Juice Fast, Day Three

Woke up feeling crummy, but that may have had more to do with a short night than with the juice fasting.  Ate a handful of almonds to help get moving this morning, and am working on my green horribleness, which is tasting worse, not better.

Complicating everything is that I have to get on a plane tonight at 7, and given TSA's rules about liquids, that means I have to finish my last bottle before I get on the plane.  I'm thinking I'll definitely have some fruit at the airport somewhere.

Juice Fast, the rest of day two

Full disclosure:  I went from feeling "okay" to "horrible" pretty quickly, and then fell asleep mid-conversation.  This was about 2pm when I was still working on the second bottle of juice for the day.  Upon waking up, I decided this was a stupid idea and making myself sick wasn't part of my objectives.  So I ate a handful of almonds and a handful of tortellini. (I mean, hey, it wasn't chips, chocolate, and coke, right?)  After which I felt really good for the rest of the night.  I did skip the nasty beet juice and shared sips of my spicy lemonade with the 18 month old that I was visiting.  I was thinking this was "juice fast, aborted", but I have decided it was only "juice fast, interrupted".

Juice Fast, Day Two

This has ceased to be an exciting adventure and become a chore.  There is a real possibility that I am going to go get soup for lunch.  I don't feel horrible or anything, but the idea of drinking the green horribleness, never mind that red sludge is just... ugh.

Also, brushing my teeth this morning was enough to get my heartrate up, which I'm pretty sure is not a good sign.  People work out on this plan?? 

In the possibly TMI category - my teeth felt completely disgusting this morning, probably because I'm drinking pondscum.  And, surprisingly, my pee was still dark this morning, which, given the amount of liquid I'm cycling through my system, I found hard to believe.

I'm down 1.8lbs (notice I didn't say I've lost... this isn't a weight loss plan and I am quite certain it will be back by Monday).

It's 11am and I still haven't managed to crack the first green bottle...  bleh.

Juice Fast, Day One - Bottle Six

9p - The cashew milk bottle is like drinking liquid Captain Crunch.  Absolutely zero problem drinking this one.  In other news, I don't feel great.  I don't feel horrible, and I'm not overly tired or anything, but I just feel less than good.  I'm a little nervous about how tomorrow is going to go.

Juice Fast, Day One - Bottle Five

7p - This bottle is the most disgusting thing ever.  It's called CAB for Carrot, Apple, Beet, but I can only taste the beet.  I managed to gulp some down using the same "don't breathe" trick, but then resorted to setting it on the coffee table and making concerned glances around the laptop.  When Lyle got home, I convinced him to finish it.  (He actually likes it, and was very reluctant to take it from me, but I was all "no, no go right ahead".)  So that's something to dread for the next two days.  

I'm definitely kinda hungry, but I still feel fine.  We'll see how the rest of the night goes.  I'm looking forward to the cashew milk that everyone says is so good.  I'll probably hit that about 9pm or so.

Juice Fast, Day One - Bottle Four

4:30p - Opened the "Spicy Lemonade".  This one is interesting.  No veggie taste, which is just fine by me (the ingredients are only water, lemon, agave nectar, and cayenne extract).  But this is a lot thinner, more of a watery lemonade than the syrupy stuff I usually make.  And the cayenne packs a bit of a wallop.  Definitely not bad at all, but not one to just gulp down either.

Still feel okay, not overly hungry or anything, though I just had to order croissants in advance of houseguests this weekend, and let me suggest that browsing the Williams Sonoma food section while on a juice fast is maybe not the world's best idea.

Juice Fast, Day One - Bottle Three

3:30p - bottle three - more of the green stuff.  Downed it without breathing.  Perhaps being slightly colder did help some, but not much.  The stuff is clearly good for you, but I don't think it's ever going to be a favorite of mine.  I've read that some people develop more of a taste for it over time, so we can hope. 

I feel okay.  Not sick at all, maybe a little less focused than usual, but not so unfocused I can clearly point to the juice as the cause.  My current plan is to drink the next bottle about 4:30, the fifth bottle about 6:30, and the last bottle about 8:30.  We'll see how that holds up.

Juice Fast, Day One - Bottle Two

I drank the second bottle (Pineapple Apple Mint) about 12:30.  I washed down an Excedrin with it, because I failed to taper off my increasing Mt. Dew habit prior to taking the plunge into juice fasting.  I had more or less given up soda, and given up Mt. Dew completely, until a recent work project spiraled out of control, so that was another reason to hit the juice thing:  to get back out of that habit.  I realize it's terrible for me, but it's *such* an easy habit to fall back into.  The second bottle tasted great.  No issues whatsoever with that.  I had a lunch meeting for work, and other than some strange looks and the expected questions about why and how, there were no issues.  I'm glad the meeting was today though, not sure how I would feel staring at food tomorrow or the next day.  I did notice that the food that attracted my attention was a salad with seared tuna instead of the pasta and marinara that I would have expected.  I don't know if that's the juice fast already having an impact on my thinking, or if it's just too much "Wicked Tuna" at night.  Regardless, given my usual extreme disdain for all things vegetable, it was a noteworthy occurrence.

I'm going to hammer another bottle of water here and then it'll be time for another bottle of green stuff.  Yay?

A Return to Blogging (or, Juice Fast, Day One)

Where have you been Joe DiMaggio?  Well, I suppose I just haven't had any adventures that felt blog worthy.  Which is a sad statement in and of itself, since it's been nearly a year.  Our plan was to be leaving for Vermont about this time this year, for an end-to-end hike of The Long Trail.  However, we've bumped into a few logistical obstacles, having to do with work, the impending arrival of the first grandson, and the continued survival of the child-replacement-dog.  I mean really, who expected that a Chesapeake Bay Retriever (average lifespan 10-12 years) would make it to 14.75?  I am in no way complaining, but neither am I leaving him for almost a month to go hiking.  Maybe next year, if we have a puppy, we'll hit The Long Trail.  In the meantime, here's another kind of adventure.

At several points over the last let's say year, I've toyed with the idea of juice fasting.  No, I haven't seen "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", though it seems like everyone else who considering juicing has.  I've just noticed that I'm eating when I'm not hungry and that I feel sluggish and crummy a lot.  I'd bought a juicer to share with a friend some months ago, and we'd experimented somewhat with that, but it's a hassle, it takes quite a while, it uses tons of veggies, and it's a mess to clean up.  So, I knew if I were going to do this, I'd have to find something with a lower barrier to entry.  Cue BluePrint Cleanse.  They make the juice, ship it to you, and all you have to do is drink it.  I'd gotten as far as entering my credit card data a few times, but never quite managed to pull the trigger.  I always had one excuse or another, frequently hinging on planned workouts or travel.  With the departure of my illustrious personal trainer to the other side of the country, my workouts have taken a hit anyway, and I decided now was the time.  It's only three days, right?

So day one... juice gets delivered about 9:30.  I drink the first bottle of green stuff in my office about 10:30.  I was surprisingly hungry early this morning, which I never am, but I attribute that to having eaten early the night before en route to a Rolling Stones concert.  The green stuff wasn't as bad as I was prepared for it to be.  Not quite as sweet as Naked Juice Green Machine, but no worse than the stuff I'd drunk in home juicing experiments.  It would be better slightly colder, I think.  I downed a bottle of water about 11:30, but so far, not hungry at all.  (This isn't unusual for me, because breakfast is frequently just a can of Mt. Dew, or when I'm being healthier than that, a glass of juice.)