Rainbowhill

mrfrustrationman replied to your post: Juice Fast Day 7

First, happy belated birthday! :) Your log about this fast made me curious and I’m thinking about taking it myself. You mentioned a few books before, are there any other resources you followed, have advice for people who’d do this?

Thanks! I feel great. I’ve had a lot of people ask me about the juice fast afk. Happy to share the little that I know. I got into it because I’d never tried a full detox before and thought it would be a good way to treat myself to something that would hopefully have long lasting health benefits. I’m incorporating what I’ve learned from it into my everyday eating habits as well so for me it has been a big win.

I started by adapting a 7 days fast from a book called Super Cleanse. There are a number of different courses, depending on your current needs and time available. I’d been juicing on the weekends and felt prepared mentally and physically to take on a stringent no-food, green fast for a fuller effect.

People have noticed how much weight I’ve lost, although I never bothered to jump on the scales. My jeans are much looser around my mid section and my skin is a lot softer.

Funny thing is, there was this documentary on TV that everyone has been talking about Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead just a few days ago (I didn’t see it) and now the supermarket is stocking all the merchandise (looks like juicing has jumped the shark). The guy who filmed the doco has a site called Join the Reboot, which I just discovered today which has a lot of quality information.

From this point forward I am taking tips from Dr Joshi’s Holistic Detox and recipes from Super Cleanse for the maintenance phase. I read a few other books, about liver function, juicing and organic foods but these two were the ones that stood out as being easy to follow and not too technical.

As for advice, I would simply recommend reading up, preparing mentally and getting your environment right. You don’t want any distractions to steer you off-course. I had a long weekend and gave myself a rest from riding the bike. I also booked a few appointments for alternative therapies to assist in the self-healing aspects and kept my yoga up. The vegan carrot cake for my birthday was a good incentive to stay true.

I spent day 7 planning my return to the world of solid food. I prepared some bircher muesli and soaked some lentils. mum did a whirlwind stop over to bake a vegan carrot cake.

What would I do differently about this fast, if I had the chance again? I’d probably be a little scientific about it. I didn’t take any reliable measure of the physiological changes happening. I didn’t step on the scales to see how much (fluid weight) I was losing. I didn’t measure oral pH to witness he shift to an alkaline digestive system. I didn’t take before or after photos or skinfold measurements. I didn’t get any blood tests done. I can’t be sure what effect this detox has had apart from the qualitative.

So how do I feel? My stomach is flatter, apart from the weight lost through the hips I have a genuine sense that the deep layers of fat surrounding my organs has dissolved. I’m more conscious of my alimentary tract and can notice a change in the muscle tone in my abdomen. I now need to develop my core strength.

I’m not in a rush to satisfy cravings or hunger. I’m going to enjoy every mouthful of my next meal. Breakfast.

I am feeling noticeably lighter, and my tightest jeans are hanging off my hips. I’m a bit tender in the guts after having all the detritus evacuated, so I’m taking my yoga easily. Twisting postures are certainly easier, and forward bends are now able to gently massage the stomach through proper breathing without much effort at all.

I plan to break the fast on Sunday. I have a bircher muesli and sugar free vegan carrot cake planned. For the next few days after that I plan to follow a mostly vegetarian diet for a while which is rich in leafy green vegetables.

What I’ve found is that I don’t need as much food for fuel. When I started I was drinking about 750m of juice every three hours. Now I’m drink somewhere between 250ml and 500ml three or four times a day. I have absolutely no need for caffeine, even black tea is a little redundant, so for now I’m sticking to lemon barley water and green tea.

What has been most illuminating is the mental clarity at work and in other areas of waking life. When my mind has wandered I’ve simply been able to redirect it to the task at hand and limit distraction.

I’m looking forward to coming off the fast, but I don’t want to lose this feeling of lightness. There will be no swinging of pendulum back in the opposite direction. From this point forward I am taking tips from Dr Joshi’s Holistic Detox and recipes from Super Cleanse for the maintenance phase.

My mom told me how she tried one of these baths before. To me they are a total mystery (as to how/why they work, a bit skeptical tbh). What is it like, and did you feel somehow different afterwards?

I do feel different, but it is hard to tell why that is. There is also the infra-red sauna and colonic irrigation that I did today, so it’s really hard to tease out the effects of each. I’m conscious of the clarity of my thought, my skin and body temperature. I feel a lot more in touch with my self physically, that’s for sure.

All of these feelings probably have more to do with the focus on the week-long fast, more than any one thing.

… was probably my toughest day. At every mention of solid my eyes glazed over and I feel into a reverie of sorts. At one stage I even wondered if drinking Chia gel was cheating because the seeds were still crunchy. My colleagues tempted me with chocolate, but I wouldn’t be swayed.

By the time I got home my stomach was not growling, more like gripping, at my insides. And then the smell of oyako donburi came wafting out of the kitchen. All I could do was rush upstairs, get change and fall into supta baddha konasana.

Through out the four days so far yoga has been a constant anchoring influence. It helps me deal with cravings, while at the same time keeps my internal organs moving and functioning to expel waste. I rise each morning and practice pranayama as the sun rises, then break for lemon water and tea before sweating through some standing postures.

Sweating is good. Getting to work after a brisk walk in the rain sets me on the right path for my day. I usually end with forward bends and a shoulder stand.I don’t feel hungry when I go to bed, just well worn.

For day 5 I have a colonic irrigation, infra-red sauna and ionic foot-bath booked for day 5.

After a shocking headache yesterday, punctuated by episodes of low blood sugar my body is starting to equilibrate and tax more of my fat stores (probably some muscle mass also). I’ve found that juices can be quite filling, the banana smoothie is probably the closest thing that comes to something solid.

The greens are really what I’m after, kale, silverbeet, celery and cucumber with a super green mix of chlorella, spirulina, wheat grass and barley grass in various combinations 3 times a day. 

There was a special on juices at woolies today so I picked up 2 litres each of spirulina smoothie and 2 apple and acai berry smoothie to last me until Wednesday.

This week I’m taking on a 7 day Green Buzz juice fast from Adina Niemerow’s Super Cleanse. I’ve been staying away from the computer and getting plenty of rest to prepare for what should be a pretty interesting week.

I’ll probably be exploring some of the insights I gain from the experience here. This morning’s juice was the Green Gandhi. Kale, cucumber, lettuce, apple, ginger, lime juice and green powder.

The diet in a nutshell: Once juice every three hours, nothing solid and only herbal tea and water in-between. Potential benefits: Massive detox, major holiday for my liver, cleaner blood and skin.

Ask me how I’m going.