juice cleanse Archives • New Nostalgia

Drinks/ RECIPES

The End Of My Juice Cleanse Day 4 & Day 5

Day 4

Well, I have to say, I AM SO GLAD I DID THIS! I will write more another time about a few of the reasons why, but one of the main reason is that I feel like it “reset” my tastebuds. Fresh, raw fruits and vegetables taste AMAZING to me right now. I have no coffee cravings. I have no sugar cravings. I don’t even have bread cravings, which is huge for me.

I like how regular juicing makes me feel, and I needed reminded of this. I am now very motivated to keep juicing at least a few times a week, not as a substitute for food, but as a supplement. On the days I do not juice, I will drink my green smoothie.

Ending the fast should be taken slow. I was not very good at this. You see, it was my daughters birthday on day 4, so I did ok for breakfast and lunch, then came cake time..but we will get to that.

Breakfast-

~Banana, Mango, Strawberry Smoothie w/ chia seeds

~drank 16 oz lemon water

1 frozen banana

1 cup frozen mango chunks

1 cup frozen strawberries

2 tablespoons chia seeds

put all in blender with enough water to make it blend

This was yummy. I usually add greens to my smoothies, but I was making this to share with my birthday girl, and I wanted it to be pink. It was delicious. The added chia seeds make it very filling.

Lunch

Spinach Salad

Brown Rice

I used my awesome mandolin slicer to slice the veggies. I sprinkled it with pumpkin seeds and almonds for some crunch. The brown rice is from Trader Joes, they sell already made, organic frozen brown rice. So easy! This salad tasted really good. It was crazy how simple sliced vegetables tasted so yummy to me, and I was eating them as eagerly as I would eat other foods. That was new. I love veggies, but I REALLY loved this plate of veggies. Usually I would want some type of sauce on my rice. Not this time. I wanted it just plain, the nuttiness of the rice really came through. Again, I felt like my palate had been cleaned and I can actually taste and appreciate real foods in their natural state.

Afternoon Snack

Oh yea…would you look at THAT! That, my friends, is vegan Mexican Chocolate Cake from my local health food store. I live just a block away from this store and this cake is often calling to me. I had no time to bake a birthday cake for my girl, so I ran to the store and bought a few pieces of this cake just minutes before my birthday girl was supposed to be home. I stuck in some Hershey bar squares (not vegan) to make it festive, and put it on a platter. I added some pastries. My daughter loved it.

Although I don’t feel sugar cravings, that doesn’t mean I didn’t want some cake when it was right in front of me! I had some, and didn’t feel to well after. It just felt heavy.

Dinner

Dinner was tricky. My birthday girl decided that, instead of a big birthday party, she wanted to invite one friend to the mall to shop with her. I loved that idea, we have done it before and it is SO much easier than having a party! They had great fun. They shopped, used the dollar massage chairs, rode the carousel, took pictures in picture booth, had manicures, ate at the food court, got a cookie and ended the night with frozen yogurt sundaes. I loved that all this fun was in one place, and I had much fun watching them have fun!

There was not very many choices for a decent dinner at the mall food court. I went to the Italian place and asked if they could make me pasta & tomato sauce with no cheese. They were happy to. I also had some of their roasted potatoes and a Caesar salad. I didn’t care for the dressing, I barely dipped the pieces in. It was just too salty for my taste, and full of junk. The rest of the meal tasted great! I was happy.

I didn’t do yogurt sundaes with the girls, but I did get a cookie. Again, it tasted good but set heavy. I think it was too soon to be eating sweets!!

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Day 5

Day 5 was not so good food wise! Started out ok, but the way I ended the night. Blech. I felt so yuck.

I will make this quick. I had a ladies brunch that Saturday morning. I had my first cup of coffee in a week. It was good, but the addiction seems gone. I kinda miss how GOOOOOD it used to be! 🙂 There was fruit and pastries. I had fruit and a few bites of a scone. I preferred the fruit. So interesting.

Lunch-took my two older girls out to lunch and a movie. We ate at noodles and company, I had the Bangkok Curry Noodles, no chicken, no mushrooms extra broccoli, and a nice green side salad. It was yum and full of color! Then we went to a cafe. They had gelato and I had coffee.

Dinner-Family night. Ordered pizza. I took off the cheese, but it was Pizza Hut pan pizza and it was THICK and greasy! I also had a couple bread sticks. It was just too much greasy bread. Blech.

I miss my juice!! Who woulda’ thunk it?

Drinks/ RECIPES

Juice Cleanse Day 3-Happy!

Today I woke up, and felt really good. I checked my blood sugar level and it was normal. I decided to carry on and have juice for breakfast and lunch, then eat dinner.

I drank my typical 16 oz. of lemon water right when I got up.

Then I had the Mean Green for breakfast. It filled me up and I felt great!

The Mean Green

6 Kale Leaves

1 Cucumber

2 Green Apples

4 Celery

1/2 Lemon

1 Ginger Root (thumb size)

My lunch juice was AWESOME! It is called The Sunset Blend I think it is one of my favorites so far, which is funny because when I saw the recipe I was nervous about how it would taste. I was so surprised and happy, it is a great juice.

The Sunset Blend

1 large Sweet Potato

1 medium Carrot

1 Red Bell Pepper

2 Red Beets

2 Golden Delicious Apples

1 Orange, optional

After my lunch juice, my energy soared. It was crazy! I really was in disbelief and couldn’t believe the difference of how I felt compared to the night before when my blood sugar was too low. It was strange that other than 1 orange and a piece of toast eaten the night before to help with my blood sugar, (see Juice Cleanse Day 2), I didn’t need food to even me out like I thought. I thought I would wake up and need a hearty bowl of oatmeal. It was not the case. I was not hungry or weak. I felt amazing. So surprised!

I used my crazy energy to clean my kitchen. I had motivation to clean out areas that I had put off for awhile, and as I cleaned I realized that I had major clarity of thought. Another thing that is hard to explain. My brain just felt clear and crisp.

Late afternoon, I started getting hungry for the first time all day and feeling a little energy slump. I made Tomatoes On Toast and it was a great snack! I went very light on the olive oil.

While I was making dinner, I decided to do a bunch of juicing on produce that I was afraid would go bad before I could use it. Adding food to this cleanse meant less juicing, and I did not want my produce to go to waste. I cut up broccoli to steam for dinner, and used the stalks for juicing. Broccoli stalk juice is not very appealing, but when added to a juice with other flavors it mellows out. I also juiced a bunch of swiss chard that was looking a little sad and limpy in my refrigerator. It made the most beautiful deep green juice!

I decided to experiment and pour both the broccoli stalk juice and swiss chard juice into ice cube trays. My theory is that if frozen, it will retain most of its nutrients. I will research more, but it was either that or let it go to waste. I am hoping to use them in green smoothies and even when making vegetable soup.

I will let you know what I find out and how it goes.

Dinner was simple whole wheat pasta with homemade tomato sauce, steamed broccoli, and a big spinach salad. I knew a heavier pasta and the steamed broccoli was a gamble on a digestive system that had a break for 2 days, and I wondered if I would feel sick. I didn’t. I felt a little too full, I ate too much, but comfortable.

Herbal tea before bed, and of course, drank water all day long.

I loved that I didn’t feel hungry all day. I loved my energy. There are other good things I am noticing but I will save that for another post!

Drinks/ RECIPES

Juice Cleanse Day 2- Fail or Lessons Learned

Day 2 was interesting.

It started out great. I knew I had energy before I was even vertical. My eyes popped open at 7:00 a.m. and I turned to my husband and said “I’m awake! Like REALLY awake!” It was weird to open my eyes and instantly feel awake and like getting up. Is this how you morning people feel? Jealous.

I started the day out with my typical lemon water. 16 oz.

For breakfast, I decided to skip the lighter breakfast juice options drinks and go right to the Mean Green.
It tasted good and I felt full.

The Mean Green

6 Kale Leaves

1 Cucumber

2 Green Apples

4 Celery

1/2 Lemon

1 Ginger Root (thumb size)

No headache from lack of coffee. The only ache or pain I had was slight headache on day 1 that lasted about 30 minutes. No big deal. I’ve been thankful, lots of people going through detox report headaches.

Mid morning, I started craving savory. Most of these juices have apples in them which make them more sweet. The thought of anything sweet was not appealing. I wanted a juice that tasted like a savory meal. I went through my recipes and found one that was called Bruchetta. I love Bruchetta, so off to the store to buy tomatoes and basil. Tomatoes was about the only vegetable that I didn’t buy (of course).

The Bruchetta

2 Roma Tomatoes

1-2 Cloves Garlic

20 leaves Basil

I made the Bruchetta. It didn’t make much juice, but it did hit the spot for my savor craving. I put ice in it, but after tasting it strained out the ice. I wanted it room temp. Actually, I wanted it hot like soup broth, but the rule is nothing over 104 degrees (kills nutrients?) and I didn’t want to take the time to check my soups temperature, so I drank it a bit chilled.

As the afternoon wore on, I started feeling tired, weak and hungry.

It got worse and worse around dinner time. I found myself craving foods I have not wanted in forever! I’m sure it didn’t help that I made lasagna for my family. I found myself staring at the noodles and wondered if licking the sauce off of them would count as ‘vegetable juice.’ I might or might not have stuck my finger in the sauce for a quick taste. Shhh.

My choice of juice for dinner was Beet Rejuvenator. I really used to hate beets, but the more I eat them, the more my palate adjusts. This juice was really quite good. It surprised me. The carrots help sweeten and ginger and lemon always add a great flavor. Cucumber mellows everything out.

The Beet Rejuvenator

3-4 Carrots

1 Cucumber

1/2 Lemon

1 Ginger Root (1 inch piece)

1/2 Beet Root(including stem and 1-2 leaves)

Night wore on and the hunger was not bad, but the cravings were. Hard to explain. I didn’t feel good at all. I wanted going to go for a night time run but there was no way my body would. I made some hot herbal tea and started reading up on side effects of juice fasting and yes, there are some, but the ones I was having were making me a little nervous. They seemed extreme. I was shaky, craving weird food, dizzy, and my brain felt cloudy. Foggy.

I told my husband I didn’t feel right. I stood up and instantly had to put my head between my legs. I felt like I was going to pass out. I immediately knew it was a blood sugar issue. I’ve always have had suspicions that I might be prone to hypoglycemia.

My husband asked me a question and I pretty much bit his head off. It was a good thing the kids were in bed at this time, or they may be headless, too. Right after my bite, I said, “something is wrong, I need to check my blood sugar. ” We have a kit in the house for my youngest, who was diagnosed with Diabetes but then the diagnosis was withdrawn (that’s another post, super awesome miracle), so we have a kit on hand.

Normal blood sugar for me is over 100. You are considered Hypoglycemic if you are under 70. It effects brain function if it goes under 50. I was at 68.

I immediately went to the kitchen, and cut up an orange. It was delicious. I also had a dry piece of toast, I wanted crackers, but we were out. I immediately felt better.

I checked my levels today and they are normal. Yay!

I am going to continue on with this, but I’m adding food. I will still get at least 2 fresh juices in each day, striving for 3, and eat very clean for my meals. I still feel like it is a cleanse, and at the Reboot site they have options for juice cleanses with food, so I don’t feel like this is a big fail. I will listen to my body and eat accordingly– unless it tells me to have a steak and a snickers bar.

While on message boards, I read something interesting that made a whole lot of sense to me. Here is the conversation:

Hey guys, a mild caution. Fasting is not for everyone. Most Americans will benefit, but not all. Fasts are good for people that have too much congestion, which most Americans have. But, if you are deficient of energy, pale tongue, a weak pulse, a fast can make you more deficient, and thus a bad thing. I have a friend who put a man on a fast, and his results were like this guys. The man was so impressed he sent his wife in to him. He thought why not? So he put her on the same fast and it almost killed her. She was weak, he was strong. She was deficient, he was excess. People who are weak, or deficient should not fast unless it is very carefully designed for them.

I’m not sure if my issues were I am small and have no extra weight on me, if my body was losing weight to quickly, (4 pounds in 2 days) or if I was already prone to hypoglycemia and my body just can’t handle juice only. It could also be that I didn’t drink enough juice, I just couldn’t fit in 5 a day, only 3. Most people don’t have an issue with this.

If you visit the Facebook page at Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, there are people who THRIVE on long term juice fasts. There are real life stories of all types of weight loss and diseases that are being treated with juice! It seems especially useful for auto-immune disease.

I am still a huge fan of juicing and don’t want to discourage anyone from trying it. If you want encouragement, just visit their facebook page. The stories are amazingly inspirational.

I felt AWESOME the first day 1/2, and when I juiced through my cancer treatment ( I had one a day) it really kept me from getting too sick and I felt way better on those days, so I am excited to find the happy balance for me and my body. I am relieved I can experiment with grains, fruits and vegetables while on this cleanse. I will continue to juice and use up all the amazing produce in my refrigerator, eating as much as I can raw, but I will be also be adding some cooked food to my cleanse.

I will continue to post what I eat and how it makes me feel throughout the rest of this week.

Lessons learned?

~Pure juice fasting is great for a lot of people, but not for everyone.
~Listen to my body
~You can still have a successful cleanse by juicing and keeping diet clean
~There is a reason there are several “reboot” plans to choose from
~Food rocks! (but so does juice, especially Mean Green Juice!)

Drinks/ RECIPES

Juice Cleanse Day 1

Well, day one was easy. Much easier than I thought it would be. I had a slight headache for about 30 minutes in the morning. Probably lack of coffee. I experienced normal hunger right at meal times, until I drank my juice. The juice really filled me up, which surprised me, so much so, that I could not fit in the 2 juices that one should drink in between the breakfast, lunch and dinner time juices.

Breakfast:

The Carrot, Apple, Ginger

3 Organic Carrots

2 Organic Apples

1 Piece Ginger 1″

I threw a meal into the crockpot for my family, and when serving them I did struggle with wanting some of their brown rice, but not too bad. The only time I found myself really wanting to eat was late at night, after the kids went to bed. I usually eat something before bed so this is probably why. I made myself herbal tea and it actually took away my hunger feeling, which also surprised me.

My energy level was INSANE all day. I didn’t expect that. I have had friends tell me they get moody the first couple days. There are 2 reasons why I think it has been easier on me. The first is my diet was really good before starting the cleanse, eating mostly plant food. The second reason I will get to later, maybe..

As far as my elimination system, (yes I’m going to go there because I was curious myself as to how a juice cleanse would affect this), it was normal. Well, kinda. My kidneys got quite a workout having so much fluid in one day, so I found myself going more often, but nothing crazy with digestion/elimination. {blushing}

Lunch

The Mean Green

6 Kale Leaves

1 Cucumber

2 Green Apples

4 Celery

1/2 Lemon

1 Ginger Root (thumb size)

I exercised like normal, actually more than normal. I ran twice, once in the morning but that was cut short due to my turn to carpool! I ran again in the evening, only a short 20 minutes, in the rain. My ears almost froze off.

I lost 2 pounds in one day, and weight is not something I want to lose, so adding food back by day 4 is pretty much a no choice for me.

It was not too time consuming. Making a juice a rinsing my juicer takes me no longer that making a sandwich and putting everything away, so time wise it is no big deal. Actually, it makes life easier, not preparing food!

I use the Breville Compact Juice Fountain and I love it!

I am following a super easy juice plan. It is called Reboot. You must check it out if this interests you at all. It is an amazing site made by Joe Cross, the maker of the movie “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. There are 5 different of levels of juice cleanses. I am still not sure which one I am going to end up doing. I know for sure that I am doing a 3 day juice only (or long weekend) cleanse, and I am thinking it will turn into one of their other choices, up to a week.

Dinner

The Tangy Cabbage

2 Pears

2 Apples

2 Wedges Cabbage

2 Carrots

1 Lemon

1 Lime

This tasted like a super tangy limeade. I used 4 apples because I was out of pears. The apples made it sweet. My girls tasted this one and begged for more. It was really good, but was more of a snack than dinner. I wanted savory.

I ended the evening with some herbal tea. Day 1 down–not so bad!

To read my post called “Why A Juice Cleanse?” Click here.

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead – Official Trailer

Drinks/ RECIPES

Why A Juice Cleanse?

If you have been reading, you already know that I am doing my first ever Juice Cleanse. My goal is to drink only freshly juiced fruit and vegetable juice for 3 days. I am on day 2 and so far so good!

Why would one want to do such a thing?

There are many reasons for juice fasting, most do it to detox and lose weight.

My purpose is to detox.

This is something I have wanted to do since finishing treatment for breast cancer in May 2011. I so wanted to be able to go to one of those fancy exotic places that specialize in detox, that give you shots of wheat grass and prepare all your coffee enemas. Have not heard of coffee enemas? Neither did I until I entered a world of cancer.

Yes, I wanted to go there and get rid of all the nasty toxins they pumped into me. I couldn’t afford to, so I took steps myself to do what I could at home, mainly with diet and exercise. I now eat a high plant diet (fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains), but I wanted to take my health up to the next level.

I watched Fat Sick & Nearly Dead and was so inspired by the health Joe found by just juicing and exercising. I checked out their website and everything was laid out so simply that I thought, “ok, I can do this myself. Who needs a fancy detox spa?”

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead – Official Trailer

I do believe our bodies were created to detox themselves, but due to an environment of chemicals and toxins in our air, food and water, I think our systems are getting overloaded. Some can handle this overload. Others can’t. Being a 2 time cancer survivor (Melanoma -Stage 1 and Breast Cancer-Stage 3), my immune system obviously needs help, which is why I have so embraced nutrition.

Every book I read on beating cancer focused in on the liver. If you have cancer, your liver is not functioning like it should. It is overwhelmed and needs help doing its job. Nutrition, exercise, supplements and detox are all ways to help the liver, but especially detox.

I am following this super easy juice plan. It is called Reboot. You must check it out if this interests you at all. There are 5 different of levels of juice cleanses. I am still not sure which one I am going to end up doing. I know for sure that I am doing a 3 day juice only (they call it the long weekend) cleanse, and I am thinking it will turn into one of their other choices, and last up to a week.

I lost 2 pounds in one day, and weight is not something I want to lose, so adding food back by day 4 is pretty much a no choice for me.

I will keep you informed on how the cleanse is going. I will share my juice recipes, let you know what the cleanse cost me, get real with any side affects that come up, and I may even tell you whether or not I embraced coffee enemas. Now you have no choice but to stay tuned… 😉

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Meet Joe. He is the same guy as that guy up in the video picture! Whoa.

“Let me tell you my story: around 4 years ago, I was 45kg overweight. I was taking medication night and day. I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. My blood test results weren’t great… some things were in the normal range but most were either too high or too low. Basically, I was a mess.

When I turned 40, I looked in the mirror and said: “Enough is enough”. I decided to take matters into my own hands. There was no magic pill to cure me, indeed the pills I was on clearly weren’t cutting the mustard, though maybe they were keeping me alive. So, I got to wondering about radically changing my diet. I’d done juice fasts (what I now call ‘Reboots’) before, with success. So I wondered what would happen if I only drank fruit and veggie juices for 60 days? What would that do to my health? It was literally an experiment I planned myself, based on this question: If I only consumed plant food: vegetables, fruit, nuts, beans, legumes and seeds, would I be able to get off my medication?

I did my first fully-fledged 60-day Reboot in late 2007 and was completely off my medication in March 2008. I’ve been off medication ever since and remain trim, taut and terrific – if I don’t say so myself! So, when we wrapped ‘Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead’, the crew, the medical team that was monitoring me and I all knew we had something very special and inspirational to tell the world. I decided to create a community that would enable everyone to experience this life-changing approach to looking after ourselves.

My vision is that we will have millions of people that join up here as members and make the commitment to increase their plant-food consumption… be it by drinking fruit and veggie juices or by eating more of both. The actual Reboot Plans in here are just the beginning. Once you successfully complete your Reboot you will crave more plant food. Weird but true!”

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Inspiring, huh? I was super inspired when I watched the movie. You can order it here, Fat Sick & Nearly Dead if you do I will get a small percentage, or if you have Netflix you can get it from there.

The Reboot Site has the answer to any FAQ’s out there, so if you have any, make sure you check it out!