1 pineapple, 2 oranges, 1 mango, 1 lemon, 1 lime = Yum!

Day ten of my ten day juice fast was unlike any of the others before it. Whereas most days I juiced several times per day, today I had pre-juiced the night before and brought it all with me. Only at dinner did I actually make juice. While preparing to make juice, I was talking to my wife and explaining how it felt weird knowing that this was the last time I would prepare juice for my juice fast. It was strange feeling of accomplishment mixed with sadness. While I felt relief knowing that I no longer needed to be on a strict juice diet, I sort of felt sad that this journey was ending. I wonder if other people juice fasting have this feeling at the end of their journeys as well?

Regardless, I completed my juice fast and now I am free to eat whatever I want. So the day after my juice fast what did I have for breakfast? My wife made juice so I had some! That and a boiled egg. For lunch I had some leftover juice from the night before. I also snacked on almonds and raisins through the afternoon. For dinner I plan to not drink juice for the first time in 11 days! As I write this, I’m waiting for my wife to come home so we can go eat sushi!

So for those of you who are curious, here are the vital stats from my juice fast:

• I started the first day of my juice fast at 188 pounds. I weighed myself this morning at 175 pounds: 13 pounds lost.
• My belly measured at 37 1/2 inches on day one: it measured at 35 1/2 inches this morning: 2 inches lost off my abdomen.
• I went from a 16 1/4 inch neck to 15 inches: 1 1/4 inches lost off my neck.
• My pants feel baggier and I am also able to tighten my belt one notch tighter.

As I gather my thoughts over the next few days, I will write more about my thoughts on the juice fast experience. But for now, off I go to get some sushi!

I was an interesting mix of excited and calm today. Excited that I only had two days left on my juice fast, but calm because I was totally confident that having gone this far, I would complete the entire ten day fast with no problems. It almost felt like day nine was the final day, knowing that I only had one day left. The biggest complication for day nine was knowing that the next day I would be out of the house almost the entire day and that I would need to prep a lot of juice to bring with me. So I had to do a lot of juicing at the end of day nine to prepare for day 10. The last day is next! Bring it on!

FYI, in case you’d like to know, our juicer is a Breville BJE510XL.

After the crazy weekend, day 8 being a Monday was pretty much no sweat, although I almost decided to cheat on my juice fast. Let me explain.

My wife and I bid on and won a charity auction item several weeks ago. The auction item was a package of Cardinals baseball prizes and events. We weren’t completely sure of all the details to the package, as some of the events take place later this spring. So we didn’t realize that as part of the package we were given tickets to a Cardinals opening game party at Union Station in St. Louis. We found out Sunday that we could go. Because a Cardinals home opener is a big deal around here and I would have liked the opportunity take some time off with my wife to a fun event, I was prepared to cheat on my juice fast at the party. I made this decision ahead of time, not because I was craving food and couldn’t handle juicing anymore, but because I didn’t want my juice fast to be a downer at a party. As fate would have it, a client emergency precluded us from going, so I didn’t end up cheating on my juice fast. This juice fast has made me realize a lot about food, our bodies, and our culture. I will expound upon more in a later posting.

I was asked a question about which juicer we own. It is a Breville BJE510XL, also known as the Breville Ikon Multi-Speed Juice Fountain, which we bought from Bed Bath & Beyond last year. I’ll share a quick tip regarding buying juicers from Bed Bath & Beyond. Before buying last year, we had settled on this particular juicer after much research and recommendations. We found that Bed Bath & Beyond had them on their web site. We got excited because we had a whole bunch of 20% off coupons (if you’ve ever shopped there, you know what I’m talking about). In my excitement, I read the fine print and discovered that you can only use these coupons in-store, not for shopping on their web store. Unfortunately, they didn’t carry this juicer in our local store. However, I discovered a way that you can use their 20% off coupons to order items from their web site. What you must do is bring the coupon to a Bed Bath & Beyond store and order the item from there. A customer service person will help you with the order. It’s not exactly convenient, but I knew I was going to be in the area and it was saving us about $40. If you’re going to order a big-ticket item like a juicer from Bed Bath & Beyond and all you have are 20% off in-store coupons, this could save you a bunch of money, so keep it in mind.

Forgive me for posting this the day after! Sunday was a little hectic. My main concern this day was how my body would react to two hours of roller hockey. I’ve been playing hockey on Sunday morning for about 14 years now. I am pretty dedicated so I play nearly every single Sunday, which is approximately 700 games in that timespan. I’ve learned a lot about my body from all this experience, and I’ve gotten a routine down. Since I play early (7-9 AM), I can’t really eat prior to the game. Therefore I must make sure I eat well the night before, in addition to staying hydrated throughout the day, and getting good sleep (which is sometimes tough on a Saturday night). Many years ago my wife and I tried the South Beach diet, which restricts carbohydrate intake. We lost some weight, but I could tell that it really affected my hockey playing. I simply didn’t have any energy. Experiences like that helped shape my hockey routine. So how would my juice fast affect my play?

To stay true to the juice fast, I also was avoiding drinking my usual pre-game drink (a Gatorade “1″ or Emergen-C), plus only drinking water during the game instead of my usual Gatorade. I’m trying to avoid any processed food or sugars. The night before I made some citrus juice of lemons, limes, and oranges to try to get some extra carbs in my body for the night. Sunday morning before I left to play I drank 8 oz of the fruit juice I made the night before, plus probably 12 oz more of water. When I got to the rink and started skating, I felt a little weaker than usual and I thought I might be in trouble. But after a little while of playing, I actually felt good. This lasted for about an hour. Then I suddenly realized I was getting fatigued.

I recognized it pretty quickly. I simply didn’t have the energy I am accustomed to. I pride myself on having good stamina and being able to outlast most of the other players in the later stages of the game so I’m pretty familiar with how my body feels during hockey. This was not a good sign. I still had an hour to go and I body was telling me that it was exhausted. But there was no way I was stopping, so I played on. The strange thing was that even though I felt exhausted, I still felt good. As I substituted in and out, the short breaks allowed me to quickly recharge and get back out there. I was even able to score a tough goal toward the end of the two hours. But make no mistake, I was drained when we were done. For one of the only times I can remember, I was actually watching the clock, looking forward to the end of the game. Usually, I feel like I can still play longer, and in fact I have played additional 2 hour sessions before.

In the past when I’ve been exhausted after playing hockey, I’m totally beat all the way through getting back home, taking a shower, and getting something to eat. But this time, something interesting happened. As I did while I was playing, once I took a break, I seemed to perk back up quickly. Sure enough after I got changed and was packing up to go home, I actually felt really good. Yes, my muscles were tired and a bit sore as usual, but my fatigue seemed to be gone. I actually felt a little hyper. Driving home, I was no longer exhausted, but rather felt energized. I can only attribute this to the fact that my body is operating very efficiently because of all the nutrients in the juices.

The rest of the day I drank some extra juice throughout and only once did I have a very slight headache, which was very brief as I quickly drank a juice and it was gone. I often fall asleep on Sundays after playing hockey. However, I did not this time. I wonder if juicing had anything to do with it.

So I’ve now completed one full week on juicing and have survived the temptations of the weekend as well as the exhaustion of my hockey Sunday. I’ve only got three more days to go and I’m looking forward to finishing the full 10 days. My body feels good, I don’t really have any cravings anymore, and I can’t imagine that the next three days could be harder than any I’ve done so far.

My wife’s juice recipe: 1 bag spinach, 1 zucchini, 1 cucumber, 2 carrots, 1 orange, 2 apples, 1 stalk celery

For those of you wondering if I was able to make it last night with all the food temptation – yes, I did survive! But wow, was it tough! The whole room smelled like food and there was so much yummy stuff within easy reach. At this point, I believe if I could stay on course last night, I can handle anything!

I wanted to share my wife’s “standard” juice recipe with everyone. It makes a nice mild juice that’s easy to drink and makes enough for 2 servings, which is great if you want to share with your lovely spouse, or just making a second serving for later. She uses 1 bag of spinach, 1 zucchini, 1 cucumber, 2 carrots, 1 orange, 2 apples, and 1 stalk celery. Actually, she says that she usually does 2 oranges and 1 apple. Also, you can substitute a squash for the zucchini, or simply add it to the recipe. As for me, I like adding a lemon and lime as well.

Tomorrow should be a very interesting day. I play hockey every Sunday morning, which is a very intensive workout. It will be interesting to see if I have enough energy to play well, and how I hold up afterwards. I plan to drink some extra juice through the day to try to give myself some extra calories. If I can make it through tomorrow, I think I should be able to finish out the final 3 days!

Yes, that’s chicken wing dip! Oh the humanity!

Day five of my juicing adventure has been status quo for the most part. But now I’m at a trivia night fundraiser and there is so much food! This will almost certainly be my toughest test so far. Will I stay faithful? Check back in to find out!

Why god!?

Use a produce bag in your pulp basket for easy cleanup!

As far as my juice fast goes, today was about as uneventful as it gets. I was busy enough to not be thinking about food most of the day and I wasn’t really hungry or craving much at all. At this point, I must believe my body has gotten used to its new diet. One thing I thought that I would be craving a lot more is alcohol. But so far I haven’t really missed it. Although today I did crave a margarita after work.

I’d thought I’d share a good juicing tip. I had read earlier this week that using a plastic bag in the pulp basket would help with cleanup. I told my wife about it but we kept forgetting to try it. However, today she decided to use a plastic produce bag from the grocery store. Genius! If you’re juicing, you’re certain to have a bunch of these otherwise useless bags from all the produce you’re buying. So might as well use them to catch the pulp so you don’t need to clean the pulp basket. Like I said previously, I would certainly be having a much harder time without my wife’s help!

Tomorrow starts the weekend, so let’s see how I hold up!

Today I woke up hungry hungry!

Thinking back to day two of my ten-day juice fast, I realized I only had 4 juices instead of five. So it made some sense that I was a little hungry when I went to bed last night. But wow, when I woke up, I felt hunger like I don’t remember feeling in a long time! I had to go to an early morning meeting, so I took a shower, got ready, and grabbed a juice I had made the day before to take along with me. Oddly, while I was driving, I realized that my hunger had subsided quite a bit. What is it with me and not being hungry in the morning?

That being said, the rest of the day was fairly non-eventful. I wasn’t really craving much at all, until dinner time. Darn my sense of smell! But I’m still here, juice-faithful for day three. I’ve learned a few things that I’d like to share.

I’m recognizing the difference between real hunger and cravings. Like I mentioned above, real hunger is something I don’t remember feeling in a long time. What I’ve thought of as hunger I think have simply been strong cravings. Cravings can come on by seeing food, smelling food, or even just thinking about food. The worst is thinking about food. So far I simply need to keep myself busy and I can keep my mind off food.

I juiced some ginger tonight. If you’ve never done that before, be prepared to get a strong whiff of ginger! I probably put a little too much ginger in tonight’s juice, but now I’m excited to try making my own ginger ale!

This is about to become my Day Two dinner!

Before I get started, I just want to give a big thank you to my wife, Danelle. Without her juicing expertise and support for my endeavor, I certainly would be having a much harder time simply staying organized around making my juices!

I woke up today (day 2 of my 10-day juice fast) and my wife suggested I try an all-fruit juice. Normally, the juices we have made in the past have been predominantly vegetable-based. It is suggested that juicers keep an 80/20 ratio of vegetable to fruits so as to not intake too much sugar and also to take advantage of the higher nutrient content in the vegetables. But if you are going to go fruit-heavy, then do it in the morning so you have all day to work off the sugar. I made a juice of mostly pineapple with some orange and mango thrown in. It was very tasty. But as I often am in the morning, I simply wasn’t hungry. This is why I often don’t eat breakfast. I’m simply not hungry so I don’t think about it. As tasty as the juice was, I almost had to force myself to drink it.

Later on, I expected that I would be hungry around mid-morning as I usually am if I eat breakfast. But today I wasn’t hungry, even at 11:00 AM. I finally drank my mid-morning juice around 11:30 AM. I still wasn’t hungry and I really had to make myself drink the juice. I’m wondering if the high sugar content of my morning juice kept my hunger away.

This is weird. I expected that I would be hungry more often. To be honest, I really only feel hunger pangs when I see or smell food. My family had tacos tonight and they sure smelled good. But for now I have the willpower to simply look away or make myself busy with something to forget about food.

Tomorrow should be interesting. I wonder if my body will start having more hunger for solid food after two days or if it will start becoming accustomed to my new diet. I also will go to my weekly BNI meeting where I usually treat myself to a “naughty” breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, and an occasional French toast. I will miss that, but I will bring my juice along and I should be fine. Check in tomorrow to find out how I’m doing!

This represents what I will be eating … er, drinking for 10 days. Actually, everything shown in this picture will only last a few days!

Today was my first day on a 10-day juice fast. No, this is not an April Fool’s joke. I am actually “eating” nothing but juice made from fresh vegetables and fruits for 10 days. For those who know me, this is fairly surprising. I am a healthy person, very rarely sick. Sure I could lose a little around the midsection, but I am not overweight. So why am I undertaking such a “drastic” endeavor? And why am I blogging about it?

My wife and I are very much into living a healthy lifestyle. We have done a lot of research over the years, but we’re always discovering more. Plus my sister is a strict vegan and she shares with us a lot of information as well. We were browsing Netflix last weekend and decided to watch the movie “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead“. It is the documentary of a man who decides to do a 60-day juice fast in order to lose weight and cure his illness. Along the way he helps others as well. It is an inspiring movie and while we were already very familiar with the benefits of juicing, and have been juicing fairly regularly for about a year, we still learned a few new things.

One of the recommendations made in the movie is that we should maintain our bodies in a similar way that we maintain our cars. It was suggested that we should occasionally  ”reboot” our bodies by doing a juice fast and that healthy individuals should have no problem doing a 10-day juice fast. Being a technology professional, maybe it was simply the fact that the movie used the term “reboot” to drive the point home! But seriously, I think it was just the fact that I’ve been reflecting recently about where I am in my life and realized there are some things I need to put into order. Nothing big. Again, it’s not like I’m sick or overweight or experiencing any crisis. Something just clicked. If for no other reason, I simply want to test myself. Do I have enough self-discipline to control and defeat the urges of eating solid food? How far can I push the limits of my mental fortitude? If I can accomplish this, it will have been a nice exercise in self-control. Plus, I should be super-healthy after 10 days!

As with any exercise like this, it helps to be held accountable. What better way to be held accountable than to blog about it to the world? So for the next 10 days I will be keeping all of you informed of my progress and state-of-being. Without further ado, here is my report for day 1.

Leading up to the start of my fast, I really thought that I would not have too much of a problem with this. I’m not much of a sweets eater. I don’t snack on chips and such very often. While this isn’t exactly a good habit, I generally don’t eat breakfast very often. And if I do eat breakfast, it has been increasingly comprised of fresh juice that my wife has made. And all too often, because I am often so busy out servicing clients, I don’t eat lunch either. So for better or worse, I am fairly used to not eating most of the day. I can handle this, right?

So I start off the day around 8 AM with a glass of juice and pack some in a cooler because I have client appointments for the rest of the morning and early afternoon. About 10:30 AM my stomach is growling. I had forgotten one thing. When I do eat breakfast, I end up hungrier the rest of the day! Great. The good news is that by 11:00 AM I drank my mid-morning juice and felt a lot better. I actually wasn’t hungry by 1:00 PM when I drank my lunch juice. I had planned to drink a mid-afternoon juice, but I simply forgot! So I was pretty hungry around 5 PM for my dinner juice. Since I skipped a juice, I went ahead and made myself a post-dinner juice, which I am drinking now as I write.

I am surprised at how my mind wanders to craving food when I see it. I won’t say it was tough on day one to not eat food with my family at dinner time, but my mind was definitely craving it. So far I am able to keep myself satisfied by drinking juice so no big deal quite yet. We’ll see how day two goes.