End of Day 1

I just arrived home from work and had to overcome a moment of weakness which almost ruined the whole challenge. I looked in my cabinet, which I suppose I did out of habit, and saw a bag of blue corn chips and thought to myself: "I went all day long, maybe I can just reward myself with a few chips." I just about reached for the bag until I stopped myself. After juicing all day, a few chips would have easily become the whole bag, and then I could see myself writing a new "Day 1" blog entry tomorrow. No! I will be strong! No salty processed food items for me! FEW, that was close.

Other than that, my day went pretty smooth. I expected to feel like I was starving myself but I actually felt comfortably full all day long. I brought a 64oz jug of juiced veggies and fruit to work tonight which is what I drank, and I even brought a back up 16oz of juice in a separate bottle that I didn't end up needing. The 64oz consisted of:
4 broccoli stalks
10 celery ribs
20 grapes
20 blue berries
3 pineapple slices
7 beets
2/3 grapefruit
1 orange
2 lemon
1 lime
6 grape tomatoes
1 hand full of parsley
1 cup of spinach
4 asparagus stalks
1 apple
1/2 mango
2 kiwis
2 nectarines
10 baby carrots

The hardest part of the day was craving salty foods. I dealt with the cravings by:
*Distracting myself
*Reminding myself of the purpose of the challenge
*Posting and reading posts from community members on Reboot Your Life which is a website dedicated to people who decide to try juicing diets after seeing the film Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.
*Physically moving myself...getting up from my seat and taking a walk

All of the above seemed to work!

The scary thing is I think after tomorrow I may already run out of all my fruit and vegetables. I may have severely underestimated the cost of this challenge. I suppose the money I am saving on no longer buying fast food, going out to eat to restaurants, and purchasing fancy lattes will balance it out. On the up side, I am already looking forward to adding different types of plants to my juices!

And The Juicing Begins!

Slept in late as always, woke up at 11:00am and made my first juice of the day which consisted of:
3 beets
9 blueberries
1/2 mango
3 celery ribs
3 blackberries
1/2 orange
1/2 lemon
2 cups of spinach
5 strawberries
6 baby carrots

I am already out of most of my fruit and vegetables from the breakfast drinks I have been making all week, so my guess is I am going to be visiting the grocery store quite often throughout this juicing challenge. I was pretty unsuccessful at cutting down my cheese and sugar consumption, but managed to cut down significantly on my caffeine intake. Now, I am off of these things cold turkey and we'll see how it goes!

The 7 day juicing challenge begins now!

I am feeling excited and strong!

I will post more later!

Preperation

So for the past 7 days I have been starting off my mornings with a juiced drink. I do not use any type of recipe, I have just been throwing every fruit and vegetable in my fridge into the juicer. For example, this morning I made a drink that consisted of:

1/2 cup of spinach
3 beets
1 kiwi
1/2 orange
4 cherries
1/3 pear
6 baby carrots
3 celery stalks
10 blueberries
4 blackberries
4 grape tomatoes
4 strawberries
3 pineapple slices

I find that no matter what I throw into the juicer, the flavor of the orange and the celery seem to overpower the rest of the ingredients. I am happy about this because I find the two flavors to be very refreshing. I also want to add that I have been letting my juiced creations chill in the freezer for 10 minutes before I drink them.

After skimming over the many juicing recipes I found online and in some books, I have decided that they are insufficient for a juice-only diet. Not all vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are found in just one or two plants, it takes consuming a combination of many different fruits and vegetables to achieve adequate nutrition. Knowing this, I do not believe it would be wise or healthy to limit my drinks to ingredients that only consisted of three or four plants which is what I came across when I searched for juicing recipes. That being said, I will post all of my custom made recipes on this blog daily when I begin my juicing diet but understand that they will be much more complex then what is commonly found.

So far, I have noticed a surge of energy after consuming my morning drinks, something comparable to a morning caffeine buzz. It has completely replaced my morning cup of coffee but I have been drinking half-1 cup of coffee later in the day. I am betting that when I am drinking juice all day long I won't even miss it. I have drastically cut down my soda consumption and have only had about 4 glasses over the past 7 days.

As for sugar, I have cut down significantly as long as you do not count this past weekend where I kind of went chocolate happy on Monday night while watching a movie. As for cheese? I have been completely unsuccessful at cutting down and may have even increased my cheese consumption over the past 7 days if that is possible! I still have a few more days to go until I begin the juice-only challenge so lets hope I can cut down or else I may be at risk for going into shock over absence of cheese when I begin.

That's it for now folks,
Questions or comments are always welcomed!

The Sickness; Preparing for a Cure

This compact Breville juicer is a Christmas gift to myself.

For the past 5 months I have experienced the following:
*Extreme exhaustion that ceases to diminish with sleep or caffeine use
*Daily headaches
*Bouts of nausea
*Loss of motivation to engage in physical activity such as running which use to be a favored stress buster and hobby of mine
*Low tolerance to physical activity meaning when I do work out or spend most of the day on my feet, my body tires quickly and becomes sore.
*Mild depression, a loss of interest in doing things I usually enjoy. I have been spending a lot more time watching movies instead of spending time with friends, reading, or writing.
*Frequent colds and sore throats
*Frequent stomachaches
*Random unexplainable pain in different parts of my body
*Frequent bouts of irritability
*Laziness
*Clouded thinking and loss of concentration

I believe these are symptoms of poor nutrition for the following reasons:
*For the past year my junk food consumption has increased from an occasional once a week treat to daily intake. At work I am constantly offered candy, chips, cookies, cakes, and donuts. When I first began working there I was able to defer my temptation but as time went on I found myself resisting less and less.
*My soda consumption has increased from 0 intake to only on the weekends, to a daily can, and is now up to 2-3 cans a day.
*In addition to my soda consumption I am also drinking 2 cups of coffee a day with 1 cup usually purchased from DD or Starbucks with a ton of added sugar as I usually get some type of specialty flavored latte.
*Major increase in fast-food consumption during the past year. Due to being busy with work and school, laziness, convenience, and stress.
*My dairy intake has become ridiculous, having turned into a bit of a cheese junkie with cheese being a part of at least 3 out of the 4 meals I consume a day.

I have learned enough about nutrition to know that if I continue these habits I will not only continue to experience a poor quality of life, but will also increase my odds of developing a number of serious health conditions including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

The Plan/Cure:
I plan to prepare over the next week for a juice-only diet. I will limit my caffeine consumption, avoid fast food, decrease dairy intake, and restrict my sugar intake. I will also drink 1 juiced drink per day to prepare my taste buds and my intestines.

Afterwards, I plan to juice for 7 days and if I am successful and I haven't harmed anyone due to lack of caffeine, cheese, or sugar then I will set another goal and continue the juicing. I have decided to keep this blog for support, motivation, accountability, and to record my experiences to determine how effective or non-effective this experiment is.

I should also probably add a little disclaimer: I do not recommend that anybody else follow my lead unless they have received approval from their doctor.