Welcome To My Juicing World...part three

 So today is the last day of my juice fast. I have not had solid food in 71 1/2 hours. My husband is cooking some delicious lentil and veggies soup and it smells so good. In less than 30 minutes, I finally get to partake. My excitement cannot even be expressed through words. Well today was not bad at all. I woke up around 9:00 AM and prepared my breakfast, which only consisted of juiced watermelon. I really wanted to keep it simple this morning. I drank about 16 ounces of it and I was satisfied. I did not wake up hungry or with a headache. I even woke up with more energy than I had in days. Day three is so much easier than day two. My body is now used to the feeling of a fairly empty stomach. I do not have any cravings or temptations.

I had a lot of work to do today, so I just stayed in the house to prepare for my work week. After gathering all the documents that I needed for the week, I sat out on my deck for a while just to get some fresh air, I was planning on playing a tennis match today, but because of the morning rain and a wet court it was postponed. Even if I did play, I believe I would have enough energy to make it through the match. I would have just drank some pure beet juice and taken those miraculous EnergyPlus pills. Instead I took a two hour nap and woke up around 2:00 PM. I knew I had to put more on my stomach, but I just was not hungry. So I made myself make a juice made from three carrots, two radishes, two Brussels sprouts, and a cucumber. I made enough for 16 ounces, but was only able to drink eight ounces. I'm just really not that hungry and I am pretty sick of drinking juice all day. So, eight ounces was enough for me. Besides, I drank about 32 ounces of water already today.

It is now 6:55 PM and I am still not hungry; but I am looking forward to eating my first real meal since Thursday night. Overall, this fast went pretty well. I feel great and my skin even looks a little brighter. I also lost five pounds since Thursday. Even though this weight loss is temporary, I will take it. The hardest day was the second day and that day was still doable. I have realized that the more fasts that I do, the easier it becomes. All you need is a strong will, dedication, and the ability to see the big picture. Well, It is now 7:00 and my husband is calling me to come down and eat. Bon Appetit!

Welcome To My Juicing World...part two

Day two of my juice fast started off pretty good. I slept in this morning and did not wake up until 11:15 AM. I felt refreshed, fairly energetic, and not hungry at all. These feelings surprised me because normally when I do a juice fast I feel pretty sluggish on day two. I am not complaining, maybe this will be an easy three day juice fast. I was pretty excited about my breakfast; I will try a watermelon juice mixture that I never had before. My breakfast consisted of juice made from some watermelon, two Fiji apples, one cucumber, and a lime. These fruits and veggies made 32 ounces of juice. It will be both my breakfast and lunch. I also took one multi-vitamin, drank some ginger root tea, and a glass of water. The juice was delicious and refreshing. I settled in on the couch and listened to the rain.

I must have dozed off because now the clock reads 2:30 PM. I did not feel tired when I woke up this morning, but now I feel fatigued with a slight headache. My stomach is now having a very loud protest. I am feeling very hungry and I really want to eat something. Darn, I really thought I was in the clear for having an easy day two. I sluggishly poured the rest of my juice that I prepared this morning and drank it. I chased my lunch down with another glass of water. The reason why I am so anal about drinking a glass of water with my juice is because some fruits and vegetables can be quite acidic. I learned this the hard way when I discovered I had kidney stones a year ago when I juiced a lot of fruits and did not drink enough water. I thought I was doing my body good and I ended up in the emergency room with kidney stones. A lesson learned indeed. Drink your water kids.

My juiced lunch gave me a slight burst of energy and the water cured my headache, but I still felt slightly hungry. Not too bad, but definitely felt that my stomach was empty. I'm sure I am down at least two pounds from yesterday. I feel lighter and any bloat that I had yesterday was gone. I decided that today will be a low key day and I settled back on the couch to read a book. It was hard to concentrate on the words that I were reading because I just felt my energy going down again. That juiced lunch only gave me energy for about 15 minutes. I really felt like I could have slept some more, but I really did not want to sleep my day away. So I called some friends and family to chitchat.

By 4:00 PM I am feeling pretty miserable. I really want to eat. I noticed a subway commercial on the television that my husband just turned on, and the sandwich looked like God hand made it his or herself. I became fixated on the sandwich and I really wanted one badly. Oh, temptation only makes you stronger. I hear and feel my tummy growling lightly. I had to make myself turn away from the television and I drank some more ginger root tea. It is best to avoid television whenever you do a juice fast because you begin to realize how many commercials contain food or how many television shows focuses around food. It's really quite disturbing. Most of the commercials advertise unhealthy foods and try to make it look delicious. If I was not doing this juice fast and I saw that sandwich any other time, it would have looked disgusting to me. It was with white bread, and I really prefer whole wheat or all grain. It had turkey meat and what looked like ham, and I do not eat meat like that. I may have some turkey three or four times a year, and I have not eaten pork in at least a year. But for some reason, that sandwich looked so yummy. After I drank my ginger root tea, I felt so much better. My hunger pains went away and I felt like I may make it though day two.

By 8:00 PM I realized that they day went by pretty quickly. I finished the book that I was trying to read earlier. I was able to focus enough to get through the book. I was no longer hungry but I still felt sluggish. I really did not have a lot of energy. I knew it was time for dinner, so I made a somewhat hardy juice even though I was not hungry. This is the hardest part of juicing. You body will start to adjust to the lack of solid food, and it will become difficult to continue to drinking juice when you are no longer hungry. But you must drink the juice because your body needs the vitamins and minerals. So I reluctantly made my dinner juice from four carrots, a half of a beet, and a cucumber. This was enough for 16 ounces of juice. I drank the juice and the beets gave me a jolt of energy. If you are ever feeling sluggish, drink some beet juice. It gives you as much of a jolt as coffee, and it's healthier. You will have to get use to the taste. It is pretty strong and can over power all of the other fruits or vegetables. The cucumber helps water down the taste of the beet, and the carrots adds some sweetness to the juice. Carrot juice is actually pretty sweet.

It is now 11:00 PM and I am ready to go to bed. I feel pretty good. The hunger pains are over and I believe I made it through day two pretty well. The biggest obstacles today were the lack of energy and the hunger pains in the middle of the day. The beet juice mixture I had at dinner and the ginger root tea made day two much more manageable. I am looking forward to day three because I remember day three being the best day of my last juice fast. I am about to drink some more ginger tea and another glass of water. Off to bed I go, anticipating the journey of day three.

Welcome To My Juicing World...part one

 I have decided to document one of my three day juice fasts. It will be interesting for me to come back and read these next series of blogs regarding this juice fast. I wonder how juice fasts affect my thought process while writing. I started doing juice fasts in January 2011.  My initial goal was to do a consecutive two week fast; but I was advised by my very intelligent husband that that may not be a wise way to start a juice fast. He encouraged me to research on the topic first. So I decided to go to Barnes and Noble, and I purchased The Juice Fasting Bible by Sandra Cabot, M.D.  This book recommended starting small, so I took the expert's advice. My first juice fast was only a day long. I waited one week to do my second juice fast which was two days long. I waited one more week to do my third juice fast which was four days long. So now I am a little more comfortable doing juice fasts. I decided after my last juice fast that I would commit myself to doing a three day juice fast every month. Now that time has come; but before I begin blogging about my current juice fasting experience, I would like to explain why I put my body through this.

 Juice fasts are so beneficial for maintaining good health. I look at it like your body is a car, and all cars need regular tune-ups. Basically juice fasts gives your digestive system a break from all of the work that it does to break down all foods that we eat and flushes it out. Some food, like meat, are tough to break down in your system and your intestinal track works overtime to do the job.  I personally would like to give my digestive system a break so that is why I do juice fasts. It also does not hurt to see a couple of pounds disappear from that evil scale during your fast. Even though that loss is temporary, I'll take it.

I find that it is easier to start your juice fast immediately after eating a light dinner. So last night I had a small bowl of vegetarian chili made with black beans, red kidney beans, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, diced tomatoes, a little bit of salt, and pepper. I ate my chili with a handful of Trader Joe's Organic Reduced Guilt White Corn Tortilla Chips. I felt full and ready to start my juice fast. I drank a tall glass of water and went to bed about three hours later. I woke up at 7:30 this morning to prepare for work. I felt great and the hunger pains have not begun yet. Surprisingly, I am still full from last night's dinner. I often underestimate how much time it takes to prepare juice to take to work, so I like to set aside about ten minutes to prepare my juice. It takes about that much time to put the juicer together and decide what I will be drinking for the next 8 hours. The actual juicing only takes about two or three minutes; and if you are doing a lot of slicing, add another minute or two. I like my first juice of the day to be something light, crisp, and somewhat fruity. I decided on three granny smith apples, three Fiji apples, six carrots (which is my favorite type of juice), one celery, and one lime (with the skin). This made enough for about 48 ounces of juice. I filled my 64 ounce container with 1/3 of ice and poured in my breakfast, lunch, and snack concoction. I made 16 ounces of ginger root tea (just boiling hot water and about four slices of ginger root). I love drinking ginger root tea while doing a juice fast because it helps settle my stomach and it curbs my appetite. Besides, it is so yummy (if you like spicy teas) and very good for you. I packed up two bottles of water, and took two multi-vitamins and an extra Vitamin B-12 pill. It is so important to make sure that you take your vitamins because fasting has a tendency to deplete your energy and you want to make sure that you cover your bases and get all of your vitamins in your system. This is important everyday, not just while you are fasting. But enough of my preaching to the choir. After gathering my essentials, I was ready to start my day.

 Everything was going smoothly. I felt great and had tons of energy. Then I hit my first temptation at 1:00 PM. It was lunch time and I noticed that I kept glancing at my co-worker's chicken salad. Those leafy greens, white meat, and perfectly sliced eggs were staring at me. At this point I even thought that I heard it calling my name. I wasn't even really hungry. That salad just looked so good. So I made myself turn around and I poured another cup of juice. I envisioned that juice being that delicious salad; lo and behold, it worked. I made it through my first temptation of this three day fast. The rest of my work day was pretty uneventful. I did begin to get a slight headache around 4:00 PM, and my energy took a nose dive around that time as well. I did notice that it was harder for me to concentrate and I was ready for my work day to end. I just drank some water and the headache went away about ten minutes later. My energy was still low by the time 5:00 PM rolled around. Oddly enough, I did not feel exactly hungry just more tired than normal. Drinking the juice periodically throughout the day helped. By the last drop of that juice, I was pretty much sick of it though.

I had tennis practice tonight at 7:30 PM and I was wondering how I was going to make it through that practice. I really don't recommend doing extraneous exercise while you are juice fasting, but I scheduled that practice before I decided to do this juice fast and my schedule would not allow me to change the days of my juice fast. So I had to come up with a quick solution. It is not a good look to pass out on the tennis courts. So I did something that I would never ever do on a juice fast. I ate one banana about one hour before playing tennis. I knew that was what my body needed to maintain my energy during my hardcore tennis practice. It was the best decision I made. That banana coupled with two Pure Essence Labs EnergyPlus pills from Vitamin Shoppe made my two and a half hours of tennis practice much more doable. I had sustained energy for hours. This was the first time I ever took those pills and they worked really well. The pills are made up of natural herbs and they are very safe. The banana and those pills helped curb my appetite and I was not hungry after tennis practice. I came home and I made a dinner juice. I like my dinner juice to be a little more hardy and contain more vegetables. My16 ounce juice consisted of four carrots, three Brussels sprouts, two radishes, one celery, and one cucumber. I chased my juice down with one glass of water, and that was my dinner. In about one hour I am going to drink some more ginger root tea and prepare for bed. I feel good. I am tired, but I think it is more because of working an eight hour day and then playing two and a half hours of tennis. I do not feel hungry and I am ready for day two. Be prepared...It WILL be a doozy. Day two tends to be the hardest in a juice fast, but I am ready to take it on.

My first blog....WhoooHoooo!!!

So I decided to blog my journey for optimal health. You may be asking yourself, why??? Well the answer is really simple. I've been trying, for years, to find a fitness plan or diet that will work for me. I've created so many diets and none of them worked. Some of my friends would tease me and ask "what Joi diet are you on now". Now that I look back, it is kind of hilarious. I would go through a "I'm only eating vegetables and fruits" stage, but the next day I would eat a candy bar. And then I would immediately modify the diet to justify adding sweets. So I would change my fruits and vegetable diets to "I'm only eating fruits, vegetables, and less than 20 grams of sugar a day diet". Needless to say, those type of diets never worked or lasted more than a week (if I'm lucky). I was getting frustrated with myself. Here I am a college educated and intelligent professional woman who became obsessed with food. Not the "I eat all of the time" or "I eat everything" obsession. The obsession that I am talking about can be even more dangerous. I started to obsess over every little thing that I put in my mouth. I wondered how many calories were in it. I wondered how many grams of salt it contained. I worried over the type of sugar it had. Numbers were swarming in my head. I was obsessing but the scale never changed. My clothes fit a little too snug for my comfort. On the outside, I may have looked okay...but I was miserable on the inside.

I was always a smaller framed woman. Friends and associates would look at me and say "are you kidding me. You look great. I would love to have your body". But trust me, I looked better with clothes on than without. I'm petite. I am only 5 feet and 2 inches tall. At my largest weight, I was 132 pounds. I tend to carry my weight in my belly and thighs. My rock bottom occurred 3 months ago. Within one month, I was asked if I was pregnant 4 times by 4 different people. I could not ignore my bulging belly any longer. That was a wake up call for me. I had to make some changes and I had to make them immediately. Because I am a smaller framed woman, a little pot belly can appear to be a baby bulge. I no longer wanted to be mistaken as being pregnant. Word to the wise: Never, Ever ask a woman if she is pregnant unless you are 100% sure that she is. It causes for a very awkward situation.

Three months have passed and I lost 12 pounds and I dropped a dress size. I went from 132 pounds to 120 pounds. I feel great and I no longer have a "baby bump". This transformation was difficult but so rewarding. I am still addicted to television and I still like my occasional sweets, but I have made so many lifestyle changes. I work out 4-5 days a week. I cut out all starchy foods (white rice, white bread, flour). I limit the amount of sugar and salt in my diet. I do not eat red meat or fried foods. I only drink water, hot tea, and natural juices. I do a 3 day juice fast every month to detox, and I commit myself to one colonic every season to cleanse my colon from impurities. I feel great. I look great. And I am so happy about my lifestyle change, that I am ready to share this change to the world.