:: My Juicing Fast Adventure ::

 

I normally don’t write this kind of stuff so bare with me. And if there are typos. Sorry in advance. ; )

Many of you have been asking about my juicing, what I am doing, how I do it and so on, so I figured I would try to explain it here.

I have been juicing a couple times a week for the last three years. I have a Jack Lalanne juicer that was a gift from my parents and I love it. Although, the more I juice the more I want a bigger, better one. I started juicing because I saw the health benefits in it, but I never really used it to it’s full potential. I have used it several time when I felt myself or my kids getting sick, which always worked but I had never done a juicing fast.

A couple weeks ago I came across a documentary called; Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I recommend you watch it for sure. I am not going to explain anything about the documentary but it was the motivation I needed to get healthy again. Well, that and I had recently been to the doctor for the first time in a  long time and I wasn’t happy with my lab results or the number of that scale.

I set out to do a 15 day fast. Around the same time as wanting to start my fast I came across someone talking about Washington Produce in Redlands. I first started using them and I was spending about 50.00 a week for this:

They have amazing produce for a great price. I would also go to the local farmers market in Redlands on Saturday mornings. Then, my husband came home one day from work and  said he drove by a farmers market in Ontario that is big and open seven days a week so we drove out the next day. Boy is this place worth the drive!

Great produce at amazing prices. Ontario Famers Market, off Mountain.

$62.00

To explain a little bit of what I do each day goes as follows.

I drink 8 cups of juice a day and try to drink 8-15 glasses of water. Each morning I will make juice with whatever I feel like having that day. I don’t go by any recipes I have found or any book. I just eye ball it. Over the years I have tried many things and have a good feel for my like and dislikes BUT my likes have started to outweighed the dislikes recently. Stuff I wouldn’t haven touched years ago, I use daily now. My Morning juice is four cups. two for the morning and two for lunch. When I make my juice I always keep the 80/20 ratio in my. 80% veggies and 20% fruit, but most of my drinks are all veggies. Many people were concerned about protein and wondering how I was getting it. After some research I found that if you are making your juices the right way, you will get 6-8gms of protein in each drink. Each thing you juice will have it’s own health benefits and vitamins. It is ah-mazing to me the nutrients we can get from just eating fruits and veggies. So then I will also make another four cups for dinner and also before bed. I have just found this to work best for me.  To read more about nutrition you can check out http://www.jointhereboot.com.

When I first started my fast, I started also writing my thoughts. silly I know, but it helped me. Once I got to day five I didn’t feel the need anymore, but I also didn’t feel like a prisoner to this fast anymore. I wasn’t going to “publish this” but I figured why not. You might get a good laugh or just some insight.

Day 1.

This morning was great. I normally juice every morning instead of eating, so that was nothing new. I did things a little different and I also ate a 1/2 avocado along with my juice. It is now lunch time and it was super hard not to eat a chip when I was giving the kids theirs. oh man..... it's two o'clock and I feel like I am starving. BLAHHHH. what was I thinking.. for real yo! 3:15. I feel like I can't think straight and it is only the first day of my body detoxing.. holy cow. I'll be doing one thing, get a thought of something I need to do and then 2.5seconds later forget what I was wanting to do.. I ended the evening watching a movie with the family. i felt hungry but it wasn't unbearable.

Day 2.

Slept pretty good last night. Better than I have in the past few nights but that also might have been because Bailey decided to stay in her own bed all night. I was slow to get out of bed this morning but I think that was more because I didn't want to face another day of feeling hungry. Today's juice consist of: Spinach, purple kale, swiss chard, green beans. 1/2 cucumber. parsley, cilantro. celery, three carrots, a beet and two small tangerines. It actually taste pretty darn good. The cilantro adds a perfect little kick and the carrots will make anything taste sweeter. Here is to having a good day. . . 11:45. Its amazing to me how full I am. and its only day two.. Yes, I would love... LOVE to eat food right now but it's not because im hungry, it's just because I want to... It's almost time to make the kids lunch which was hard yesterday so im hoping today is a tad easier. Yesterday at this time I thought I was dying so we shall see... 11:50am ok scratch everything i just said. I now want a tuna sandwich so bad... ahhh wishful thinking. I am going to start making a list of everything I want to eat in 15 days. 6:30. the family ate dinner. It smelt sooo good. I can't lie I did eat some squash and carrots. I figured it couldn't hurt since they were just cooked and not seasoned. I still feel good a determined but this isn't easy!

Day 3.

I feel great this morning. I think I am getting better sleeping with each night. i felt hungry when I woke up but that is now gone. Made the kids their breakfast and I had the urge to lick the peanut butter off the knife but I resisted. Today's juice is: 1 beet. 1/2 cucumber, spinach, red cabbage, green beans. 1/2 lemon, hand full of raspberries, Swiss chard. parsley, cilantro. squash, zucchini, and celery.. i think. It taste good too. I was surprised how sweet it taste. I expected more of a veggie taste. Lunch has come and gone and i think it was harder today. I just wanted to take a big bite out of the cheese... As I am feeding the kids each day I have really noticed how unhealthy we eat. So, now I must figure out how to fix this. Wes asked me last night what were intentions were and what I was wanting out of this. To sum it up I basically said I just want to be healthier and I don't know any other way to do that besides cleanse the nastiness out of my and then start fresh as a whole. If I am not the one cooking healthy and buying the healthy food it will never get done. Im sure a lot of people are thinking I am only doing this to loose weight. i would be lying if I said that wasn't true but I can honestly say it is not my main goal. My goal is to get healthy. live longer for my children. exercise more. By doing all of these things the weight loss will come. I am on the hunt to find better meals that are easy and taste good. Not as easy as it sounds. . . It is now close to three and I am drinking my "lunch" serving. i wasn't even hungry. the only think i wish I had more of was energy. I do hear that should come in the next few days though. Even though I feel great I am a tad on the sluggish, would rather watch a movie kind of way. Which is something I never do. I normally work, work, work. So in a way this has been nice to also detox from the constant work flow and set more of a schedule for myself. Dinner _5:30. I am hungry. Wes came home talking all sorts about good food. Well food that sounds good, but may not be the best for you. All I wanted was a big juicy piece of steak and shrimp.. I just made my mouth water.. just a little bit. Luckily they are having something for dinner I won't even eat and yet I am still embarrassed to say they are having.. hamburger helped... so gross. But since smelling the food today has really gotten to me I am off to the gym while they eat.. Off to swim some laps and find my inner fish. . . Went to the grocery store after the gym and that was hard. I think I could smell everything in there. But I also realized how much processed food is in there. I was trying to make mental notes for things to buy and NOT to buy in the future. I was so hungry when i got home that I ate some cherries and some cooked squashed and carrots. yes! i know! big fat cheater... no pun intended.

Day 4

I feel great today. I feel like I have been the most productive today. The juice I made wasn't the greatest. it included. MUSHROOMS [blah] green beans, spinach, swiss chard, squash, zucchini, cucumber, parsley, cilantro, raspberries couple black berries, red cabbage, asparagus, purple kale and a tangerine. I think seeing the juice come out of the mushrooms really threw me off. so now when I drink it or even think about it mushrooms is all is see. I really wanted to break the fast last night. I sat watching tv thinking about nothing but the shitty food in my pantry. But I held back, i want to be healthy much more than I want to eat crappy food.

The top pictures is what my drinks used to look like and have in them and the bottom pictures is what I juice now.

I am now on day 15 and I crave fruits and veggies. I look at food in a whole new way and my taste buds have completely changed. I never thought I would be the person to talk about healthy food and this sort of thing but I am now that freak who can tell you all about it and my success story.

I am also the freak who has decide to continue my fast until next Monday! I feel so great. Why would I want to stop now? A friend just asked “ but don’t you want to eat some real food?” uhhhhh YEA! It sounds so good at times, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want a nice juciy burger at times, but for me, the end result is the great victory! I want to be healthy, I want my family to be healthy and I would love to buy smaller clothes, who wouldn’t. So for me, that burger, those chips and even those cookies are just NOT worth it anymore.

Just a couple things added that have been asked.

I have lost 14 lbs so far. and yes, I have a lot more energy than I use to .

I also swim laps for 45-70 mins 6x a weeks.

I feel like I am the worst blogger ever. So if there is something I have missed you that you would like to know, please send me a email and I would love to answer your questions. HannahSonsPhotography@gmail.com or you can find me on facebook.