Days 6 & 7, The End...For Now.

Yesterday went by so fast that I didn't get a chance to write anything and honestly yesterday was so busy It was mostly a blur! I'm going to end the fast here for now. The next few weeks are just crazy and a lot of time travelling and what I dont want to do is break the fast in a moment of weakness at a taco bell.

I have learned a lot during the last 7 days so I will continue to post once a week or so and share some of that info. Unless my schedule changes I have 2 week window at the end of the month where I will be home so I am going to shoot for a 14 day fast then. Thanks for all the support the "likes" and comments on Facebook the other day really helped me push through and logging on to the blog and seeing all the views was inspiring as well.

Day 5, I'm Hungry!

I think I may have over done it just a bit yesterday because I definitely feel a little run down today. Not to bad though and over all it was a good day. However, it felt like my stomach was trying to remind me to eat all day. 

I had to go buy some produce today, but so far I have been able to do this juice fast on the cheap. I went to a farmers market last week and bought around 60 lb of produce for $40 I still have some of that left but the core ingredients like carrots, apples and kale had run out. So my cost per day so far is under $10 for organic farm grown produce. Thats really cheap, I have been juicing around 4 quarts a day! 

I got a little excited when I was at the produce shop today and bought a half bushel of apples, they just looked so good! So I had a lot of apple juice this afternoon and saved a quart for tomorrow. I also decided to be industrious with the pulp from the apples. This is the constant discussion among juicers, what to do with all the fiber that shoots out the back of the juicers. especially if you are using a centrifugal juicer like mine which leaves a fair amount of juice in the pulp. So today I decided to make apple sauce, which I can't eat, but Lauren says it is really good. I made a huge pot of it too.  

And perhaps the biggest news of the day, I have lost 21.5 pounds since September 1. Eleven of those pounds have been while on this juice fast. 

Day 4, Wow!

Today was amazing! I slept in till 6:40 am, I have been getting up between 6 and 6:20 but I figured its sunday I'll get a few extra winks. Every thing I have heard about day 4 is true! I feel great! My mind is much clearer then it has been, and I have a lot of energy. My first impression was to take it easy and not over do it. I'm not eating after all, but that impression quickly gave way to another, do something! Today we went to Reading to run a couple errands, then cam home got the pick up to go get a couple chairs and a couch that someone had set on the corner with a sign that said free, after that I came home and mowed the yard. Now I dont have a regular yard it takes over an hour to mow and I don't have a riding lawn mower. After that I decided to go for a jog, man did that feel good! Like I mentioned before I am doing a training plan and it has you run intervals. I found myself pushing the running intervals longer and longer I even skipped one of the walking intervals all together. Got done a felt so good I almost wanted to go again. Then when I got home I decided that I would rearrange my office. Finally at 11pm I decided I would go to bed. I could get used to feeling like this!

Day 3, A Very Busy Sabbath

So day three was  Sabbath and not just a normal Sabbath for me either. Today after church I conducted a church training and took 22 church members out on outreach for two hours. Between church and the training there was lunch at the church. Oh man did it smell good! I tried to hide in the sanctuary until everyone was done and ready to get started but the smell found me there. I made it through though. Heres the crazy thing about today, I only juiced once, and I felt great almost all day!

The only explanation is that today was just a blessing from God.  To go all day on one juice and to have as much energy as I had to teach and then go run around on the streets for two hours is nothing short of supernatural. I was reminded today of a very important lesson that God has been teaching me lately. That is to be mindful of my words because they impact my reality. Towards the end of the day I started to feel a little tired no more then any other busy Sabbath, but I started whining a little bit about not having any juice all day, and I really started to get grumpy. Finally I realized what I was doing and blew it off and went on.

Attitude and expression are a big part of life in general but when your juice fasting they can really help you out. If you don't want to juice fast then don't why do something by choice that your just going to whine about the whole time? it is just going to make the experience that much more unbearable. Conversely, in life when your faced with something you dont want to do but have to, don't complain about it, it really doesn't help at all. Be positive, if you speak positive your outlook on the situation will change.

Day 2

Waking up at 6am I felt great! Got up had worship drank some of that lemon/cucumber water and some greens. Then I made some juice, Today the plan called for just Pineapple juice. So I guess this is where I will part way with the plan. I threw in carrots, a sweet potato, beets, spinach, apples, ginger, and some strawberries. It wasn't my finest juicing decision but it was tolerable.

Something I havent mentioned yet is how I am preparing the juice for the day. I went out and bought a dozen quart mason jars at Walmart.  Each morning I juice for the whole day so that when I get an urge to eat there is juice ready to go. Hunger comes on very suddenly during a juice fast and one of my biggest down falls in the past has been not having juice handy. It is best to use some type of container that you can seal well, it keeps the juice fresh, which also keeps it tasting good.

After I did my juicing I went out for a jog, I am doing a couch to 5k plan using my iPhone. My sister-in-law is using it and showed it to me a couple days ago. Since my bike is out of commission I figure I will work on my running through the fall and winter. I felt pretty good after I finished, but that was about the end of the good feelings.

A couple hours after I got home from my jog my head got very foggy and the detox continued. It was a long busy day but I survived. I m expecting tomorrow to be more of the same. Most of what I have seen or read indicates that it takes 3 or 4 days to get past the detox stage and really start feeling a difference. So we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Day 1

So today is day one of my juice fast. I found a website that has a 5 day guide with recipes so I am gonna follow it along for a while. Todays juice was apple & celery, pretty simple but really good. I also made a morning wake up concoction last night that consists of lemon, cucumber and mint leaves. I just soaked them in water over night and then drank the result, it is very refreshing. I also drank some powdered greens just to kick this thing off, but I am going to phase them out after a couple days.

Over all I felt pretty good for most of the day. By 5 o'clock though I was already starting to detox. My mind got very cloudy and I was irritated. Lauren took it all like a champ. So that's day one not much to it, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Why Juice Fast?

So why have I decided to juice fast? Well, to be honest I am working off of an impression more then anything. Sure it's a great way to lose weight fast. But what I want is to change my lifestyle, I'm not really looking for a quick fix. Part of my problem has always been eating to much. The fast is as much about learning to control my appetite as anything. Detoxing is also something I am interested in, I would like to give my body a little time to catch up and flush out some of those poisons I have put in. So thats why I am embarking on this juice fast.