My juice fast experience
This is a post in collaboration with juica.se
Hey guys! I just finished a 4 day juice fast. It was supposed to be 3 days, but everything ran so smoothly and I still had some juice left so I decided so continue one more day.
Juica is the juice fasting service that I used. They have all sorts of juice packages. Since this was the first time for me I started with a package called "mjukstart" which means soft start. The "soft start" package includes 6 juices a day. 2 green, 1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow and 1 nut milk. The juices contain both fruits and veggies.
My expectations
I have done 1 day fasts many times before. I remembered that I was feeling really hungry and tired almost all of those times so I was expecting this to be a lot harder... People I know who are more experienced with fasting have told me that the first two days are the hardest. But once you get over that bump it's really great!
How I prepared
I didn't really do much in terms of preparation. But I've known that I will be doing this fast for a long time so I much mentally prepared and I also planned a lot of work this week so I would be occupied. I know from experience that the worse thing i can do if I'm on some kind of fast or diet is to have lots of spare time, boredom and hunger don't go very well together... haha :P
Why am I fasting?
Last year in November I was at Hippocrates Health Institute for 3 weeks doing the "life transformation program". It was intense but afterwards I felt really good! Right now I'm feeling generally stressed and I have some trouble falling asleep at night. Juice fasting enables the body time to heal and clear out toxins. It is a simple and very effective way to break bad habits, get in shape and reboot your health!
Day 1 - Why am I not hungry?
Ok, the first day was the biggest surprise for me. I was expecting to be super hungry and suffering! But to my surprise, I didn't feel any hunger at all. On the contrary, I felt like I had to remind myself to drink the juices all day and still I only drank 5 of them. (6 per day is included in the package) My energy level was pretty low during the day, I felt a bit slow from time to time and I went to bed early (9 PM) which usually never happens.
Day 2 - Feeling good
Waking up on day 2, I started with a 45 minute workout. Then I got right into all the work I had ahead. This day was even more busy than the day before and I had a photo shoot at home which required all of my focus. I'm really surprised by the fact that my body up until this point hadn't felt any hunger! I wasn't trying as hard to drink all the juices so I only drank 4. I did feel a bit filled by the sweetness of the juices and I was really craving something warm. So before bed, I made myself a big warm cup of miso soup. I don't know if that is cheating, but who cares! :P
Day 3 - Hunger kicks in
This was the first day I felt hungry. But it wasn't too bad. It was more on a mental level, craving food and especially warm food! :P What was interesting was that I realized that hunger comes in waves. It really comes and goes. If I wouldn't be fasting I would probably give in to that first hunger impulse and eat something, while now, I was just riding it out and drank a glass of water instead. On this day I was really tired of the sweetness of the juices, I only drank 4 juices and decided that if I'm ever juice fasting again, I'll be doing all veggies! No fruits... What's great is that they do offer a package called RAW CORE with only vegetable juices.
Day 4 (extended)
This day was the hardest day, no surprise maybe... I think that mindset is key when you're on a fast of any kind. Since I wasn't planning to do 4 days, this day became more of a struggle. My mind was going wild on all the foods that I wanted to eat! I ended up drinking 3 juices and eating some cherry tomatoes and had some clear broth soup in the evening... I think it was a good transition and I'm now looking forward to having my first solid meal in 5 days! :P
Summary - Easier than I thought
A great experience all in all! I think that 6 juices is too much, 4 or 5 would be enough for me, I guess you get good value for what you pay for! I guess that my experience was pretty mild compared to what others may detox through. I don't drinking coffee or alcohol, I eat plant based and 95 % organic so I wasn't having any issues with headaches or nausea which I'm very thankful for!
Is fasting for everyone?
No, I think that one should be cautious with fasting... I personally feel that I'm at a very good place today and feel that my relationship to food and my body is getting better each year. Had I on the other hand, made a juice-fast like this 5-10 years ago then I may have triggered unhealthy feelings and behaviors. The relationship we have with food today is not entirely uncomplicated. So I hope that all of you who read this understand that this is just my experience and if I ever make a juice fast again, 1, 2 or 3 years from now, it might look completely different.