Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Juice Juice Juicity Juice

Well,now I can cross that off my bucket list! Hold on...

17-preform an extended juice fast


There that's better.

I wouldn't know when to say it was that I became interested in nutrition and all most things natural. Sometime in my teenage years I decided to have all my future babies naturally and at home. When said babies started to eat solid foods my interests evolved to include healthy food choices. Given the wide array of food choices offered to us in our society our family already eats a balance of foods ranging from organically grown super foods all the way down the food chain to greasy dead fast foods. We are comfortable with our children eating cake at a birthday party just as long as they don't turn up their noses for turning up their noses sake at collard greens for dinner.

The most recent edition to our family (Netflix) brought with it a great selection of documentaries and we settled down one evening to watch Forks over Knives. It had a lot of information we had heard before and also some new information. It inspired us to make small changes to our eating habits for the sake of our health and the sake of the impending aging process that seems (almost) futile to resist. We can't stay young but we can stay healthy. One thing led to another and after watching Fat Sick and Nearly Dead at the recommendation of my sister-in-law we decided to juice fast for ten days. For detox purposes.

Anticipating a few days when detoxing might make us feel sick we set our date so that our yucky days would fall on the weekend and we could  lay around if we needed to.

In honor of my impending day of doom thirtieth birthday I was gifted by my in-laws a fancy new juicer. It made life so much easier! The thought of hand mashing all those veggies and fruits.....just kidding I was never going to hand mash all that stuff.

But you knew that. :)

It's an Omega and it arrived exactly on the day we had set to begin.

I can give you a run down of how it went for me

day 1-For me it was the worst day. I had a headache perhaps from lack of caffeine but since I don't drink caffeine everyday I can't be sure. My energy level was super low. I mostly just laid around while the kids played outside.

day 2-Headache gone and with no choice to lay around I think it helped to stay busy. I prepared for my day at home school co-op by bringing a prepared juice in a to go coffee cup and drank lots of water and coconut water. Survived my first social function that was a potluck style. I still prepared and took food but just ignored the eating of it.

day 3-Still feeling fine I survived social function number two. A birthday party with lots of yummy foods. Snub.

days 4-7 I was super motivated. There was no more hunger and I was losing weight very rapidly.  I was drinking lots of water with lemon and also lots of coconut water. At the beginning of day 4 I was down nine pounds.  Day seven was my first no loss day. I decided to ease up on the coconut water and do at least one all veggie juice each day. At the start of day eight I had an almost 2 pound drop. These days also brought with them a film that coated my teeth and made them feel super sticky. I found out that when you detox the toxins come from everywhere. Including your breath when you exhale. So be patient and brush often. It will go away as the toxins fade from your body.

day 6 I decided to extend from a ten day to a 21 day fast so that I could experience all the levels of fasting and my body could begin the healing stage. I also noticed on this day an extreme reduction in cellulite on this day. Since I had been drinking lots of aloe and using the peel as a lotion in the shower my skin was also very soft.

day 8- I got another headache but it was milder than the first. I discovered that drinking juice high in carrot juice will make your energy levels go up and erase hunger in the event you drink too much pulp.

day 9 to 10 was another no loss day and then day 11 another two pound loss. Day 15 was the first time I had a gain! .2 lb. After more than two weeks that gain almost broke me. I lost motivation for sure but I just couldn't stop. I had read that after day 15 you reach your high energy days that also bring some sort of mental clarity. It took until day 17 for me but even though I felt weak if I climbed stairs or lifted Camille I did have a sort of mental energy. My thoughts seemed more organized and housework seemed to get done more efficiently because of it. Weight loss slowed from more than a pound a day on average to about a fifth of a pound a day.

My limbs started to fall asleep very quickly and I felt that my body might be starting to use up muscle mass instead of fat stores. I decided to end after completing day 18 because I wanted to run again and because my motivation was dwindling because of the slower weight loss. I think I was able to experience all that I wanted to even if I was three days and two pounds shy of my goal.

I was happy with the overall results. My skin was softer,the cellulite was almost gone. 16 pounds of extra fat stores were gone. Running feels easier for sure,imagine strapping on 16 pounds and going for a jog. To me it seems like a subtle layer is gone all the way around. I uncovered some lil biceps and my legs seem more defined...still no six pack (are you really surprised?).

I ate a bit of salsa on day 17,a spoonful of guacamole on day 18 and on day 19 at dinner time I really wanted to eat Chipotle as my first meal but I resisted and headed to Kroger to buy the makings of a super salad.

It was healthy to be sure. It consisted of romaine,spinach, and other mixed greens, yellow bell pepper,tomato,raw cashews,dried cranberries,and these guys



which I had been growing for the last 5 days or so just for the big salad event. Dressing consisted of homemade salsa and guacamole,salt and a spritz of lemon.


It wasn't a big bowl full of

Whole Grain Oats, Marshmallows (Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Gelatin, Calcium Carbonate, Yellows 5&6, Blue 1, Red 40, Artificial Flavor), Sugar, Oat Flour, Corn Syrup, Corn Starch, Salt, Trisodium Phosphate, Color Added, Natural and Artificial Flavor. Vitamin E (Mixed Tocopherols) Added to Preserve Freshness. Vitamins and Minerals: Calcium Carbonate, Zinc and Iron (Mineral Nutrients), Vitamin C (Sodium Ascorbate), a B Vitamin (Niacinamide), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (Thiamin Mononitrate), Vitamin A (Palmitate), a B Vitamin (Folic Acid), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3.

but it was magically delicious just the same


and it was a beast




I could not finish it.

Juicing may sound hard but it's much like running. You need some good equipment initially but then its about getting in a good state of mind,setting a goal and reaching it. You don't really need any fancy recipes just go to your local produce section buy anything that sounds good and then buy some things that don't.

Things that sound good:                                           Things that don't:

peaches                                                                   kale
apples                                                                     carrots
pears                                                                       beets
oranges                                                                   cucumber
grapefruit                                                                 zuchini
spinach                                                                    broccoli                                                              
pineapple
grapes
tomatoes
jalapenos
garlic
cilantro
celery
cantaloupe
mango

Play around. The first days I would suggest using what sounds good and lots of fruits. You may be surprised at what actually tastes good and what tastes bad.

Some things I found and tricks I learned:

-pineapple can make anything taste better
-make sure to strain the pulp so you won't re-awaken your digestive system and feel hungry
-if you do feel hungry drink something carrot based and the feeling will fade
-celery will start to taste very salty after a few days
-zuchini (shudder) hold your nose and guzzle and don't do that again
-you may start with four or more juices a day but toward the end may only have two
-beet juice proves to be very cleansing
-all of the things on the sounds bad list except the last two are actually good
-drink lots of water with lemon-half your body weight in oz. is a good start
-juice a couple of soaked dates if you need a sweetener
-consume lots of (pure) coconut water to get by (check whole foods or something similar for big boxes of coconut water that don't have added sweeteners or preservatives)
-drink herbal teas
-several days before you begin,stop drinking caffeine (to lessen the headaches) and eat lots of raw foods instead of heavy cooked meats
-stay close to home and near your juicer or take already made juice in a to go coffee cup if you have to
-carrot juice stains so use a lid in the car
-if your kids ask to make juice right after you just cleaned up the juicer and counter say yes,they will drink tons of veggies


(See? Juicing is fun!)



(Even babies can do it) 

-if you have a garden set a big bowl on the counter for scraps and start a compost pile


-make a gnat killing concoction you can find in this post and set it near your compost bowl

-if you don't have a garden use veggie pulp for soup stock and fruit pulp for popsicles


-you can not juice avocados (boo) or bananas (wah) so end your fast with them if you miss them too much.

I'm already concocting a post about my favorite juices so sit tight but don't hold your breath it will be a few days. I'm off to the races!




4 comments:

Rebekah Sacran said...

I want to sit down and talk to you and Desiree at HH. Very intrigued.

JCrew Mama said...

Very cool! I have wanted to do a juice fast for a long time too. I am doing the "master cleanse" right now, just finished Day 2 of 10. So far so good!

Desiree said...

This made us smile. What fun to read about your adventure even though I made sure I got the play-by-play through daily texts.

I'm eagerly anticipating our scheduled fast and can't wait to try some of your favorites.
And I solemnly promise not to make you drink apple/cabbage juice.

Courtney said...

It's a date...Late night talk of juicing at HH.

Keep up the master cleanse! Will you be at HH? Cecily can't wait.

Me too. And thanks,I won't make you any zucchini juice...unless you're a bad in-law. So plaaaaaaaay nissssse.
(Toy story reference)

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