Update: I finished the 7 Day Juice Fast!!

I finished my 7 day cleansing fast. Overall it was successful, and I feel fantastic because of it. I meant to write on the last few days of the fast, but I just got really busy. I'll give a little recap.

The fifth day turned out to be one of the hardest days for me. One of the symptoms of detox that I overlooked when I was originally researching the effects of detox while fasting was the emotional aspect. I pretty much had a huge emotional release, and didn't know how exactly to deal with it. I cried a lot, over really insignificant things, and overreacted to things that didn't need such an emotional response. This led me to look into the emotional components of fasting. I found that it is a very common response to a cleansing fast, and that most people experience some kind of emotional imbalance while fasting, whether it be anger, sadness, or otherwise. It was just something that needed to come out, and I'm glad it did.

I was a little spacey for many days of the fast. That is also to be expected. But at the same time, I felt I had a mental clarity that helped me to see things as they were, and be more mindful about choices that I have to make. It was like I was given a new way to look at things.

One thing I'm not sure if I mentioned before is how much juice I'm actually drinking. At each "meal" of juice, I would consume at least 16 ounces of the juice, and then 8 to 16 ounces of water immediately after I drank the juice. So on average, I was drinking 24-32 ounces of liquid within about 5 minutes. That might sound like a lot to have in one sitting, but keep in mind that my stomach was virtually empty, and I could easily drink these amounts. I always felt full after the juices, and they would keep me going for a few hours until I needed to make more.

Below are the juices I drank on the last few days of the fast. On day five, I wrote how much of each thing I put into the juices just to give an idea of how many nutrients are going into the juices I was drinking:

Day 5 Thursday Feb 12

Watermelon (1/2 of a small watermelon)

Romaine (1 head), Chard (1 bunch), Kale (1 bunch), Celery (4 stalks), Parsley (1/2 bunch)

Beet (1 small), apples (2), lemon (1/2), ginger (small chunk)


Day 6 Friday Feb 13

Watermelon

Celery, romaine, kale, parsley, lemon, ginger

Apple

Beet, carrot, romaine, parsley, kale, lime


Day 7 Saturday Feb 14

Watermelon (whole small)

Romaine (1/2 head), chard (1 bunch), beet (1/2 large), lemon (1/2), ginger (small chunk)

Celery, romaine, lime

Strawberry

Apple

Peppermint tea

The last day of the fast was Valentine's Day, which also happens to be the anniversary of my first date with Dave, and since we're not married, that is the day we choose to celebrate our anniversary. This year marks 8 years. I decided that my valentines dinner juice would be something yummy, and since I was ending the fast the next day, I felt it was close enough to not have such a cleansing beverage, so I chose strawberry juice. Yum! Of course I made a regular valentines meal for my family for valentines day. They had smoked salmon, pasta, corn, fresh strawberries, and sparkling apple cider. I was content drinking my strawberry juice, as it was one of the tastier juices from this fast. That night, Dave played a show so I allowed myself again to indulge in a fruit juice and brought some fresh apple juice with me, as well as some peppermint tea. It's so different being at a bar and not drinking. Especially interacting with intoxicated people while sober. I have felt in the past the need to drink just because I was out at a bar. But I had an even better time not drinking. I liked how aware of everything I was. Ahhh, sobriety. It feels good. Not that I am a heavy drinker. Just the opposite. That's when I do go out and drink, I get intoxicated rather quickly.

So, back to the fast. I broke the fast on Sunday. I did this buy eating 6 ounces of dried prunes that I had soaked overnight so they were very soft. Eating soaked prunes to break the fast is a great way to give my body one last flush, and at the same time get my body ready to eat solid foods again. I found a website that gives a calculation for how many days you should take to break your fast. This particular website is mostly talking about juice "feasting" where people drink only juice for many days, anywhere from 7 to 100 days. The fast breaking period should be broken down into three parts: part one is just the prunes and more juices, part two is adding in juicy fruits, but actually eating them, not just juicing them, and the third part is adding in greens and salads. Since my fast was only 7 days, it was only recommended that I take about 1 and a half days to break the fast, although I will be taking it easy for a few days. So here is what I ate on the first day of breaking the fast:

Cantaloupe juice

The soak water from the soaking prunes

6 ounces soaked dried prunes (which is actually a LOT of prunes)

Green smoothie: purple chard, pear, pineapple, strawberry, fresh coconut water

Grapefruit/Orange juice

That's all I was hungry for yesterday. I would have made a green juice too, but I am out of almost everything and need to go shopping today. There was one interesting thing about eating the prunes yesterday. Every prune I ate I could feel traveling down into my stomach. It was the very weirdest sensation! I had not eaten one bite of solid food for 7 days, so my digestive system was free of any substance except liquids, and I just had not had the sensation of eating food for a while. I just could not get over that feeling of being able to feel the prune going down all the way to my stomach. It was pretty cool, but strange.

Today I made a pudding in my vitamix from frozen blueberries, a banana, and some fresh young coconut meat. It was very good, but very very sweet. I was surprised how sweet it tasted. It seemed like it had agave or some other sweetener in it, but it was just the fruit.

So after before the fast I weighed myself and took my measurements, because I knew there would be changes going on in my body. After the seven days I lost 10.5 pounds. Some of that is the absence of food in my digestive system, but only a few pounds most likely. I also lost some inches. Here's how much I lost off of the following body parts, for a total of 9 1/4 inches:

Bust: 1.25 inchs
Waist: 1.5 inches
Abdomen: 2 inches
Hips: 1.5 inches
Right Arm: no change
Left Arm: no change
Right Thigh: 1 inch
Left Thigh: 1 inch
Right Calf: .5 inch
Left Calf: .5 inch

I feel great, and I am looking forward to slowly introducing delicious raw food back into my life. I'm happy to be eating solid food again. I knew that doing this raw juice fast would leave me feeling refreshed and ready to commit to 100 days of raw food. The first day of this fast marked the first day of my 100 day raw food challenge. I'll post updates here periodically. Thanks for reading. I love sharing my experiences. :)

xoxo~Stephanie