Green Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 45

Journal:
I actually woke up excited for today. Some people may think that today wouldn’t be so great because I’m going back to juicing instead of having actual food, but honestly, I have come to really enjoy juicing as a form of giving your body a break from digesting food. It definitely provides a cleansing day.

Now, today I tried to space out my juices because not only are juices generally lower calorie, but because they are green juices, they are even lower calorie due to the greens content. So here is the schedule in which I drank the juices:

8:00 am – Skinny Glow (melon, apple, cucumber, spinach, celery)

9:40 am – After Glow (spinach, cucumber, celery, kale, apple, parsley)

11:10 am – Glow Boost (spinach, kale, cucumber, broccoli, mint, pomegranate)

1:40 pm – Ener-G Glow (pear, spinach, cucumber, celery, chlorophyll)

3:00 pm – Sky Glow (pear, cucumber, kale, lemon, mint)

5:00 pm – Peak Performance (apple, cucumber, kale, spinach, lemon, parsley)

6:45 pm – Emerald City (spinach, apple, celery, cucumber)

8:30 pm – Everglades (cucumber, celery, cilantro, lime, apple)

Why were some of my juices called “Glow”? Because I purchased them from Glow Juicery. It is an awesome place where they made cold-pressed juices that are raw and unpasteurized. They also make smoothies and raw foods to eat. I love this store and highly recommend you check them out!

The last three juices I drank were from a place called Splash Juicery which is also an amazing, organic, cold-pressed juice place. They also serve smoothies, raw desserts and raw meals. I just recently found out about this place and I’m so thankful I tried them out! Absolutely recommended as well!

So the odd thing was, I start getting a headache just before I started drinking my second juice of the day. I never get headaches. My eyes have been giving me some really bad troubles in the past week, and I fear I may be headed to some trouble I don’t want. I’ve pretty much stopped wearing my sunglasses so I can get as much Vitamin D to my eyes as possible, and I still need to cut down on the computer time. I can’t lose my vision… it’s time to get serious. I think some extra sleep would also help my case.

The headache feeling did go away, thankfully. I made it through the rest of the day pretty well, though I was unusually hungry. It’s amazing what happens when you’re used to eating a huge volume of vegetables and fruit so the compact amount of green juices. I can’t wait to eat again!

I did make it to the gym today and had an awesome workout (yes, even hungry and with only consuming green juices). I did squats, lunges, jump squats, dumbbell pullovers, bench push-ups, lateral raises, standing scarecrow, cable hammer curls, and cable tricep extensions. I then finished up my workout with 20 minutes on the stairclimber. Wowee! It felt so good to workout again. I honestly love being in the gym.

And that pretty much wraps up my night. I’ve got a lot of work to do in order to meet a deadline tomorrow (two papers that need completed), so I gotta get finishing those. I just have my Everglades drink left to finish, and then that’s it for me today. Tomorrow begins days 1 of 3 days drinking green smoothies and I’m excited!

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is bad.
-Hair is good, but scalp needs exfoliated/massaged.
-Energy is really good.
-A little tired, but due to lack of sleep.
-Eyes are not good… too much computer and not enough sleep.
-Hungry!!
-Digestion is getting better again.
-Endurance is good!

Weight at the end of the day = 168 lbs (same as yesterday)

Total Calories = 1329 (84% carbs, 6% fat, 10% protein… these are STELLAR macros!)

Fruit Smoothie Feasting – Healing Journey Day 26

Journal:
So the day is here. It’s my final transition into consuming food full time. Although the food is blended, it’s still food. I was actually kind of nervous about this day. I haven’t been eating food consistently in almost a month, and to know that this is the beginning of eating all the time again, it’s a little nerve-wrecking. But I’m sure I will adjust.

This morning, I started with a 6 banana smoothie, blended with approximately 200 mL of organic blueberry juice. It wasn’t the sweetest, I must admit. It was not totally my favourite, but I drank it none the less. I was very tempted to put some coconut sugar in the smoothie as well, but I refrained.

Work was pretty much the same. It had some highs; it had some lows. Some reasons to celebrate, and some reasons to take a deep breath. I never did get to eat another smoothie for the rest of the work day. Needless to say, I was hungry throughout the day since I didn’t get another chance to blend a smoothie up.

I ended up staying at school working on things until 5:30. By working on things, I mean returning work-related phone calls, figuring out hot lunch payments that were under a misunderstanding, and explaining things to several parents as well as trying to tie everything up on a late deadline at school. Oh man… what a rush!

Before I left the school, I made myself another smoothie. I was so hungry since I hadn’t eaten anything since that first smoothie. This time, I put about 400 mL of the organic blueberry juice in with 7 bananas. Believe it or not, it was actually sweeter than before. I thoroughly enjoyed this smoothie and even stopped on the way home to take a pretty fall picture of it for you all to enjoy!

I sat at home, talking with my housemates until I finished this smoothie. Then I headed out to run a few errands, ending up at the gym to do 30 minutes of cycling. I went higher in intensity again, and absolutely loved it.

I came home, and made a smoothie with two mangoes and almost a whole pear. I have some fruit to use up before I fly out for Thanksgiving, so I probably won’t be having banana smoothies tomorrow; bananas are easy to freeze. I will probably be consuming watermelon smoothies and mango smoothies. Hopefully it will all be good. I am so tired that I am closing here for the night. I’m looking forward to some sleep. Good night ya’ll!

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne still not good.
-Energy pretty good.
-Tongue not even half as badly coated today.
-Digestion is fantastic.
-Hair is greasy. (I will write about this soon!)

Weight at the end of the day = 174.6 lbs (down 2 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 2103 (94% carbs, 3% fat, 3% protein)

Multi-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 25

Journal:
Did you notice I went up 8 lbs two days ago and was already down 6 lbs the day after? What a shift! What an experiment! So essentially, my body was in shock after eating so much food, so much cooked food, so much salty and fatty foods. Then, after more hours than usual, my body proved it’s excellent digestion ability by getting rid of almost all of it within a day. I’m quite impressed to say the least.

While on the topic of my body cleansing itself, my tongue was COATED this morning. Honestly I had just opened my mouth in the way of the mirror and was shocked at how dead my tongue looked. It wasn’t white as before, but more of a dead, almost tan colour. Yuck! It came off with some tongue scraping again, but I tell you, it’s amazing what happens when you eat “junk” and then eat clean so your body gets rid of the bad stuff. Oh boy!

I wasn’t completely looking forward to my juices today, but it really wasn’t that bad once I started drinking some. From breakfast until lunch, I drank about a litre of organic grape juice. From lunch to supper, I drank about a litre of organic pineapple juice with pulp. And from supper until I went to bed, I drank about a third of a litre of organic blueberry juice. Honestly, it was very satisfying. So satisfying, in fact, that I was considering doing another day of juicing. But, alas my stash of leftover juices is getting low so I don’t have enough to do another day. So instead, I begin fruit smoothies tomorrow! I don’t have any other juice feasts scheduled for the rest of this journey, but should I ever feel like I need a “cleanse”, I now know that juicing is the way to go!

So today was an active day. It was a decent day, though not great. My free time at work is quickly getting eaten up with other things so I don’t truly get a break anymore. However, I have had less meetings so far this week after school so that has been nice. However, since I am travelling this weekend, I have much to do to prepare and I have spent the past two nights simply doing errands and trying to catch up on life. There is never a dull moment.

I went to the gym this evening and did 30 minutes of cycling. I raised the intensity some and felt awesome by the end.

And that pretty much sums up my day. After cardio, I sat at home doing work until I went to sleep. I always have work to do; there is never a shortage.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue coated in a dead, tan colour.
-Acne is the same.
-Energy is good.
-Digestion continues to be fantastic.

Weight at the end of the day = 176.6 lbs (same as yesterday)

Total Calories = 1252 (97% carbs, 0% fat, 3% protein)

Multi-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 24

Journal:
Today was a much needed juice day. I was almost in shock when I saw how much my weight went up in one day. 8 lbs! The thing is, I’m not totally surprised. The food I ate yesterday does not digest as well as plain fruit does. It takes much longer to go through the system. The food yesterday also contained salt which causes water retention. I also ate a lot of fat which I try to avoid. I also know that I ate an incredible amount of calories yesterday of which my body is not used to consuming yet. So a lot of factors have played into those 8 lbs. But like I mentioned on Saturday, a juice feast is the perfect way to help your body start flushing things out. I felt much better juice feasting today.

From morning to lunch, I finished drinking the half litre I had left of grape juice from last time. After lunch and until supper time, I drank about a litre of pineapple juice with the pulp mixed in. My tastebuds were handling the juice a lot better today which is somewhat surprising. The only guess I have is that all the food from yesterday dulled my tastebuds a little bit so things aren’t so sweet today. Or, my other thought is that after my lack of sweet things yesterday, my body was appreciating the sweetness of fruit today. Both ideas seem to make sense to me but since I’m not a doctor, I cannot truly be sure.

Work went by fairly well. It wasn’t the greatest day, but it also wasn’t the worst. Again, I always hope for tomorrow to be a better day.

After work, I actually was very productive. I had a HUGE to-do list and knocked off quite a few things. Though I didn’t get everything done, it certainly felt good to see about half of that list disappear. I’m hoping to conquer the rest tomorrow.

I did drink 1.75 L of apple juice throughout the rest of the evening. Honestly, juice feasting is easy. I’m feeling good. I went to the gym and did 5 ab exercises followed with a half hour of cycling. It felt good. But I am totally done in for the night. I officially have one more juice day to go and then I enter smoothie land!

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is the same.
-Energy is good.
-Hair is greasy… thank you high fat, cooked foods…
-Elimination is great.

Weight at the end of the day = 176.6 lbs (down 6 lbs from yesterday, thank you to good digestion!)

Total Calories = 1908 (97% carbs, 0% fat, 3% protein)

Multi-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 22

Journal:
I was kind of torn about today. I was excited to have something other than just one fruit per day, and yet I remember how sweet and unpleasant my last juice fasting experience became. Regardless, there is one extra component that made me excited about this second juice feasting and it was this: I do not have to stick to one type of juice, so long as the juices are only made from fruit. Woohoo! My first freedom in mixing food sources. Here we go!

So today was an overall lazy day. I had gotten up and was getting ready to go to a church I had been invited to, only to look up the directions and realize that church service was going to be finished when I would arrive there and Sabbath School would be beginning. This is a newer church plant and they have decided to reverse the schedule which is actually intriguing. But it meant that I didn’t make it to church today. So instead, I rested, which I won’t complain about. My body was still feeling the stress.

Towards the evening, I started unpacking more of my stuff. It’s so nice to actually have clothes in my closet, though I’ve really come to realize that I can easily live with the same outfits repeated all of the time. It meant that I was doing laundry twice a week, but at least I had no debates over what clothes I would wear each day. It actually saved time! I’m telling ya’ll, minimalism is something you should look into! It’s so much better than it sounds.

So in preparation for this juice feast, I had bought a juice that I used to LOVE drinking. It was an organic, orange-mango juice. Oh my… so delicious. Though I did thoroughly enjoy it, I didn’t quite enjoy it to the maximum like I used to. However, it didn’t lessen the fact that I enjoyed it much more than the juices I had before. I actually consumed the most calories I have had yet on this journey because of it. And when I ran out of it, I went back to the juices left over from the last juice feasting as I had clearly bought more than I actually drank. I selected a grape juice to finish the day.

Now, the grape juice was good, but I couldn’t hardly drink any of it. I ended up drinking close to half a litre, but honestly could not fathom drinking more. My tongue hasn’t quite been coated as heavily white as last time I was drinking juice, but my whole mouth is coated with a thicker saliva that is off-putting and it’s ruining the purity of everything. Not to mention, that sensitivity to sweetness is still in effect which has me thinking this might be a long juice feast, even though I’m only doing it for 3 days. I really can’t wait to be able to have both fruit and veggies. It’s so nice to have different flavours especially when I’m not in the best fruit season at all. I can’t wait to have more options.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is the same… going to really start watching how often I touch my face to see if that makes a difference.
-Elimination is FANTASTIC! If you ever need a cleansing day, do a day of juicing. It works wonderfully.
-Hair is not as greasy as it would be by this point. So awesome. I will write more about this later.
-Energy is fine, though still recovering from too much stress lately.
-Overbearing sweetness tastebuds are still around!

Weight at the end of the day = 174.6 lbs (still the same, even after the most calories to date!)

Total Calories = 2188 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)

 

Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 13

Journal:
I woke up today really tired. After the day I had yesterday, I was really hoping and praying for a better day. Thankfully, it did turn out to be a much better day than yesterday.

School went much better today. After school, I had a meeting that went well. And after I got home, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that even though I was late getting home, my dog managed to wait to use the washroom until I put him outside. What a relief – honestly – when considering how miserable my day was yesterday. I even made it to the gym and did 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical. I felt so good and it was awesome.

So what did I drink today? Pineapple juice with the puree. I figured drinking a juice with the added puree would be the next step in the transition from juice to actual fruit. Now this pineapple juice almost tasted like it had cinnamon or some kind of warming spice like that added to it, but the ingredients were simply the pineapple juice and the pineapple puree. It was interesting, yet good. I ended up drinking a total of 2L today.

Review of Symptoms:
-No white tongue. Yes!
-Acne looking “paler” again but still not a huge improvement.
-Energy was great. Feeling so good.

Weight at the end of the day = 176.8 lbs (down a total of 12 lbs since the beginning)

Total Calories = 968 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)

Mono-Juice Feasting (Nectar)- Healing Journey Day 12

Journal:
You know, everyday I write this blog post to keep you up-to-date on my journey, I can’t believe how much time has gone by since I’ve actually taken a bite of something. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would do something like this. It’s totally out of my comfort zone, but I am truly benefitting from amazing self-discipline along the way. This is truly an incredible journey.

Today was a rough day. Today was the kind of day where it would have been better to just stay in bed. But with a lot of prayer and God’s ever-loving kindness to me, He gave me enough strength to get through the day. The only problem was, my dream of getting home at the end of the day and just relaxing was short-lived as I was late getting home and my dog gave me grief for the rest of the evening. I did not get any reprieve today. But even so, I do have one big thing to celebrate, and that was what I drank today.

I will soon be actually taking a bite of fruit!!!! It’s coming!! So in transition, I made today a little different than the regular juice. I, instead, had a nectar; apricot nectar to be specific. Now, remember how I had been dreading drinking more juice because it just seemed to get sweeter and sweeter? Well, this stuff was like a little piece of heaven, and it wasn’t even organic. Oh, if only I could describe what it was like to you. The thing is, I’m pretty sure I’ve had this apricot nectar before but it didn’t taste as good to me then. Now, it was perfection. Such a reprieve from anything that was too sweet before, yet still sweet enough to be satisfying. The liquid being thicker than the normal juice was also something I loved. I can tell the food is coming!!

Now, what would be interesting to find out is whether the ingredients made this more to my satisfaction. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the end of the day that I noticed they added sugar. It amazes me that the regular juices with no added sugar would taste sweeter than this with added sugar. It’s definitely something to think about. I’ve always found it interesting to see how our body reacts to unnatural things.

I didn’t go to the gym today, but I did do a workout at home. I had a pair of 10 lb dumbbells that I used to do squats, pushups, tricep kickbacks, bicep curls, hamstring curls, lunges, shoulder press, upright rows, and wall sits. I got in a very decent workout and it helped me feel a bit better after the day I had been having.

I finished the day with a candy assembly line as we made variety bags for an upcoming softball tournament. They smelled great and for someone who hasn’t had candy in a long time, looked appetizing as well. But not once did I slip. It was a success.

How much did I drink today? 3L with no issues. In fact, I probably could have drank more… There’s got to be something to this added sugar. It’s got me thinking…

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is pretty much the same. Perhaps a little duller, but still patiently waiting for a noticeable improvement.
-Tongue did not need scraped this morning. So happy!
-Felt good except one little stomach upset feeling that lasted about 5-10 minutes at the very end of the night. Still unsure as to what causes this.
-Energy kept up through my incredibly NOT GOOD day and even into everything I did in the evening.
-Strength was better than expected during workout.
-Elimination was good today. Perhaps my transition to nectar is also kickstarting digestion again.

Weight at the end of the day = 178.2 lbs (up 1.2 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 1,536 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)

Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 11

Journal:
I did not feel 100% this morning. I felt kind of like I was dehydrated and possibly on a “toxic overload”? It felt like things wanted to come out (felt a little nauseated) but alas everything stayed put. What I have noticed though is that when I have little spurts of not feeling good like that, it honestly does my body good to just not consume anything or to just simply have some water. I’m really beginning to understand that humans treat everything with food and sometimes our bodies simply need time to deal with whatever is ailing us and not have to worry about dealing with and spending more energy digesting food. I have definitely learned this: Do not be afraid of the feeling of hunger.

So what was today’s juice of choice? Grape. Now, I wasn’t really looking forward to grape. I like grapes and when I’m not juice feasting, I love grape juice. But I am going to be honest that I am really not looking forward to my juices anymore. The thought of veggies, nuts, breads, pretty much anything else seems better than another day of juice. Thankfully, I only have two days of juice feasting left and both of those days are slightly different than what I’ve had so far. Stay tuned to find out why! In the mean time, here is my juice for today:

I made it through the school day fairly well though the feeling of dehydration never left 100%. It at least wasn’t bad enough to interfere with anything.

After school, I had enough energy to go out to a closing scrapbook store to check out their sales with a few friends, to the dog park with my dog and my housemates, and then to the gym to do a 30-minute spinning session. I was planning to do more than that at the gym, but it was getting really late by the time I had done everything else and I decided that since work still comes early in the morning, I should go home and get some rest. Hopefully tomorrow I can do some more before cardio.

Towards the end of the day (or rather even half way through), I was getting really sick of drinking juice. In fact, I can tell my taste buds are changing because the juice gets sweeter and sweeter every day. I have never had a diabetic test done where you have to drink the super sweet liquid, but I can imagine that I’m getting just as sick of this as people do of that. It’s so sweet. Anything un-sweet sounds so good right now.

Once again, I ended the day only drinking 2L of juice with water on the side.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue not as white. I’m truly loving it!
-Elimination is little but I haven’t had any “food” so it is to be expected.
-Felt really good until the very end of the day when I had an overwhelming “hot flash” through my chest area a few times. It wasn’t the same as the heartburn/acid reflux feeling but literally like heat went through my body at one time in that one area. It was weird.
-Energy was great.
-Acne was… so-so. I really hope it’s just taking its time to clear up.

Weight at the end of the day = 177 lbs (down a total of 11.8 lbs since the beginning)

Total Calories = approx. 1230 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)

Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 10

Journal:
I did not want to get out of bed this morning. I think I’m getting lazy. I felt good as always, but the nice, warm blankets on a cool day were a little too inviting. Either way, it was a work day, so I had to get up.

I noticed today that I wasn’t really “craving” juice. I’m actually beginning to really like the thought of vegetables. Yes, vegetables. Even lettuce sounds good right now. However, it’s going to be a bit longer until I get some veggies, so I have to keep my mind in the fruit game for now.

The juice of choice today was organic pear juice. Now, I’ve had pear nectars in the past and they weren’t overly sweet. But this juice? Honest to goodness, it tasted like liquid honey. I don’t even eat honey anymore. But the richness of this drink blew me out of the water. If you are ever missing honey after going vegan, grab a bottle of this and the honey cravings will be gone.

Now, this juice was so good that I actually had to run to the bathroom to double check my tongue. Remember how I said my tongue always tasted terrible when coated with the white, detox stuff? Well, my tongue was not perfectly clean, but it was SIGNIFICANTLY less coated than normal. I was shocked. Perhaps this means my body is almost done detoxing? I have no idea and at the same time I doubt it. My face still has a lot to clear before I will begin to think I have little toxins left. But still, the tongue is progress!

So today was a good day. It was pretty chill with the students, leading up to an afternoon that we spent at the community park. It was a great day to soak up some Vitamin D and allow the students to get some energy out. Overall, it was a great day.

After coming home, I laid down to rest for a bit. I think this is coming back to my laziness because it’s not that I was really tired, I just have been forming a habit of coming home, watching YouTube and taking a nap. I think this is something I’m going to have to work on and fix.

After finally waking up and convincing myself to get out of bed (temperature dropped so the warm, cozy blankets were begging me to stay), I went to the gym and got a little more aggressive in my workout. Instead of a simple bike ride or walking on the treadmill, I went at a decent pace on the elliptical for 30 minutes. It felt so good. I think, from here on out, I am going to get more aggressive with my workouts, little by little.

What surprises me the most is that I’m only consuming around 2L of juice per day lately. My body does not want more than that. I don’t feel a dip in energy at all. But what my body is asking for is more water. Not that I’m dehydrated, but it’s just what my body wants. Remember that I said I was going to listen to my body? Well, that’s what I’m doing. So once again, I only drank about 2L of pear juice, and upped the amount of water I was drinking. I only have 3 more days of juice left to go, so it will be interesting to see what happens by the end.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue not as white today. Less scraping to do.
-Stomach sounds like the rolling thunder at times (internal cleaning?).
-Energy is good.
-Acne has little bumps again.

Weight at the end of the day = 179 lbs (down 9.8 lbs from the beginning)

Total Calories = 1030 (100% carbs, 0% fat, 0% protein)

 

Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 9

Journal:
I have determined that it will continue to be a pattern: mornings are simply a good time. I wake up feeling good. I enjoy it.

Today I had the absolute thrill of looking forward to something other than apple juice; I got to drink blueberry juice! The blueberry juice was wonderful. It was so nice to have a switch in flavours.

If you’ve never had blueberry juice before, it’s not quite as sweet as apple juice, but there is such a strong and beautiful blueberry flavour that it is super satisfying. I was so thankful to have it today, as I’m sure my body was as well.

For the most part, I did a lot of work at home today. I did go out and get some more juices to finish out my juice feasting, got a new leash for my dog, and did 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill. Yes, I am feeling stronger today, but I don’t want to “push my luck.” If all goes well, I will be adding in weights again soon!

After determining yesterday that I might be drinking more juice than my body wanted, I slowed down with the juice I drank today. What was the end result? Not one bout of upset stomach. Bingo! Listen to the body and don’t be scared to feel hunger to know if you truly are hungry or not.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is the same. Though one deep pimple is coming through on chin.
-Tongue covered in white again though actually not as bad as the past few days! Perhaps the majority of my toxins are getting out.
-No stomach pain due to reduced juice intake! Celebrate!
-Hair is WAY LESS GREASY! Actually was second-guessing whether it was greasy at all this morning.
-Digestion is regular (no issues).

Weight at the end of the day = 181 (down 0 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 772 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)