My Juice Fast - Day 3

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Once again, I awoke and went back to sleep. When I finally got up, I still layed there for a while. It was already after 10am...and then before I knew it, it was almost 11am. I didn't feel any hungrier than if I had eaten a normal meal the night before. I felt pretty good.

I should mention, that my friend in Tampa that is also doing the juice fast with us, and she's vegan...cracked! LOL. She wasn't feeling good at all in the morning and ate a bowl of cereal. Then she decided to hop back on the juicing wagon for a lunch juice. Moral is "Don't give up...just get back on track!"

Juice 1 - We had our first juice around noon. It was, of course, the Mean Green (from Reboot site) modified.

3 Apples

1 - 2 Cucumbers

6-8 Kale leaves

1/2 Lemon

Piece of Ginger

I drank a little bit of the juice...and went back to doing stuff on the PC. I was adding pictures to my Day 2 blog post...when something happened. It scared me. 

My lip area and below my nose started to feel...and it started to feel stingy. I went to look in the mirror, but didn't see anything. I told Pete about it and went back to the PC. Well, then it all went crazy! The stingy feeling went up to my forehead, then out to my cheeks and ears...down my neck and down my back...and I started to panic! I went out to tell Pete and ran to see the mirror. My face was getting red (and it got redder). It all stung...ached, felt weird. I started to cry...and Pete was like look it up...well I said you look it up! I stopped crying and took pictures, of course...as Pete looked it up to see if it was related to juicing. 

Trust me, this isn't sunburn.

Again, my skin isn't normally this pink.

Well, it seems I was having a detox reaction to all the juicing...getting a rash is typical. So...from the tip of my head to my buttocks (didn't really go down my legs)...I was red or red/blotchy...for about an hour. The stingy went away first, and then the red. After finding that out, I calmed down...but of course I had sent a panicked text to my friend in Tampa...and then a blow-by-blow of what I was going through! 

So, I had 3/4 of the juice left to drink and I wasn't too excited to drink the juice again. Somehow, I did...and fast. I had errands to run, so if it was going to happen again...I wanted to get it over with so I could go out. I thought I felt it start, but it never did. PHEW! 

We decided we are not continuing the juice fast after Day 3 this go round...we are proud to make it 3 days. So, we went to Earth Fare to buy some food for a raw food diet for Thursday and Friday of this week. Have to say, I'm really looking forward to EATING SOMETHING! 

After we got back, I put everything away and got the ingredients out for our second juice of the day.

Juice 2 - Dracula's Dream Juice (from Reboot site)

2 Carrots

2 Beets

6-8 Kale Leaves

1 cup Strawberries 

It always seems like a waste to me to put those beautiful sweet red strawberries in this juice, because it never tastes sweet...it always tastes so green for being so reddish-purple. Anyway, other than that "exciting" incident...I have felt fine today. I haven't felt super tired, I've felt rather awake. I did have a bit of light-headedness, but once I finished the 1st juice I was good. I did, however feel rather hungry this evening. More so than yesterday. 

Juice 3 - Came after midnight, after Day 3 officially ended, and after we shared a Nice! bar. Yep, right after Day 3 ended, because we chose to go raw foods...I said...what the heck...let's eat this nut and berry bar! Pete said we failed, I said, no we didn't..we got through three days! After we ate our halves of it..we felt weird. He said it tasted so good, I said, I wasn't satisfied with it. So we had a mean green juice.

6 - 8 Kale leaves
1 Cucumber
2 Apples
1/2 Lemon
4 Celery stalks
Piece of ginger

I let Pete have more than me, because he was so hungry, even after midnight. I wasn't even able to finish the juice, I was so full feeling.

It was weird, I felt such clarity until I got tired. I felt good all day, other than the "incident" (and if anyone cares, I did #2 twice today) and some hunger pains. I did feel I could go on with the juice fast, but at this time we're ready to start eating...so tomorrow (today) is raw food day 1. We're only doing it for 2 days, so don't get excited. LOL. We're working our way toward a diet with lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, grass-fed meats and other animal products, and minimal processed foods. Let's see if we can get there one day....it's a work in progress!

UPDATE - Today (the day after juice fast day 3) my friend in Tampa informed me that...she couldn't do it..she ended up eating a vegan pizza for dinner. And she's going to go on in Day 4 etc, eating veggies and juicing...hoping that works better for her. I think it will. Some of us will work better doing a raw food diet with juicing...to reboot your system, rather than all juicing. Though, I do think having Pete go through the juicing with me, helped me tremendously...as her husband did he join in the juicing (but he was very supportive of her juicing!).

After reading my 3 days of juice fasting, do you think you could do it? Why or why not? Do you think you could do a longer juice fast? If you have already done one, please tell me your experience and length. Thank you!

Juice Fast - Day 2

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Day two of the juice fast has been different than day 1, I suppose that's expected. I woke up this morning and promptly went back to sleep. When I got up again, I still wasn't ready to face the day...I layed there for a while. I wasn't ready for a juice...but then...Pete got up and said he was going to make our juices. Cool. I still layed there...and my friend doing the juice fast with us (at a distance) text me..asking if I was avoiding the day, too. Yes, I was. LOL.

Juice 1 - Pete brought me juice 1 - Alternative Green Juice (from the Reboot site) around 10:30am.

2 cups of Spinach

6 - 8 leaves of Kale

1 cucumber (recipe called for 1/2)

4 stalks of Celery

2 Apples

Piece of Ginger

Well, I still tasted the celery overpoweringly (thinking about trying none in my juice), so I added some raw, unfiltered honey and that helped. I drank that down and felt fine today.

I felt OK...I didn't feel super hungry and no weird head feelings...so I went on with my day.

Snack Juice - Pete got hungry a bit too early, so we had another "snack" impromptu juice...around 1pm.

Lettuce leaves

2 Carrots

2 Apples

Pete had more than me...and mine was poured over the little bit of my "breakfast" juice. I sure don't guzzle them down...I seem to drink them over an hour or two.

Juice 2 - Dracula's Dream Juice (slightly modified) was around 4:30pm.

6-8 Kale leaves

2 Beets

3 Carrots

2 cups of Strawberries

It's better than the green juices, but it's not delicious. I took almost 2 hours to drink it, no honey added. I felt pretty good after drinking it..not really tired...not hungry...just OK.

Well, around 7pm, I started to feel extremely tired...no hunger pains...no headache...just fuzzy tired head. Not even tired eyes...just like I want to go to bed.

It's after 9 now, and I'm feeling hungry...I think it's time for the Mean Green juice.

Juice 3 - Mean Green (from the Reboot site).

6-8 Kale leaves

2 Apples

4 Celery Stalks (I substituted carrots)

1 Cucumber

1/2 lemon

Piece of Ginger

After a while, I started feeling better....less tired. We watched a documentary called Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America's Greatest Threat. At first it was, well boring...and not that inspiring, but as it went on it got better. And, as the night went on I felt better...and more awake...and well not too hungry. Finding that if I talk about specific food or think about specific food...that's when I get hungry.

Also, I started feeling really giddy and just happy late at night...I don't know if I was getting a high off the juice sugar or what...but I couldn't stop laughing...until finally we were in bed and I just crashed...

So, all in all, I'd say today was better than yesterday. I'd still love to eat a steak, but I am sure I can get through Day 3 drinking just juice and water! Let's do this!

My Juice Fast - Day 1

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Backstory - My boyfriend and I started watching all these food documentaries...and well I started thinking about a juice fast to kick-start or reboot my body into eating a lot more veggies and fruits (goal is AT least 51%) and a heck of lot less processed foods! Well, I mentioned this to a friend of mine (she's already a vegan that still wants to eat healthier and cut out fried foods)...and she said she was going to ask me if I wanted to do one (mind you, she lives in Tampa and I live in Columbia). So..then we set a date..2/27/12 (which was one week from when we all decided this). 

Reason - We are doing this because we both have "love handles" - sounds so much nicer than they are...and we eat so much processed food it's incredible! We want to go toward a diet rich in micronutrients with less macronutrients ...we just want our insides to get healthier and feel healthier! So...on to the Juice Fast!

Shopping - On Sunday we all went shopping (in our respective cities). Pete and I went to the SC State Farmer's Market for some of veggies and then to Earth Fare for the rest. Total we spent $90 for 3 days worth of juicing produce.Pictures are only some of what we bought.

Juice Fast Day 1 

Today is day 1 of this juice fast! I'm working on my 3rd juice of the day as I write this. I woke up this morning feeling hungrier than usual (probably due to eating 5 meals yesterday)...and laid in bed for a while thinking about how I needed to weigh myself (haven't done in a while) and take pictures to see if after a while all my healthy changes start making a difference. Then we got up...to make our first juice.

Juice 1 - We set up the juicer...and rinsed all the produce we needed for this juice - the Mean Green recipe - per Joe Cross's Reboot Website. Turned into 24 ounces.

1 Cucumber

6-8 Kale leaves

4 Celery stalks

2 Apples

1/2 lemon (we ended up using a whole lemon b/c they were shriveled)

Piece of ginger

For me this drink was bitter, all I tasted was the celery stalks...bleh! And the more I drank...the weirder I felt. I think my body was revolting against this influx of lots of micronutrients, since I normally have bread for breakfast! For a couple hours my head felt weird, with a slight headache, and I got a nauseous feeling. I think we had this first juice around 9:30am.

I decided to re-watch Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead for inspiration from Joe Cross and Phil. It helped...I started to feel better inside and out...

Juice 2 - Around 2:30pm we made our second juice of the day - Dracula's Dream Juice (also from the Reboot website). Turned into 16 ounces.

2 Beets

2 Carrots

1 cup Strawberries

6-8 Kale leaves

This juice was better, way more tolerable. It is insane how green it smelled for being so red! Pete said, "Earthy". OK! Anyway, a lot better...and I felt so hungry while drinking it...after not hungry. Also, just had a slight headache no other pains. Woo! Pete had felt fine in the morning, but said he started to have a headache after this juice. 

Well, in between juice 2 and 3...we both had bouts of hunger. I can tell you I really have started dreaming about when I can eat something solid...and I want it to be steak, but I know it should be vegetables and nuts! Grr. 

Juice 3 - Third juice of the day is Mean Green, modified, made around 7:30pm. Turned into 28 or 30 ounces (guess as an American, dinner should be the most calories!).

1 Cucumber

6 Kale leaves (for me - more for Pete)

2 Carrots (for me - none for Pete)

2 Gold Delicious Apples

3 Celery stalks (for me - 5 for Pete)

1/2 Lemon

1 Blood Orange

Piece of ginger

I thought for sure this was going to taste better tonight due to the changes, but it doesn't...well...I still taste the celery stalks no matter what...but I guess if they weren't in there the juice would taste overall better. Pete doesn't mind bitter, so to him this juice is better (lucky). 

So far, feeling fine, but I'm not half-way through the juice...one side-effect all day has been the need to uhh pee a lot today. And I mean, A LOT!

Sometime after midnight, Pete was so hungry he was like can I make another juice? And, I was thinking I could use some, too. So we made our own thing - some blueberries, pineapple and apples. It was THE BEST JUICE WE HAD ALL DAY! Since it was late, I only had a little bit, Pete had more.

Looking Forward - I look forward to feeling less hungry as the juice fast goes on...and feeling overall better...as they did in the documentary. We are committed to 3 days...and will asses and potentially go on to 10 being our maximum days at the juice fast. After the juice fast we shall eat only vegetables/fruits and nuts for a day or two...then move on to a well balanced, minimal processed foods diet (at least this is my hope...my plan...we shall see how it goes).

Food Documentaries I Watched This Week

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This week, we got really into watching some food documentaries. Let's go back a bit....for years Pete and I have talked about changing our diet, eating healthier, eating less fats and sugars...blah blah. Yet, we haven't changed..to this day! He's wanted us to go on a juice fast...he's wanted us to go raw food...and I've been like sure I'll try it...but not like super excited. So, we never do. Back to now...we noticed a lot more documentaries have loaded onto Netflix and we decided to watch some food related ones together...because again we started talking about changing our diet and exercising and all that. 

The specific documentaries that we watched were:

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead - This was about an Australian guy that decided he needed to change his lifestyle because he was overweight, had a lot of health issues (including an autoimmune disease), and was on his way to being nearly dead. His idea - kick start a healthy living lifestyle by doing a 60 day juice fast. Just take fresh vegetables and fruits and juice them...and drink that for each meal. He was under a doctor's watch. He lost weight and got off all his medications and no longer had his autoimmune disease! After the 60 days he went on to eat a diet of mostly vegetables and fruit and whole grains....and maintains a healthy lifestyle with exercise. He also met a guy that was more overweight than him that also had the same autoimmune disease...and changed that man's life! He lost a lot of weight...convinced others of the lifestyle and is all around happier and healthier and stronger! It's really amazing... no one says you have to do the 60 day juice fast...but jump start with a 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, etc...it just helps to cleanse the body when you change to a more vegetarian diet. I have to say...this show convinced me! Pete and I are going to do a juice fast starting Monday...and a friend of mine has wanted to do one for a while ... so she's doing it also (from a distance). 

Taken from their website.

Food Matters - This was all about nutrition and how beneficial it is for us to eat a diet that is at least 51% vegetables and fruit...and how curable heart disease and diabetes are. This show really made me upset thinking about how important nutrition and the foods we eat are, but how its never really relayed to us in such terms other than, "eat your veggies you'll grow up big and strong" "eat your veggies it'll cure what ails ya" "change your diet if you don't want to take these pills". Yep broad terms like that don't get anyone to change. Cuz we hear "in moderation" and how this and that are needed. I had no idea how rich in protein a lot of plants are...that we don't need to eat meat! What! Well, uh this show convinced me to make a change toward AT LEAST 51% diet of vegetables and fruit...and maybe one day going toward vegetarian or vegan...one day. 

Taken from their website.

Forks Over Knives - This one was again about nutrition and the health benefits of eating a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. It really went into scientific data about how a diet like this can actually stop and reverse cardiovascular disease and diabetes! I mean, I've heard about reversing diabetes with food, but...cardiovascular disease...holy wow! The veins actually repair themselves and grow back strong! It also said, it has been shown that cancer patients changing to a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains....no animal protein/products....actually can reverse cancer! Cancer cells shrink and go away! Is that not incredible? Also, this show focused on how big industry has a huge say in what is healthy for us. It talked about how milk has been pushed at us as being needed for its calcium, but it showed that for all the calcium we drink...we still have a huge percentage of people that get osteoporosis...said what happens is because of the animal proteins...our body actually fights it..and fights it with the calcium in our bones. There's a lot of calcium in leafy greens. I have to say again I felt angry that no one had explained this to me before in so many words. We have to seek it out if we want to know...we have to learn on our own what they mean. OMG! You have to watch this..if you do not watch any of the others.

Taken from their website.

A lot more research and reading has to be done...and a lot of learning...and a lot of recipes found to keep the food interesting! But first...a 3 day that may turn into a 5, 7, 10 day juice fast! We're going to see how it goes at each of those intervals and if we feel good enough to go on...we will! If not, on to veggies and fruits (on day 4, 6, 8, or 11).

*All can be found on Twitter and Facebook by their very titles. :)

Has anyone ever tried a juice fast before? How long and how did it go? Would you do another?