We are doing a 7-day juice fast. Here we will write down our individual thoughts and feelings about each day. Read it and weep.
Shaun:
I have had a few friends tell me about the juice fast. My good friend Tom Quinn did a juice fast and had great results from it and plans to do more in the future. After a week-long conference in Orlando eating horrible food and not feeling healthy or energetic at all, I returned to Nicole, who wanted to show me the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". What I loved about this documentary was what it unintentionally became. At first, it's just like super size me, only with healthy food. But then it becomes a very touching story as people Joe meets on his journey are changed by joining him and trying his fasting plan. When something really reaches me, I can be very impulsively passionate about it. I know this about myself. I also know that there is no better time to DO something, than at that moment when I feel fired up about it!
So this morning, after watching this documentary with Nicole in our pj's, I said "let's start today!" I think Nicole was interested in trying it, but didn't know that I would be so quick to join the ranks of Joe the Juicer. I think the reason this juice fast is such an appealing concept to me (and many others) is because we all hear about healthier diets and ways to lose a few quick pounds, or cleanse your body. But it's usually very complicated and has a large menu of dishes that require preparation and work that we (or I) just don't want to do! I mean, I can barely cook UN-healthy meals, and I'm supposed to start cooking healthy ones?? But if you tell me that all I have to do is buy the healthy stuff, shove it into a juicer, and drink it...I can handle that! So I think the idea of full "reboot" that may be difficult to endure, but not difficult to prepare, is very appealing to people.
So we made our way to Whole Foods Market cause we figured if we were going to consume nothing but juices, we didn't want Walmart fruit. We filled our shopping cart to the brim with kale, carrots, apples, oranges, pineapple, mangos, red lettuce, cucumbers, pears, and who knows what else?? Wait, I know what else. Ginger! Which is a very weird item that I am unsure about, but it seems to be in a lot of the recipes. The shopping trip was expensive. I still don't know HOW expensive it was because I have no idea how to gauge how long this food will last us. Will it be gone in 3 days? Or will it last the entire week? I don't know yet...
Which brings me to the fast. We decided that we would commit to a week. Which means next Saturday night, January 19, we will break the juice fast. For those who aren't familiar with it, basically it's this: 7 days, no solids, only juiced vegetables and fruit. We have been warned that we will feel very hungry and question why we did this around day 2 and 3, but that by day 4 we should start to feel great.
Day 1: We made our first juice tonight. It consisted of the following:
I didn't expect to like it, so I just drank it. It went down surprisingly easy and although I'm sure we can make better tasting juices, I felt fine. I can deal with nasty flavor as long as I know that it's for a greater good. Nicole's taste buds were not so accepting, but I'll let her tell you about that.
So we've had our first juice. What I hope to get out of this is a little bit of lost weight, reprogram my taste buds to accept healthy foods more willingly, and cleanse my body for a full week. We'll blog each day about how we're feeling and what juices we make! Hope our friends and family enjoy the journey with us.
Nicole:
Alrighty here we go. So I never really understood how obsessed with food I actually was until the thought of having nothing but juice was happening. I love food. But the healthy kind?---not so much. Instead of starting earlier today, I convinced Shaun to let us have our last meal. Which was a complete joke because we are only doing this for seven days. But I'm dramatic that way. We stuffed ourselves with greased up panda express and I was set, or so I thought. I was so excited walking into Whole Food's and filling our cart to the brim of fruits and vegetables. In fact, I was flying high up until the point of Shaun juicing the first piece of kale. The smell was horrendous!
All day Shaun kept warning me, saying things like "it's not like we're going to be drinking smoothies all day long, these aren't treats." But for some reason that was not clear to me up until the drinking point. I get made fun of for having a palate of a 9 year old child, and I think those true colors were shown tonight. I was so surprised that SJ loved it though! I was kind of proud of him. I don't know if I'm full or if I'm sick, but either way I'm ready to throw up! I think it might have been the cucumber taste that threw me off. We'll see if it gets better, or this will turn into Nicole's complaints & Shaun's happy thoughts.
I have heard that it is nearly impossible at first. I'm already looking into my pantry at all the things that I could be eating. Which is strange because usually during the day I open up the pantry and see NOTHING that sounds good. The human mind wants what it can not have.
Watching the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" was great. I know we're not two obese people struggling to lose weight in order to get around, but we are definitely in need of a 'detox.' The body needs to clean itself out once in a while and I'm definitely excited to see how I feel. I don't have any major sleeping problems or anything but I do find that I am not as energetic as I used to be so I would love to see some improvement there. I want to feel healthy! And no better way to do it then with the best friend. So cheers! I'm going to go get some gum. This after taste is deadly. . .
