Monday, July 25, 2011

Juice Feast!!

I did a juice feast this weekend, with a clear calendar and temps in the hundreds for the last few days I figured it would be a perfect time to attempt my first juice feast. For those of you that are not familiar with the term juice feast this is when you do what can be considered a fast except you drink lots of fresh juice, instead of fasting you feast - get it. Here's the blow by blow:


Saturday 7:30am
I finally saw the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Thursday. My  good friend Nicole from Pioneer Valley Vegan highly recommended it. It was moving, so much so that it inspired me to do my own juice fast - feast really since I plan to drink approximately 5 32oz juices and one turmeric tonic.

Here's the cache of veggies for the 2 days

I know I'm not fat, sick or nearly dead but a juice feast can be very beneficial to all of us. Even if it's just a day or two. Personally I think more than 10 days is putting you at risk for problems with your teeth, especially if there are fruits in your juices.However, having seen quite a few  morbidly obese people come down to a healthy weight and stay there by continuing to eat a healthy diet makes the case that for someone in that condition this can be life-saving.In addition to the health benefits I want to lose 2 or 3 pounds. Those of you that know me know I'm vain. I'm turning 40 at the end of this year and the plan is to look fantabulous. So this means going from a BMI of 22.6 down to 21.9 which is where  I want to be, right in the middle of the healthy range of 18 - 25.


So in 10 min I plan on getting out of bed and making the first juice of the day. Here's the menu of juices I plan to drink:

Juice #1: Green Juice (based on Organic Avenue's Green Love juice):  Watercress Cucumber,  Spinach,  Celery,  Romaine, Beet Greens, Collard Greens,  Pear,  Lemon,  Parsley  

Juice #2: Veggie Juice (based on Organic Avenue's Veggie Vibe juice):  Cucumber, Spinach, Celery, Beet Greens, Lemon, Parsley, Carrot, Beet, Ginger 

Juice #3: Green Lemonade (based on Organic Avenue's Green Lemonade juice):  Cucumber, Spinach, Celery, Lemon, Ginger, Water, Salt 

Juice #4: Mild Green Juice (based on Organic Avenue's Mellow Love juice):  Cucumber, Spinach, Celery, Romaine, Parsley, Salt 

Juice #5: Berry Juice:  Cucumber, Celery, Carrot, Beet, Ginger, Strawberries, Blueberries 

Juice #6: Turmeric Tonic (based on Organic Avenue's Turmeric Tonic):  Lemon, Carrot, Ginger, Water, Salt, Turmeric, Cardamom, Black Pepper, Cayenne Pepper  

12:30pm

On to Juice #2. I did my morning workout and had my wrist adjusted - too much sudoku while commuting. I was going to get a massage but at about 11:30 I was feeling hungry. Now this is interesting because I usually have a banana, watermelon and an orange for breakfast and am hungry by 11am so Juice #1 is a keeper. I do think I'll need to have a juice every 3 - 4 hours to keep hunger at bay. Juice #1 was at 8am so it makes sense to be hungry by 11:30am. Energy is good and no detox effects so far. Once I finish this one I'm off to my massage.


8pm

About to have Juice #4. I'm hungry. Energy level is fine. I think it's definitely psychological. Jared was eating peanut butter and it took all of my will not to rip it out of his hands. Also the romaine in Juice #4 was giving me a craving for a sandwich. Not sure if I will be able to hold out until Monday morning. Not because of hunger but because of wanting to give in to cravings. Hopefully the next juice will satisfy some of that - it's a berry one so should be really really good.


Juice #5
11pm

I only made it to Juice #5, the berry one. It was delicious. I felt like I was having a real treat. I'm off to bed now. Hopefully I can get a good night's rest and do this all again tomorrow. I have to admit I am craving real food, a collard wrap would hit the spot...

Good night

Sunday 8am

I feel OK. I slept pretty well. Only got up once to pee. I woke up hungry, nothing special though, the same as any other day. I'm hoping to kick the food fantasies. I keep thinking about stuffed grape leaves. I'm also down 1.5 pounds which is nice. If I lose the same today I'll be at the 3 pound goal and only 3.5 away from my ultimate goal weight, yippee!!


Juice #2


5:30pm

I did my 90 min Yoga X DVD this morning I also took a nap that ended up me missing Juice #3. I'm now on Juice #4. I'm a bit surprised that I was out of commission for so long. Is it the fast? Is it the heat? Yoga or my body making up for lousy sleep earlier in the week? Probably all of the above. I've decided to break the fast tonight, something light with the berry juice. Some veggies in a collard wrap, nothing fancy.

7:30pm

Break of the fast. I had 2 brazil nuts and a collard leaf wrap it consisted of zucchini, carrot, basil, tomato and sauerkraut. I seasoned it with a little extra virgin olive oil, Herbamare, kelp granules and cayenne... As soon as I finished I ran to the bathroom, I'll leave it at that.

11:30pm

In bed, I never had the last berry juice, ate a small bowl of blueberries with raw cacao nibs instead. I also had 3 tortilla chips with Jared's spice peanut butter concoction, that was good, good enough to maybe have when entertaining... My tummy feels a little off, looks like I should have had even milder snacks. Hopefully tomorrow it will be back to normal.

Signing off and good night.

The Results:
Total weightloss: 2.5 lbs
Energy Levels: OK, I did nap on both days and slept the full night, so even though my energy was OK I did need rest
Mood: I was on the verge of cranky but I think it had to do with the heat and boredom, I didn't go anywhere since I had to juice every few hours. And there's only so many Korean horror movie you can watch in one weekend
Sleep: Good, I took naps and slept in the evening
Skin: Looks good, can't say I notice much of a difference though
Bathroom: Pee a lot, the first day I drank the equivalent of 20 cups of juice. Day 2 I drank 12 cups, nothing to sneeze at. As for #2, it was more like #1 - ewwww TMI!


Juice #2
The Verdict:
Would I do this again. Probably for a day or so, I don't think I would hack it for than that since I love to eat but I can see where you want to "reboot" every once in a while. Also, another option is to be a juicer before 6pm and then eat whatever you want for dinner. Kind of like a juicing version of Mark Bittman. That way no matter what damage you do - and I know you are all eating right all of the time - you are getting your fruits and veggies in.

4 comments:

  1. Great job! I'm impressed with your variety of juices. I just did the same juice basically over and over for my three day fast.
    A few questions: do you use kelp granules instead of salt?
    What is Jared's peanut butter spice concoction?

    I'll have to check out the turmeric tonic. I take turmeric pills but have never had it in a drink.

    By the way, I watched Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Cancer yesterday. It was excellent. I think you'd like it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use a variety - Herbamare, pink salt, kelp granules, granules too

    Jared added some spicy crushed red pepper to a jar of pb then ate it with tortilla chips

    That tonic is really good not sure if mine would have been as good. I need to use it more, I have a bad wrist.

    I had to do a variety I would not be able to drink the same thing all day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Patrick does a similar thing with PB. I think he adds rice vinegar though to make it a little more watery. We put it on rice cakes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hubby and I recently tried this. Problem was for us we had tons of work scheduled into each day so we were NON STOP hungry or craving foods so we ended up giving in. If I try this again I think we'll do it on a day when there is nothing planned so we could relax a bit.

    ReplyDelete