This juice fast was only supposed to be a one day experiment, because I wanted to try fun California food and new places to eat while I was on the West Coast. Moira talked me into keeping the juicing momentum going and trying it for a bit more. I agreed, knowing I had dinner plans at Andrew Weil’s True Food Kitchen in Santa Monica.
I began the morning of Day 2 with breakfast of raw sauerkraut and raw chocolate. Not exactly a true juice fast, but apparently I am making up my own rules now.
Why sauerkraut? Because that’s what I had in the refrigerator to help continue to populate my digestive tract with probiotic flora. If I did this over again and for long term, I would be prepared with kombucha or kefired coconut water to drink along with my juices to keep my gut healthy. But since I didn’t prepare for a second day, I picked kraut.Okay, why the raw chocolate? First, raw chocolate is super high in anti-oxidants. Second, I needed a pick me up after the kraut first thing in the morning and again since that is what I found acceptable in the refrigerator until we made it to Whole Foods for the juice bar., that’s what I was going to have. Plus, I like to experiment and see how much I can get away with. 🙂
At 10:15 am, Moira and I got a shot of ginger, lemon, and apple. Then we nursed Juice #1 (same concoction as yesterday). It tasted so sweet after the ginger!
What I find amazing is how relative everything is – how much our perception of almost identical experiences changes when our perspective shifts.
Back to the cafe for more writing and chronicling this experience to share with you. 1:15 pm and Juice #1 is finished. I have also been sipping white vanilla tea (mostly hot water with a tinge of color). Onto Juice #2 – so far so good. A few hours more and I might actually make it till dinner time.
Thank you Moira for hosting, taking me dancing, pushing my mental, emotional, and physical limitations and attachments around food. It is extremely uncomfortable and painful to have one’s weaknesses exposed. I am learning a lot about myself. Ah… a constant journey, life is.
It also is helping to understand how much food can mean to some of us and depending on our upbringing how many attachments we actually can have to food and what else can be wrapped up around it. This brief experiment has exposed to me how much of an emotional eater I actually am and how much I actually overeat – healthy food, bu
t overeat. It is amazing and mind blowing, but not really. When the realization occurs it is very clear, just very, very uncomfortable to look at your self and shine the light in places where it is so dark; to open the doors to rooms that have been shut and to discover all the dust that has collected. Just the mere act of opening the door to that dark room and getting air circulating in it will stir up the dust particles and make you cough. So it’s okay to cough, it’s okay to shed a tear or two. I did. Twice today. This is part of the detox. I might leave the door to that dark room ajar to remind myself to go back there and begin to clear it out, but not all at once, baby steps… baby steps. But I am certainly not slamming it shut. Emotional cobwebs of my soul are inside that dusty room and they will need some love.
At 6:30pm I finished juice #3. That’s the end of my juice fast. Ironically enough, when I got to True Food Kitchen for dinner to break my juice fast I ordered a fresh squeezed juice: the Hangover (which consisted of coconut water, pineapple and orange juice). Funny!
Lessons I learned for myself:
- Maintain blood sugar levels even by drinking throughout the day and not letting myself get out of control hungry.
- Keep up on the probiotics to help keep a healthy gut.
- Make sure you are not juicing just sweet fruits and veggies, add lots and lots of greens to alkalize the blood.
- Be prepared for detox symptoms of many kinds: emotional, physical, etc. Give your self space and time to do what your body is asking of you. That means build in the time before hand, anticipating needing it.
- Slowly and gently reintroduce food back into your system. Start with raw foods and small quantities and give your digestive system time to relearn how to work again.
- Most importantly, don’t start dancing immediately after eating solid food for the first time in 2 days. I lost a bit of my pizza toppings, poor kale going to waste. I had to stop dancing; let my food settle down a bit lower in my digestive tract. Drank water and 10 minutes later was perfect and ready to dance again.
All in all a fantastic night! At midnight I crashed into bed. LA – I miss you, all the fresh fruits and veggies, awesome dancing, and the sunshine. But I will be back!
So, as I mentioned in part 1 of this post, I still do not have a juicer at home. I am doing some reasearch and will soon pick one and test it out at home. Promise to tell you all about it.
Currently, I am making smoothies almost every morning. It is a great way to start the day.
A number of you have written to me and asked for recommendations on what to use to make smoothies?
Here is my answer: use whatever blender you already have in your kitchen, just as long as it works But if you don’t have one and have a little cash to spare, the one I have had in my kitchen for 7 years is the Vitamix. It has been worth every penny. Not only does it make smoothies, but it can make nut butters, raw ice cream, and soup! Mostly, I love making morning shakes in it. It does a fantastic job of breaking down everything I ask of it. I also like to make my own dressings in it. Happy to answer any questions. Happy Blending and Happy Spring! If you have a favorite recipe for a shake enter it in the comments below and share with the community. Or any other experiences related to juicing or emotional eating for that matter.