Day 10

The hours between 2:00pm and 6:00pm seem to be the hardest. I start to feel tired, which is typical of me even off the fast - and my mouth gets dry and I start to feel this empty feeling in my jaw - like it wants to be working, but isn't. I think I'm clenching my teeth shut and by mid-afternoon, my face muscles start to hurt. I'm thinking of having a mint or something in the afternoons, just to keep my face relaxed. Kismet - today I got a newsletter from The Breathing Room, a local yoga studio,
talking about Lion's Pose and how relaxing it is for the face. I think the Universe gives us what we need as long as we're open to receiving it.

From the newsletter:



Start by kneeling on the floor and cross your ankles at the back. If you have knee issues, sit in easy pose. Back should be upright with hands resting on the thighs.Inhale deeply through your nose and then exhale with your mouth opened wide and tongue extending outwards. While exhaling, make a distinctive “ha” sound resembling the roar of a lion, feeling the breath passing through the back of your throat. Fix your gaze at the spot between the eyebrows or at the top of your nose. Repeat 10 times consecutively for maximum benefits.

I'm feeling much better in general today. I have energy. I got a lot of stuff done. I can sleep in a little later tomorrow morning.

My end-of-day routine now involves watching/reading my favorite fasting blogs. It's great because they are going through the same thing I am. They feel tired some days, they want to stop some days - and they push through it. This blogger reminded me that a lot of this fast is mental - and if I'm thinking about what I don't have, I'll feel a lot worse than I need to. When I can think about all the great things about this fast, I start to feel good. When I'm having fun mixing juices, when I notice the handful of extra fabric in the seat of my pants, when I take my weekly trip to the Farmer's Market - these are the moments I wouldn't have had without this fast.

Day 9

Aside from the days when I had the flu, this was probably the lowest energy day I've had on the fast. I wanted to take a nap as soon as I got home and I'm still grouchy. I want a grilled cheese sandwich and some french fries. I wonder, if I'm still fasting in 20 days, if I'll still want a grilled cheese sandwich. I wonder if there will ever be a day I won't want a grilled cheese sandwich.

I juiced the rest of my cantaloupe with the rest of my blueberries after school and I'll make a veggie juice in a few minutes. I slept right through my alarm this morning, so I had to throw some apples in the juicer in a hurry this morning as I rushed not to be late for work. I haven't tried the kiwi yet - I got a tip that kiwi isn't good in the juicer. Does anyone have any thoughts otherwise?

Hunger isn't a problem. There are times when I feel hungry, but I can handle that. I feel a void. That's the problem.

Day 8

It takes me about 10 minutes to make a juice and then clean my juicer. I clean the juicer right away and put it all back together before I sit down to enjoy my drink so when I come back the next time it's ready to go. It's almost like a meditation. Sometimes, when I start thinking about how many days lay ahead if I want to go to my maximum goal of 60 days, and I start thinking there's no way I can do this - simply cutting up some fresh fruits and vegetables and putting them in my juicer makes me feel better.

I've had way too many red solo-cups sitting in my cabinet for months, so I started using them for my juice and it works out great. You have to rinse your cups right away! If I don't finish the juice fast enough and the cup sits around, the juice dries on the sides of the cup and hardens. After that it's almost impossible to scrape off. So if it doesn't rinse off easily, I can just recycle the plastic cup. If it rinses off, I reuse the cup. I recommend using any and all tricks possible to make this an easy experience! No stress.

I feel 95% back to normal since having the flu. Last night I had what I thought was acid reflux, although I'm not sure if it was actually hunger from not being able to drink enough juice while I was sick. It was probably a little of both. I read that apple cider vinegar is a natural remedy for heartburn, so I took a straight up shot of vinegar and I did feel better. It's recommended that you drink the vinegar through a straw or wash your mouth out with water right away if you don't dilute it because it's not good for your teeth. And I take my teeth seriously! Go to the dentist every 6 months!

I found another great online resource here. Michael Morales does a juice fast every year and on his website you can read his blog from his 2010 juice fast and also watch videos for every day. If you register, you can also download a free copy of his 2011 journal and it's a great tool. It has space available for you to track your stats like he does and to take notes of what you're eating and anything else. It also has an inspirational quote for each day. So now I'm following two video blogs and a written blog day by day.

Finally . . .thank you, lemons and limes. I can now happily drink a cup full of spinach because the lemons and limes mask the flavor so well.

I have a slight headache because I waited too long to have dinner, so I'm off to bed early!

Day 7

One week! Yay! I'm about 75% back to normal from having the flu. My stomach is still a little upset but I'm not dizzy and I can drink juice again. The flu really took a lot out of me physically and mentally. Last night I was positive today would be my last day. But now I'm feeling stronger and I found some great motivational resources online. This guy did a 56-day juice fast and posted a video blog every single day. I've been watching the videos and they're really informative - and it's like doing the fast with a virtual partner.

I took a fruit and veggie inventory this morning and realized that I've been drinking way too much fruit juice and avoiding those healthy green vegetables. So this morning I had a broccoli-spinach-celery juice and for lunch I did tomato-green pepper-spinach. I learned to mask the taste of the veggies I don't like by adding an apple and a big slice of lemon thanks to this great video:



I'm not 100% back to normal, so although yoga is a low-intensity workout - it does take a lot of strength to hold up the weight of your own body for extended periods of time and even those in perfect health can get dizzy moving from seated or forward folding positions to standing. So I sadly opted out of yoga this morning and took a gentle 20-minute walk around the neighborhood instead.

I revisited the Farmer's Market and stocked up on apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, and bought a few kiwi(s?). Only $20! That makes the average about $40 per week which is comfortably under my budget of $50. I also bought soymilk and some V8. The soymilk is for hard days when I need a treat and the V8 is for lunch at school. Even with lemon juice, the fresh-squeezed juice from 7:00am just wasn't that appetizing at 1:30pm. It's just to get me through the day until I can juice freshly at 4:00pm.

I met my minimum goal of 7 days and lost 10 pounds this first week. I'm planning to continue for now and see how I feel day-by-day. Now if only my stomach would settle down . . .

Day 6

The past 24 hours have been Hell on Earth. In a horrible turn of events, I contracted the Plague. Chuck was tossing and turning a couple of nights ago - dizzy, feeling like he was going to throw up, sweating, feverish, hallucinating. So whatever he had, he passed along to me. I knew I should have gone with my gut last night when I didn't think I could stomach another glass of juice. I tried to force down half the glass, but it promptly came back up. So today, I've hardly been able to even handle water. I traded in the juice for a glass of soymilk. I don't think I'll be able to have anything else until tomorrow. On the upside, feeling like this makes fasting a breeze.

Day 5

Feeling tired today. This is the first time in a long time that I came home from school and took a nap. A long one. I'm not hungry. I think I'm sick of juice. Tonight, I would rather eat nothing than drink juice. But I forced myself out of bed to blog and then I'll force myself to drink something. I'll make it good . . .like a fruit juice or something.

I stopped following recipes and now I just throw things together that I think will taste good. I'm adding a vegetable to every fruit juice - for example: I added a carrot and some spinach to my apple-grape juice and I added a celery and some spinach to my pineapple-orange juice. I'm not sure if it's the pineapple or the orange, but one of those fruits leaves the juice feeling pulpy. Which is gross. Gotta figure it out . . .

Day 4

Finally the end of Day 4! Long, long day. I was putting off juicing the cantaloupe and the pineapple I bought because I was afraid it would be really hard to cut them. I juiced them both today and they weren't hard to cut at all. I also started adding a little spinach to all my drinks. I can't taste it in the fruit drinks and then I don't feel as bad about avoiding it as a main ingredient.

The hardest part about being back in the classroom was the ride home. At the end of the day I'm exhausted and my reward is usually eating something . . .like french fries, or lately dark chocolate. Having nothing to eat was frustrating. I put a mint in my mouth to take my mind off the drive. Hope that's not cheating!

Instead of swimming tonight, I went with Chuck and his family to play Bingo. Chuck and I each won $50, so I think it was worth it.

That's it. I already need another vacation.

Day 3

I woke up at 8:30am thinking about System 44, which I'm giving a presentation on in a few weeks. I tried to go back to sleep but I was hyperfocused. I laid in bed until 9:00am thinking about how I wanted to present the information until I finally gave up trying to sleep late and had breakfast before getting to work on this project. I blame the juice.

For breakfast I had a berry juice - blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. I got virtually no juice out of the blueberries and the raspberries and they were the most expensive items at the Farmer's Market so I'm thinking I won't buy them again unless I really want them for a specific reason. I had to add an orange to get enough juice for a meal. For lunch, I made myself a special treat: a sparkling lemon-lime gingerale. I took the recipe from
this website. It calls for 1/4 a lemon, 1/2 a lime, 1/2 inch piece of ginger, an apple, and a handful of grapes - then fill the rest of the cup with sparkling water. It tastes like 7-Up. Finally, for dinner I had a veggie juice with 2 cloves of garlic, celery, broccoli, carrots, green bell pepper, and an apple for sweetness. The garlic made the drink almost enjoyable!

I feel great today. I feel like I have a lot of energy. I've been drinking about 2 cups of juice per meal (16 ounces, about as much as a red solo-cup). Tonight, I actually felt full after dinner. Almost too full. I got a lot of work done today and I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow.

I'm nervous about how this juice-fast will translate to real life. I have everything ready to go: clean juicer, two thermoses, and I'm picking out the recipes for tomorrow morning. If I make it through tomorrow, I'll feel a lot more confident.

Day 2

I'm happy to report that I'm not suffering on Day 2, but I've heard that Day 3 is the hard one - so we'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm not hungry most of the time and just have had a dull headache in the afternoons. Smelling food hasn't been tempting to me, I've actually been enjoying it. I've lived in Hackettstown, right across from the M&M factory, for 6 months now and I've never smelled the chocolate before. Today, it smelled amazing.

For breakfast I had a strawberry, orange, apple juice. For lunch I had a ginger, blueberry, grape, apple juice. I was surprised by how little juice I got out of the blueberries. And for dinner I had a green bell pepper, cucumber, celery, carrot, apple juice.

Heading to the pool for a half mile . . .Hoping that tomorrow is not as bad as everyone says it is.

Day 1

I don't feel hungry. I didn't eat very much yesterday, so I thought I would be hungrier than I am. My stomach growls once in a while, but it doesn't feel like hunger. I feel normal - although a little tired and my mouth is dry.

For breakfast I wanted to start with something I knew I would like - something familiar. So I juiced a red apple, a yellow apple, a handful of red grades, and a handful of green grapes. For lunch, I started introducing more of the things I was nervous about juicing. I had an orange juice with an orange, a sweet potato, a pear, and two carrots. Then for dinner, I forced myself to try a purely vegetable juice. I had two tomatoes, two celery stalks, two carrots, five brocolli flowers, and two handfuls of spinach. Breakfast and lunch were delicious. Dinner tasted like drinking grass. But I do have some energy now.

I relaxed most of the day. Between breakfast and lunch I started to get a headache, so I decided to make my juice and sit out on the balcony and read. I chose a book from my library that was purely for entertainment . . .no education theory, no spirituality, no complexities of social constructs . . .just fun. I chose Observatory Mansions, which I really have no idea how it came to be in my library. I don't remember borrowing it from anyone and it's clearly been read before. Kismet. It feels good to read a book just to enjoy it for a change.

I'm thinking about going down to the pool now. I plan on cutting my mile in half tonight and taking it easy. Then I'm heading to yoga in the morning. Namaste!

Introduction: Before the Fast

It's disappointing to find myself back on this blog almost 3 years later - and a lifetime away from the dedication I had when I completed the 21-Day Cleanse. I'm ten pounds heavier than when I started the Cleanse and ready to refocus and try something new.

I'm preparing for my first juice fast. I'm approaching this experiment with an intention of compassion. There is no strict timeline, because I have no idea how my body will react and I want to honor whatever happens. I hope to go at least 7 days and would love to go as many as 60. I won't be eating anything - just drinking juice that I make myself from fruits and vegetables.

In preparation for the fast, I bought a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. The cheapest juicer they had was a Sharper Image, but I read bad reviews about that one. This one was just a little more expensive and people have said good things about it.

I also stepped foot inside my first Farmer's Market - which is amazing because I've been a vegetarian for 8 years. I bought 3 bags of apples, 5 bags of carrots, a bag of oranges, lots of celery, broccoli, spinach, raspberries, blueberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, ginger, sweet potatoes, grapes, lemons, and limes. And I only paid $60! I have no idea how long my produce will last. The juicer came with a little booklet of recipes, so to start I'm going to try some of those and I bought the fruits and veggies I would need for that.

Chuck and I tested out the juicer today by juicing lots of veggies and turning the juice and the pulp into a soup. It was good, but the texture of the pulp was a little too rough for me. Today I'm existing on soup and soymilk to prepare for my first day of the fast which is tomorrow.

I'm used to eating whatever I want, whenever I want. I'm used to eating to regulate my state of mind. If I'm too happy, too sad, too angry, too nervous - too anything - food is the regulator that brings me back to equilibrium. So soup and soymilk is already leaving me feeling hungry - and nervous about how I'm going to cope with life in general.

But I'm excited for this. I was driving home from yoga this morning relieved that I didn't have to make choices about food today. I don't have to feel guilty today. I don't have to justify my actions today. I don't have to compromise or regret or rationalize or analyze. For as long as this lasts.

So, just like I did with the Cleanse - in the name of science - I'm starting the fast at 260 pounds.

Here we go!

(Inspiration for the fast came from Gary Gibson's program, The Vegan Effect, and his recommendation that I watch the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.