Day 1 of the juice fast

Woke up, got outta bed, dragged a comb across my head....  Wait, no... that's a song.

In any case, I woke up this morning and (after getting myself and the kids up, dressed, teeth brushed, etc) went downstairs. I'm starting my juice fast today.  If you read yesterday's blog, you'll see that juice fasting can be very good for detoxifying the body.... as long as you don't do it too often.  The particular one I'm doing is a sugar and fat cleanse.
  I am using advice from Linda Page, from her book "Healthy Healing". She is an amazing woman who also attended the school that I am going to, the Clayton College of Natural Health.  I've met her in person at a conference I went to in Atlanta.  She's just such a knowledgeable person, and incredibly sweet.  You can read her story (it's an amazing one!) here.  She also has a blog that I recommend.  Healthy Healing is a book that touches on all types of dis-eases and how to help them.  It is my "natural bible", I guess.  For a great book on just detoxification, she has written this book.  I own it, but I have loaned it to a friend of mine for the time being. 

Let me be clear, to those who are wondering:  THIS IS NOT A DIET.  If this were to be used as a constant diet, it would be incredibly bad for you.  This fast is meant to be a 3-5 day fast.  3 at minimum... and I wouldn't go past 7 at most.  5 is a pretty good number of days.  The reason that it's not good for you in the long term is that you are overworking some organs as you detoxify.  If you overwork them too much, THEY WILL SHUT DOWN.  And then you'll be much worse off than just wanting to be skinnier.  Yes, I will probably lose weight by doing this.  In fact, I'd be really surprised if I don't lose a few pounds.  But I won't be upset if I don't.  My goal here is to get healthier, not skinnier.  The two do go hand in hand in many instances though. 

The first thing I did was went straight to my book to see what I needed to prepare for myself first thing.  The prospect wasn't too exciting for me:  Wake up to a cup of green tea.  Green tea cuts through and eliminates fatty waste.  The first thing I wanted to do was add some sugar or honey or something to it!  But, of course, this is a sugar detox, so that's a "no go", to say the least.  The green tea that I have has peach in it, so at least it had some flavor to it.  It wasn't as difficult to choke it down as I thought.  But honestly, I couldn't wait for the "breakfast" portion of the day.  How long should a person wait between the "Upon Waking" section and the "Breakfast Section"?  I can assure you, I meant for it to be very soon after the tea.  But I forgot that with two little ones, what you WANT to happen doesn't ever happen WHEN you want them to.

One thing I had already become amazingly aware of was how much I eat without even realizing it.  Anything that I fixed for Lilly, or even jasmine for that matter (she has mashed up sweet potatoes in her cereal), I aways wanted to put a little bit of it in my mouth.  I'm sure that all of those little bits add up throughout the day.  (The hardest thing to do, oddly enough, was blow on Lilly's chicken nuggets to cool them down.  Just the smell of it made me want to take a bite.  And I flat out refused to make dinner for Mikey and Lilly.  I did some outside work instead). 

When I DID get around to my "breakfast", it was 11:00 and Lilly was wanting lunch.  I fixed myself a juice made up of 2 apples, 2 pears, and a slice of ginger.  Throw it all in the juicer, and wa la!  It made about 12 ounces of juice, which is a lot more than I expected.  I was able to leave the peels on because they were organic.  That's where most of the good stuff is on the fruit.

So, let's break this down.
Apples: They help with Arthritis and they stimulate the bowels and digestive system.  They cleanse the intestine and skin of toxins,and help with the function of the liver and kidneys.  They also help reduce fat from places where it is stored in cellulite. 
Pears:  Known for helping bladder problems and  supporting the liver and prostate function.  They help ease constipation.  Also, they eliminate toxins.
Ginger:  For this purpose, it supports the digestive and immune system, but also it stimulates better blood circulation. 

That made up my super duper breakfast.  And it was really good too!

For mid-morning, I had a glass of Simply Nutritious Mega Green.  It's pretty ugly looking, but really it just tastes a lot like banana.  I used to sell this at my store, and I've had it a lot.  I've actually missed it.  This stuff is packed full of fruits like bananas, peaches, mangoes, pineapple, and apples.  But it also has your greens:  spirulina, barley and wheat grasses, broccoli and spinach.  Talk about healthy!

For lunch, I had the Earth Fare brand equivalent of V8.  It's all organic, of course.

My mid-afternoon snack consisted of a juicing of papaya and a pineapple.  I was given the option of that OR green tea.  While the green tea wasn't awful, it also didn't have much flavor.  So, I will stay away from it except for the "upon wakings".  I don't think I've ever had papaya before.  Not by itself anyway.  Wow, was that good!  I am really impressed!  And the juice is oddly thick...  mix it with the pineapple juice and it was amazing!
Papayas:  Good for Acne, blood problems, heart disease, constipation, tumors, and ulcers.  It improves digestion as well as supports the kidneys and liver.  And... it supports weight loss.  Papayas contain a digestive enzyme, papain.  It breaks down the protein tissue from certain meats very well. 
Pineapples:   Good for blood disorders,  digestive problems, gout, inflammation, sciatica, and weight loss.


For dinner I had some miso soup (bought in a package at Earth Fare).  I was supposed to add some snipped sea greens, but I didn't because I DESPISE the taste of seaweed.  Plus there was some in the mix already. I know they add minerals and improve metabolism, but I'm just going to have to get that from the seaweed bath that I'm going to have tonight.   However, I did add some spices:  ginger and cinnamon, to speed up the fat burning process.  Those two spices are stimulants.  It a not a very fulfilling meal, that's for sure.  I sit here thinking that I'm going to be starving by the time I go to bed and have my tea.  I might just break down and have some more juice.  (The meal outline in Dr. Page's book does not have any more "meals" in it.)  I figure that's better than breaking down and having solid food. 

Before bed I will have another tea... this one is Yogi Tea's Healthy Fasting. 

Keep in mind that there are other things I've done through the day to help this along.  I'm trying to drink 64 oz of water with all of this. (anyone who thinks that this fast is not filling is wrong, I'm afraid). I am also trying to "sweat" as much as possible.  My sweating for the day consisted of me spreading mulch throughout our yard in 90 degree weather.  Man that juice was awesome to be greeted with on those breaks!  Also, I'm about to go take a seaweed bath (I didn't buy the package from that website... I bought my own seaweed and will combine it myself).  But first I'm going to dry brush my skin:  Using a  natural bristle brush I will start with the soles of my feet, brushing vigorously making rotary motions and massage every part of my body — working up to the neck.  This gets rid of old skins cells to make way for new ones, as well as stimulates the circulation to help let out the toxins.  Fatty wastes tend to get trapped beneath the skin’s surface easily (especially in women) when the liver or lymphatic systems are sluggish.  Most people overlook the fact that the skin is the largest organ on our body.  That's because it's not on the inside.  If we can get it detoxed, renewed, and revived, that's a huge dent in the cleansing process.

That's it, that's my day in review.  As you can probably imagine, tomorrow I probably won't be so motivated.  Tomorrow will be the extremely hard day; this is because my healing crisis will likely begin then.  I've shown that my body will be in serious detox mode.  I'm expecting some acne, headaches, bad mood swings, etc.  Mikey has been through this detox process before, so at least he knows what it feels like and WHY I might not be the nicest person in the world.