My Juicing Journey

I actually did this fast in May of 2012 but just now got around to putting in on my blog. I had it all written out in word but just kept putting off posting it until now.

My juice detox fast.

Over the last few years I have become enlightened  to what is really in our food and as a family we have cut out all processed foods and gluten. We now eat whole foods from REAL farmers. It was amazing that after I got all the junk out of our diets how much the kids and I really enjoyed and craved good foods like fruits veggies and wanted to pass up non food items like cookies and cakes. I knew the next step I wanted to take was going to be some sort of detox diet. I have read about a few but knew I really  needed a detox buddy to get through it. I had asked a few of my natural health friends but none were on board so I  just put my detox plans in the back of my mind for awhile until my husband brought it up to me.

He had to have blood work done for  insurance reasons  and was scared for his life after he looked at the numbers then did some research online and realized he is close to liver failure. He had just watched Fat , Sick and Nearly Dead and was ready for a juice fast.

He spent a few days researching about juice fasting and types of juicers and he finally came to the decision of this juicer

 Omega VRT350 Heavy Duty Dual-Stage Vertical Single Auger Low Speed Juicer. Its a masticating juicer that yields much more nutrients than your average $100  high speed spinning juicer.

 The first juice we made- it was just random fruits and veggies in the house, but it was good.

We bought our juicer just 4 days before we were leaving on  trip to the coast  we were eager to start our detox but knew that it wasn't logical to start then go on vacation so we drank 1 juice a day  experimenting with our new health toy just to get our bodies used to all the micro nutrients.

Day 1

Today is the beginning of our fast we replaced lunch today with juice.

feeling excited and motivated to start.

Day 2

Today I will be replacing 2 meals with juice

My breakfast juice concoction:

2 handfuls of spinach

1/2 inch chunk ginger root

1 banana

1 half lime

3/4  of a small pineapple

a few strawberries

It was a very sweet juice, too sweet for me I think next time I will cut back the pineapple and increase the spinach. The lime and ginger added a wonderful zing to it that I very much enjoyed.

I was feeling quite hungry when lunch came around today and I really want to eat some roasted pine nut hummus I bought a few days ago but I resisted the urge and made some juice.

I am feeling...

Very tired today.

Day 3 All juice All Day!

Today is the first day that we have juiced all day with no solid food.  It was very difficult to feed the kids lunch and dinner and not even sneak just one little bite. I did very much enjoy smelling dinner even though I didn't get to eat it! My husband told me today that he is so hungry  that he wouldn't even complain about anything I put in front of him. ( he has been unhappy over the last year that we have been eating gluten free, he loves his white bread!)

I don't know who ever said that they were never hungry when juicing because they LIED I am STARVING! It must have been the same woman that said she forgot all about the pain of childbirth as soon as she saw her beautiful baby. I didn't forget that pain either, it hurt and it sucked and

I am STARVING!

I am feeling ...

Very tired  and weak today and went to bed very early.

Day 4

 My dinner tonight

Kale
cucumber
green beans
lemon
ginger
beet root
watermelon
It tastes like DIRT! The beet is so earthy and over powering I will not make this combo again.

I did like the apple carrot beet root I had as a snack yesterday though.

I am feeling...
So full of energy today and I am no longer STARVING, just hungry now. When I was at the grocery store today picking up more organic celery and kale I was not as bothered by all the foods as I was yesterday. It looked good but I didn't really want any of it.

Day 5

My dinner tonight was pretty yummy.

salsa juice

5 Tomatoes

1 pack cilantro

1 whole lemon

1 red bell pepper

1 clove garlic

1 small  brown onion

1 Jalapeno pepper with seeds

I am feeling...

I defiantly have detox symptoms now. I have canker sores in my mouth which I read is a result of  a toxic build-up in the mouth and the absence of the washing-action of chewing food can allow an increase of bacteria between the teeth. The tongue becomes coated with waste. So I am brushing like 4 times a day now to help get rid of waste, YUCK! I have severe low back pain due to toxins in the lower intestine. Blood vessels that draw nutrients from the colon are very close to the nerves of the spine. Still feeling motivated to continue though I am a bit more tired today but I did take a 1 hour walk with the kids.

Day 6  

I  am feeling...

 Weak and energetic if that makes sense. I wake up and feel pretty energized and well rested. I have never felt like that in the morning before juice fasting. I always hated mornings and was tired and groggy as I dragged my butt out of bed. My limbs feel very week like I have been working out hard but I also feel energized like I want to get up and move. I took another 1 hour walk with the kids this morning. In the evening I had so much energy still so I went for a 30 min bike ride.

Day 7 

I am feeling.....

Good and Bad I am feeling full of energy I wake up in the morning feeling bright eyes and bushy tailed. On the down side my mouth is so sore from all the canker sores, my tongue in white and the  lymph glands in my neck but there is a bright side that means that my detox is working (YaY) I am not doing this for nothing. I went on another long walk with kids.

Day 8

 I am feeling ...

That I finally got the hang of  juicing and not eating. The hunger pains are still there but they have dulled quite a bit. I go to bed early most nights so I don't want to indulge in nightly juice snack. Before juicing I would indulge in a light snack after the kids were in bed, that has been one of the hardest habits to break. I have been. I now am in the habit of going on evening bike rides. I throw in my ear buds clip on my ipod and take off, the peace and quite from the kids in nice and I find that I feel so much better about myself now that I have found a way to get a workout in everyday. 

Day 9

I am feeling...

Good, most of my detox symptoms have subsided I am now full of  energy.

Enjoying Mean green juice

Day 10

Food at last we broke the fast a bit earlier than we had planned but since  my Hubby was heading to South America for a business trip we thought we should end it a bit early so strange food from another country wasn't a total shock to his system.

Our first meal was:

 A mix of raw peppers, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes with Raw apple cider vinegar. It was sooooo good I really missed chewing!

Some recipes I love that I invented along the way.

 Juice all skins if they are organic, if they are not organic peel all skins.

Citrus Delight 

1 whole pinnapple

2 whole carrots

1 orange

1 lemon

5 oz of spinach

1/2-1 inch chunk of ginger

 Berry Spectacular

1 Whole orange

1 apple

1 whole lemon

1- 1 1/2 cups of blueberries

1-2 whole carrots

Mean Green: from the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead 

6 kale leaves 

4 celery stalks

1 lemon

1 granny smith apple ( I found that I didn't like the juice if I used a sweet apple)

thumb size piece of ginger

1 cucumber

The Green juices are not my favorite tasting but they have great health benefits so I choke them down. I have found using a straw helps get them down easy. You are supposed to chew your juices though swishing the juice around in your mouth for a bit to get the saliva flows which helps aid in digestion. I cannot always stomach chewing my whole green juice. 

You should also always drink juices on an empty stomach to maximize absorption.

I add spririlina to a lot of my juices as well.

My final thoughts:

Juice fasting was HARD I did not do it for weightloss I did it for my health getting  in mirco nutrient in my body and detoxing all the junk. I did lose 7  lbs on the fast and have since lost 20 more just adding more juice into my daily life and not eating wheat or processed foods. I think when people makes changes for the right reasons you will find more success in whatever you do. It was a hard and amazing experience and I plan on fasting at least 2 more times in 2013.

In case you are new to my blog I do have 4 kids and I cooked and fed them meals throughout the whole process I took great joy in just smelling the foods because I couldn't eat them. I would  make a big juice before I started cooking each meal so at least I wasn't STARVING and sip as I was cooking so I wasn't tempted to snack.

A big inspiration to me was Drew Canole from fitlife TV  you can follow him on Facebook he posts weekly juicing videos as well as all sorts of great juicing facts.

Happy Juicing!