Progress

So, Day Two of my juicing journey. Couldn’t believe it when I stepped on the scale this morning…down 3 lbs (188.4 lbs)!  Same for my wife!  That’s amazing.  No doubt a lot of that is water weight but that means my lemon water hydration is working.

Throughout the Day

I felt really hungry at different times through the day but any intense feelings subsided after a while.  Both my wife and I were a little tired today as well.  We knew we needed to get out of the house for a while, so we took our little girl to the Witte Museum in downtown San Antonio.  That was a nice distraction.  When we were finished with the museum we stopped by Central Market for some fresh veggies and got two juices for dinner.

Central Market rocks!  We usually go there for quality meats, veggies and other higher-end unique stuff you don’t usually find in a regular super market.  We picked up some beautiful (seriously, I can’t believe I’m saying this) kale and also some organic kale.  I wanted to see the difference. Of course, we’d love to go completely organic with our foods but for now we pick and choose what we can afford to go organic with.  For our kids’ sake, we have gone organic with milk and eggs.  Anyway, Central Market was like a torture chamber of food temptations!  Our daughter wanted a whole wheat tortilla to eat and I gotta tell you that damn tortilla was hot, fresh, moist…and I swear it was laughing at me! We quickly got our stuff and left. We drank one of the fresh juices we bought there as soon as we got in the car.  It was made with apples, carrots, celery, beets, tomatoes, spinach, leeks, cucumber, parsley, and jalapeno pepper!  Woo hoo, it left a nice little bite at the end!

Hydration

I mentioned in Juice Fast Day One that I drink a lot of lemon water throughout the day.  Up until now I have been squeezing the lemons by hand into a small bowl, then picking out the seeds with a knife, then pouring the juice from the bowl into my water bottle, spilling a decent amount of it.  Simple, but usually messy and, honestly, it got to be a pain.  Well, my wife Vanessa picked me up a Joie Lemon Juicer to try.  Wow!  Where has this thing been for the last few months?  Now I simply slice my lemons and squeeze them on the juicer.  It has a built in screen to catch the pulp and seeds and drains into a little attached measuring cup.  It looks big in the picture below but it fits in the palm of your hand.  The yellow top simply pops off and I pour the juice into my water bottle.  So much easier! I’ll put a link in the Resources section if you’re interested in one.

The Joie Lemon Juicer works great to add a little lemon juice to my water!

Wrap Up

Everything I’ve seen and read says the first two days are the toughest.  Looking back, they weren’t too terrible but I’m still battling that “eating out of habit” thing. But no one said this would be easy. My before bed weight was an even 190 lbs, up from the morning, but after a day of drinking juices and over a gallon of lemon water I’m not surprised.  I’m not going to get too concerned about the weight loss day-by-day, I want to concentrate on just sticking with this.  That’ll keep things positive!  I do want to track it though…more on how I do that tomorrow.  OK, that’s it for today…

Resources

When asked if I know of a reference for juicing…a “one-stop-shopping” guide to getting started…I now recommend Farnoosh Brock’s “Your Comprehensive Green Juicing Guide” I really wish I knew about this book before I started my juicing journey. At least I now have what I consider to be the “definitive reference” to refer others to as they begin their own juicing program. At $9.99, it is WAY underpriced!

If you haven’t already, you should check out the lead-in post to my juice fast, here.

OK, folks…Day 1.  Like Day 1 of almost any endeavor it had some high points, some low points, and ended with relief, “Wow, well that’s over!”

I didn’t mention my pre-fast stats.  I weighed my self the day I got the juicer in from Amazon and my weight was 202 lbs.    Last night I weighed in at 193.9 lbs.  So, thats a total loss of 8.1 lbs just by making minor changes in my eating habits and also juicing twice a day for the last 3 weeks.  Not bad!

Breakfast

All my life I’ve been a “breakfast guy.”  I think that’s because I enjoy typical American breakfast food (eggs, meat, bread, potatoes) and could always find something I enjoyed for breakfast no matter where I went.  For all other meals I guess you could either call a “picky” eater or that I have a very limited palette.  As long as I had meat, some bread, and some type of hot sauce then I was happy!  One thing that I noticed during my 3-week preparation of introducing my body to juicing and eating smaller, lighter portions was that I wasn’t as hungry first thing in the morning. That helped a lot this morning!  For transparency’s sake, I should mention that my wife and I did do a pre-fast splurge for dinner last night, though.  She had pancakes and I made flat bread pizza on the grill with lots of onion and peppers (fresh roasted red bell, jalapeno, hot banana, and Greek banana), fresh roasted pepper tomato sauce, and a little bit of lean ham.  DELICIOUS!  I didn’t binge or treat it like a “death row” meal but I really did enjoy it! (Pause as I wipe the drool from my keyboard)

The first real challenge of the day was the big batch of juice we made to get my wife and me through lunchtime. Unfortunately, it was the worst juice I’ve ever made!  Yuk!  Had to deal with that all morning and lunchtime until it was gone.

Throughout the Day

I felt a little bit hungry a few times throughout the day but I certainly didn’t feel like I was “starving.”  I found that during Day 1 I was really battling habit versus hunger…you know, reaching for something to eat out of either boredom, habit, or just because it’s there.  That’ll take some discipline to change that.

I drank LOTS of lemon water throughout the day, a habit I’ve developed over the last few months.  I downed 4 liters which should help with the effects of the detox.  The body goes into a detox mode and releases toxins into your system, causing symptoms from headaches, nausea, and tiredness to flu-like symptoms, etc.  Drinking lots of water helps flush out your system and lesson the effects.

Habits Die Hard

I found that seeing foods I didn’t even ordinarily eat caused my mouth to water!  We took our little girl to McDonalds to have a snack (don’t judge, now) and play on the playground (she had some energy to burn off).  Unlike the rest of the world, I’m not a big fan of Micky D’s fries but even those made my salivary glands gush like Niagara Falls.  Oh, and back to the habit thing…I found myself reaching for a fry without any conscious thought whatsoever!  Crazy!

Well, Day 1 down…I’ll try to keep daily updates going and a little shorter, too.

One final note…my weight before bed was on Day 1 was 192.9 lbs.  So, 1 pound down…

Honestly, I read other guides before I began a juice program. They were decent…but as I read Farnoosh Brock’s “Your Comprehensive Green Juicing Guide” I found myself really wishing that I had bought this book FIRST to prepare me for my juicing journey. At least I now have what I consider to be the “definitive reference” to refer others to as they begin their own juicing program.

Proud Meatatarian

I have been an avowed “meatatarian” my entire life. Never, ever been a veggie guy. Sure, I enjoyed potatoes and corn but the only other vegetables I ever ate regularly were onions and peppers…to compliment my steak or sausage, of course. Oh, and I did enjoy a stick or two of celery after I finished my wings (as hot as you can make them is my preference).  If I was feeling really “freaky” I might order some onion on my all-meat pizza.  And I’ve always liked hot peppers of any type on pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, etc.  That said, I have eaten exactly three salads in my 46 years. You read that right, three.  I wasn’t much of a fruit guy either.  I’d eat an apple occasionally (5-6 times a year) but that was it.  I like fruit juices, but not eating the fruit itself.

Like most people, I felt generally immortal and figured I could do anything to my body until it proved me otherwise.  I was always fit because of my job and it seemed I could put whatever I wanted into my body and still be able to easily run half-marathons without training, jump out of planes, run around the terrain with a full rucksack…you name it, I could do it.  But then things started creeping up on me.  Aches, pains, longer recovery after injuries.  Deep down I knew I needed to change how I fueled myself, but I didn’t.  Sometimes people stay on the same path even though they know that path is a dead end. That was me with my eating habits. It’s been a concern of mine for a long time, but I effectively ignored it.

I was always curious about juicing ever since I first saw those late-night infomercials years ago for the Juiceman, remember those?  Somehow I thought that even though I didn’t eat vegetables or fruits that I would be able to drink the juice.  Still, I never actually tried it. I confess I have never even tried a V8!  Yet somehow I tucked the desire to juice away in that part of the brain marked “Someday.”  You know, the place where you store ideas of things you “should” or “need” to do but never seem to get around to…and probably never will?

So What Changed?

As I was reading through my list of unread posts in Google Reader on 3 December 2011, I came across one from the ladies over at On the Green Road. The post was about their plan to juice as they traveled.  In the post, Cece and Brenda mention a documentary called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, by an Australian guy named Joe Cross. I was on short vacation at the time but luckily I was able to watch the movie through Netflix on my iPad. The documentary follows Joe on on his 60-day juice fast as he travels across the US.  On his travels he interviews people about their eating habits and introduces them to juicing.  As the movie progresses the viewer is introduced to two others who begin to juice and change their lives. Phil Staples’ story is amazing and so inspirational.  I could go on and on about this flick but suffice it to say I was immediately convinced and have watched it over and over again for motivation and to soak in all the information in the film.  If you’re considering juicing, this documentary is a MUST SEE!

Getting Started

So what is a juice fast? Well, my juice fast is modeled after the one in the movie.  I intend to consume only fresh vegetable and fruit juices that are rich in enzymes and nutrients.  Joe Cross’s website explains the difference between fresh and store-bought juices as follows:

What’s the difference between making fresh juice and buying commercial juices?

Juicing offers us many delicious health benefits including a faster, more efficient way to absorb immune boosting nutrients naturally found in fruits and vegetables. It also provides a way to access digestive enzymes typically locked away in the fiber matrix of whole fruits and vegetables.

Most commercial juices are processed and lacking in nutrition compared to fresh juiced fruits and vegetables. Those that indicate they have 100% juice are technically better than those with only 10% or less. However all varieties are not made and drunk right away like with fresh juice from a juicer. There is still processing and travel which must occur thereby decreasing some of the nutrients. Many juices on the market have more sugar per ounce than soda. The least amount of sugar per ounce of juice is found (no surprises) in fresh made juice.

Freshly inspired, I surfed over to Amazon.com and bought the Breville 800JEXL Juice Fountain Elite 1000-Watt Juice Extractor so that it would be waiting for us when we got back home. I gotta say, I’m pretty impressed with this thing…all the major parts are stainless steel and it has been very easy to clean.  Looks great in the kitchen, too!

Next was my exploration through uncharted territory… place called ‘the produce section” of the grocery store.  I’m not sure I knew that section existed.  As an area I was always able to skip before, I actually had to have the stock guy show me where things were.  I had never even heard of kale, didn’t know you could buy fresh spinach (hell, Popeye’s was always in a can), didn’t know what a beet, fennel, or ginger root looked like.  Seriously folks, I was completely produce challenged.  But within the first week , and I’m in no way exaggerating this, I had consumed more vegetables and fruits through juicing than I have consumed collectively in my entire life.

So, I’m on my way to a better  me.  Knowing that a ‘juice only” fast is a big step for a reforming meatatarian I have spent the last three weeks getting used to juicing, eating smaller meals, and hydrating.  I’ve done a mini detox already so it’s not so bad when I start the fast. I’ve found lots of great resources online and I’ll be linking to them here on the blog as I go.

One thing I’m confident about is that juicing will be a entirely new part of my daily life after the fast.  I’m amazed with how much better I feel getting all those fresh enzymes, nutrients, and other good stuff into my body.  The changes are awesome.  I’ll be starting the fast on 28 December 2011.  My goal right now is to do a 10-day fast and see how it goes.  If all goes well then I may just keep going!  I’ll keep posting, so if you’re interested keep stopping by!

Resources

UPDATE:  By popular demand I had to move this info about the Withing’s WiFi Body Scale to this post.  So many people have shown an interest and I was asked to put in here in My Juicing Journey by some readers. So, here you go:

OK, I found this amazing WiFi scale.  So, I’m a tech guy…so there’s no reason I can’t include a little high-tech gadgetry in my fast, right?  Well the Withings WiFi Body Scale, White certainly fits the cool gadget bill! Here’s some info about the scale:

• Records weight, fat mass, lean muscle mass, and BMI
• Monitors your data on a private, password-secured website
• Free iPhone application increases data access
• Accurate graduation of 0.2 pounds; maximum weight of 396 pounds
• Multi-user monitoring allows up to eight users