Juicing Day 5

A third of the way there, woo!  I feel re-energized...ok, not really, but I am happy with my progress and results, so I'm going to suck it up and stick it out.  Today's juice of the day is apple (2), jicama (1 medium), celery (2 stalks), lime (2 small), and mint (2 cups).  While I have to say that it's a little heavy on the lime, it's quite tasty (and not nearly as minty as I had feared).

For the record, I'm not starving.  I'm not depriving my body of calories (fat is another story), and while I may not be getting 100% of the protein that I "should" be getting every day, 1.) I wasn't eating enough animal protein per day to meet those needs anyways and 2.) not everyone needs a standardized amount of protein in their diet.  I don't live my life according to charts and formulas.  I've found (before and during this juice fast) that listening to your body is critical.  Counting calories will drive you crazy.  Eat when you're hungry (or in this case, drink a raw, fresh pressed juice) and stop when you're full.  Make sure you get enough exercise/movement for the amount of food that you're ingesting.  If you're moving less, then eat less.

I've been catching a lot of criticism for my experiment, everything from joking around to "poor baby" to downright lectures.  Well, you can rest assured that I'm not dying or getting sickly, and I'm certainly not a victim here.  I find it amusing how people tell me what conventional "experts" consider norms (did you know that the mayo clinic discourages people from drinking juices at all?  And if you do drink juice, they suggest you get store bought pasteurized juice...HA), mostly bits and pieces of information without really asking me about the juice fast or researching it on their own.  Juicing, in general, is something that most people should at least incorporate into their daily diets, especially given the fact that the majority of us don't get nearly enough fruits/veggies in our diets.  In each of my juices, I'm getting at least a daily dose of veggies/fruits.  If you are thinking about juicing, just remember to "eat your colors" and juice a wide variety of vegetables and fruits (although, you should probably limit the amount of fruits in your juice...just enough to add a touch of sweetness).  Heck, "eat your colors" should be a daily mantra when it comes to fruits & veggies in general.

Cheers,

Dorothy

PS I promise to update my posts with some pictures as soon as I charge my camera.

PPS I am planning on changing the frequency of these journal style entries.  Since I've transitioned rather well into drinking just juice, I will be just posting some recipes (with photos) of my juice successes.  I'll probably update and summarize at the 15 day mark and then again at the 30 day mark, just for progress sake.

Juicing Day 4

The word of the day today has been "negotiation."  Pretty much all day it's been my stomach v. my head in a very child-like back and forth that goes a little something like this:

"I'm hungry"
Have some juice.

"I already had juice.  I'm bored of juice.  How about Dante's 3 layer fries?" (fries, cheese, bacon, jalapenos, sour cream)
You already know the answer to that is no.

"Fine, what about potstickers, you know, the ones from Lily's Garden...they've got ginger in them, sort of like those juices you keep drinking."
Um, no.

"Alright, what about Doritos.  You' haven't eaten Doritos in ages.  All that cheesy crunchy goodness...don't you miss crunching?"
No and no.

"Roast beef with potatoes?"
You don't even like beef.

And then my stomach deals a low blow...

"Vietnamese spring rolls?  You don't even need to put the noodles on them, just veggies, green apple, herbs, and that delectable peanut sauce???"

Oh crap...

I've been bugging my nutritionist friend for support a LOT today, to the point where I'm sure she's amused and mildly irritated at the same time.  She's been a great deal of help with talking me off the ledge over the past 4 days, and she told me that 60 days is a really long time to subsist on juice alone.  We talked about my motives and my 2 upcoming races that I should start training for soon...60 days is a heck of a long time to go without chewing and crunching.

So here's the revised deal:  15 days (so my stomach is just going to have to suck it up and stop thinking about food other than fruits and veggies) of pure, unadulterated juice.  I'm going on vacation for a long weekend at the end of the 15 days, so I'll be transitioning into eating some solid foods (again, fruits & veggies only, with maybe a little protein in the form of eggs).  Then for the remaining 11 days (so 15 more days total), I'll be juicing for breakfast and lunch and eating a nice solid scrumptious salad for dinner.  She suggested this would be a great way to transition back into the land of the living (er...eating).  A 30 day juice/raw veggies & fruits stint sounds doable.

So for now, back to the juicer I go.

Cheers,

Dorothy

Juicing Day 2

  Who knew that juicing on a weekend would be so hard?!  I woke up this morning with a dull headache that originated from behind my eyeballs, but since I couldn't just rip my eyeballs out in order to alleviate the pain, I just drank some water and dealt with it.  I didn't quite notice it at first, but day 2 left me cranky and craving every kind of solid food known to man.  Every time I made a meal for the cousins that I was babysitting, it took every last fiber of my body to refrain from sneaking a few bites of the food.  Seriously, who would I be sneaking from other than myself.  I felt so ashamed for even thinking about giving up after 24 hours.  I've been trying to incorporate more fruits than veggies in my juices, so today's "winner" consisted of 1 wedge of pineapple, 1 cucumber, 4 stalks of celery, half a pint of blueberries, and a boatload of mint.  If you need a name for the juice, I'd call it "cool as a blueberry mojito."  It was super refreshing and tasty.

As far as the gastro problems that I had anticipated, other than having to pee every 30 minutes or so, I haven't had any other discomfort or pressing issues.  I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop but hoping that since I eat a relatively clean diet normally that I won't have and number 2 issues (crossing my fingers).

I've noticed that the constant hunger is sort of background noise by the end of the day.  I'm used to it and don't feel the need to just drink juice every time my stomach growls.  I'm a lot more tired today than I was on day 1, but I'm going to attribute that to 2 very energetic little girls sleeping over last night and wanting to constantly be on the go and entertained today.  Taking an afternoon nap helped alleviate the hunger too, which was nice.

I'm starting to run low on produce already, so it looks like tomorrow will be a shopping day again.  I've decided that I really like the taste of beets, nectarines, cucumbers, celery, carrots, lemon, strawberries, ginger, mint, kale and pineapple.  I've also realized that berries aren't worth the effort and volume that it takes to produce enough juice to taste.  Juicing broccoli is a bad idea-yuck.  The taste of broccoli overtakes all other flavors in the juice, and unless you really like broccoli, I suggest you skip it.

Despite the constant cravings for pretty much everything other than juice, so far, so good.  I do think that I was a wee bit crazy thinking that I could tackle a 60 day juice fast, but we'll see how it goes.  For now, on to day 3.

Cheers,

Dorothy

Creating a New Reverence for Food Preface

  I have decided to undertake a major challenge and tackle a 60 day juice fast.  That's right, 60 days of cozying up to my juicer with a bag of produce, drinking it exclusively, and liking it.  So many people take food for granted, they eat junk because it tastes good or because they have decided that they are to busy to prepare and consume healthful food.  Others hold food in such high regard that they practically worship artisinal, vegan fed, nitrate free, bacon anything.  They are more interested in the culture of food snobbery than the origin and purpose of their food.  My aim is to understand the fundamental nature of food, the interplay of flavors of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and spices as well as the important nutritional role that fruits and vegetables have my body.

  Food, in its purest form is nourishment both for the body and soul, and I am hoping that by completing this juice fast, I can gain a better understanding of the food that I grow and consume.  All the fruits and vegetables that I am going to be juicing are going to be local and organic whenever I can find it.  I will be purchasing the bulk of my ingredients from local farmer markets so that I can have a better understanding of the hard work and passion that goes into the foods that I eat.  I will be documenting my progress here in the form of daily updates (well, most days) as well as photos and recipes of my tastiest juices (as well as produce combinations that just don't work for me).

  I will be regularly consulting a nutritionist in order to monitor my nutritional intake as well as to talk about the effects of the fast on my body.  I will also review the process approximately every two weeks in order to gauge my progress, in case something happens and I can't continue with my journey.  I welcome any and all questions that you might have, as well as any funny comments and words of encouragement for me.  Here's to a journey of culinary enlightenment.

Cheers,

Dorothy