Please share!
Let me begin my sharing that this morning’s juice has been my favorite so far:
12 carrots
1 grapefruit
2 small navel oranges
thumb-sized piece of ginger
This yielded exactly 1 quart of yumminess. I drank half for breakfast and saved the other half for a pick-me-up later today. I think I loved it for 2 reasons — it was not too sweet and the ginger flavor really comes through.
Moving on . . .
It’s day one and I feel very motivated. I know I am going to struggle at some point, but I don’t think it will be today. I am so ready for this!
Since I have been talking about juice fasting over the past few days on social media, I’ve already had some questions I’d like to address here really quickly:
Q. What are you doing? What are you following? A book? A website?
A. I’m not really following any prescribed formula. I have been reading books and websites, and of course, I’ve already mentioned the inspiration behind Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.
A couple of websites/articles I have found very helpful:
A couple of books I’m reading:
Q. How much juice will you drink?
A. I’m sure will vary, but I will drink as much as it takes to curb hunger. I’m guessing at roughly 3 quarts a day, but I’m sure it will vary from day to day. I’m also drinking 2 quarts of water a day. I like mine with slices of cucumber and lemon.
Q. Is your whole family drinking the juice?
A. I wish I could say yes. I’ve been able to get my husband and son to try the carrot-based juice, but they have both refused to even try the green juices. For now, it’ll primarily be me juicing. And yes, that means that I will have to cook food and not eat it.
Q. Where do you find recipes?
A. If you Google “juicing recipes” you’ll find more than you can imagine. But mostly, I’m just trying different combinations to see what tastes good to me. The books I’m reading also have lots. And Pinterest is definitely my best friend!
Q. How long with you fast?
A. I’m taking this journey 10 days at a time. I hope to fast for 40 days. I think it’s a biblical standard and should be plenty of time to detox my body. However, since I have never done this before, I am starting with 10 days to see how my body reacts (realizing it will probably not be happy for the first 5 or so) and then deciding whether to continue from there.
Q. Organic produce is so expensive. How can you afford to fast on organics only for so long?
A. Quite simply, I can’t. Not if I drive up to my local Kroger and purchase from there. I am still trying to figure out the best way to do this with as little cost as possible. But frankly, it’s going to cut into the food budget tremendously.
That means my family, while they won’t be drinking much juice, will be making sacrifices as well. They will have little meat — only twice a week and probably a roasted whole chicken or ground beef stretched into 2 or 3 meals. There will be lots of bean and rice dishes, too. It helps that my husband travels a lot during the week, so I only have my son to feed 5 days a week. He’s not a big teen-age eater yet, so it doesn’t cost too much to feed him. I have a membership to Costco and buy what I can from there. Soon, the farmer’s markets will begin and I’ll be able to buy local produce much cheaper. This is surely an act of faith though. I believe God has laid in on my heart to do this and I believe He will provide for my needs.
Sometimes, it means I won’t always buy organic. I have a graphic here to show which foods should always be purchased organic, and some that are not so important, based on levels of pesticides.
Q. Why choose juicing over consuming the whole food in smoothies, so you’ll get the fiber, too?
A. There are few reasons why I’m choosing juicing over blending right now. Let me begin by saying that I believe blending smoothies can be a very healthy thing to do, and I will be doing just that as soon as my fast is over. The reasons I’m juicing now instead include the following:
- Juicing allows for a wider variety of veggies to be consumed. I would never put kale, celery, parsley or peppers into a smoothie.
- Juicing greatly increases the volume of vegetables I can get into my diet.
- Juicing allows some phytonutrients to be adsorbed that have difficulty absorbing in the presence of fiber.
- Juicing detoxifies the body — this is my main reason for doing it. I’m hopeful that by ridding my body of built-up toxins and then feeding it as much nutrition as I possibly can will give it a chance to heal itself.
Now for the nitty gritty, because I promised you that I would be transparent and share about weight loss during the fast as well. While this isn’t my primary reason for juicing, it will hopefully be a nice side benefit, and I know that for some of you reading, it is your primary reason. I don’t have a measuring tape, so I’ll have to share measurements after I get a chance to run to Wal-Mart. But I did weigh in this morning at 267.5lbs. So, there you go. I will only be weighing in every 10 days. I do not want to become obsessed with the numbers and have that take over my motivation for doing this. My motivation is purely health-related — I want to heal my body in order to feel better and be equipped for service to the One who created me. End of story.
Do you not know that your bodies are templesof the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;you were bought at a price.Therefore honor God with your bodies. ~1 Corinthians 6:19-20
One last thing before I go. I want to make sure everyone understands something about me. I am an RN, so taking seriously the state of one’s health is important to me (even though, it appears I have not considered my own so much). Please, please do not begin juice fasting without considerable time spent researching and preparing. And if you have any health conditions requiring medication, please make sure you visit your doctor first as well.
(No, you’re not on the wrong blog. All of my posts from JuicingMomma.com have been migrated over here!)
Please share!
