Kevin
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30 Day Juice Fast!

Goooodmorning SETT!

Today I invite you to join me on a Juice Fast, where we consume nothing but fresh juice, and fruits and vegetables. Please feel welcome to join in any time, for any duration, for any level of commitment you so choose. 

I'll personally track my juicing here, so that I a) hold myself accountable, and b) can share what I've found with you about juices and juicing.

Quick story: I'm the biggest omnivore. Eating to me for a long time has been an unconscious activity. I would gravitate towards the fridge without a thought, and just start munching on what was available. Not only that, I would devour meals quickly and without enjoyment. Eating has historically, not been unlike involuntary breathing to me.

Last month, I tried juicing for the first time. I took out the antiquated centrifugal juicer from one of the boxes in storage, bought some fresh fruits and vegetables, and just threw whatever I could find in the juicer. At first I just supplemented what I was normally eating with it.

But then I felt significantly more alert and healthy. The results for me were almost instantaneous.

After about a week, I committed to doing a full juice fast. I said to myself that I would try it for just three days. I drank about three juices a day, and ate whatever fruits and vegetables I would bring to work. Three days turned into a seven; a week became ten days; became a fortnight and a half. I did 18 days straight before I thought, "Let's try eating like I used to again," and regretted that night.

In a single month, from going to consuming meat and ice cream in volume on a regular basis, I've since switched to a primarily plant based diet. Last month, I actually inadvertently and unintentionally was vegan for a while.

I feel healthier. I have more energy. I have better clarity of thought. Overall I just have a better baseline.

Anyway, that's my pitch. That's why I'm doing this. And if you'd like to try it, I invite you to do so with even the smallest level of commitment as I did too.

Today's juice is the leftover fruits and veggies I had from last week's shopping. At the end of the week, before I have to go grocery shopping again, I just finish off whatever was there from before and juice what I can from that.

Plants:
*Carrots (a staple)
*Celery (gives a salty taste to your juices)
*Lemon
*Lime
*Ginger Root
*Apples
*Pears

And today, I'm bringing an orange and some bananas to work. A month ago, this would have meant starvation. Today, I'm quite full from all these. I'm having a total of five juices today.

Cheers!


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Kevin
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Pomegranate Juice
Want some fresh squeezed pomegranate juice?
Not the best idea to toss it in there whole.

Kevin
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Rules of the Juice


Thought I'd share my own personal rules for juicing with you. You can set your own boundaries for what's acceptable and what's not whilst you're juicing. It's your fast after all.


Here's mine.

*Only juice of fruits and vegetables are acceptable.

*No meat, poultry, fish, dairy, or wheat products.

*No legumes! (Big one because last month I ended up eating chickpeas)

*No TOFU (This became my cheat meal.)


Aside from the obvious health reasons of switching to a plant based diet, there's one particular reason to do a JUICE fast.


It's to give your stomach a break from having to digest solids.


Instead of doing all that work to break things down, your catabolic system will have this easy, nutrient filled liquid to process. Juicing versus eating is comparable to a morphine drip vs a morphine shot. Fast and efficient delivery.


On this note, I'd also like to point out the distinction between juicing and it's twin; blending. The difference is that blending keeps the pulpy fibrous material of your fruits and vegetables, which means your digestive system work has to go to work.


Basically, I'm giving my tummy a vacation.


And while it's away, apparently, it's been shrinking. It takes less to fill me up now.


I'm easing into a full, no solids juice fast. Right now I'm still having fruits and vegetables in whole form.


My aim to intake only juices from the 15th of the month on. First I have to get into the routine of doing 6 juices daily. So, right now, I'm consistently doing 3-5. But it has to be muscle memory. And that's the goal.


And you know what?


It's easier than you might think.

Professional poker player. Love learning and improving. Intrested in game theory and psycology. My biggest passion is parkour wich I´ve practised since 2007.
Oliver
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Why no legumes?

While I think most people eat too much protein, I think this diet would give me too little.

But if it works for you, great!

vanmartin
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If you're of the Paleo persuasion (which I am): Legumes offer nutritional benefits, but what they offer can be found in equal to greater amounts within other foods that have lower carb content. Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/beans-legumes-carbs/#ixzz2Cf8EiszC

I also doubt you'll get much in the way of juice from them. 

I have the same reservations about protein and that's why I won't consider doing this as anything more than a fast as opposed to a lifestyle (in other words I think it will provide me with benefits in the short term but is not sustainable in the long term). I am considering supplementing my juice fast with a protein powder but I'll cross that bridge if I deem it necessary or decide to run with it for longer than 14 days.

Professional poker player. Love learning and improving. Intrested in game theory and psycology. My biggest passion is parkour wich I´ve practised since 2007.
Oliver
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There might be better protein sources than legumes, but you doesn´t use them in your juices, so that´s not an argument. But if your trying to avoid carbs I can understand you.

Kevin
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I actually really love legumes. Once I'm done with the fast, I'll go to a less extreme way of eating with lots of beans involved. It's just for the fast that I'm staying away from them.

vanmartin
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I'm on the second day of my fast - I felt like a million bucks yesterday evening (first day) and then felt horrible this morning. I experienced a lot of nausea but it's now passed. Still feeling out of sorts at the moment but it's a big improvement on this morning. Juice for this morning/afternoon: 4 X 500ml of a mixture of carrot, beetroot, pineapple and watermelon. Yum!

Kevin
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Nausea might be a side effect of the beetroot. I've found that whenever I've juiced anything that's a "root" in large quantities, it's made me nauseous.

vanmartin
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There might be another factor at play in my case. I'm still taking my vitamins and swallowed them with my first sip of juice yesterday morning. Someone suggested that I finish a whole juice and give my stomach a chance to settle before taking them.

vanmartin
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Just wanted to say thanks for your post! I went and bought a juicer over the weekend based on your posts and started my juice fast today. I'm not planning to start my own post on this as I have no clear idea on how long I'll be fasting. My main goal is simply to give my body a break and give my immune system a boost as I've been under a lot of stress lately. I'll update this thread with any interesting observations. 

I'm starting my fast with watermelon, carrot and pineapple juice. I plan on a gradual transition to a more veggie based fast. Any recipes you can recommend? 

vanmartin
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One extra observation - I find carrot juice to be surprisingly filling.

Kevin
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Carrots are surprisingly sweet. I'm not a big fan of just carrot juice (just my own personal tastes) but they're really, really good. You may also enjoy yellow squash, italian squash (zucchini), and cucumbers for a mild, refreshing taste from a veggie that will give you lots of juice.

vanmartin
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I've juiced some carrot, cucumber and celery for this morning. Not the best tasting juice but it has a pretty pleasant aftertaste.

vanmartin
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Tried some zucchini and patty pan (butter squash) mixed with apple and mint today. Not bad at all! 

Kevin
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You can get apples and pears in bulk inexpensively, and they'll make for a real good sweet juice. I also add lemon and limes (peeled! skin is bitter!) and ginger root to my morning fruit juice for added health reasons.

vanmartin
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I've bought a few limes, I'll try the lemon and ginger too. Thanks for the tip. Would you mind posting some of your favourite recipes?

vanmartin
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Jeez, day three ended up being really tough! I'd definitely taken for granted how overpowering the taste of cucumber can be and so I ended up with two of my four juices for the morning to afternoon stretch tasting horrible. One was a cucumber/watermelon combo and the other a cucumber/carrot combo. I forced half of one down and felt awful afterwards. Really strange because I love sliced cucumbers. Later in the afternoon I started getting a series of intense headaches. 

Yesterday evening I returned home only to remember that my two juices I'd prepared for that evening also both comprised of cucumber to some degree. This along with the relentless headaches really demotivated me. I was at the point of giving up on quite a few occasions throughout the evening. Instead I somehow convinced myself to start juicing and came up with two combos I really love: 

  • Beetroot/Orange (sounds horrible, looks horrible, tastes great)
  • Apple/Banana/Pineapple (so refreshing)
That was enough to get me motivated again and after drinking quite a bit of water the headaches also subsided. I researched the headaches yesterday evening. I had naively assumed you can rely on the juices alone to hydrate you but drinking water in-between is really important too (duh)! I'm starting day four now (South Africa timezone) and once again rearing to go! Energy levels are definitely  on the up.

Kevin
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Awesome! It sounds like you've really taken to it. Yes, please don't forget to drink water with your juices. It also looks to me like you've got a very different availability of produce than me!

Are you in South Africa? What kind of fruits and vegetables are available in your area? I'd love to know!

vanmartin
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Yip, I live in South Africa and that's why my posting times probably seem very weird. :)

Produce available locally:

Fruits: Watermelon, Melon, Honeydew, Apple, Pear, Nectarine, Grapefruit, Orange, Lemon, Lime, Avocado, Lychee, Mango, Banana, Kiwi, Pomegranate, Papaya, Apricot, Pineapple, Peach, Grape, Plum, Prickly Pear and most common varieties of berries. We also have access to things like Starfruit but I doubt it's farmed locally. There's probably a few other fruit I forgot.

Most popular varieties of nuts are also grown locally but Macadamia and Pecan are the most prevalent.  

In regards to herbs and vegetables we have access to just about everything available in the states except Kale as far as I know. At one of the more popular farmer's markets in our area you can even find oddities like purple carrots on occasion. 

There are a few local fruits and vegetables that are unique to South Africa but they're not available in large quantities here. The most interesting of these fruits in my opion is "Jaar Lemoen" directly translated as a "Year Orange". See here: http://chefdonnapatterson.blogspot.com/2011/06/jaar-lemoen-how-utterly-delicious.html

It looks similar to a grapefruit in size, shape and texture but is very sweet instead of bitter. Some people suggest it's a Shaddock - I'm not sure whether that's correct or not. 

The most interesting local vegetable is called "Marog" which is a type of wild spinach if I'm not mistaken. It's a staple for a lot of the rural communities. 

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