I don't have a juicer (although I just got one on loaner today!) and I didn't do the whole cut out caffeine, go vegan for a few days, etc. prep work. I just wrapped my head around the idea of just taking in fruit and vegetable juices for an entire day and hope I make it through. If I do, maybe I'll try for a day 2. Since I'm relying on pre-packaged juices from Naked and BoltHouse, and those are gently pasteurized and not juiced in my own kitchen, and since I don't really know how healthy they are, I'm not really planning on doing more than 2 days.
My goal was to do a sort of detox -- I haven't been strict with my eating lately, and I've been, um, enjoying beer and wine a lot lately. And, honestly, I need to drop more than a few pounds. I've created other food challenges for myself in the past, so the challenge of something new was intriguing to me, too. I know that a 1 to 2 day juice fast isn't going to drop any real weight off of me, but doing a jump-start thing like this will hopefully steer me back to healthier eating!
I woke up ready to go. I was also curious about how I'd feel all day. I started my morning with a coffee cup of hot water, lemon, and a couple drops of agave. It was most definitely NOT coffee. But it also wasn't too bad.
I put my 3 juices that I'd take to work in my bag, and off I went. I waited until I got to work to drink the first juice.
I decided to drink the strawberry/banana one for breakfast, since that's similar to the smoothie I make. It was creamier than I anticipated it would be, and I'm assuming that's because the ingredients include "puree" with some of the fruits. It was smooth and tasty, and I thought, ok -- I'm off to a good start!
I drank that juice around the 7am hour, which is my normal time for breakfast in the morning. I take my breakfast with me to work and eat it there before the day starts. By 4th period, I often start to feel a little hungry, and yesterday was no exception. I wasn't starving, by any means, but I was ready for something.
I planned to drink my "salad" for lunch, so at the start of 5th period, just before 11am, I popped open the Naked green machine. Like it says right on the bottle, this one looks weird but after a sip you realize it's actually quite delicious! It didn't taste overly like greens -- it was a balanced taste of greens and sweet. It was refreshing and smooth, too, and after finishing the bottle I really wasn't hungry any more.
And then, by the afternoon, I was starting to wonder about the calories and reality of this juice fast idea.
I drank my third juice at about 1:45pm -- this was the Naked blue machine. It, also, was delicious. Now I'm starting to not only wonder about the calories, but about just how they can make these juice combinations so yummy!
When you look at the juice cleanses you can order online -- the ones that come cold-packed and you have to drink them in 3 days -- you don't always find the calorie count of the day's juices. In fact, I don't remember seeing that information in any of the ones I looked at: the Blueprint Cleanse, the Catalyst Cleanse, etc. By the time I finished the 3rd juice, at 2pm, I'd taken in about 850 total calories. I planned on drinking 2 more juices after my run -- one as a dinner juice and one as a snack. I'd be up to about 1500 calories by the time the night was done. And that seems counterproductive to dropping weight. I'm not ever going to be someone who starves themself to lose weight. That's not me. But I am aware of calories in in relation to calories out. And I think I could eat a diet of fruits and vegetables, and get to enjoy food, in the same amount of calories. Or less.
But I digress -- the rest of the juicing day played out like this: I got home from work exhausted. I don't think I can attribute that at all to the juicing (more like the lack of sleep and lots of stress lately) or the lack of coffee today (I usually drink half-caff anyway). After running an easy 5 miles, I wanted FOOD but I didn't cave. At about 5:30pm, I had about half of the Naked protein zone double berry. This one was too thick. This was the only juice today that was listed as less than 100% juice -- I think there was soy protein in there. I drank half of it, then about 20 minutes later had the other half. I think I would water this one down or put it in a glass with ice the next time I have it.
At 7pm, it felt weird to not be making dinner or packing a salad or something for lunch today. I did laundry to pass the time. I took a long shower. And I was hungry.
And I started getting a bad headache. I really didn't feel like having another juice. I just couldn't justify the calories, and I thought I'd try to at least do most of the day with juice tomorrow (I had a few more in the fridge) so I'd pack those for work. I'd been drinking LOTS of water with lemon all day, and I know I wasn't dehydrated, so I'm guessing the headache was an effect of what I wasn't putting into my system, or what I was. Duh. Instead of a 5th smoothie, I drank a little of the hot water/lemon/agave, though that didn't taste so good at that point, so I made a hot cup of Silk unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Not a juice, but close enough. I was in bed by 9, hoping the headache and exhaustion I was feeling would be gone by morning. (The headache was, probably thanks to the migraine medicine I took.)
I have no idea if 4 juices was a smart thing yesterday or not. Maybe I should've had that 5th. Maybe this whole idea was dumb. I may play around with the borrowed juicer I got, but I can't see this being something I adopt regularly. I'll start today with the juices I have and see where the day goes. It's not a 3 day cleanse, but I sort of already feel like I've turned the corner from the eating and drinking I HAD been doing!
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