Read the previous post for the lead up to my juice fast.
Day 1 - Leading up to my 3 day juicing fast I tapered how much food I was eating and started drinking more juice to minimize any difficulty not eating food today. For breakfast today I did have 1 small cup of coffee and polished off last nights green juice. Been tapering coffee as well and won't have any tomorrow or Saturday. I'm doing a fruitier juice for mid-morning and felt a bit hungry for food but nothing really terrible. Have been warned about 'blowouts' but not really having that, which is good. I worked up to my fast so perhaps I'm a bit more cleaned out than if I had started strictly today.
The rest of my first day was more difficult. I kept experiencing this strange feeling of fullness and hunger. I'd polish off a jar of juice and feel my full stomach and yet would feel like if a burger was in front of me i could chow down no problem. My lovely wife called to ask me to pick up some Thai food for lunch. That was tough, the car smelled great.
Day 2 - No coffee today, really wanted to but just pushed through it. My morning rescheduled for later in the day so being able to sit and wake up slowly sure helped. Chugged down some pretty standard green juice but added grapes. That was pretty yummy. Not bacon and eggs yummy, but good nonetheless.
"Lunch" pretty well sucked. I tried a recipe that called for purple cabbage. If you are thinking of doing a juice fast avoid purple cabbage. It's pretty rank in juice. My favorite part is closing the lid for a while in the fridge and then opening it later for a lovely puke smell. That made it tough to choke down, and I was at work so I couldn't just dump it out and start over.
As day 2 came to a close I was definitely craving food. Any kind of food and let me tell you, watching television does not help. I don't know who Ci-Ci's pizza is and I'm pretty sure it's terrible for you but it was looking pretty goddamn good last night. The Olive Garden got a nice middle finger from me as well.
Day 3 - So, day three is more of the same. I don't feel weak or tired, my energy levels haven't really changed at all. This morning was a lot easier to get going even though I had no coffee again. I think I'll stick with a juice in the morning to keep my coffee from getting out of control.
Definitely not feeling amazing or anything like that. It's possible that I wasn't very toxic to begin with. People talked about 'blowouts' and surges of energy but I haven't really experienced that. I did have a mild headache yesterday but I don't know if it's related, felt muscular to me.
The Recap -
One of the great things I can take away from this experience is that it really illustrates how limited your palette is. I can think I'm eating veggies and fruits all I want to but until you have to cram it into a juicer you find you really aren't eating that much at all. I didn't even know what Swiss chard was. Also, it was nice to see that I could juice my way to a good morning rather than raid the dishwasher for our largest coffee mug.
On the other hand my fast ended with a general feeling of self punishment. I don't know if I ever achieved a sense that it was something I could do on a 10 or 14 day basis. Nothing over the past few days was as enjoyable as my first actual meal.
One of the problems was definitely the hunger factor. As a novice juicer, I followed the suggested recipes from the Reboot website. Unfortunately, the yield was often not much more than a glassful and that was just not enough for me. As a result I ended up juicing a lot more often and didn't get into a good rhythm on timing and portions until well into the second day.
Experimentation is key. Be prepared to waste juice and money trying out different recipes. You absolutely have to try different things leading up to your fast, otherwise you end up stuck at work with the purple cabbage puke juice.
For those needing an extreme change in lifestyle in order to bring their lives into balance a juice fast is probably a great idea. It's clear that one can definitely become healthier and more vital following this type of program. Though I never got past 'hungry' I never felt tired or sluggish, my mind felt clear and I was able to multi-task and accomplish things while food free. Also, I still like the fact that its real foods going into your body as I think that translates well when transitioning back to a food based diet.
As for me, I finished my breakfast this morning with a nice half jar of kale, cucumber, celery, apple, pear, grape juice and feel great.
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