21 Days

It's 21 days today...the day I planned to break my fast.  Honestly, today is the first day I have felt energetic enough to do yoga or exercise at all.  I feel absolutely pumped!  So, on I go!  I'm not going to arrive at this point and turn around now. 

Mainly my reasoning is like a runners.  You work and work and hit the wall.  The wall is when your body has run out of fuel and it needs to switch to burning fat.  I wonder if that switch has been completed in my body and this is when I will start losing the most.  I've already lost 13 lbs and taken in my belt buckle two inches.  I am going to continue and see where this goes.

Today's Juice:

3 huge carrots
2 medium apples
2 large cucumbers
A large bunch of spinach
Protein powder

I'm psyched to see where this will go.

Why Juice Fast

Why would anyone in their right mind stop eating and go on a juice fast? There are probably as many reasons as there are people. For me it was a typical scenario. There I was, walking through life, doing what I wanted...eating what I wanted and suddenly everything changed. It was as if I had slipped on a patch of wet grass and gone sliding down a hill. There I was at the bottom of the hill lying in the grass wondering how on earth I had gotten here. I was suddenly over-weight and having health issues. It didn't happen over night but it happened very quickly after my seventh child was born. That baby weight just never did come back off.

So there you are at the bottom of that slippery hill. You try one diet after another...counting calories, no carbs, no meat, shakes, pills and supplements and you gain ground only to hit another slick patch where you slide right back down to the bottom of the hill again. You may even hit bottom and start digging--frustrated that nothing seems to be working any more! Dieting is hard, grim, white knuckle, self control. Juice fasting may be the traction you are looking for.

Your body isn't hungry for no reason. It's the signal that you need something, some vitamin or mineral or protein for your body to operate properly. Cravings come because something is missing and believe me, a lot is missing from the typical diet. Follow your diet through a typical day and write down everything you eat. If you are an average person you will see lots and lots of carbohydrates, plenty of meat and dairy (dairy is the number one most consumed food in the United States) and a few token fruits and vegetables. Maybe you have orange juice with breakfast or an apple later in the day and some over-cooked broccoli with dinner. Look at your plate...how much of it is raw vegetables?

Raw vegetables provide all the vitamins and many of the minerals your body needs to work properly and repair cell damage from sun, and toxin exposure or just plain wear and tear. We know the usefulness of a fraction of the micro nutrients found in plants but there are thousands of constituents in plants that we have no idea what they do. When researchers found that oat meal lowered cholesterol in test subjects they proudly announced that oat bran would lower cholesterol. Instantly there was an oat bran craze with thousands of products providing the wonderful cholesterol cure crowding super market shelves. Unfortunately, when the experiment was repeated with only oat bran no cholesterol lowering was seen in the test subjects. It is something in the whole oat, not identified as of yet that lowers cholesterol. This isn't surprising, herbalists have used oats for centuries. It is considered a nerve tonic. When you say a horse is “feeling his oats” they mean he's kicking up his heels and feeling frisky.  And it's not just oats, every month a new wonder vegetable that cures cancer makes headlines...tomatoes, garlic, berries, cruciferous vegetables like cabbage and broccoli, and leafy green vegetables to name just a few. Don't wait for the research to add many more fruits and vegetables to your diet.

The why to juice fasting is pretty simple. Juice fasting is a way to kick start your new, improved lifestyle (notice I didn't say diet). Juice fasting will give you concentrated phytonutrients that you couldn't possibly eat even if you went to a raw diet right this minute. Your jaw would get tired chewing all that food before you would get a fraction of the phyto-nutrients actually contained in the vegetables. When you chew raw vegetables you are only able to get to a portion of the nutrients because the cellulose cell walls encapsulate the rest and it goes through your system undigested. Juice fasting kick-starts your healing with concentrated nutrients that prevent cravings from sabotaging your resolve. A well nourished body doesn't get cravings.

It also changes the way you taste food. Subtle flavors that you missed before become apparent—the sweetness of a carrot or green bean, the vast array of beans and legumes, each with a totally different taste, and the fresh flavor of greens. I can remember when a salad was a chore to eat. It had no taste unless slathered with dressing. Having taste buds impaired by years of eating fatty, salty and sugary foods makes tasting these natural subtleties impossible. Juice fasting for even a week will make raw and natural foods taste wonderful.

Juice fasting breaks food addictions. Almost everything you see on your grocers shelf that comes in a box or bag has been thoroughly and scientifically been tested in laboratory to be the thing you can't stop eating. Remember the potato chip slogan “Nobody can eat just one”? These foods are engineered to be the right shape, taste, color and crunch to keep you eating long after you should be full. Food companies have a single goal...sell more product! That's their job. It's on you to make healthy choice. They did their job making food you can't stop eating and it's up to you to protect your health and the health of your children by being aware and avoiding those foods.

While it's true, we all bear full responsibility for our current state of health that does mean that we are equipped with the power to change that state any time we decide to.