The Juice Fast: Why? Well, Why Not?

I have decided to do a five day juice fast. You're all thinking I'm crazy, which is fine, because if you actually know me, you already know that I'm completely insane. So, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise to you. Now, this wasn't something that I randomly woke up and decided to do. No...I thought about it for at least a week first lol. I googled, I watched lots of youtube videos, I even checked out the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" on Netflix. While I don't believe I know everything about juicing, I do believe I researched enough to be able to make it through five days.

Of course a lot of you are going to be asking me why, actually a lot of you already have. Normally my answer to everything is a big fat "Why Not?". I just do what I want on a whim and I enjoy my whims. But I actually did put a bit of thought into this and here are my beginning answers to why:

1.) I like trying new things. Which should be apparent by my many random new things I try.

2.) I want to see if I can do it. Plain and simple, I like a challenge.

3.) Vegetables are practically non-existent in my diet, and I'd like to change my relationship with them.

4.) I'm hoping to get the kids more interested in vegetables.

What am I hoping to accomplish physically?

1.) I'd like to feel better overall.

2.) Some weight loss would be nice.

3.) Maybe I can beat the sinus cold I feel creeping up on me out of my system before it gets going.

I've never been a healthy eater. I grew up with the metabolism that my now 13 year old daughter has where I could eat absolutely anything in any quantity and not gain weight. Instead I was always accused of starving myself, when in fact I ate a lot, and mostly a lot of junk foods. Once I started popping out kids and getting older my metabolism of course slowed down and I continued to eat like I did before and that simply did not work out for me. Vegetables have never been a huge part of my diet, my husband hates them and believes that potatoes and corn are proper vegetables, the kids refuse to eat anything green ,and I am guilty of only really enjoying salads slathered in ranch dressing. It's time to TRY to switch things up.

I did enjoy the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" however, I am not fat. I am technically overweight, but not by very much thanks to some attempts at dieting and fitness this year. I'm not sick, although some of you may question my mental status from time to time, although I have been struggling with some depression, anxiety, and overall feelings of "I hate my life" this year. And while I am not nearly dead, I do realize that if I continue to have this type of relationship with food and alcohol that I will end up dead faster than I would like, and I'll go to my grave not looking quite as sexy as I'd like to.

So this is a bit of a drastic jolt to my system. I have heard that juice fasts can help to reduce your hunger going forward, and kind of reset your system and help you get into a good mindset to move forward and be more successful with your health and fitness goals. I may not make it the five days, especially after tasting my first juice this morning. But I'd like to, and if you want to cheer me on or offer me a prize if I make it...well that would be kind of nice.

(You can stop reading here, but I plan to go on for a while on this first initial blog)

What I plan to do for my five days:

I am going to use the recipes I found on WellPicked.com  for their five day juice fast. I ignored all the crap about weaning myself off of carbs, caffeine, sugar, etc five days prior to the fast. Mostly because I wanted to get started this weekend while the kids were on a long break from school.


My first juice, looks great in my Shrek cup. (yes that is one of the recalled toxic cups)

I'm going to try and stick to it for at least the first day, and adjust as needed. I've only had the first drink so far today, the Green Juice. I made half the recipe, omitting the parsley because I forgot to buy parsley, and the first sip was like...ok...this isn't too bad. I made it through 3/4 of the glass before I decided that I'd had enough. I made the mistake of taking my Women's One A Day vitamin which always makes me nauseous after I had my first juice so I'm not sure if it was the juice that made me want to barf, or the vitamin which always makes me want to barf...but I'm not feeling very great right now.

Exercise is typically not advised during a juice fast as it tends to drain your energy. I plan to just listen to my body and do whatever I can. This morning my son and I did try the demo for the Nike + Kinect on Xbox 360 and I think that ten minutes of activity was enough for right now.

Maybe I will video blog about it. I will try and do one at lunch time, mostly because I just like making videos and my teenage daughter (who is in a production class at school) thinks it will be fun. Let me know what kind of videos you might like to see and I'll try and do one for you. I should have done one this morning of me trying to make my first juice and not realizing the glass I chose was too tall, therefore blocking the juice flow and causing it to ooze out of the juicer in places I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be coming out of. I still created enough foul veggie juice for my first "meal" though.

Preparation:

I bought a juicer, I went with a fairly mid priced model. I'm not ready to dish out $300-400 on this, but I figured $90ish wasn't too bad. I went with Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer which I was able to get at Kohl's and use my bonus cash I had. It was the mid priced one there and while it did take a bit of rinsing to clean it out this morning, I found it very simple to use and clean.

We went to the Riverside Market yesterday and grabbed whatever fresh veggies and fruit we could find from the vendors there. It was really fun to take the kids out and sample some fresh produce, cheese, honey, jerkey, etc and just get out of the house and walk around. If juicing remains a part of our lives this may lead to many fun family trips. I got the rest of what I needed at the local grocery store, and may make a trip on base later this week to get stuff at better prices...if I stick to this :)

I did research. I didn't just wake up and decide on a whim I was going to do this. I am fully prepared (hopefully) for whatever may come from this, and I have been to the doctor recently and she said I am completely healthy and that this not only would be ok to try, but that she has done a few herself and that they really do make you feel better, also I'm ready for the physical discomforts which I've heard are not so much fun. Bring it on!

The physical discomfort concerns:

1.) You're not going to have any energy: Guess what? I barely have any energy as it is, and I've heard that after a few days you actually get more energy so we shall see. Thankfully I do not work at this time, aside from chasing three kids all day, and the gym is closed for the next two days so I won't be tempted to go anyway. I'm not sleeping well at night as it is, so something has to change.

2.) Enjoy your new relationship with the toilet: Do you know what doing nothing but eating crappy food and drinking too much alcohol does for your system? Yeah, I'm kind of used to having my stomach hate me. I've actually already been hanging out in the bathroom this morning a little more and it's more of a cleansing visit, than the typical crampy omg I want to die type I'm used to. Sorry if that was TMI, but I'm probably going to be talking about that a lot more.

I guess this is enough for now. I may blog more today, and definitely will have one video up in the next couple of hours. Feel free to leave suggestions, comments, cheers, jeers, or any other random stuff you can think of. Include your guess on how long I will make it and what you'll give me if I beat it...I'd love to prove you wrong.