Raw Juice Fast

Yesterday I started a juice fast. I came to the decision to do so because I was having a hard time committing to eating raw. A couple weeks ago, I decided I would try to eat 100% raw for 100 days. This idea was inspired by Bunny Berry's 100 day raw food challenge. I kept trying to start, but I couldn't seem to stay 100% raw. Probably because I was trying to jump into it from a very cooked food diet. I have gone back and forth from cooked food to raw food a lot in the past year. I may have already mentioned this, but the longest time I have been 100% raw is 21 days. I felt amazing during that time, so I can only imagine what 100 days would feel like. This makes me think of people like Angela Stokes and all the others that have been raw for years! 

So, back to the fast. I have this idea that if I start with a raw juice fast, that eating raw when I start eating again will be easier than going from cooked food to raw food. Plus, I need the cleansing benefits of the fast. So I have officially started my 100% raw 100 day challenge!

I'm not following any one person's suggestion for the fast. I'm mostly concerned with the quality of the juice I'm drinking, and that I can in fact finish this fast. My plan is to do this for at least six days. I have heard that the first two to three days of a fast, your body is still processing existing food in your digestive system, and then for the next couple days your body is using up particular fat stores (or something like that), and so the cleansing and healing benefits of the fast don't really start until day five. So that's why I decided that I must fast for at least six days. I'm on day two right now, and I feel great. I have already lost 3.5 pounds according to the scale, but I'm sure that is just the food in my digestive system leaving my body. However much I may lose while on this fast, I do expect to gain back a few pounds when I start eating again. I wonder how many pounds of food we carry around in our digestive systems.

So one concern I had about being able to do this fast is whether or not my juicer would hold up. I have an inexpensive juicer: the Juiceman Jr. Juicer. I've had it for almost a year, but have only used it for a few weeks at a time, when I get on juice kicks. I am relatively pleased with how it has held up, however yesterday I noticed a chip in the plastic piece that guides the fruit/veggie to the blade. This piece sits very close to the blade, and I think that it may have been broken off with the blade. Sometimes when I juice a whole lemon or something else hard the machine shakes like crazy like it is going to break. I guess it did. Anyway, I hope I didn't drink plastic juice one day. :/ This machine is also a pain to clean. I hear that most juicers are, but the Breville is a powerful juicer and easier to clean, but at this time I don't have the money to buy one. 

All this led me to a different way to juice. I actually found the idea from a few different youtube videos. This method requires a high speed blender, and fortunately I have a vitamix. It also requires a nut milk bag, which is a mesh bag usually used to strain the nut pulp when making nut milks (like almond milk for example). The only thing about this juicing method that might not be desirable to some is that you have to get your hands messy. And your hands touch the juice that you will be drinking, so you have to thoroughly wash your hands before doing this. Or, you could get some food handling gloves and just wear a glove, which is actually what I had to do to prevent the acidic pineapple from hurting a tiny cut I had on my hand. 

So anyway, I just put all of my ingredients for the juice into the vitamix, blend at the highest speed until uniformly liquid. Then I pour it into the nut milk bag, which is placed over a bowl to catch the juice. Then I squeeze all the juice out from the bag. The first time I did this, I could not believe how much juice I got! Way more than with my juicer. And the pulp left over was so dry, not at all as moist as the pulp my juicer produces. And in the end, cleanup is easy. All I have to do is rinse the vitamix and the nut milk bag and I'm done. No scrubbing multiple machine parts. So this way of juicing is faster, produces more juice, and is easier to clean up. Yay! The only down side is that for some reason it does gross me out a little to squeeze the juice out of the bag, but I'll get over it.

Here's yesterday's juices in the order I drank them:

Watermelon

Green Lemonade: romaine lettuce, spinach, celery, apple, lemon, ginger

Grapefruit/Orange diluted 50% with water

Peppermint Tea (obviously not raw)

Chard, cucumber, pear

Pineapple diluted 50% with water

I am actually quite surprised at how much this juice fills me up, and how when I feel hungry, I just drink juice, and my hunger goes away. Part of this is because since the juice is raw, I'm getting so many vitamins, nutrients and enzymes from the juice that my body can easily turn it into fuel/energy. About 14 years ago, I did a juice fast in which more than half of the juice I drank was store bought, which means it was pasteurized (heated) and therefore void of enzymes. Dead juice. So most likely I was just pumping myself with sugar, and not much vitamins and nutrients. This is why when doing a juice fast, it must be fresh, raw juice.

Okay, I will just write and write unless I stop myself, so I will stop. Thanks for reading. I love discussing the topic of raw food, and currently fasting, so please contact me if you have any comments or questions. :)

xoxo