Juice fast

By overwhelming demand (or one request from a family member), today, I will detail the juice fast I did over the last 10 days.

Normally, I am not into stuff like this. I believe that if you have a healthy, balanced diet, you don't need to take vitamins or supplements, and you sure as heck don't need to be doing any wacky "cleanses."

BUT, I was interested in this juice business for a couple of reasons. First, I had a couple of mineral deficiencies while I was in Madagascar (likely because of Parasite X) and liked the idea of getting a butt-load of micronutrients from food. Second, I have a real sugar problem. I've been pounding $10 candy bars like nobody's business and needed to break up with sweets. Honey was no longer tasting sweet to me. Uh oh.

The idea behind sticking to only juice is that you get all the micronutrients, but not the fiber, and therefore can actually most of those nutrients. Plus, you get to "reboot" your habits and taste perceptions over the ten day period. You don't get all the protein you need, but given that the time period is short, you aren't in any danger of a protein deficiency. I also added just a kiss of good olive oil to my juice. Many micronutrients are fat-soluble, and thus, you need oil to use them.

Here is the list (from "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead") of OK and NOT OK foods to have during your juicing:

OK
All fruits and veggies, including avocado
Sweet potatoes are preferred over white potato
Small amounts of:
extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil/flax oil/
expeller or cold pressed canola oil
sea, Celtic or Himalayan salt
honey
low sodium soy sauce
agave nectar
dried fruit (sulfur free)
Decaf green tea and other herbal teas
Stevia

NOT OK
Grains/Breads/Rice/Pasta
Nuts & Nut butters
Seeds
Beans
Eggs
Fish
Poultry
Dairy
Meat
Caffeine
Alcohol (including extracts)

The first three days, I felt hungry. REALLY hungry. And since I've gotten used to stuffing my gob nearly every time I think of it, it was hard to resist eating. Day four was the worst. I was really hungry and really miserable. Headache, tired, cranky, and craving everything. I was desperate. So, at around 4pm I roasted two carrots and chowed down. Those two carrots saved me and I felt like a new person afterwards. From then on, I made roasted carrots if I was feeling ridiculously hungry. Oh, and I ate raspberries at night. They are my favorite made me feel more satisfied.

Surprisingly, from day 5 on, I was fine. Not super hungry, not miserable, not tired. I felt fine. At first, I was worried that the juice would be yucky, but I actually really liked it. I played around with ingredients, but my favorite was:

1/2 bunch kale
1 cucumber
1 apple
1 pear
2 celery sticks
1/2 a lime
thumb size chunk of ginger

Since you may be wondering, neither Ron or I had any gut issues during this. The biggest problem was keeping enough produce in the house! Here is what we were going through in a day:

3 bunches kale
6 cucumbers
8 apples
8 pears
1 bunch celery
1 bag spinach
3 limes
a bunch of ginger

With only one day worth of food, you look like a freak and get all kinds of eyeballs leaving the grocery store. But, whatever, at least I wasn't leaving with 75 bags of Doritos or something.

Here is one day of kale.

Ron has his own reasons for doing juice, and is going to continue to have juice for 18 meals per week. I am going to continue, but only for 7 meals per week. Oh, and I lost 9.5lbs in 10 days. I am sure 1/2 of that will come right back simply from having food in my gullet, but my pants (which were getting pretty snug) certainly fit better!