On Sunday the 8th, I had dinner with my girlfriend and that was my plan for the last solid foods until today, the 16th. The 8 day fast became a 6 day fast which is disappointing but I was invited to an event where the food being served was simply unavoidable. I’ll write more about that in tomorrow’s post. After my evening of solids, I spent days 7 and 8 back on the juice. Of the 8 days, I only had juice supply for 6 so a lot of that time was spent with water but with one vegetable juice at a juice bar in town. Overall, things were similar to my last fast. Day 1 is fine but 2 and 3 were pretty painful. By day 4, things were completely fine and I could continue indefinitely. That’s how most people feel during fasting. Hunger goes away and you will psychologically crave food more than your body actually needs it.
The $450 6 day juice supply is so expensive that I won’t be doing it again. I decided after my 2nd juice shipment arrived that it was time to find an alternative. BluePrintCleanse charges $75 a day and that includes the overnight shipping of fresh juice. It’s cheaper if you live in NYC and can pick up the juice each day. I decided to purchase my own juicer. It’s a Breville juicer with different speed settings and is really easy to clean up and is mid-range of their line. I’ll talk more about it after a few weeks of use. This morning, instead of spending $75 in juice, I instead bought $60 in vegetables and that will last me 4-5 days. My weekly investment minus the $200 juicer should come out to $100. I’m thrilled with this number and I’m getting fresher juice and am also controlling which ingredients go in my body. BluePrintCleanse offers a 21 day fast but those juices got boring after a few days. Now, I can spice things up.
Alongside the juice, I also bought a basic $80 Colonix program for 30 days from Dr. Natura. My parents did this at age 40 so I thought my juice diet would be a nice time to also take on this colonix program. I’ve seen results already which is great! I’ll continue that until the pills, fiber and tea run out mid-February.
After completing 6 days of juicing, I was feeling pretty weak. I had energy but not my usual energy. Eating solids would probably be good but maybe giving up on meat is certainly an option for me as I didn’t miss meat. I just missed things like eggs, apples and cheese. I’d love a cookie right now or perhaps some ice cream. Things like that are what I miss, not steaks and burgers. The plan was to go snowboarding all weekend since I have Monday off but I just don’t feel like it. I get lightheaded on my morning run so have decided to spend my time on deep breathing exercises, stretching and simple things like pushups. Most of my time is spent laying down reading. If you like reading, fasting is pretty nice.
My next steps will probably surprise you. I’m going to keep juicing but not fasting. Until I decide not to, I’ll start my day on 15 minutes of juicing where I take roughly 8 pounds of vegetables and juice them into my washed BluePrintCleanse bottles. I’ll make 5 juices and the 6th will be a breakfast drink consisting of 5 oranges juiced with the peels on into a glass of fiber powder. I’ll have carrot juice for lunch, celery, spinach, kale and apples for an afternoon snack and then dinner can be either a juice OR a well balanced meal of a spinach and walnut salad with chicken, eggs or fish and something hearty like a baked potato. By allowing myself to eat dinner, I can go back to the gym every day and workout without feeling lightheaded. BluePrintCleanse calls this “Juice till Dinner” and I’m excited about it. Basically, I wake up 30 minutes earlier and prepare every meal for the day and set out chicken to defrost and then, before 8PM, I’ve only taken in roughly 500 calories and about 10x what my body needs in fiber and, at dinner, I add another 700 calories in the form of a dinner following my work out and a 300 calorie whey protein shake right before bed.
The new diet will continue until I don’t want to do it anymore. We’ll see how long I can last. I haven’t weighed myself yet but I will be doing that tomorrow at the gym. Of course, for the remainder of the month, my “detox” will continue which is just over 2 weeks from today. I promised myself no meat but once a week and I’m going to scratch that. I may not eat meat every day but there are days I’d like to have it. Where possible, I’ll use fish, eggs and soy based protein in order to adhere to my detox but no promises.
So, that’s the update! Overall, I’m halfway into the detox and everything is great. I didn’t have any weight loss goals for this month. It’s just a reset of my mind’s approach to what I do each day and it hasn’t been easy. However, I don’t miss coffee as much as I thought or beer or alcohol. I don’t miss the things that were thought to be essential to my weekly routines. I like that. I also finished reading the 1st book yesterday and start a new one today. Everything is on track and I look forward to sharing my juicing results with you all in a few weeks!