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| photo by corbin_dana |
Today is Day 15 of my modified Juice Fast, which I wrote about here and here.
For the past 14 days I have eaten fruits and vegetables and nothing else. I've been juicing 2 times per day. I've figured out that I have a food sensitivity that was causing joint pain and irritability, which cleared up about three days into my fast.
Also, my skin is so clear and glowing and gorgeous.
Overall, it's been pretty awesome.
I have to admit that I'm kind of losing my excitement, though. I have to admit that the idea of eating another big salad kind of makes me want to barf. I have to admit that I made fajita veggies with tamari and hot sauce last night, and they tasted so salty to me that I actually DID barf.
The fact of the matter is that you can only eat piles of vegetables so many times in a row before everything starts to make you faintly ill. Just thinking about cauliflower turns my stomach.
I need a boost of confidence.
For the first week of the fast, the mere fact that I was actually DOING IT was enough to keep me going. I felt so proud of myself for sticking with something so revolutionary. I felt like I was really taking control of things and getting my health back.
As time went on, I got used to the idea that I CAN TOTALLY DO THIS... and it's started to feel a little bit... well, I've already described how it's started to feel, with the barfing and what-not.
I'm still not in danger of giving up. I have no desire to throw away the last 15 days and eat a bunch of cookies, or whatever. I need to jack things up, though to get my zest for fasting back.
I've decided that for the next 5 days, I'm going to juice only, and make this a true Juice Fast. I think I've made myself sick enough of eating solid food that it won't be the same kind of challenge that it would have been 15 days ago. I've also already been through the panicky, headachey, skin-tingly detoxing phase, so I won't have that to deal with, on top of not being able to eat. I just feel like I'm in the right place, mentally, to take on 5 days of juicing only.
Wish me luck.
So, I don't think I've talked about my intentions for when my fast is over.
I am going to adopt a diet with a base of ungodly amounts of fruits and vegetables. They will be the bulk of what I eat. I'll also eat nuts and nut butters, beans and legumes, seeds, gluten free grains like quinoa, brown rice and buckwheat, healthy fats like coconut and olive oils, organic tofu and tempeh, nutritional yeast and spices. I am open to gluten free bread foods. (I found a recipe for gluten free pumpernickel that might be interesting.) I am also open to an occasional, disgustingly good dairy product, like the herbed goat cheese from the farmer's market. I am also planning on having a treat, like frozen yogurt with those weird little juice balls, once or twice a month.
And that's it.
I feel like sticking with this for so long has really made me evaluate the way I see food. It's become clear to me that, although I was already a vegetarian who ate more vegetables than the average person, I wasn't eating enough of them. It seems weird to me, now that I wouldn't consider vegetables to be the base of my diet, that I wouldn't eat them first, and accessorize with other foods.
This fast has also made me rethink the way I felt about treat foods. I didn't even know I was doing it, but I said yes, or at least okay, shrug to everything I felt like eating. If there was candy in our house, I would definitely have some. When we passed by the bulk cookie bin at Whole Foods and the girls started saying, "Cookies!" I would definitely pick one (or two or four) for myself. I ate half of Louisey's snow cones. I bought big, fluffy loaves of cinnamon swirl bread from the bakery. I just didn't think about sugar, before eating it. I knew that I ate too much of it, but I didn't see how permissive I was about it. I didn't understand how unbalanced I was about it. There was definitely sugar in my life every single day, and I'm over that.
I just feel like I see things differently, and I still have 15 days to go.
My goals for the second half of my fast are:
Better focus
More yoga
5 days/week of moderate cardio
More doing stuff I love, and want to do
More sunshine and swimming
More reading
More writing
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Keep going! Let's see how the juiceonly part of the fast runs!
ReplyDeleteI totally plan to keep going! :) I'm excited to see how well I handle 5 days of juice only.
ReplyDeleteSo, don't laugh at me, but I've been finding these posts so inspiring! I got back not he exercise bandwagon this morning, and after a long overdue check-up with my G.P. on Wednesday, I'm going start eliminating gluten (and possibly dairy) from my diet. I feel sick and achy every day, and that is just stupid, especially when it's my own damn fault. I think what you are doing is awesome! I hope you don't mind when I'm constantly asking you for recipe ideas and advice.
ReplyDeleteThat should say 'back on the exercise' not back not he. Freudian slip?
ReplyDeleteFeather, I would never laugh at you! Well, at least not for this!
ReplyDeleteWhat did your doctor say? Did you tell her (him?) about wanting to eliminate gluten? I've been reading so much about it that I'm totally enthusiastic about getting rid of it.
I would love to share kooky recipes and ideas with you!
You can do it! :) *insert Arserio Hall whoop-whoop here*
ReplyDeleteYou might want to check out http://glutenfreegirl.com/ when you get done with the fast. She was diagnosed with celiac disease once upon a time and as such she can't ingest gluten. Her and her chef husband wrote 2 books one of which is a gluten-free cookbook.
She's always posting recipes on her blog. I haven't tried any of them because I can't cook to save my life. My kitchen is where my microwave lives. But her blog is amazing and the recipes sound super yummy. :)
Hi Amanda, congrats on your efforts. I do a 4 day juice fast (only juice) every quarter of the year, it makes me feel amazing, but I don't think I could keep it up for more than a week.
ReplyDeleteI'm a 'new' vegan learning ways of cooking and eating to better myself and my family. I have a ton of excellent and healthful recipes, please feel free to email me if you'd like some of them.
Jenny.saufl@gmail.com
Amber, I already pinned some of her recipes! I'm going to request her cookbook from the library, thanks! :)
ReplyDeleteJenny, thanks so much, I will totally email you. :)
ReplyDeleteI have tried to juice fast before, and I always failed after a day or two. I think that juicing + eating fruits and veggies has given me the nudge I needed to be able to stick with a few days of juice only! Wish me luck. :)
Good luck, my dear, and thank you for writing and keeping such a beautiful blog. This world definitely needs more people like you.
ReplyDeleteI think you're amazing! Not many people have the willpower to do something like this. Have you seen the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead? It's about the healing powers of juicing and it's pretty awesome to see people take control of their health.
ReplyDeleteI have never done a juice fast ( and can't right now, for a couple of reasons), but we try to juice at least once a day. I am terrible about eating vegetables so it makes me feel better to get some of my daily requirement through juicing. I need to improve my dietary habits quite a bit; it's something I am constantly working on.
Anyway, I was wondering where caffeine consumption fits into your life (and this fast). Are you a coffee or tea drinker? I'd really love to quit caffeine entirely.
Leslie, I have seen the documentary! It's what kind of got me started thinking about juice fasting in the first place. I just didn't have the balls to follow through with it until several months later!
ReplyDeleteI have never been a caffeine person. I tried to be, after Scouty was born because I was so tired, but it just gives me panic attacks. I'm funny because I used to stick a needle in my arm every day, but coffee is like... way too much for me to handle. heh. I'm lucky that I didn't have to withdraw from caffeine when I started my fast. I think it's probably the worst part for a lot of people.