Well, here are your before and after pictures! My total weight loss since graduation: 25 pounds. Yes, that means that I lost 5 pounds in the last 5 days on the juice fast. Not bad, eh? I’m looking at that first picture and shuddering. NEVER AGAIN.

Eating food today was wonderful, but I really couldn’t eat too much because I got full really quickly. Dad treated me to dinner at a local Italian restaurant, and I barely made a dent in my meal.

I’m feeling good! My parents are both really impressed that I stuck to the juice fast and met my goal. They’re also really proud of how much weight I’ve lost in 4 months. They’ve already started juicing, and hopefully I’ve shown them that if you set your mind to something, you’ll get results.

So I don’t really have too much to say. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask! I’ll leave this blog up for when I revisit juice fasting. And I’ll also continue to post pictures/recipes of the juices I make, although those updates will probably be fairly infrequent.

Thank you SO much for reading!

Queen of the Juice — OUT!

PS- My regular tumblr can be found here. Although I haven’t updated it in the last few days, I’ll continue to post the random stuff I’ve been posting.

Benefits: Learning self control. Getting a better sense of what exactly I’m consuming. The people around me commented that my skin started looking healthier and clearer. Weight loss!

Downsides: That fatigue and lack of energy the first couple of days was awful. I also had some lightheadedness and dizziness the first 3 days, so that was annoying.

I would definitely recommend it, but you don’t have to go on a full-on juice fast to see the changes. If you just drink a juice for one meal a day, you’re automatically getting a ton of nutrients that you miss out on otherwise. Plus you get to feel all smug about being healthy. :P

So my juice fast is over! Day 5 is over, and in the morning I plan on waking up and eating one of those avocados that have been tempting me for 2 days.

Today was the hardest in terms of drinking the juice. No pictures today, because I just drank the same old crap. The morning Apple-Pear-Ginger juice was good, as always. But swallowing that Mean Green for lunch was a struggle. Too tough, in fact, that I just skipped dinner. Decided it was better to be a little bit hungry than to go through that again.

It’s not that it tasted bad. I’m just literally sick of it. The sweet fruity drinks are fine because whatever, they’re what I normally drink. But I guess I never really adjusted to the veggie drinks, which is pretty disappointing. I did try a bunch of different recipes, but nothing good enough to make me look forward to drinking it.

I didn’t exercise today. I watched football instead. SO SUE ME. My fantasy players did pretty well.

Tomorrow my brother and dad want to go hiking, but I declined the invitation. I’m just not convinced that I’ll have the energy to keep up. That walk yesterday left me pretty tired/fatigued. Even if I eat breakfast, I think it’ll take a couple of days for me to get back to where I was before.

All in all, I’m happy I did this, though. It has done major good for my concept of self-control. Previously… I thought I had none. If someone brought home a dessert, I had to have some. It was to the point where I would rationalize it away, and somehow make it acceptable to eat this unhealthy crap.

Look, it’s okay to eat that stuff occasionally. But not all the time. Not every night.

I think after this, I’ll have a better ability to control my cravings. I’ll (hopefully) consider the nutritional content of the food I’m eating.

Okay, I’m getting sleepy here, so I’ll wrap it up. I’ll weigh myself in the morning and post my total weight loss. It was only 5 days, so I’m not expecting big numbers. If it’s only 1 pound then I swear I will kill someone.

By the way, no headaches today, no lightheadedness, I was pretty level-headed emotionally, and felt no overwhelming sadness about my life. Does this mean that the juice fast has cured me of everything that ails me? No, I wasn’t expecting a complete turn-around on these things. But in terms of the emotional stuff, I think I’m much more in touch with my center today than I have ever been. I feel more in control and powerful than I have in a long time.

All right! I’ll see you tomorrow.

Juice on!

Day 4 is over! And boy, am I ready for this to end.

My energy level was great today. I went out for a walk and did some light jogging on the treadmill. My muscles feel more fatigued than they usually do… I’m wondering if it’s because I’m not getting enough protein.

I also feel skinnier. My face, arms, and torso all look and feel skinnier than they did even 2 days ago. My stomach is flatter than it’s been in at least 2 years. I feel small even under my own hands.

But man, the juice is getting hard to take. The mostly fruit ones are fine, but the green ones with the veggies… I’ve discovered that the only way I can drink all of it is by pouring a small amount into my glass, chugging that, and then repeating the process until it’s gone. Today this was followed by lying on my bed for a few minutes determined not to feel nauseous.

The concoction in the pictures was my dinner. I added some salt and pepper to it and drank it with my chugging method.

Ingredients:

• 2 tomatoes
• 1 lime
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 carrot 

While on my walk today, I went to the market and bought one of those huge bottles of Corona. It’s going to be my celebratory drink the day after tomorrow. Yes, I know, not healthy. But I chose Corona specifically for it’s light color and watery taste. That stuff will go right through me.

Sleep has been fine. This morning I set an alarm and had no trouble getting up when it went off.

My skin also feels different. Especially on my face. Softer and tighter.

All in all this has been a really good experience, I think. One more day and I reenter the real world of eating.

I plan on continuing to juice after this, even though I’ve started to loathe the stuff. I just feel too good to give it up completely.

Alright, signing off.

Mel - Queen of the Juice.

Well, Day 3 is over. Juice-wise there’s not much to report. The one in these pictures is Mean Green, which was pretty much the only juice referred to by name in “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.” It didn’t turn out green, as it’s name would suggest, because I used red kale instead of green. It was good, but I didn’t finish all of it and stored some in the fridge… and as I learned the hard way with the gazpacho juice… these juices don’t taste so great when they’be been sitting around.

Anyway, ingredients:

• 1 bulk kale
• 4 stalks celery
• 1 cucumber
• 2 apples
• 1/2 a lemon
• thumb-sized piece of ginger

I’ve been drinking plenty of water and coconut water, and I decided to start taking a multivitamin because I’m concerned about not getting a full range of vitamins. I also had some tofu, for protein, but I’m not sure I’ll continue with it.

Unrelated: I’m watching Dr. Who on Netflix Instant right now… how cuckoo is this show? Man.

So energy-level-wise I was still better than yesterday. I did 10 miles on the bike, didn’t feel too bad, but still wasn’t at my usual level. Tomorrow I’m going to try jogging and jumping rope.

I’m still feeling light-headed every time I stand up. If it doesn’t go away by Day 5, then I’m definitely quitting then. I’m staying well-hydrated and I don’t feel hungry during the day, so it’s not like I’m dying or something. But it’s still pretty annoying.

I’m really looking forward to eating solid foods again. I keep seeing these Denny’s commercials for this freaking… patty melt topped with mac ‘n cheese. I would inhale that in a second if someone put that thing in front of me.

But not eating has allowed me to really notice how often I do eat during the day. It’s not just breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s that mid-afternoon snack and that dessert and sometimes that midnight snack if I’m stoned. How much of that food is just empty calories? And how much of that am I eating because I feel like I should be eating, rather than actually needing the food?

I like the idea of continuing to juice one meal a day after I finish this “fast.” (Fast is in quotes now because I’ve technically eaten food [although not many would qualify tofu as real food]).

I do like this experience, but I’m not sure I could do it for more than a week at a time.

It’s really hard to watch your parents eating delicious food while you have to drink an ugly colored juice concoction.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I think I’m going to try to juice a cantaloupe tomorrow.

Juice on!

Okay! Let’s do this.

Day 2 is nearly over. I made 2 juices since my last post, both mostly fruit-based. The first had apples, celery, and ginger, (pictured above) and the one I just finished had an apple, a pear, half a lemon, and ginger (it looked pretty similar to the one pictured above). I also tried to finish my gazpacho juice from yesterday but really wasn’t in the mood for it. Still had about 10oz of it, though.

I did end up working out. I went 6 miles on the stationary bike before I felt like I needed to stop. I honestly felt really good for the first part of the workout, but then I just started feeling lightheaded and kind of queasy. Not sure if it was the heat or my body still not fully adjusted. Probably a bit of both.

I’ve been noticing that if I stand up too quickly, I get lightheaded. This used to happen to me sometimes before the fast, but I think it’s happening more frequently now (or I’m just noticing it more). I’ve been drinking plenty of water, and I juice whenever I’m hungry. I’m wondering if I need to add more protein to my diet.

I’ve also been drinking pure coconut water in addition to the juice & water. I had some in the morning and some right before my workout.

At the moment, I feel fine. I feel pretty energetic, actually — a lot better than last night.

Tomorrow I’m going to try at least one new green juice, primarily kale & spinach. I’m going to try to adopt the chugging-style of drinking them, since even though the taste hasn’t been bad for any of them, it does get kind of tiresome/boring to drink them.

I’m really craving non-juice food, though. I didn’t cheat AT ALL today, which I’m really proud of, but I had to go up to my room when my mom was cooking dinner — it smelled too good. And I didn’t come back downstairs until my mom had opened the windows and put on a fan to air out the place. I also overheard her asking my dad not to eat dessert in front of me, as it was too tempting for me. Bless her. Even though she keeps offering me solid food (“Mango is practically all juice! Why can’t you eat it?”) I think she gets it more than my dad does.

Anyway. Hopefully tomorrow I can do a more solid work-out.

That’s all for tonight.

Juice on!

Green Lemonade!

• 1 green apple
• 4 stalks of celery
• 1/2 a lemon
• 2 handfuls of spinach
• 4-6 kale leaves
• half a cucumber

It did indeed taste similar to lemonade, if anyone’s wondering.

______

I ended up sleeping for 10 hours last night. I’m usually fine with 8 hours, but I kept waking up feeling totally exhausted.

I’ve isolated myself up in my room, wandering the Pottermore website. I watched 2 episodes of Man vs. Food earlier… not sure why. But damn, that food looked awesome.

But I couldn’t stand sitting there while my dad ate his lunch, so I came upstairs.

I want to do a few miles on our stationary bike later. Right now my limbs feel pretty heavy and I don’t feel totally alert, but I do want to exercise.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading.

Dinner!

I made Gazpacho Juice with these ingredients:

• 1 bell pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 stalks celery
• 1/4 of a big onion
• 1 lime
• a couple of fistfuls of parsley

I’ll admit that it was pretty hard to drink. It tasted good, but my parents had steaks for dinner and man… it was so tempting. I did give in a couple of times today to eating solid food. The first time was for a handful of almonds, the second was for a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese (my weakness). Tomorrow I’ll go all-juice.

I’m feeling pretty fatigued, and my concentration isn’t too good. I got into Pottermore today but haven’t had the focus to do much with it. Frustrating, really, since I’ve been waiting for it for a month.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow morning’s juice. Definitely gonna make apples the main ingredient. I’m even looking forward to the ginger.

Okay, full disclosure. I’m going to post my starting weight here. I weighed myself this morning, before starting the fast, and I was at 161 lbs. I’m planning on going at least 5 days with this fast, and I’m not going to weigh myself until that 5th day.

Alright, I’m getting pretty sleepy, so I’ll hit the hay. It’s strange, since I’m used to staying up until 3am, but maybe my sleep cycle will finally get back to decent hours.

Juice on!

Second juice!

• 1 apple
• 2 beets (I ended up only using 1 because they were big)
• 3 carrots
• thumb-sized chunk of ginger
• a couple of fist-fulls of spinach

It turned out really well! It’s not very sweet, and I’m learning to love the taste of the ginger. I forgot to check the total output of it, but I think it made around 20oz of juice. Some of it’s in the fridge chilling, I’m drinking 8oz of it now.

I should add, [WARNING: TMI Moment] that the first juice went to work uh… pretty quickly. Supposedly the first few days of juicing consist of clearing out your system. I’m having flashbacks to the 5 days I did the Master Cleanse. Ugh, not pleasant.

I really want to eat something, just to have something to chew, but I’m resisting.

Juice on!

My first juice!

Okay, so, I guess it’s time to give some background on what I’m doing. Last week, my parents and I watched the documentary “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.” It’s about an overweight Australian man who decides to go on a juice fast while traveling the US in order to lose weight.

He juices his own meals for 60 days, and loses an absurd amount of weight (I forget the exact number, but it’s upwards of 100lbs). More importantly, he heals himself of the illnesses he’s had since he gained the weight.

The idea behind juicing is that it’s a return to how we’ve eaten for thousands of years before our high-fat, high-protein, convenience diets of today. By juicing, you get all of the good nutrients out of the fruits & veggies in an easy-to-consume form.

I’ve lost about 20lbs since May, and I’m by no means overweight. But I do suffer from migraines, depression, and (unless I chug coffee) low energy. I’m mostly interested in how this diet changes my energy levels and general health, I’m not in it for the weight loss (although that would be a welcome perk). I’m going to be exercising while doing this, so I’ll provide updates on how that goes.

So the Breville Juice Fountain that we ordered last Friday from Bed, Bath and Beyond arrived this morning. I woke up to the sound of the delivery truck driving away.

When he came home, Dad and I went to the organic store near our house and picked up a TON of fruits and veggies. Kale, spinach, chard, ginger, tomatoes, celery, a TON of apples, cucumbers, lemons, and limes.

The first drink I made was a total improvisation. Here’s what I added:

• 2 green apples
• 1 pear
• 2 stalks of celery
• & a thumb-sized piece of ginger

Dear gods, it was delicious.

I’m still not positive I want to start my all-juice diet today, or officially start tomorrow (I did have pomegranate juice (from concentrate) this morning because I was starving).

I do want to try a veggie drink soon, though.

So I’m going to be updating here, feel free to ask questions, give pointers, or words of encouragement!