage son, but he only drank about half of it. Better than nothing and it's a nutritionally excellent way to start the day.

10:45 am - I had a strong urge to eat a bag of chips! As with all temptations, the urge eventually passed.

12:30 pm - 12 ounces of water.

1:00 TMI - I don't know what happened to the chipotle peanuts, but it's an all liquid exodus at this point. The cleanse is working. 

1:30pm - second juice of the day: celery, kale, purple onion, 1/2 cucumber, parsley. I don't know what possessed me to add an onion to a juice -  this was the nastiest thing I've ever tasted! And, I had this feeling that if I could just force it down, my body would be gaining all sorts of benefits. I drank about 6 ounces before dumping the rest down the drain. I could not drink another juice the rest of the day.

The juice from approximately one gallon of kale leaves.

Since I couldn't finish the juice, I indulged in half a cantaloupe. It was delicious.

3:30 - hot herbal tea.

4:00 - I was suddenly unbelievably energized and went for a 45-minute walk/jog at the city park. I came back feeling fantastic!

5:00 pm - 12 ounces of water.

5:30 pm - large baked potato with salt and pepper only. I needed hot food! I absolutely loved the plain baked potato. It didn't matter that it was missing the usual toppings.

6:30 pm - water

7:30 pm - water

9:00 pm - water

9:15 pm - banana

My energy level remained high through the late afternoon and evening. I feel like I could easily run a few miles and not get tired.

I will be up and getting ready for church in the morning and will be back on an all juice diet for the day. I will be sticking to the professionally cold-pressed juices for the day to ease myself back into the program. 

And the next time I make onion juice, it will be to pour on my hair. Apparently it makes a good hair rinse.

My 10-Day Juice Cleanse - Day 1

I am notoriously susceptible to advertisements, fads, and whims. A lifetime of impulsive decision making has left me with a lot of really crazy anecdotes, great memories, a plethora of life-experiences, and several volumes of regret. All these fabulous and not-so-fabulous events will be fodder for some of my future memoirs. In the meantime, I will share my current obsession: juicing.

Last Sunday night, I watched the documentary "Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead." It documents the 60-day juice fast of an Australian businessman, Joe Cross, who was, as the title implies, overweight and suffering the physical consequences of his size.

I immediately ordered a juicer, glass storage bottles, and a 24 bottles of cold-pressed fresh juices.

While I awaited the supplies for my new life, I began to prepare my body for the transition. From Monday through Thursday, I ate only two boiled eggs each day and two bowls of homemade vegetable and bean soup. On Tuesday, I drank my last mug of coffee. I went through throbbing headaches during Wednesday and Thursday as my body withdrew from caffeine.

On Wednesday evening my supplies arrived and I went out and bought some random produce (without a plan of course).

On Friday morning, I woke up ready for my first official all-juice day.


Here's what I "ate" today:

7:00 am: 12 ounces of tap water
7:30 am: 12 ounces of hot water with lemon
9:00 am: 12 ounces of citrus juice (grapefruit, lemon, orange, ginger)
10:00 am: 12 ounces of water
11:00 am: 12 ounces of almond juice (vanilla, almond, dates)
12:00 pm: 12 ounces of water
1:30 pm: 12 ounces of citrus juice (pineapple, lemon, apple)
3:30 pm: 12 ounces of greens (cucumber, parsley, celery, kale, apple)
5:00 pm: a fairly large handful of chipotle peanuts - this was obviously not part of the plan, but I needed something crunchy!
6:00 pm: 12 ounces of root veggies (carrots, beats, apples)
8:00 pm: 12 ounces of vegetable broth (hot!)

It's 8:20pm now and I'm feeling pretty satisfied. Unlike my last juice cleanse (six months ago), I am holding up well and prepared for the long haul. I'm sure the days leading up to today of restricting my dietary intake (no meat or dairy) and giving up coffee a few days in advance were helpful. 

I will report back tomorrow evening.

Suzi