The good Doctor I work with and I decided to go on a juice fast. What is it? You might ask. Well, it's when you drink only fresh vegetable and fruit juices for a determined amount of time. People have done juice "feasts" where you drink 2-4 gallons of juices every day for 92 days or more! That's a little intense for both of us! We were just interested in "cleaning house" if you will, and the quick weight loss is just a bonus (though it's not usually any fat loss at the beginning, just waste). At first we both decided to do 10 days, however the timing isn't quite right for me. Sunday is Tyler's birthday (yay!) and next Friday I go to Anchorage with my mother and sister-in-law. Besides fasting for 10 days, you do need a couple days to reintroduce solid food back into your diet. So because of this I'm doing a 4-day cleanse with a day and a half to reintroduce solid food. You start by eating salads and raw veggies, then fruit, miso soup, cooked squash, yams, sweet potatoes and quinoa, then seeds and finally nuts.
On a juice fast you want to make sure that you are limiting your fruit to about 4 servings a day. Any more than that and you're likely to have sugar rushed and an upset stomach. You can have as many juices or smoothies as you want, while still adding protein, hemp seeds in small amounts (hemp seeds do not need to be sprouted to be easily digested), maca and things like that.
So here's what happened to me on Day 1 (which was actually yesterday, Tuesday):
I got lots of sleep the night before and almost sprang out of bed (literally!). I felt refreshed, energized, excited to start the fast. I started the day like any other day, a small glass of water, vitamin D, dry brushing, and my normal green smoothie:
Spinach and kale to fill most the Vitamix
One banana
Frozen blueberries
1 tsp maca
1 tsp blue green algae
1.5 scoops protein powder
Water
Blend and enjoy. Took me a couple hours to drink while I did some at-home billing work. I felt great!
I went about my day, cleaning house, doing laundry, doing more research on fasting, took Toby to Creamer's Field and walked around for about 45 minutes, visited Tyler at work. By about 3 I was very hungry, so I hurried home and made a gazpacho.
1 1/2 fresh tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
Tons of cilantro
Cayenne
1/2 yellow bell pepper
Water
Blend
This had amazing flavor, but I had added too much water. I drank a bit, then put a handful of chia seeds in it, stirred, and refrigerated. I also drank a lot of water.
At about 4.30 I went on a run with a friend. It was so wonderful! I felt light, amazing, like I could run for hours. When I finally went home, I was of course hungry so I made a chocolate smoothie:
One banana
Lots of spinach
1-2 Tbsp raw cocoa
2-3 frozen strawberries
Taste of maca
Little protein powder
This was amazing. It was thick and felt like I had something a little more substantial. Even though I knew I'm supposed to limit fruit (especially sweet ones like bananas), I really knew I needed it.
About 8pm Tyler and I visited his family who was in town. Of course when we got there they were still eating dinner--meat. It looked so good, but I was fine. I had drank a cup of herbal tea on the way over. After dinner they busted out the ice cream, and I sighed as everyone but me tucked into their treats. Normally I don't care, especially if I have my own raw treat, but I had nothing and obviously could not even eat fruit or anything. So I sat there and smiled and answered every one's many questions about raw food. When I got home I took a long, relaxing bath with Natural Calm bath salts and felt better.
Now the day was pretty easy, and I felt pretty good. However, as I got into bed I was starving. Real hunger pangs. But I just drank more water (I had over 80 oz yesterday!) and lay there, and after half hour or so I was fine.
So, that was the first day in a 4-day cleanse. The doctor told me she was also starving last night and had a buckwheat waffle with berries. She said after day 2 or 3 you will not feel hungry anymore, your body gets used to just liquids. And since you're getting all of your nutrients from the fresh, easily absorbed juices, you begin to notice your hair and skin will start to glow. Well, we'll see!
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