This is day 8 of the juice fast…
I have a real love/hate relationship with juice fasting. It’s fantastic and it sucks at the same time. I feel great because I’ve learned to eat properly. Here’s a summary of what I’ve learned so far.
Days 1, 2, and 3 Suck
I felt weak, hungry, and even dizzy a few times for the first three days. I went cold-turkey into this experiment so, of course, my body was kind of shocked by a sudden lack of solid food (mixed with my lack of knowledge about juice fasting). Also, I think I was experiencing what people call detoxifying. I haven’t learned much about it yet but I can tell you it’s pretty tough on the body.
Generally Feel Great
I feel great — “lighter”, healthy, and I even think it has even been good for my general complexion. It is worth noting that this feel-good feeling only endures when I drink properly…
Learn to Drink Properly
The juice is basically concentrated nutrients. Drink too much and you kind of spike out and then crash later. You have to drop the idea of eating 3 times a day and eat tiny amounts throughout the day. Once I learned that — on about day 5 — I started feeling even better.
Use Recipes
If you try a juice fast, or juicing in general, use recipes created by other people until you get a good idea of the how the different vegetables taste together, what is bitter, sweet, strong, weak, watery… There are tons of websites with juicing recipes. I will probably write another post later with some of my favorites.
Kind of Expensive
$220 juicer aside, the daily tab for the crazy amounts of vegetable is between $20 and $30. Do the math for a month of this and you should arrive at somewhere between $600 and $900 for friggin’ veggies. I know, right?! I’ve never done the math on the total monthly cost of my food intake but I am 100% positive it is much less than $600.
Drink Tons of Water
Simple as that. Juicing does not provide hydration (like I thought it would). Also, drinking tons of water alleviates hunger, which is often just a sign of dehydration anyway. Wait, I’m thirsty. brb.
Juicing Solely for 30 Days Might be Unhealthy
In Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (the movie that inspired this juice fast experiment) the guys appeared to only drank juice for 30 days but their website recommends shorter periods (15 days and not all with juice only) and mixing in soups, salads, and even some more creative recipes. They do stick to fruits and veggies, though.
Then, I read Jesse’s JuicingBook.com article about his take on juice fasting. This guy appears to be the expert about the subject and said he’s done a 14 day fast before and thinks it was too long. He recommends “juicing responsibly” (another good article) and mixing in plenty of fruits, veggies, soups, and salads.
I am rethinking my approach to this. My problem is that I started with the notion of a 30 day juice fast and hate to break the plan. I’ll get over it.
Cheating a Little is Basically Required
For a mix of reasons, I basically have to cheat a little. You might have a different take on this but in my mind there is one main reason “cheating” is kind of required:
- Health / Nutritional Concerns
There are two reasons why I think “cheating” is ok:
- Social Situations — simply, I don’t like making a deal of it. For instance, I won’t be the guy out to dinner with friends who is drinking the juice I brought from home.
- Flavor — to me anyway, most of the juices have the same base flavor with a little variation here and there. It’s like eating most fast food — all the same with a slightly unique tinge to the flavor. That plain spinach and tomato salad without dressing I ate on Friday night was freaking great. It’s amazing how much flavor and texture that had after only 5 days of pure juicing.
Sliding Scale Juicing
So, like I predicted in the first juice fast post I think this juice fast will have something of a sliding scale for “cheating”. I normally allow myself 10% cheating (3 days) for 30 day experiments to allow for weekends, visits from/to friends, special occasions, etc. For the juice fast experiment I will gradually allow more solid food as the month goes on (update on this here). However, I will keep it all natural and all fruit and veggie. Also, I am not going to call it “cheating” anymore. Let’s call it “adapting the experiment”.
Fair enough?