Now, there are a lot of ways to revamp your eating habits, get in shape, eat healthier, etc. And I know that there are mixed reactions about juicing, but bear with me.
I purposely didn't start blogging during my juice fast for a couple of reasons. First, I don't want this blog to be solely about juicing or losing weight. I did this juice fast to eliminate the bad eating habits I had developed, but that's just the start of it. The real challenge is to consistently feed my body solely good things long-term.
Second, there are already plenty of blogs that I would point you to for a narrative of that experience. If you're interested in or curious about juicing, I recommend reading:
- http://healthyhaley60.blogspot.com/
- www.rebootwithjoe.com/
- http://juicing-for-health.com/
- http://www.rawgeneration.com/products/skinny-cleanse-1-day?variant=269807012
Rebootwithjoe.com and juicing-for-health.com are both great websites with lots of information about juicing, raw fruits & vegetables cleansing, and lots of other health-related topics. And healthyhaley60 is my good friend Haley's blog about her own juicing experience and personal health journey, which is the biggest thing that motivated me to finally do my own juice fast. And Raw Generation has great cleanse juice recipes. I highly recommend making your own juices, though. Buying them from a good company like Raw Generation, you'll easily spend $60 for ONE DAY of juices. I sent half of that in produce for the same recipes, and it lasted me a week.
All that being said, this 21-day juice fast was the first step of my on-going Project Gyst, so I do want to share about the experience and my results.
The fast: I drank 3-5 fresh juices/smoothies a day. I started out making smoothies in my Nutribullet, but after the first 5 days I started straining out the majority of the pulp. Juice tastes better. I also drank a gallon of water each day. I may not have made it to quite a gallon on some days, but that was the goal and most of the time I hit it. I drank herbal tea, mostly green tea. Finally -- and this is not official-juice-fast-approved -- I had a plant-based protein shake with coconut/almond milk each day and a pickle or two for potassium. Because I work out 5 days a week, I wanted to be careful that I was getting enough protein and potassium to keep up with the workouts.
The Experience: The first few days I felt hungry, tired, a little fuzzy in the afternoons, and crabby. After the initial adjustment to juices rather than solids and few calories and more nutrients, I started to feel great! Still some crabby mood dips, which is to be expected (you can read about healing reactions at juicing-for-health.com), but even when my mind or emotions felt grumpy, my body felt better than it has in years. I noticed that I felt better internally, that I was more in tune with my body, and was beginning to feel the difference between feeling actual hunger, feeling thirsty, and just feeling cravings after about the first week. It wasn't until well into the second week that my skin started clearing up and I noticed some fat loss. By then it was smooth sailing, and before I knew it 3 weeks had passed!
The Results: I lost 11 lbs over the course of the fast - from 137 lbs to 126 lbs. I can see more of my tone (although let's be real, I was bikini-ready before the fast. ;). My skin feel MILES better and is almost entirely clear. I will continue with a dairy-free and gluten-free diet to see how this effects my skin as well. And best of all, I don't crave junk. My eating habits and digestive system have been "reset" if you will, making it so much easier to maintain healthy habits moving forward. It's not that hard to just pass on things I've decided not to eat during the week (Sundays are free days - all things in moderation!) when I know that I've passed on literally all food (except pickles) for 21 days. Here's before and after:
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