I'm beginning Day Two of the juice fast. Alas, I realized last night that I was coming down with a cold. I had that bodily fatigue that comes with a cold, plus a scratchy throat. I don't feel well this morning, but I hope my immune system does its usual thing and I'll be pretty much over it by tonight.
You might be thinking, "See what happens when you stop eating and go off on some cockamamie fad?" But I tend to think I'm ill because I was recently exposed to the cold virus.
There can be side effects to a juice fast, or even a reboot that follows a five-days-eating-veggies/fruit, five-days-fasting, five-days-eating-veggies/fruit pattern (seems to be the "standard" reboot). These side effects, to quote the Reboot FAQ, can include "fatigue, headache, low blood sugar, constipation or diarrhea, increased body odor or bad breath." Some people complain of light-headedness and even nausea. I've had none of these symptoms and don't expect any.
Some of those possible side effects are said to come from the body releasing toxins from where they are stored. I am not familiar enough with the science to know how true this is, but if it's true, I'm pretty confident I won't have any problems. I believe the side effects would be worse for people who eat the SAD way (standard American diet). At chez D'Arcy, we mostly avoid processed foods, don't eat fast food, buy organic when we can, and eat only grass-fed beef and the most humanely raised chicken we can find along with copious amounts of veggies. So I'm not starting out with a load of toxins in my system compared to a lot of Americans. Well, except for groundwater pollution, ugly chemicals in the environment, etc.
On the other hand ... coffee and alcohol. I'm not supposed to have either on the fast, but the caffeine withdrawal headaches are so bad that I'm cutting down gradually. Today's pot of coffee was half regular, half decaf. I just can't face those severe headaches. As for alcohol, James opened a bottle of wine last night and I had a hard time staying on the wagon--I do love my wine. But I didn't have any, so score one for self-control. (A shout-out to friend Cindy, who promised to abstain along with me. Thinking of the promise we'd made to do this together really helped me say no!)
I admit I had hunger pangs yesterday. I made a glass of juice when that happened, and I drank a LOT of ice water as well to fill up the hollow spaces.
My juices yesterday were
- apple, pear, cherry, lime
- apple, spinach, kale, carrots, ginger root
- Salsa in a Glass (tomato, cucumber, lime, cilantro, with a dash of hot sauce added to the glass)
- Mean Green (30 oz. of juice from kale, celery, cucumber, apples, lemon, and ginger root)
I had intended to add another juice right before bed, but because of the onset of the cold, wasn't really hungry.
I think some of the juice ingredients must be diuretic because I had to get up three times during the night!
This morning I had an orange-beet-carrot combination. Delicious. James said it was weird to smell beets in your glass, and I agreed that it takes some getting used to--the raw taste as well as the aroma. Once past that, though, the flavors are so fresh and, in the case of this combination, naturally sweet.
I wasn't going to weigh myself every day but couldn't resist this morning. I lost 0.6 pounds since yesterday's pre-fast weigh-in. I won't lose weight as quickly as people who start out with more to lose, but a few pounds would be welcome.
Onward and upward!
[cross-posted to You Are What You Eat]
We tried your cherry/apple/pear/lime & loved it. I also wanted a glass of wine last night but resisted as well. Not sure I would have been able to had Al opened a bottle!
Posted by: cindy | July 27, 2011 at 10:28 AM
Maybe when we want wine we should do a really delicious juice and pour it into a wine glass!
Posted by: Kris | July 27, 2011 at 10:34 AM