Well I manned up.
I took care of business this morning and with a only with a minimal amount of whining and crying, and screaming. Ok... for sake of losing my macho-ness of 'manning up'. This morning, there may or may not have been something said like "Wait... This goes WHERE?!" uttered, I may or may not have cried for my mother, and I may or may not have curled up in the fetal position afterwards. You know, plausible denial and all.
Actually it wasn't bad at all. With that, the detox is in full effect. Today I learned a couple things today that were interesting that I would like to share with you.
1) Cantaloupe juice is exceptionally good. Seriously, wicked good. I mixed it with some grape, and celery. NUM NUMMY!! Best juice so far.
2) Cabbage is never a good idea to include in your juice in large quantities. It tastes terrible, and it has the unpleasant side effect of causing you to burp. Which when you're in church, the smell of the skeezy vegetable juice that you're drinking radiates to those around you. (Sorry Honey, and sorry Griswold's -- just in case.)
3) Another cool thing I noticed today. I have always had horrifically dry skin.. When I take my shirt off, its like my stomach is snowing -- I have tried lotions, oils, etc... to no success whatsoever. I noticed today for the first time in a long time, I am not shedding skin like I used to. Credit the juice, credit the increase in water intake (which is far more likely, IMHO) but my skin feels really good. My pores feel really clean and fresh, I'm liking that.
With regards to brain function, tired, etc.. I have a TON more energy, most of the time. Sometimes, . It's amazing what your body can do when your digestive system is mostly at rest. I've had a couple random headaches today despite my water intake, and attempted juice intake. Part of the difficulty today was Church split my day in half, and it was tough to juice during church. Particularly because my skeezy vegetable juice had a stank all its own as soon as I removed the cap. I couldn't do that to the poor brethren sitting around me. So I just drank mostly water, and ignored the hunger pangs and headaches until I could get home and make some new juice. :)
As the fast progresses, I'm evaluating the length of the fast a little bit. While I've seen plenty of people and websites online that discuss going 92 some days with it, I don't think that's in the least bit healthy. In addition, my ultimate goal is not weight loss for this endeavor. The people on the 92 day fasts talk about the 90-100 some pounds they lose in the process, and that to me sounds extremely unhealthy. This was never about a quick fix. This was about the beginning of a lifestyle change, and the necessary reset for that change.
In that vein, I'm considering reducing the days of the actual Juice Fast to 10, followed by 3 days of breaking the fast (mostly juice and natural probiotics), and then 8 days of a 100% raw diet (including juices), then to a 3/4 raw diet that will be my maintenance diet. 21 days would not be a problem for me to fast, really truly, I have more energy, and haven't had any problems with hunger, or major cravings. I just want to ensure that this 'reset' is just that. Everything I'm reading says much of the detoxification is done in the first 10-14 days. They claim that the longer you go, the further back you go in your life, fixing the problems you've had. (Not sure how much I buy into that...) The trick is, if that's the case, a raw diet will do the exact same thing, with a lot less strain on your system. To me, it doesn't make sense to chance doing damage over the 21 days if the same effect can be had in 10.
Still keeping my options open, but some things to ponder. What are your thoughts?
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so that's what that smell was...we just figured it was Charlie (little boys always smell a little funky) You know I'm kidding right? I did not smell anything coming from your vicinity.
ReplyDeleteSince I've never done a juice fast, I wouldn't really know, but 10 days sounds sufficient. It seems like you are already seeing some good outcomes already...I am especially excited for the raw food to begin. I have become a little obsessed with it myself and have a few good sites/blogs/recipes to share with you. It's hard to make our main dishes raw...seeing as Rog isn't too interested in a raw diet, but I have snacks/desserts/breakfasts down for sure.
Awesome. That's the part of this whole thing Shannon is going to jump into with me -- recipes would be great! :)
ReplyDeleteOk Now I seriously want to try this, you should email me some info...and where can i get a juicer? I haven't felt energetic without downing an energy drink or sleeping for 14 hours in a long time, and it would be nice to not have my head constantly foggy.....is it helping at all with the ADD part? or the irritability from no sugar? Because well lets face it I'm super addicted to fatty foods and sugar.
ReplyDeleteJennifer, I'll give you a call this evening and we can talk about it -- the ADD part... yes and no. Some days I feel a lot more focused, other days, I still feel kind of all over the place, so I'm not really sure. Shannon said it seems like I've been pretty even keeled the last few days so not sure on the irritability, but my ultimate goal besides the detox is to break some of the cravings -- you know, the ones that lead me to buy an entire box of Hostess donuts, and then eat them all instead of just one.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the addiction, I am too -- and I don't think this juice fast will be the end of it for me, just like with drugs, you can send a junkie to rehab and they can get out and go get lit immediately. The battle isn't over when the 10 days are up, that's for sure. :)
Ben, this is just awesome, I am so proud of you! It's amazing the energy you have on a raw diet/juice fast. Lately I have been on a overcooked and reheated meat and pasta and toast and peanut butter diet. Terrible. My weight has actually been dropping, and my waist size is getting bigger. Not cool, granted, at my size, a little waist gain is not so horrible, though the weight loss concerns me a slight! YEsterday Evan and Meagan and I made up an awesome workout game with a deck of cards suitable for 2-4 people. It was lots of fun and I am quite sore today! MY dad has been doing a diet based on a metabolism book. He's doing mostly low-carb, high protein and lots of veggies. His brother (my uncle) can drink 20 beer in a sitting every day for 11 years and never gain a pound (slight exaggeration for effect), where dad can drink 2 once a month and put on 20 pounds. His body just doesn't handle carbs well, and he's been having success with it, higher energy, and losing some fat, and bulking up muscle like crazy.. he's going from bulk to hulk... I would love to get closer to hulk from skinny little white boy, but we'll see how it goes. No definite plans to change it. Dad used to do a LOT of juicing back in the 70s and did a lot of research on it back then, I used a lot of his material from the seventies when I did my juice fast. The material hasn't changed in about 6000 years or so, and yet still, mainstream "health" practitioners like to pass it off as bunk, despite its effectiveness. What kind of Juicer do you own? Papa's got a Norwalk juicer (not a virus that makes you poo yourself, but a juicer). I would like to buy one for myself, but they are super expensive and super bulky and loud, but they make incredibly smooth juice. I have a cheap juiceman one that my mom got for free from Costco with the purchase of a smoothie maker (which I use more often than the juicer and it's fantastic). I am tinkering with the idea of trying that P90X system.... it sounds intense.
ReplyDeletewhen you are ready for raw ideas, you and shannon should look at my blog. There is a "raw" link with recipes I have posted of some of my own things, but mostly recipes I have taken and tried from other sites. Also look at my "blog list" for good raw/vegan blogs/sites. www.goneraw.com has tons and tons of recipes...it's like a community recipe sharing place for raw foodies:)
ReplyDelete@Drew -- I had a Hamilton Beach juicer, that was a centrifugal that just was not doing the trick. It would hardly juice the greens, though it does most fruit halfway decent. Worked great on carrots. What I'm using now is a Old School Champion juicer that the Kinsella's let me borrow. It's awesome. Fairly smooth juice, but the thing could juice a rock.
ReplyDelete@Rayetta -- We most certainly will. I'm beginning to compile some recipes here and there, and start putting ideas together. I'm finding its not an easy lifestyle, that's for sure.