Some people call it juice cleansing, others call it starving! But I prefer Juice Fasting. I really should have started this record when I started my fast, but I didn't really think about it then. Partly because, I didn't know that I'd do it this long and partly because it's the third one I've done, so it just slipped my mind to blog about it. But I digress.
Juice Fasting is AMAZING! At least, I think so.
I started my Juice Fast on June 3. Every time I've done one, it's been a little different than the one before it. This time I started by eating 1/2 a watermelon on Sunday the 3rd and the other 1/2 on Monday. I found that doing it this way was the easiest way to transition. Then nothing but juice after that! Last time I had the pleasure of using fresh juice, this time I didn't, but I used the best that I could find. You want the unfiltered apple juice.
The one on the left comes from Utah, my Dearest brought it to me, along with a Cherry-Apple juice, but that was gone by the time I took this picture .
For the first 2 weeks I drank only one type of juice per day, but after that I just drank what I had and what I wanted. After the first week I started to crave salt, so I went a bought some organic vegetable broth and salted it with
Real Salt...that hit the spot. Now every night I drink a cup of it, in a cute teacup no less and Abraham and I say "let's go have a cup of tea". Jolly good!
About 10 days into it I stared wanting some greens, but I must confess, I don't like drinking greens. That's it! But I don't mind drinking Naked Juice Green Machine, so I've had a couple jugs of that. I also added some green herbs in caps.
I find that I love juice fasting! A lot! I can see why people tell you that you'll become a junkie if you're not careful. I feel wonderful. My energy is up, so long as I don't go more than 3 hours between 'meals'.
I usually drink 8 oz of my choice of drink at a time and plenty of water throughout the day. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because you're 'drinking' a lot, you don't need to consume as much water. In fact, I'd say you need more, to help flush the toxins that are being released.
All the 'juices' I've used; Apple, Carrot, Green Machine, Vegetable Broth, Grapefruit and Tomato. Trader Joe's is a great place to get your juice and so is Fresh & Easy Market, if you're in Las Vegas.
During the last month I've read
French Women Don't Get Fat can I just say that I have totally LOVED this book. I've never read a "dieting" book before and probably never will again, but when I say this book in the Deseret Industries 2 years ago, the title caught my name, so I bought it. Because it had recipes in it, I just stuck it in the cookbook section of my home library and forgot about it. But Providence smiled on my and I came across it right in the middle of the journey.
Read It!
Something that I've noticed is that the Las Vegas summer heat hasn't bothered me this year, at least not yet. Usually I am miserable during the summer, I get nauseous and super tired if I have to spend much time outside, or about on errands, but that hasn't been the case since I've started fasting and the weather has been it's generous 100 degrees and then some.
While this isn't the most lady-like of topics to publicly discuss, something else that I noticed has been that after a long hot summer day and an evening working up a sweat dancing, I don't have an unpleasant odor in the underarm area. That is very eye opening, if you really stop to think about it.
One morning I was getting myself ready and looking in the mirror I thought to myself " I think my teeth look whiter" But then I thought "That's a very likely thing, considering that I don't whiten them" and I couldn't imagine my change in diet to effect my teeth after such a short period of time, if it would effect it at all. However, a few days later my daughter said to me, "Mom, your teeth look whiter since you started your juice fast." I love getting conformation like that.
Something that I've learned and then read about in French Women Don't Get Fat, is, that smelling your food is so incredibly enjoyable and satisfying. You really won't get the full effect of the deliciousness of what you are eating unless you stop, smell it, deeply, then savor each bite slowly. Also, when I was juicing and was cooking for my family at the same time, simply smelling what it was that I was making filled the craving for eating it. I'm sure this would work for everyone, but you never know unless you try it.
So now that I've come to my 30 days, I'm really not ready to give it up, but I know that I can't do this forever, so for the next 30 days I'm going to make all solids that I eat, raw. We'll see how that goes. I've always wanted to do a raw diet, but just haven't. Here's a great chance.
There is a shift in my life, I can feel it, and this is just the beginning...
