But I was almost dead!
Well, not so much.. But, if you think about it, we could die at any time - it's not something you can actually predict. So, yeah....
Perhaps the truth is that I was no where near death, but might have 'felt' like I was. A smidgen.
And so, today's post will be to tell y'all how my Juicing challenge is going to hell in a hand basket, like the express bullet train to hell.
Day 2 was fine, I went through the day feeling hungry, but physically doing o.k. I was run down, feeling a bit tired, but nothing that slowed me down too much.
My breakfast and lunch consisted of:
Sweet potato
Carrot
Pear
Apple
Cucumber
Celery
Ginger
This was THE tastiest juice yet! I really liked it, but alas did not save any for Hubbypants to try. Sorry, Hubbypants. Love you!
I'll skip the rest of the juices I made, because it's B.O.R.I.N.G. Other than to say, don't juice Swiss chard, unless you enjoy drinking things that taste like lawn clippings that turned to the dark side or holding your nose while you drink. I'm still gagging just thinking about it.
I started feeling a bit run down the evening of day 2 and ended up slogging through day 3. I stuck to the plan of just juice, but the night of Day 3 did me in. While sitting on the couch, playing on my laptop, I felt as if my brain did a reboot - things got twirly, as if a giant troll picked up my house, spun it around quickly and set it back down. I had to go to bed after that. (let's note, here, that Hubbypants has been doing perfectly fine...the bastard...Love you oodles, sweet of my heart).
The morning of Day 4, still feeling a bit woozy, found me inhaling three heapinglyginromouslyhumungous soup spoon size bites of leftover soup before leaving for an appointment. Said appointment took much longer than I expected, so I was HON-GRAY by the time I got home. I then whipped up some juice for lunch, which...I think...actually evaporated before it hit my stomach. The run down feeling, achy tummy and blah feeling persisted, so I ate two heapinglyginromouslyhumungous spoonfuls of peanut butter. I didn't even care about potential gluten cross contamination - shoveled that shit right into my mouth. At least it was a smaller spoon than I used for the soup. (have you ever noticed how much peanut butter you can fit on a little spoon? I'm equally adept with Nutella). I drank my dinner juice, thought I was doing fine, until that sneaky woozy feeling started to come on. So, I said, "Screw it", and had more soup. Slightly more than the morning, but certainly NOT what a normal person would consider a serving. Poor Hubbypants, I sat right next to him while I ate it. It might have been a passive/aggressive attempt at getting back at him for doing so well.
How well IS he doing, you ask?
Oh, he's doing fine. Dandy, even. He isn't even feeling hungry. It is merely because I love him so dearly
Besides, tequila is 'natural'. It is 100% agave after all. I think that is considered a vegetable, right? A vegetable that has, for all practical purposes, been juiced...and fermented. Fermented stuff is good for you.
Anywhooo...I'm going to wrap up with some thoughts, because all the stuff above didn't involve any brain power - pretty much like most of my blog posts.
- Juicing is a pain in the ass.
- Juicing takes a huge amount of effort as well as produce.
- Planning is super important for anyone planning to bring juice to work. Hubbypants needed a breakfast juice AND a lunch juice, plus a snack juice.
- We FAILED on planning a snack juice. Big time.
- Everyone is different, but for us we should have been drinking AT LEAST 4-5 twenty ounce glasses of juice. AT LEAST. To get enough calories to not feel woozy and out of sorts, I think closer to 30 ounces per juice would have been wise. Hubbypants did fine on 3-4 sixteen ounce juices a day, but I did not.
- I got sick of juicing, the actual preparing of the juice, 2 days ago. Too much work for a long period of time.
- Ease back into solid food with small, nutritious meals. Going the veggie route for a couple of days is probably the best choice. You certainly wouldn't want to cancel out all the effort of several days of fasting in one meal!
Yes, I would do it again. My experience with our very first fast will help me prepare much better for future fasts. I'll certainly plan to juice double the amount to make sure we are getting enough calories. Losing weight is great, but losing it from severe calorie deprivation isn't good, since it will likely come flooding back. I'm going to work really hard to keep off most, if not all, of the 9 pounds I lost this week.
Also, I do think juice (or even green smoothie) fasts are great. It is a challenge to disengage ourselves from food and can also help us gain a bit of control over cravings. If the volume of work, or buying a juicer scares you, there are alternatives...like purchasing prepared juices (and not just a giant jug of orange juice).
Whatever you do, read...read...read...to understand how much you should consume, what the side effects might be and to listen to your body. I did, but fell short.
That's it, my descent into hell is complete. I'm not unhappy about it, I'm pretty sure I was destined to live eternity there anyway.
p.s. You may have noticed there is no day 5. Shut up, someone will hear you. I'm hoping no one else notices.
p.p.s. The chicken sausage and egg I ate this morning was practically orgasmic.
p.p.p.s. Hubbypants is STILL sticking to plan. Because he is awesome, a natural at it even.
p.p.p.p.s. I hate him just a little bit.
