Tomorrow is the first day of my juice fast!
It's that time again! It's time for a juice/smoothie fast and it was a long time coming. I've fasted before. When I was young, I used to fast for religious reasons when my church would fast before Easter ( and as a kid I hated it.) As an adult, I fast to restore discipline and awareness to my nutritional life; Fasting does that for me. Below you will find my rules for success, recipes I have found that I absolutely love and a little information about the equipment that I use while I juice.
When I began fasting, I learned a few valuable lessons about myself.
- If I don't eat one meal a day I won't follow through. I have fasted cold turkey for 3 weeks without any meals at all and at night, my stomach wrecks my world. I have stomachaches, stomach cramping and exhaustion. In the end I had to make an adjustment and weigh my options; I could quit (which everything inside of me wanted that... everything except my iron will) or I continue but modify. I chose to modify. For me, it was more important to add one meal a day than to completely give up on juicing. You have to make things work for you and consider what are your end goals. My end goals are food awareness, self discipline, and weight loss. I can accomplish my goals without suffering.
- My one meal needs to be under 500 calories. During the week, sunday-thursday, I follow this religiously but the weekends... the weekends are another animal. Eating out in Lafayette is what socializing is and around here, low calorie options do not exist. Vegetarian salads easily have a 800-1000 calories. Have I mentioned I live in the Lafayette, the deep South food capital of Louisiana. Never heard of us? (http://goo.gl/OzaBeK) Lafayette was named the South's Tastiest Town, Top 10 Foodie City, and we have more restaurants per capita than NYC and Austin (Lafayette holds many food titles http://goo.gl/Z5RI3S.) In Lafayette, food is a religion not kidding. Food is an essential element to being with people. Because there is no way of abstaining, it's about mitigating the damages which means rules: Nothing fried and a salad as a side wherever we are, period.
- An end date is essential. You need a calendar or a countdown app on your phone like Countdown! or BigDayLite (here is a good list of countdown apps.) I also like to create a note and track my weight day by day. I routinely weigh myself in the morning. Weighing myself helps gauge my day but my juice fast is about more than weight, it's about awareness and restoring order to my eating habits; weight loss is not my primary goal for many reasons; I will be blogging more explaining why it isn't my primary motivation. Having a built in routine to acknowledge an end date gives me a light and helps me feel like I'm making progress.
To be successful in juicing you need tried and true recipes.
Before you get excited and go buy a whole bunch of ingredients, you need to have a few great juice and smoothie recipes in your arsenal. I love pinterest and I have found so many wonderful recipes, I will be posting pictures of the juices and smoothies I make, no worries, but these are my go to drinks!
Strawberry, Mango and Carrot Juice- I add two valencia or blood oranges to this recipe. I use this with my juicer instead of making it as a smoothie and drink this in the morning as a breakfast juice. The recipes also works well with raspberries.
Glowing Green Goddess Smoothie- A smoothie that is filling making it a wonderful lunch.
Bluepeary Juice- I love adding romain to this juice.
My Tools
When I decided that I was going to be serious about juicing, I knew I needed a serious juicer. I was right! There are so many juicers out there but this is the one I chose. I bought it from Bed Bath and Beyond and used a 20% off coupon. I love this juicer.
To clean it, you need to use the bristle scrubber to clean out the mesh filter then you throw the plastic bin, mesh filter and plastic funnel in the dishwasher. Easy, Peasy. I truly love this juicer.
I love the taste of juice but I do not love the smell of juices or smoothies so it's essential for me to have tumblers with a lid and a straw. It covers the smell but gives me all the flavor and goodness! I also takes me forever to drink anything so it is essential to me that it is insulated. Nothing is as gross to me as warm fresh juice and in 100 degree weather drinks get grosser than two desperate men next to a hot girl in a bar at 2am.
Insulated tumblers to the rescue. I love starbucks tumblers. Love them. This is the one I use. I drink venti iced green teas with agave like its going out of style. These tumbler lives with me.
Until tomorrow!
Thanks for joining me on my 30 day journey! Each day I will post recipes and tips for getting through and enjoying a juice fast. If you send me questions I will do my absolute best answer your questions.
