Juice Fast Journey: Day 5

Well, today is a new day and I'm feeling so good. I almost feel like I'm lighter, which I guess I am because of the weight loss, but more so in my head. My head just seems really clear, not bogged down. 

I started today with a poop colored drink. Yeah, my juices tend to get that way because even if I have a sweet drink, which this is I always want to add in more greens and when you add in greens to any of my other juices they tend to make a lovely brown color. Here ha go:

Breakfast:

- brown juice, which includes the following:

(1/2 pineapple, 1 large carrot, handful of pomegranates seeds, and 3 stalks of Swiss chard)

Was as good as ever, even despite the unappetizing color.

Lunch:

-my regular green juice

(1 cucumber, 1 lemon, 1/2-3/4 inch of ginger, 4 stalks of kale or Swiss chard, 1 apple and 2 stalks celery)

Had my energy swings again. One minute I'm feeling great and the next I'm tired and feeling really groggy. 

The weather was rainy and dreary anyways so maybe that was it but I don't feel like I've really reached a 'high' yet like everybody talks about. 

Dinner:

-finished some more of my regular green juice from lunch I didn't finish

-neon green juice

This was my first time juicing honeydew melon. Yummy! 

My neon juice included:

1/3 honeydew melon

1/2 cup roughly of blueberries

4 stalks of green Swiss chard

1 handful sugar snap peas

This juice was delicious! I even experimented with adding the snap peas. Didn't even taste them, although I didn't add very much but I had some I needed to use up so maybe next time I'll even add more. 

Day 5 done and to be honest I'm kind of ready for this to be over. Maybe I'm just on a low right now but I don't feel quite as good as what I was hoping by this stage in the process. I mean, I don't really feel bad, just okay, kind of bleh. Good thing I only have two more days until I complete my 7 day challenge. I told myself that if I'm losing too much weight than I will start to add some high fat foods and fresh veggies into my diet, mainly avocados. But if I'm feeling awesome on day 7 then I might continue this to 10 days or more.

My symptoms are all the same as previous. Counting my blessings that I don't have any major problems but I almost wish I could see something visibly healing. My tongue is my main concern right now and nothing seems to be changing with that. Time will tell I guess. 

Weight: 117.5lb so I've lost quite a bit. 😁

Until tomorrow!

Heather Joy

Juice Fast Journey: Day 4

Well today I woke up and had my morning BM. Not much too it! The nice thing is that there's not much going through my body so my hemorrhoids can really have a chance to heal. Still have a little uncomfortableness down there but I can't figure out why because I'm not really flared up anymore, just my ugly skin tags are there and bigger than ever. Okay all done with the TMI. 

Went for a quick walk around the neighborhood before everyone woke up. Felt great and didn't really lack energy until I got home and I felt starved. Distractions really do help me. So, first thing I made my breakfast.

Breakfast:

- red juice this morning

Included:

-5 carrots

-1/2 pineapple

-3 stalks of red Swiss chard

It was delicious! I do think it livens me up to have something more sweet in the morning.

Advice:

So every morning I make my breakfast juice and then I grab one of my premade mix bags and then juice my lunch. So, save time by juicing multiple juices at a time. I realize you might not get the exact amount of nutrients as you would if you made it fresh, but let's be practical people! Lunch is always a rush and the one thing that sucks about juicing is always washing out your machine. So I think juicing once in the evening and then once in the afternoon/evening is plenty for me!

This afternoon I feel pretty crappy all of a sudden. Lack of energy. Just going up the stairs actually makes me tired for a second. I actually took a nap because I felt so bad. 

Lunch:

- regular green juice

Insert my nap here. Pure bliss!

Dinner:

- purple juice! Boy am I getting adventurous! 

Tonight's Purple Juice:

-1/4 red cabbage head

-1 lime

-3 red Swiss chard leaves

I tried it and it tasted a bit too bitter for me from the lime, so I added:

-1/2 lemon

So, I love the beautiful color of this juice but I'm unsettled on it. One sip and I think it's not too bad and taste the citrus mostly and the next sip I feel like it's way too cabbage flavored and is gross. Now, don't get me wrong it is still palatable but it's not my favorite. But cabbage is so good for you a little less than delicious is still worth the health benefits to me, plus I already made my late night sugar fix juice that is super delicious so I have something to look forward to after this. 

So, after my nap I felt a little better and then I seemed to get an energy rush. I cleaned the whole downstairs! Now this could also be because my husband was feeling sick so it kicked me in the butt to really get stuff done and take care of him but I like to think it's because I'm pass the 'horrible hump' of juicing. Has anyone else had these energy level swings? 

Dessert:

-pink juice, and boy was it good! Might even be my new favorite!

Included: 1/2 a small watermelon, 1 lime and half an apple.

Day 4 done! I really am proud of myself. I honestly didn't think I'd be able to do it. But now I'm not even as tempted because now I feel like I've made it so far I don't want to ruin my progress.

Symptoms:

-hemorrhoids are gone. Feeling good.

-dandruff is still the same

-tongue is still as bad as the previous day. I'm wondering if all the citrus is making it worse. 

See you gents tomorrow!

Heather Joy

Juice Fast Journey: Day 3

Today I woke up feeling surprisingly well. A lot of people talk about feeling pretty bad around day 3. Maybe it's because I wasn't really addicted to caffeine, soda or anything else besides sugar apparently. Despite being a bit hungry I was feeling fine and today was the first day I didn't have pain after my morning BM and flare is almost completely gone (sorry if that's too much information but I want people to know in case they are on a journey like me). It's been a week exactly since my initial flare up. Usually the first three days are the worse and then it's bearable but for some reason my body just didn't shake this one...until today, that is!! Praise the Lord!

Because of my sugar cravings I thought I would go with something sweeter today to help with my sugar cravings:

Morning:
-Orange Juice (carrot, orange and pineapple). OMG!! So good!! This one really helped with my sugar fix.

Orange Juice:

-4 average size carrots
-1 orange
-1/2 pineapple

Oh, and my weight this morning was at 122lb. Yikes!!

So, I probably should have actually weighed myself before I started but my average weight is usually at its lowest 130lbs. So even if I was at my lowest, that's still 8 pounds! Come to think of it my belt is a bit loose. 

So, one of the best things while on a fast is to plan a distraction. Having something to do and keep your mind off of food is great, not to mention all the extra time you'll have not preparing and eating food. Juicing takes a bit of time but not that much. Anyways, today was nice because we always have farm day on Thursdays. One of my closest friends and her husband own a farm and have a CSA program. So on Thursdays I go and help her get all the shares ready for pick up. I also created their website and update it as needed. My kids roam around picking strawberries and what not, it's awesome! And I am blessed with amazing food. So today was hard because usually when I'm prepping the food I'll eat a less than perfect strawberry here or there but then all I could think about was how good those strawberries are going to be juiced! 

In our share this week we got:

Cabbage, carrots, bok choy, Swiss chard, cauliflower, strawberries and Brussel sprouts. And do you know what?! I can use almost all of that in my juicing! I may pass on the cauliflower and Brussel sprouts but I am stoked about everything else!

We came home from the farm and thank goodness I already had my lunch juice ready to go because I made some melty, gooey, cheesy quesadillas for my girls per their request and I almost snuck a handful of cheese, but I just went and got my juice and sipped while I was making their meal. 

Lunch:

-my regular green juice

My husband came home and surprised me with some more sweet fruits for my sugar cravings, hence my juice snack. Yum!

Snack:

-pink juice (watermelon and apple) OMG! This is my new fail safe for when I'm craving sugar. So sweet and refreshing, forget that orange juice. Orange juice ain't got nothin' on watermelon juice!

The only thing that's bothering me is just the empty feeling I have in my stomach and maybe it's worse because I've already lost weight and I boarder on the line of being under weight for my height, which I realize a lot of people would love to have that problem, but I don't want to be skin and bones because that's not healthy either! I'm not starved, just empty pit feeling. Oh, and does anyone just feel like their mouth is just disgusting while fasting? I must be detoxing because I'm brushing me teeth all day long and my mouth still feels gross. Weird...but good I guess.

Dinner:

- I actually just didn't feel like it so I skipped, but I made myself a hot lemon and fresh ginger tea. Yum! It was like my little treat at night. Might be doing that more often at night, while my husband has his yummy snacks before bed I can fight the urge by whipping up myself that tea.

Tongue: does seem worse than usual.

Dandruff: same

Eczema: I only get flare ups every so often and right now I don't have one so that's good, but I hope it's laying a good foundation for not letting it happen again.

Hemorrhoid: almost back to being completely pain free, but first day of no pain meds. Manageable pain, more just uncomfortableness in the morning after BM. 

Day 3 done! Woot woot! This is the longest I've done yet. I had a couple two days fasts before but now I'm conquering records! 

See you tomorrow. God bless!

Heather Joy

My Juice Fast Journey: Days 1-2

Well, this wasn't the first topic I wanted to write about on this blog but since this is what I'm going through I thought I'd share my juicing journey with you. I am currently on Day 3 of my juice fast and I'm feeling so many things right now that I want to share with you but first let me fill you in onto why I have the desire to do this fast to begin with.

On the surface most people would see me as the spitting image of health: vegetarian, healthy weight, no visible signs of sickness at all, energy, exercises, etc. But what no one sees is all my 'hidden' sicknesses. There is no way to say this in conversation, which is probably why I don't share it with anybody except my close girl friends, but I struggle with hemorrhoids, bad! Ever since I gave birth to my first born and then it got worse after my second child and now it's almost a daily struggle for me. Everything I do revolves around preventing a flare up. I could go on and on about my struggles with this but I'll spare you the details but I will share that this is my main reason for doing this fast. I want to kick my butt back into gear if you will. I also have a few secondary issues that I'd like to see gone: eczema on my hands, really bad dandruff (which also showed up after my second pregnancy, weird) and my geographical tongue (look it up, it's weird). So, now that you're caught up let's move onto how I'm doing.

Day 1:
Well, as you already know from above I started this because of my hemorrhoids and I had already been flared up for almost a week and no relief, so I just decided to start it today. After all, the less stuff going through (and out) of my body the less pain I'll have during my flare up, so it couldn't hurt, right?

Today I made bags and bags of prewashed and partially cut veggies and fruit, to grab when I'm needing a juice fix. This really helped pump me up for the week of juicing. Plus, it's usually at those times when I'm hungry that I'll be tempted to be lazy and grab something else, so the easier the prep the better.

Morning:
-I honestly just skipped. Didn't feel super hungry yet, so I just waited.

Lunch:
-I had a green juice (kale, swiss chard, lemon, cucumber, celery, ginger. etc) for lunch. This juice is my favorite!

-Dinner:
-Red Juice (beets, kale, oranges)

Besides having my sugar craving at night when I normally have my ice cream (don't judge!!), today was pretty good and not that hard.

Day 2:
Woke up feeling okay. A bit sluggish but not really hungry. Still pain 'down there'.

Morning:
-Green Juice
Lunch:
-Green Juice with Carrots
Dinner:
-Green juice

Okay, I'm realizing I need to go outside of my green juice box, but why mess with a good thing?

Today I'm really having a hard time with my sugar cravings. I'm surprised by how intense it is. But I went to bed without ice cream. A success!! We even had a small group game night and had tons of snacks right in front of me and I didn't give in!! Man, I wanted too! Someone even brought a healthy fruit tray, but I can do this!!! I made sure to bring a juice so I felt like I was having something too, which really helped.

Well, that brings us to today which I will write a complete post about after this one.