Juice Fast – Day 1

Today I started what’s called a “juice fast”. 10 days of consuming nothing but fresh juice and water. Will I make it? They say it depends on why you’re doing it. So I’ve decided to write about the experience.

I feel there’s something wrong with how I think about food. I want [insert food here], and then end up feeling worse after eating it than I did before. The craving subsides, but my quality of life has diminished as payment.

I am not happy with my health level. I want to have energy at the end of the day for my kids. I want to stop yawning all the time. I don’t feel tired during the day, but I yawn for seemingly no reason. I want to feel alive, clear headed, able to focus. And I never want to have to take prescription medications, but my doctor warned me – some 6 months ago or something – that I’m headed in that direction. I don’t know if it was a scare tactic or something, but I just know that I do not feel the way that I know I could / should feel – the way I have felt before when I was in better shape.

On a spiritual level, I’ve always had a desire to fast.. I guess out of curiosity. My understanding is that spiritual fasting trains your mind to understand that the body doesn’t need what we learn (in error) it needs. If this is true, it makes complete sense to fast periodically throughout life to keep those habits at bay. This juice fast allows me to relearn about what sustenance my body needs, while still taking in sufficient nutrition.

So some friends recently turned my wife on to juicing. Then she and I saw the documentary movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead together. I had seen it before, and been inspired, but didn’t think it would fly in my house, and it was forgotten. I’ve been making playful fun of my wife’s interest, even though I knew it’s something I wanted to do/try deep down, but she insisted and persisted that she was interested in giving it a try. I’m so thankful for that, because I can now dive in and give the fast a try.

I’m fearful of two things: 1) not being able to finish the 10 days; 2) recognizing significant health benefits and then falling back into my old habits. These fears are why I’m journaling about this.

So today I had my first juice. Funny enough, juicing is actually fun. Cleaning it is not (I assume – my wife cleaned it for me – thank you!), but seeing the fruit get obliterated in 0.1 seconds is a bit gratifying – I don’t know why…

My first concoction was cucumber, carrots, apple, ginger root (what!) – I think that was it. What a feast – yeah right lol. I was actually surprised by the taste. I was expecting a 1 (out of 10) taste.  What I got was probably a 6.5 – definitely palatable, and I finished the whole thing without a single gag reflex!  BUT, I am expecting that the more I juice, my taste buds will begin to “reset” or something, which I think will produce juice cravings, or at least a stronger affinity to the flavors. Maybe that will happen – we’ll see.

I’m looking forward to experiencing how I feel on nothing but juice.  I’m expecting the first 3-4 days to be pretty rough, based on what I saw on the documentary. But the promise of how people felt on days 5+ appears to be worth it.

So, my first juice was at about 7:30 AM.  It’s now almost 9:30, and I’m starting to get hungry.  I’ll check in again later.