Juice Fast/Cleanse/Detox

Whatever you want to call it.. I've been juicing about 95% of my food intake for the past seven days, with a few salads thrown in when I need to chew something, and a few slips here and there, like one small piece of birthday cake.

I'm feeling very good. The first few days were hard. I had a wicked headache; all I wanted to do was sleep; and I was super-cranky. But after about three days, I started to feel much better. I have more energy. I feel lighter, particularly in the digestive region. It's amazing how well your body can function on just liquid vegetables and fruits.

Although I didn't really do this to lose weight, I have lost about 10 pounds, which is a nice side effect. I really wanted to reset my body, break my cravings for sweets, carbs, and junk, and get on a healthier track when it comes to eating, and I feel like this cleanse does a good job of that. I haven't really be thinking about sweets or bread, my two big weaknesses. The juice fills me up, so I'm not hungry for anything else. The one thing I notice is that I miss chewing things, so I've had a salad about half the days. We did go out to dinner on Saturday and I had an omelette with spinach and tomatoes, so that was probably a big no-no. Oh well.

I think I will continue on this for the rest of the week, maybe a little longer, depending on how I'm feeling and how it's going. I have a big order of organic produce coming from our food co-op tomorrow, 25 lbs of carrots, some beets, cabbage, and greens. I also still have a lot of greens in the fridge, so I will definitely finish all that up, then see where we are.

I bought a juicer for this, because I plan to continue with the juicing, at least once a day, after the cleanse. It seems like an easy way to get those veg servings up, no matter how your day is going. I scored a used Omega 8003 on Craigslist for $100! A great deal, since these go for over $200 new. I really like it. It also makes nut butters and fruit "ice cream". Oh, and nut milks. I'll be trying that when the cleanse is over.

I think tomorrow I'm going to start a morning exercise plan. I have all this energy when I wake up. I should put it to good use.

Time for some dietary changes?

I'm sitting her watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, contemplating diet improvements. We were at Costco this weekend and the Vitamix rep was there demo-ing the latest. As happens everytime I see the demos, I got motivated to use my Vitamix more, so we've been making more smoothies and some yummy vegan chocolate ice cream. It's just cashews, cocoa powder, agave and avocado, and it was delicious!

So I've been feeling my age a little more lately. I'm in my mid-40s and sometimes it seems like it's all downhill from here. My knees hurt sometimes. My back has been bothering me. I'm tired. I think I can only feel better if I lose some weight. Time to get back to some healthier eating.

I might try a juice fast, or maybe some other kind of detox with most fruits and vegetables. I just need to get back to being healthier. It's time.