Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Starting a Juice Fast/Feast

I am starting a juice feast today. I have juiced before and felt so good. The longest I have ever juice fasted before was 10 days. I remember feeling great but just the idea that I hadn't had solid foods in that long a period of time made me nervous and I was afraid to continue. I have done some reading though of people going much longer periods of time and I feel far less concerned knowing others have done it and not just survived but thrived.

I really need to turn around my diet fully and lose weight. The more unhealthy food I eat the more I crave it. I did some reading a while back and learned that celiacs is one of the main causes of the hyperparathyroidism I had. I have known I am sensitive to gluten for probably about 7 years now. But I still struggle to fully cut gluten out of my diet. And recently I started having these disconcerting stomach pains. It was in my upper left abdomen. It wasn't too painful just a constant feeling of being swollen, sore and uncomfortable and then at times uncomfortable enough that I couldn't bend or lean forward and just needed to lay down and rest. When I was laying on my stomach or side it felt almost like I was laying on something. I found that being as strict as possible about cutting all gluten out eliminated the pain and discomfort.

So I am an all or nothing kind of person. The better I eat the better I feel. And right now I feel really motivated to do this. I ate all raw yesterday till I had some cooked vegetables and tortilla chips for dinner. I got up about 6:30 am today and started my coffee and checked my email. I felt good though. I didn't feel like I just couldn't function till I had my coffee. I ended up just not drinking any. I made myself a pint of juice at 8:30 am and decided to just stick with that.

I hope posting this will keep me motivated. I am not sure how long I plan to go though. I'll decide later. My goal is at least a gallon of juice every day and a tbsp or so of coconut oil. I wouldn't worry about 1,500 calories of junk so I don't know why the idea of 1,500 calories or thereabouts in the form of fresh juice seems so odd. I guess because it's so different. But a gallon of carrot juice is 1,510 calories. I think I'll survive.

4 comments:

jocelyn said...

You go for it!!! I've never juiced before but friends have told me it's rejuvenating.

Lorax said...

*munching on a bagel*

I know EXACTLY what you mean about craving more bad stuff the more you eat it! I'm in a bad cycle right now.

I've never juiced before either, but I'd love to try! Would I need to buy a juicer, or could I use grocery store juice?

Saponaria said...

Thanks, Jocelyn!

Yeah, it's a vicious cycle, Meg. One I find myself in way too frequently. I think you can buy juices but it won't be quite the same. Of course it's better than many other options still. Unless you can buy some fresh juices somewhere that aren't pasteurized. It might be cheaper to find a cheap juicer somewhere. There are definite variations in quality but any is better than none.

Some people use a Vitamix and those nutmylk bags. That isn't cheaper than a juicer though and sounds like a lot more work to me. I bought a Champion Juicer before David and I got married and it's still kicking. However I notice the motor seems to get awful hot when I juice a lot. I am not sure how much longer it will really last. But it's been at least 9 years so far and we definitely use it. I make fake ice cream for the kids by running frozen fruit especially bananas through it. It comes out super creamy. It's the only way David Benjamin will even eat bananas.

Kh. Frederica said...

God bless you, Marcella. You have more willpower than I do. The idea of giving up the foods I "need" makes me feel panicky. I was praying abt that this morning and think it is because I can get so shakey. It happened today because I went too long and then had to "cram" food in to get level again. What I "need" is mostly whole grains, nuts, fruit, and dairy, so its not "bad" foods, but I'm overweight and need to make some changes. Trying to pray this through. If I think of going without it scares me--I have a real primitive fear of getting shakey. It's strange to think that for most people being hungry is just hunger, without this fearfulness. At any rate, I can't in a million years envision juicing. My hat's off to you.