The Last Day...

Day 10 has come to a close. And I couldn't be more grateful for this experience. Like all new ventures, there are struggles and doubts, times when you don't want to go on. But if you keep on, not allowing any of these things to stop you from reaching your goal, the end will come with great victory!

I only juiced twice today. The first was a treat to myself: pineapple, oranges, and a sprig of mint. I poured this over ice and sat long by myself to enjoy it. 

I continued the lemon and cayenne water for most of the day. In the afternoon I juiced romaine lettuce, roma tomatoes, green onion, and carrots. This is one of my favorite blends. Very tasty. 

By dinner time, my good husband invited me to have a bit of raw salad with the rest of the family. And I did. I broke my fast last night with some romaine lettuce, cucumber, avocado, and a few roasted cashews. The serving size was very small, but was the most delicious salad I had ever had! We brought the girls on a night walk after that, and enjoyed a quiet Sabbath evening. 

I have never felt more in touch with my body. And for some reason this has increased my mental thoughts. I am ready for this coming semester, and I am ready for the challenges it will bring. 

I encourage anyone considering a juice fast to not hesitate. I believe health is the most important treasure we have in this world. If we lose that, nothing else matters. To incorporate little improvements in our daily lives in regards to health would make the stresses of life less able to break us down. We become stronger to break the stress down. 

Thank you to so many for your encouragement to me on this journey! I couldn't have done it without you! And thank you for taking time to read my day to day experiences. 

I look forward to eating with my family today. I have come to realize how important that family time is around the table, and how lucky we are to have such abundant amounts of food. Hope you all have a healthy, vibrant and God filled day! 

Day 9

The end of a very good day! It was my 40th birthday today, and I complain because of the number, not because of how I feel! I feel young today, and I am thankful for the healing power of this fast, and of God. I didn't need to juice until about 1:00 in the afternoon. The fresh squeezed lemon in my water with some honey and cayenne was all I needed until then. At 1:00,  I juiced apples and carrots. The lemon water brought me through until 8 pm, and then I juiced romaine lettuce, spinach, carrots, and tomatoes. This is one of my favorite blends. I enjoyed it over ice. 

I have lost 10 lbs. which was not the intention of this fast. But I think that is a common happening for anyone juicing for 10 days. I am sure I will quickly gain it again. I start my internship on Monday at a youth residential treatment center, and my classes start on Tues. I have never felt more prepared to tackle this than I do now. Mentally, physically, and spiritually, I am stronger than when I started this. It has been worth it. Tomorrow is my last day, and I plan on enjoying the nourishment I receive from these live foods, and celebrating that I actually made it!  

Day 8

For some reason, my body wasn't responding to juice today. My blood sugar was all over the place and I felt irritable and spacey. So I didn't juice past 3:00 and decided by dinner to try something else. I took my Nalgene water bottle and squeezed in a lemon and added some honey and cayenne, and almost instantly felt better. My blood sugar has been stabilized all evening.This was a tremendous help and I am glad I thought to do it! I wouldn't have made it through the day without it, for some reason.
I juiced apples, carrots and celery for breakfast. For lunch I met a friend at Inta Juice and had carrot, celery and cucumber juice, and a couple hours later I did tomatoes, lettuce, green onion, and white onion.
That's all I could do today.
Tonight I am more energetic than I have been all day. It's almost 9 and I am baking banana bread and could keep going for awhile. Strange how today went. You just never know how your body will respond from day to day.

End of Day 7

I found some fasting sites that are packed full of great information:
http://www.falconblanco.com/health/fasting.htm
http://ucheepines.org/index.php?p=counseling.fasting
http://www.evolutionhealth.com/bragg_miracle_fasting.html
http://www.plim.org/2fasting.htm

These are some great resources that will give you loads of information! I was glad to find them. It helped me understand a lot my body is going through right now. My face has broken out a bit, and I guess that's normal.   My back hurting could have been toxins in that nervous system region being cleansed out. My blood shot eyes...well... not sure. Hope they will heal and I won't need to ever wear glasses anymore!
I often experience feelings of enlightenment, that I have failed to write about. Little things will come to mind, mainly spiritual thoughts or ideas. One of the main things I have realized is that "all things truly do work together for good to those who love God". I am not the product of the tragedies in my life, but of the blessings of God. My mind thought about every thing in my life that I have suffered through, and I now see how it made me a better person. And no trial or heartache in this life has power over me. The Lord has made me rich. My character would have never been so strong if it weren't for Him. So with that in mind, it makes me grateful for trials. They fade as my love for the Lord increases.
I am not hungry in the sense that I want to open the fridge and devour everything in sight. I have so enjoyed cooking and reading new recipes, and reflecting on food in general. I can't wait to eat, but not from a hunger standpoint. I enjoy good, quality, healthy food. The textures and tastes and smells... mmmm.... Can't wait for my first meal!
Today I only had to juice 3 times to keep my blood sugar up. And I have been drinking a lot more water! I've been very thirsty! For breakfast I had apples and grapes, and had a hard time drinking it all. It was so sweet! For lunch I had romaine lettuce, celery, tomato, onion and garlic. I call this one my lettuce and tomato sandwich. I have grown to really enjoy this. For dinner I could hardly get this one down and won't do this blend again! It was kale, carrots, cucumber, green onion and an orange beet. Since drinking this I have that terrible taste in my mouth again. I think the beet detoxifies quickly and powerfully.
I feel better tonight than I have yet! I am so grateful for this window of time I have had to do this.

Day 6

Day 6 has come to a close.... and I feel great! I'm still waiting for my complexion to look any different, or my eyes to look clear like everyone says. But not yet! Not sure why. I worked outside for awhile today after bringing the girls to school, and my energy level plummeted! But other than that, I feel clean and healthy.
Today's menu is as follows:
Carrots, apples, and celery to start the morning.
A head of romaine lettuce, green onions and carrots... this was delicious and I will do it again!
A lovely "snack" of watermelon.
And a concoction that was... well... unique. I juiced lettuce, green onion, roma tomatoes, and garlic. I made the most amazing dinner for the kids and my husband tonight, and part of it included sauteed onion, anaheim peppers and jalapenos. I couldn't resist. So I threw a bit in the juicer. After pouring into my glass, I added cayenne. I thought it was pretty good! My husband almost threw up! My stomach felt a little burdened by it, so I won't do that again.
I am cooking such good dinners for my family, and I think it's because I am so hungry for food that I am creating what I wish I could eat. Well, my family is enjoying this!

Day 5

This was the best day yet! I felt so fantastic that it encouraged me to keep going! I was very hungry at times, but it quickly went away. I was able to exercise today, although running would be too during this. I was curious about all the health benefits in doing this, and found the following:
*remove harmful wastes and toxins
*boost immune system and increase energy(which I have found to be true)
*better skin tone (which I haven't noticed. My skin seems more dry)
*clearer mental focus ( I assume this is after the 10 days and you start eating again. My brain feels lightly drunk sometimes!)
*Healing of the body
I honestly can't find any credible studies on the subject, just a lot of testimonials. So I will have to experience what health benefits I personally obtain. The biggest one for me is the relief when my stomach doesn't hurt after eating. I feel soothed. My digestion needed a break.
I was working outside this morning, and my husband brought me a large glass of watermelon juice over ice, and a large glass of carrot, celery and apple juice over ice. This boosted my energy for the rest of the afternoon! Thank you darling!
I treated myself to one of my favorite juices for breakfast: oranges and carrots.
I juiced 4 lemons and 3 limes, added water and cayenne and 2 little packs of stevia. This, too, was delicious!
I experimented tonight with sweet potato and kale. It was ok. Not sure I will do it again!
Hopefully tomorrow will be even better!

Day 4

Today, I was told, would be the day I felt great. Not so with me. I felt pretty rough today. My stomach was upset and I just couldn't think very clearly. We had a birthday party for Mitch, and I cooked a lot today! I didn't feel hungry, though. My energy level was either real high, or plummeting! My blood sugar seemed all over the place too!
For breakfast I had the pineapple,orange, apple, mint juice again. So delicious!
Mid morning was green leaf lettuce, carrots, ginger, cucumber and parsley. This juice made me feel sick. My husband said he has juiced cucumber before, and it always made him feel sick. So I haven't juiced it again, and I haven't felt sick again, either. For lunch, I juiced iceberg lettuce -which I know isn't high in nutrition- I just needed a break from the dark green- something lighter. With that I added tomato and a garlic clove. This is one of my favorites. Very light and refreshing and tasty!
Dinner was romaine lettuce, broccoli, and celery. I will never do this again!
For the birthday party, I treated myself to watermelon juice with some mint! This was so healing for me, and was the turn around to how I had been feeling all day. The rest of the night I felt like myself, only healthier! I hope this is the start of the real deep and cleansing health I am expecting.
Happy 17th Birthday Mitchell! You are a real joy in my life!

Day Three

Whew! For some reason I am feeling quite emotional tonight. My mind is not well balanced at the end of day three. I certainly hope, and I am sure the rest of my family does also, that tomorrow I will feel back to my normal self.
My back has been hurting all day all down my spine. So achy! Not sure why. That has slowed me down a bit.
I didn't feel hungry today, except, as yesterday, I had to pack a lunch and craved potato chips again. I never realized how much I like potato chips until now.
My energy level is still high as usual, so I am thankful for that. My stomach has never felt empty, and often after drinking a large bit of juice, I am full for hours.
I have been thinking that my eyes should be clear by now, but no, they aren't. They have been sensitive, too.  I am now done with all my complaining.... I will share what I juiced today.
For breakfast I had apples, cucumber and carrots. Mid-morning I had apples, carrots, swiss chard and parsley. This filled my stomach for a long time. A friend gave me this next recipe, that so far, is my favorite: pineapple, apple, orange and mint. Delicious! This settled my stomach a bit from all that swiss chard. And finally tonight, as we all sat at the dinner table, I drank a very large cup of spinach, tomato, cucumber and carrot juice. This was soothing to me tonight.

I have had many people tell me that by the fourth day I will feel a lot better, maybe even great! I certainly hope so!

Day Two

The end of day two... I am sitting here at the computer with the WORST taste in my mouth!! I drank a lot of juice today. For breakfast I had apples and grapes, next was roma tomatoes, ( which, strange enough, I have been craving tomatoes and I don't even like them!), parsley, carrots, romaine lettuce, an orange beet and a cucumber. Then, a couple hours later was a earthy juice of carrots, swiss chard, and apples. My final juice for today was just terrible! I hardly got it down and it has left me feeling full all evening. It was an experiment of roma tomatoes, romaine lettuce, purple onion, cabbage, celery and a dash of cayenne. The cayenne was the only good part of the juice.
When I woke up this morning, I felt very feverish for a couple of hours. I never lacked energy. I worked in the shop for 6 hours today, and never felt weak or tired. The only real symptom of anything was my mind seemed out in space somewhere! So glad I am not in school right now! My poor kids must think I am crazy! I cooked and felt no desire to eat, except I was tempted with Pringles at lunch time but held strong!

Day two checked off! Just one day at a time!

Day One...

Day one: Today was simple and easy to get through. For breakfast I juiced carrots, celery and apples. By lunch I was feeling a bit hungry. I juiced carrots again, with some cucumber and lettuce. By the time the children came home and I had to start preparing dinner, I was feeling extremely hungry! So I juiced a large cup of greens I found in the fridge. After dinner, I didn't have enough produce to supply me with any juice for the evening, or for breakfast, so I went to the store and bought all organic produce. Grapes, apples, swiss chard, cucumbers, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, celery, orange and red beets, and italian parsley. Juicing concentrates the nutrients of the produce, and will also concentrate the pesticides and sprays that are used. So I highly recommend using only organic produce. 

By bedtime, I was really thinking why I am doing this. I want a clear mind, I have been suffering through an unusual amount of migraines the past few months, I want to lose some baby fat in trouble areas; but there is a reason even greater. I have a long and full life to live. I will have new daughter and son in laws when my children get married, and the day will come that I will have grand children. I want to be vibrant in my life, with energy enough to be a blessing to my family for as many years as I can. So I am doing this for my future and for my children's future. 

I also think of my husband. What woman doesn't desire her husband to find her radiantly beautiful? I want to preserve youthfulness for as many years as I can. I have a life time to share with this wonderful man still, and I want to be as sunshine in his life. So for him I am doing this as well. My love for my family is enough to keep me committed to this 10 days of fasting, even if it becomes difficult.

Introduction

I am a busy mother of 6 children, ranging in age from 12 to 18. My husband is self employed and a couple years ago he built a shop on our property, and it's from here he works full time servicing and selling appliances. I am a full time psychology student at University of Northern Colorado, and I have a week and a half left of my summer vacation. My children started school yesterday, and I have this small window of opportunity to do a juice fast before I start my last semester of my senior year, which is going to be intense.

 I wanted to journal my experience doing this juice fast to encourage others. I still have to keep cooking for my family and I will still help my husband in the shop. We lead a very busy life, and I want to see if this fast is possible with our lifestyle. So each day I will journal my experience, what I juiced, any advice I have, and how I feel. Please join me on this journey to better health!

 Bon Appetit!