Fasting

Okay.  So I have been on a juice fast for the past four days and I plan on continuing it for at least 7 days.  I have been blogging about this on a forum that I am a member of, but I want to share it here also!  Here are the juices that I have been drinking (all made at home of course) ...

Pineapple/Ginger/Lemon
Strawberry/Mango/Lemon
Apple/Cherry/Lemon
Orange/Lemon
Concord Grape/Beets/Plum/Cucumber/Lemon (This one was delicious until I added cucumber ... won't do that again.)

I know ... a lot of lemon right?!  Well I don't have a juicer so I have been making all of this in my blender and then straining it in a cheesecloth (being very careful to remove all the pulp I can as pulp can decrease the intensity of a fast).  When a juice becomes exposed to oxygen (especially like how it does in a blender) the shelf life of the juice can be decreased so I added lemon in hopes of increasing the shelf life.  Of course the best way to consume juices on a fast (or at all) is raw and immediately after juicing them.  The juice looses some nutrients over time in the fridge, but I have a 9 month old and both my wife and I are full time college students so I don't have time to juice fresh every time I want juice so I make it up to two days in advance and store it in the fridge in mason jars that have been filled to the brim with a juice/water mix.

So anyway ... here are my posts for the past four days that I posted on that other site!

Day One
So today I started my first fast ever. I don't know what to expect. I have read a lot on this board and have done some research, but from what I found everyone experiences fasts and the resulting detoxes differently depending of previous diet and toxin buildup in the body. So far I feel okay.

For breakfast I had juice made from ...

Concord Grapes
Beets
Plums
Cucumber

It made about 2.5 quarts and I am pored about 1.5 cups into a mason jar and filled it the rest of the way with filtered water. I didn't really like the cucumber taste, but I know that it is good for my body and I was able to drink it (I'm not sure I am to excited about drinking all the rest of that juice combination).

For lunch I am drinking fresh squeezed orange juice from three oranges watered down with some filtered water.

For dinner I am expecting to have more of my juice that I had this morning.

Between these meal times I am just drinking lots of filtered water.



My hopes for this fast is to just last as long as I can while maintaining my concentration for school. I don't know how long I can do this, but I will take it one day at a time and listen to my body! I hope that I can detox a little bit and get rid of some of the aches and pains in my neck. I also want to have a better sense of control over my diet. I suffer from a binge eating disorder and OCD that I link to past trauma and watching my parents do crash diet after crash diet.

I want to be clear that I am not using the binge eating disorder as an excuse for poor past eating habits!

I partially want to do this just to feel like I own my body and that I am not a slave to food.


I hope it goes well!

Day Two
So far today has not been so much fun. I can't stand the idea of drinking that juice with the cucumber in it so I think that I am going to hike to the store later on and buy some apples, pineapple, cranberries, etc so I can make a new batch of juice.

I woke up this morning feeling like I did when I had a heavily processed lacto-vegetarian diet. I felt like my stomach was churning and like I had just eaten a ton of milk (I'm lactose intolerant and yes, I still ate milk products and was addicted to cheese when I was a lacto-vegetarian). My legs feel kind of tired and although normally walking up a couple flights of stairs does not usually get me out of breath it did today. I imagine that this is all related to detox and my body switching gears.

So far the hunger hasn't been to bad. I am a little hungry and I do have the urge to eat EVERYTHING I SEE, but I am resisting by staying out of the kitchen unless necessary.

I KNOW that I can do this today ... we will se what tomorrow brings!

Day Three
 I am not hungry at all today, which is good because I have a 1.75 hour class later and a test tomorrow that I need to study for. I am also not having any problems with concentration.

I am however exhausted. I am still getting our of breath when I walk upstairs and my legs are very tired. It probably doesn't help that I did mostly water yesterday and then walked 3 miles to the store to get some fruit for juicing. I now have plenty of juice to get me to at least day 5. I have only lost like 3 lbs, but that is okay. As long as I feel healthy after this I will be happy.

Short post today, but I am off to study. Gotta keep up the grades!

Day Four (Today)
HUNGER STRIKES BACK! I think that I drank a juice with to much fiber in it this morning because I am STARVING! Oh well. My leg strength is back and I feel great! I think that I might be able to push this fast to 7 days!

After my fast is over I think that I might try to eat raw on $5 a day. The only problem is that I have picky taste buds. I am trying to train them, but they don't always listen. Good thing lots of my favorite fruits are cheap in the fall.


Oh and I am so giddy (giddy? I can't believe that I used that word). I just feel like my body is radiating happiness today! I absolutely love this feeling! I just feel like I could laugh and like the world is the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen (except for the power plant that you can see form almost anywhere in town). I want to just run through town screaming WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!



Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed today's posts.  Remember, you are RAWsome!