Back On The Sauce

 

Juice: Part Deux 

Unlike most of stories I've heard of people doing juice fasts or cleanses, after I finished mine back in February, I hadn't used my juicer since.  I'd been planning on doing another one, maybe to mark the beginning of summer, sort of how the first one was right before the start of spring.  So during the week last I started substituting juice for a meal or two a day, and yesterday I began my second juice fast in earnest.

Why, you ask?  Haven't I already lost almost 30 pounds?  Aren't I wearing pants a few sizes smaller than in the past 8 years? 

Well, yes.  As a matter of fact, I weighed myself yesterday before starting and was shocked to see 179.8. I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've been below 180 (at least in the last eight to ten years).  That's a loss of 29 pounds since January, so yes, certainly, I was excited about my progress.

But, at the same time, I didn't feel like 180, if that makes sense.  On the contrary, I was sure I was gaining weight, getting closer to 190.  I was getting a bit cocky.  Not running as much.  Eating some stuff I knew wasn't the best, not from a nutritarian point of view.  Insisitng on my popcorn and wine as my weekedn nighttime snack.  I had certainly begun having a lot more cravings.  Funny enough, it wasn't for the sausage, it was all for the sweet stuff.  I caved in a pretty big way, too, about two weeks ago.  Some students brought chocolate chip cookies to my classroom - the ones from the DoubleTree Hotel, where one of students' fathers is the manager.  I think I had three.  That led to a three-day mini-bender in which I ate a small box of Fig Newtons and even a donut.

I didn't get too down on myself, though, really.  The donut did make me a bit ashamed, I will admit.  My body didn't like any of that stuff, that was for certain.  But overall, I think I was able to deal with it healthily.  I didn't fall victim to the self-loathing that I'd often engaged in in the past, so that definiltey seemed like progress.  Nonetheless, I thought it was time to get "straight" again, and my already-planned juice fast seemed liek just the thing to do it.

I'm not sure how long I'm shooting for this time.  I'm sure I can do ten days, perhaps I'll do fifteen like last time.  Will I lose those five or ten pounds I think I still have to lose?  I'm sure I will, or at least come close, but that, I hope, will just be a secondary goal.

More importantly, I'm viewing this fast as a way to sort of keep myself in line, to hit the "reset" button again on my cravings.

I'm NOT punishing myself, I swear.  If anything, I know I'm going to feel fantastic, pumping myself full of all those micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).

As of right now, Day Two is just about under my belt, and I'm glad of it.

I can't lie, though, the first day was kind of rough.  Well, not really the day.  That was okay.  But I drank my "dinner" with my family at 5:30 or so yesterday.  So by the time I went to bed at 9:30 last night, my stomach was feeling pretty darn empty.  I couldn't sleep because of its growling.  I got up and drank a small glass of orange juice, which helped and I finally went to sleep.

I woke up feeling great!  "There's something about not eating that suits me somehow" I told me wife this morning.  And really, this whole day I've noticed a return of that "clarity of mind" that I slowly discovered that last time I did this.  I think it's pretty amazing that when you give your body less work to do (in this case, digesting food), you're able to use that energy for other things.  Pretty cool.

The Juices

I'm going to stick to a few standbys, no doubt, but I have already made one or two juices for the first time.

Orange Zinger

1 orange
3 carrots
1 piece of ginger, about 1/2"
1 apple

Wow!  This is a great new favorite, had it for breakfast both days thus far.  The sweet orange with that bite of ginger is really pretty invigorating.  This one is from the book The Juicing Bible - chock full of great recipes.

Green Ginger Lemonade

1 green apple
2 cups spinach (or other greens)
2 cups kale (or other greens)
1/2 cucumber
4 celery stalks
1/2 lemon
1 piece of ginger, about 1/2"

This one was of my favorites the first time around.  I made it for lunch pretty often.  Skip the ginger if you're not a fan of it, but otherwise it adds a great little kick.  This one is from the Join the Reboot wesbite (the site that came out of the great film Fat Sick & Nearly Dead).  The ginger is my addition.

CSA

We also joined a local CSA this year.  CSA stands for Community-Supported-Agriculture, if you didn't know.  This one is called Iona Farm, just outside of Scottsville, VA.  It's all organic as well, and we've just been loving the produce we've gotten from them.  I'm planning on juicing a lot of what we get from them as well - organic is really supposed to be the way to go when juicng - no need to worry about harmful fertilizers and pesticides.  Nothing but liquid nutritional goodness!

Anyway, so that's where I am.  Hopefully I'll do fifteen days and feel totally rejuvenated once again.

For those of you looking for juice recipes, I'll try to post the ones I'm using once every day or so.  Follow along at home!

Wish me luck!