Breaking the Juice Feast

I ate an orange which felt odd in my stomach but i did not have any issues. I immediately felt better. However, the feeling was short lived.

About an hour later, I ate another orange then about 10 minutes after that – another orange. I started to feel a little more human again. In a way, it felt odd to chew, but after the first orange, my body was craving to really chew something.

My stomach did fine with oranges. I just wanted to eat more (probably because I had been significantly calorie deficient for 15 days). I then tried a green smoothie with banana, strawberries, spinach and water. I found this very filling, but I was still needed something with higher calories.

About 24 hours later and many more oranges and smoothies later, I finally had something high in calories. I had fries. They were vegan, but not raw (there goes one goal for the year which I am going to talk about next blog post). And I immediately felt better. I felt more grounded then I had in 2 weeks. My stomach seemed fine with it.

The odd thing about the fries was they tasted amazingly good. Fries the last few times I had them (in spurts when I was doing my 90 percent raw towards the end of the year) they did not taste right at all. I was pretty close to just never feeling the need to eat them again. After juice feasting, the fries tasted so incredibly good. How weird is that? I can only chop it up the idea that I needed the calories. I have had fries a couple of times since then and they are backing to tasting blah.

The fries settled well until bed time. When I laid down, I could feel them like a hard pit in my stomach. It was uncomfortable, but not painful, for about 10 minutes then I was fine. In the morning though, did I ever need that enema!

Over the next couple days, I ate some higher calorie raw food like avocados and bananas, and my hands stopped bleeding from dryness. I found I was still a bit spacey, but veggie soup (cooked vegan) grounded me amazingly well.

Since breaking the Juice Feast

I have been eating about 80 percent raw. I plan to up this in the next month to 95 percent. At home, I am eating 90 percent raw, the issue has been traveling. I have been on the road a lot where my choices are limited for days and days without access to my typical arsenal of kitchen tools.

Because I have not been eating 100 percent raw, I have not been feeling as good. Blah, I wonder what it is going to take for me to just fully make the transition and give it a solid go for months and see what happens?

What is next for Juice Feasting

I want to try this again. I want to have 1 or 2 juices per day and find more juices I will drink that have more calories.

I think I will try this again in a month or two, I figure that is 30-60 days with lots of opportunity to try new juices. I will blog about it again, and I will aim again for 90 days.

Adrienne

Why I went from 100 to 30 days

My decision to cut down the amount of days is two fold.
1. A lot of things popped up in my life. I did not plan to be so unfocused either. I am having trouble doing anything even reading. I am having troubles with very simple tasks and I can’t continue to have this issue.
2. It also looks like I will be moving within a month, at least a 1000 miles from where I am now. This means I have to work hard and be focused. Two things I am struggling with on juice feasting. I would also like to have some goodbye dinners with friends.
3. I have also thought about stopping earlier and considering this goal complete. Maybe doing some weekend juice feast because of the juice feasting protocol to stopping.

The founders of juicefeasting.com give this list of times to stop juice feasting:

1. If your heart is not in it, has not been for 3-5 days or more, and you are definitely about to eat something.

2. You have no guidance from a health professional, and/or are Feasting with feelings of fear.

3. You are not drinking enough juice or the right juice to provide your body with all the calories it requires, and do not feel that you can maintain the discipline of doing so.

4. Your weight hit 10% below your ideal, and by virtue of drinking 5-8 quarts of juice per day with increased superfoods, has risen back steadily over at least 4-10 days.

5. Your weight has hit 10% below your ideal, and has continued to trend downwards. You are feeling hungry, and are not feeling compelled (which is totally cool) to drink 5-8 quarts of juice per day to increase bodyweight.

6. You have reached 92 Days of Juice Feasting, and are ready to move back into eating, to Juice Feast more at a later date, once you have had a chance to regroup from this significant life event.

While most of these don’t describe me, 2 of them do, numbers 1 and 3.

With regards to number one, my heart is not in it anymore. I need a break and to come back with an a fresh start. Also, leading up to the juice feast, I was out of town and eating cooked vegan food with only about 50-60 percent raw. This was not the best way for me to go into it. Then I ended up travling on the juice feast, working, trying to write, and my physical activity cut down which my body does not like. But (this leads into number 2), I am not getting enough calories to support the workouts I am used to.

I think a major part of why my heart is not in it, is due to my being so unfocused. I am having trouble doing anything I enjoy like writing, swimming, working out, and even holding a simple conversation with a friend. Yesterday, a friend called me for help, and I could not focus enough to answer his questions.

With regards to number 2, I wonder if this is why juice feasting has become to hard for me. I went from eating an average of 2300 calories a day on my traveling diet(I workout almost every day, my 100 percent raw caloric intake is about 1900), to drinking about 1200 on a day where I actually managed to get in 4 juices. Many times, I am only getting in 3 juices which means I am probably averaging about 800 calories a day, which might explain why I am craving and thinking about food all the time.

To show what I mean, here is a standard day of what I drink, with the calories of the drink next to it. These numbers include the fiber which I don’t eat. I got the calorie info from calorieking

1 cantaloupe juice: 188
3 small green apple with 1 bunch dino kale juice: 452
1 watermelon juice: 185
4 stalks celery, 3 tomatoes, half bunch cilantro, half glove garlic, half cucumber: 120

Daily total: 945 calories if I was eating all the fiber.

As you can see, assuming I am getting 2/3 of those calories (which is a totally random guess on my part), I am only drinking 623 calories, which is no wonder I can’t focus or think and why I feel drained.

So a the high end, I am getting at most 945 calories a day, and more likely I am actually getting around 600 calories a day (since I only drink 3.5 juices). Either way, I see where part of my problem is.

I am wondering if maybe I need to be raw for another year and do work juices into my life more before I try this again. Maybe do some 1 week juice feast, find more juices I like. I know I am writing this and I am starving. I am dreaming about food every night, and it is the greasiest most caloric high food. Food is the first thing I think about when I get up and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep. I obsess about it all day long.

I so loved being 100 percent raw because my I barely gave much thought to food. I planned recipes and such, but food was not the top thing on my mind 24/7.

Looking at my raw food diet, it seems ridiculously abundant with so many yummy foods. One of the things I have been craving a ton is my raw taco salad. It is lettuce, guacamole, salsa, tomatoes, and walnut “meat”. This is one of my favorite lunches to have (lunch is usual my big meal of the day).

I am soooooooooooooooo sick and tired of thinking about food.

Another food dream

For, I think the 4th or 5th night in a row, I have dreamed of food. I dreamt, I was pregnant (something I am terrified of because I don’t want kids probably ever but at least for the next 4 or 5 years) and you shouldn’t juice feast being pregnant (because of the toxins being released). All I was though was happy because that meant I could eat again!

Detox

Detox, except for cravings has not been hard at all. No headaches and no runny nose.

However, I have had very dry hands and skin. My teeth have felt very fuzzy. I have had to blow my nose maybe once or twice.

I don’t know weather being unfocused is a detox symptom or a symptom of too few calories, or from being all raw.

My emotions are also all over the place. One minute I am high as a kite, staring at a wall giggling, and the next I am pissed off for no reason. If I was in a white padded room, no one would doubt that I belong there

Another interesting thing is my juices actually tastes bad to me. Cantaloupe and watermelon juices being the only two that I like. My green apple kale that I loved before starting this, I have to torture myself to drink. I have tried other concoctions (some of which I have just thrown away) but I can’t seem to find drinks I like. I never liked juice, soda, or anything besides water growing up. I always said, I don‘t like things flavoring my water.

I tried changing the recipes of my juices thinking my taste buds were changing. I tried adding more sweet, less sweet, neither of which helped) and the only thing I found that helped was to cut the juice with water.

Right now, I am drinking a carrot, pear, spinach juice, and I am choking it down. My stomach is fighting it too. My stomach is not upset really, it is just not fighting me because it wants something with calories after the gym.

Stats

I have lost a total of 14.5 pounds since I started 15 days ago. This is down another 4.5 pounds since last week.

This week, I averaged about 40 minutes a day of walking.

I drank about 3.5 juices a day and really started pounding down the oranges by way off biting into their flesh and spitting out the fiber.

Food Cravings

As I mentioned earlier, my food cravings are out of control. I an craving anything that is high calories even if it stuff I would never eat. On raw and being vegan, I would smell and hamburger and thought it smelled horrible and dead, and now I smell it and I want it (even though I would never eat and it grosses me out).

In my dreams, I have actually made grocery lists of foods I need to buy, all of which are high in calories.

Juices

Some people have requested some of the juice recipes I use.. So here goes.

Green apple kale
3 green apples
1 bunch dino kale
cut with a bit of water if needed

Cantaloupe juice
Juice a whole cantaloupe including the green rind. I do trim the outside off.

Watermelon juice
I could only find seedless watermelons. Normally I would have used a normal seeded one. Juice about 4 cups of watermelon for a quart of juice. Some people juice the bright green on the outside, I don’t because I don’t feel that any amount of washing can get it clean enough for me to eat. I just trip off as little as possible of the bright green and I juice all the yummy pale rind!

Carrot, spinach, Fuji apples
10-13 carrots
3-4 cups spinach
1-2 Fuji apples

I like only 1 Fuji apple, or it is way too sweet for me, but other people I make it for really like the second apple in it.

Fuji apple orange
This is a favorite for everyone here but me (I don’t like sweet drinks)
3 Fuji apples
3 oranges

Red juice
1 beet plus beet greens
1/2 bunch dino kale
2 oranges
1 Fuji apple

The daily celery juice
about 4 stalks celery (usual I use half a head)
1/2 cucumber
3 tomatoes
1/2 large glove garlic
1/2 bunch celery

I also like the above juice omitting the celery and adding another tomato. I use that for variation sometimes.

Carrot, pear, spinach and other greens
10-13 carrots
1 pear (some people like it more sweet so they add a second pear)
2-3 cups of spinach and/or other salad greens (I like to use a mix of organic baby greens)

Pineapple garlic
I am told this is a wonderful juice.. If you like pineapple. Everyone here tried it and loved it.. It was just me who doesn’t like pineapple that didn’t like it.

Almost a whole pineapple
1-6 cloves garlic depending on how much you like garlic.

I only put 1 in, but I know people who like 6. I would start with one and taste test until you like it.

Strawberry pear
2-3 pears
strawberries to the 4 cup mark

I enjoyed the first few sips of this juice, but it was too sweet for me.

I remove the seeds from my apples and cantaloupe. Apple seeds are poisonous and while it is a small amount and won’t kill me, I figure why put something in my body when I am trying to get toxins out of my body.

I am publishing this in the middle of the day so I haven’t finished drinking yet, but this is what I have drunk so far

• 1 quart carrot, pear, salad greens, spinach

Exercise

I wanted to be warm today! So instead of doing an early morning walk outside, I went to the gym.

I have been avoiding the gym because of the new year crowds. But, I wanted to brave it today for the spa and steam room.

I stretched for 20 minutes, then swam for 30 minutes, sat in the spa for 20 minutes, then sat in the steam room for 15 minutes. It all felt incredibly wonderful.

I will probably go for another 30 minute walk later this afternoon.

Energy

My energy today is low. I did my laps slowly, I stared off into space unable to think about anything while I sat in the spa.

Apathy has been filling me a lot recently. Like I just don’t care, and I just want to be left alone. I don’t enjoy it, but it is better then being pissed off.

Supplements

Have not taken any today. I plan to take my b-12 and zeolite.

Links

A lot of people have asked via email or comments about the products I use. Here are some links. Mostly I link the cheapest best place I found them.

Juicer
nut milk bag
Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil 15oz
B-12
zeolite

I started this article intending to continue this juice feast, however, after looking at the criteria for breaking the feast and seeing where I am with calories, I am thinking it is time to break my feast and regroup. After a wonderful day at the gym, juice is not cutting it for me. I think my body is hungry for nourishment.

Adrienne

I dreamt I went through a drive through at a local fast food place here called jack in the box (I used to eat there a lot when I was a kid), and I ordered (all for myself) 4 orders of large fries, 2 onion rings, 20 sandwiches (all the same, it was what I ordered as a kid), and 20 full pans of lasagna (which they don’t actually serve).

While I was watching them make it, after I had paid for it, I left moping because it wasn’t vegan. And I was so sad about it. Why do these foods I love have to be bad for me, the earth and animals? Then I started making a grocery list of stuff I have not eaten in years.

I woke up, and my first thought was, 16 more days left.

My mood was all over the map again. I couldn’t focus for the life of me, and I felt emotionally overloaded and numb.

Juices

• 1 quart cantaloupe
• 1 quart green apple kale
• 4 oranges
• 1 quart pineapple garlic (blah, turns out that hating pineapple also means I hate pineapple juice)

Exercise

I walked at a quicker pace today for about 25 minutes.

Energy

All over the map all day long, but always unfocused and I am very intolerant right now of anything that messed with my sense of order.

Supplements

I took zeolite two times, and b-12 once.

Bring on day 15! For each day gets me closer and closer to the end.

Adrienne

I had major food cravings today for pretty much anything that was high calorie. I started writing it down, the only thing all the meals I wanted had in common are they are very high calorie.

Here are some examples of food on the list:

• pasta with vegan meatballs and meat sauce and vegan garlic bread
• chips
• fries
• pizza
• mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy
• nachos
• bagels
• black beans, rice, tortillas, pico de gallo, and guacamole

The only thing they all have in common is being high in calories and high in carbs. I wonder it this means I am not getting enough calories on my juice feast?

Juices

• 1 quart cantaloupe
• 1 quart celery, cucumber, tomato, garlic, cilantro
• 4 oranges
• 4 oranges

The oranges I did the same thing as I did yesterday where I cut them into wedges and sucked the juice out. I love this. It was by far the most staffing drink I had today.

Exercise

I took a 25 minutes walk today in between rain drops. My heart was not in it though. I felt like I was going through the motions, and each step was a drag.

Energy

Everything today felt like a drag. I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t feel like drinking, making juice, staring, writing, blogging, sleeping, showering, etc. I didn’t even feel like reading!!

I felt totally detached from life today. Nothing had my interest, even staring into space was frustrating and made me angry. What is with that?

I fluctuated moods like a was on a roller coaster. One second I was flying high laughing and being insanely hyper, and the next moment I became angry and annoyed and watchful.

I was also obsessed with food day. That was the only thing I could focus on. I spent over 4 hours thinking about food. Planning routes around the city that would give me the most amount of what I was craving in the least amount of time. Every time someone ate something around me, I wanted to hear all about it.

On one hand, I got pissed off with something like “This juice feast is not going to beat me! I am going to stick it through just because I am too pissed off at it not to show it I will I win.” On the other hand, I almost want to bang my head into the kitchen wall with wanting something to eat. I was thinking of how good a salad with avocado and tomato would be. How maybe I could just eat the avocado!

I almost freaked out when I realized it would take me 6 days to break the feast, so I felt like I was at a minimum of 6 days away from not feeling like this.

At this point, I am still trying to make it through 30 days. I am going to try and get more calories in though, a lot more calories.

Supplements

B-12 and zeolite.

Another day down.. Another @#%^&*(#^% %#@^&#% day!
Right now, the thing that is keeping me going is that I only have 16 more days left. And if I stop something this year I will have to attempt 30 days again and I SOOOOOOOOOOO don’t want that experience again this year. At least – those are my feelings in the moment… as I said, it has been a hard day.

Adrienne

At this point, I am thinking of ending my juice feast at the 30 day mark. There are two major reasons for this, the first is there is a chance I am going to doing a major move (more then 2000 miles away) and I don’t think that juice feasting would be the best way to experience that.

The second reason is my heart does not seem to be in it and has not been for a couple days. I will wait and see if this continues. I love some of the effects, and reason 2 is not enough of a reason to make me stop yet, but reason 1 would push me over the edge.

Again, I had the problem with being on a juice feast for today doesn’t bother me, but the idea of going 100 days leads to a “What the in world have I agreed to!?” anxiety.

I am also having huge trouble trying to stay focused. I am not getting as much done was I would like because my head is way high up in the clouds.

Juices

• 1 cup cantaloupe (left over from the juicing of 1 cantaloup)
• 1 quart watermelon
• 1 quart green apple kale
• 1 quart watermelon

I went for a walk after my first watermelon juice, and then I came home, and had two oranges. For the oranges, I cut them into wedges, and sunk my teeth into them, sucking the juice out and spiting out the little fiber that got into my mouth. Most of the fiber stayed on the rind.

I hate orange juice, but I found I love it this way. It is fresh, and I manage not to swallow any fiber. I think this might become and after walk treat for me. It gives my mouth something to bite into which I enjoy. Also, except for melon juices, I don’t seem to like juice fruit juices. They are far too sweet for me. But this is just perfect.

Exercise

I took a 45 minutes walk today in the rain. It was wonderful, though a bit cold. I am really enjoying getting outside everyday.

Energy

My energy is still very unfocused and ungrounded. I am still doing lots of staring into to space, and even after sleeping for 8.5 hours, I wake up (without an alarm) and just stay in bed wide away and stare at the ceiling for 30 minutes.

I find it very easy to slip into my own little world, and I have spent more time day dreaming in the past almost 2 weeks, that I have in years. Reality seems to hold very little interest for me.

I am sleeping about 8.5 hours a night right now. Today, I did not have any high energy times, but my energy was even all day. Low, but even. My typical energy level is high and even, then it dips about 5 minutes before bed time, which is how I know it is bed time.

Supplements

I took my B-12 and zeolite. I think I am going to stay with just these two for a week and then reevaluate.

So far, so good, bring on day 13!

Adrienne

I am not hungry or getting hunger pains. My mind today was obsessed with food. I wonder if this is a detox symptom? I made a map today of how I could hit every place I was craving food at. I had no intention of going, it was an odd sensation.

I will admit that I didn’t necessarily pick the best year to try this, but really, putting it off there would always be a reason. This year it is Costa Rica for two weeks, moving, lots and lots of trips (this one I think will be the hardest). I am going to try, but really, what I am going for is healthy. Last year after the raw trial in march, I managed 100 percent raw about 29-30 days a month. I can live with that right now.

I think the important thing for me is to keep moving in the right direction. I knew this would be a stretch goal, and I am going to try, (I try and do at least 1 stretch goal a year).

Juices

• 1 pint watermelon
• 1 quart watermelon
• 1 quart green apple kale
• 1 quart pineapple, baby salad green, celery, ginger, dandelion greens (yuck, blah, ick, nasty, gross.. And that does not begin to describe what I thought of this juice.. I think I like simpler juices better)
• 1 quart cantaloupe

I tried to get a lot more greens in today and I succeeded I got about 1.5 pounds of greens in and some celery. However, I don’t like pineapple, and it turns out, that even adding things to it that I usually like, does mean I will start liking pineapple.

Also, ginger and pineapple don’t seem to complement each other well.

Exercise

I took a 30 minute walk in the rain today. I loved it.

Supplements

I worked on getting more supplements in today. I took zeolite, B-12, and kelp granules. I did not like what the kelp granules did to my juice. It made it gritty, like there was dirt in it. I will work on other ways of taking this.

Zeolite actually didn’t taste as bad as I expected. I put some drops in my mouth, switched it around, added water, and swallowed. Totaly easy and totally tolerable.

So, day 11 is done. I got 8.5 hours of sleep last night and it is way past my bed time!

Adrienne

I lost another pound between yesterday and today, and I am sleeping about 8.5 hours a night. I find myself wanting to go to bed earlier and earlier and wanting to wake up earlier and earlier. However, I am having the toughest time actually getting out of bed. I am wide awake, but loving staying in bed and staring at the ceiling.

This is a problem I had on raw where I was so lost in another world I didn’t feel like actually doing anything. I am entering that place again it feels like. I wonder if it is my mind and body being tired from the detoxing it is doing?

Food Cravings

I am having lots of food cravings. They were especially bad while walking because I smelled everyones dinner as I walked around the neighborhood.

I am not actually hungry. I don’t have any hunger pains. My mouth does miss chewing a bit, but it is not too bad. But I missed food today and not for any hunger reasons. I don’t knot if it is physiological, emotional, or an instinct but my mind keeps coming back to food.

It is a different food cravings then I have typically been having since raw. As supposed to wanting salty, high fat things like fries, I want pasta with vegan not meat balls and red sauce. This is high in carbs and a cooked food. But it is not really high salt or high fat. I wonder if I should add more fruit juices?

Juices

Today I drank:

• 1 quart strawberry pear (2 pears and then enough strawberries to hit the 1 quart mark)
• 1 quart carrot
• 1 quart cantaloupe
• 1 pint cantaloupe

Strawberry pear juice is way too sweet for me. Good for a sip or two, but was hard to drink a whole quart of.

Carrot juice I was fighting all every sip as well. It did not agree with my taste buds and seemed to sit very heavy in my stomach. It took me over 2 hours to drink as I literally forced it down my throat. I think I may take break from carrots for a couple days.

I was not in the mood for juice today.

Fruit juices also don’t seem to be grounding me anymore.

Exercise

I took a nice 30 minute walk in between rain storms today. I really love these daily walks, so I took a second 1 hour walk after sunset.

Walking around outside even though it is cold out seems to be the only time during the day I feel warm. Between getting out of the shower after a cold burst (the hold/cool shower part of the juice feasting protocol) and drinking 4 quarts of icy cold liquids, even bundled up in sweats and socks, I am cold a good part of the day.

Energy

Today my attention did not focus well at all. My energy was fine abet a bit low, but the real issue was I could not seem to keep my brain focused on anything.

I had the energy to do things, like talk a walk, but all I wanted to do was day dream or stare of into space.

Supplements

I took about 1 teaspoon coconut oil today and my B vitamin supplement.

I ate the coconut oil plain off a spoon, and it went down better today then it did yesterday. The B vitamins I took after 8pm because I almost forgot about them. I wonder if this will help my focus.

Well, I am about 10 percent of the way done with my juice feast!! I hit double digits. Amazing!

Adrienne

Juices

Today I drank:

• 1 pint carrot, spinach, apple
• 1 quart cantaloupe
• 1 quart green apple kale
• 1 quart celery, tomato, cilantro, garlic

I made a quart of carrot spinach apple juice yesterday and had some left over. I used two apples in it and it was way too sweet for me.

I am trying some new juices this week, so hopefully I will be mixing it up a bit soon!

Exercise

A nice 30 minute walk in the rain. I really wanted to be out longer, but it was windy as well and it cut right through freezing me.

Supplments

I added a new supplement today. I took about 1 teaspoon raw coconut oil. I just ate it from the spoon (this one of the suggested ways to consume it). It tasted very oily (I know, duh!) but it was palatable. I don’t think I could have eaten any more of though. It was too oily, I ended up choking the last bit of it down hoping I did not barf like I did on day one!

Coconut oil is the only supplement I did today. I am adding in them slowly so I can try and see what makes a noticeable difference – good or bad.

An interesting side effect today, my hands smelled like parmesan cheese. I have not eaten Parmesan cheese in years, but there my hands were smelling the beginning of non vegan alfredo sauce. My hands smelled like that a few hours but eventually dissipated.

Today, was another good day. When I look back, it is hard to believe it has been 9 days already, but also hard to believe I still have 83 days left. But one at a time, the days don’t seem so overwhelming.

Adrienne

Detox

This week, I have not experienced much detox. This might be because I have been on the road a lot. I have had a little bit of a runny nose here and there, but it is literally blow my nose once and I am clear again for hours and hours.

I have not had any headaches, rashes, or excessive sleepiness. I have been sleeping about 7 to 7.5 hours a night and wake up refreshed. Last night I was exhausted and fell asleep at 8pm for the night. I slept 10 hours. I attribute this to a day on the road and getting up at 4am yesterday morning.

My hands have been very dry, and they look like they have aged 20 years. I am putting some coconut oil on them to try and help them along. They got so bad while I was gone my knuckles were bleeding.

When I was one raw, I pretty quickly went into detox. I wonder if my body has other repairs it is trying to do first or, again, it is just the travel stress that pushed it back a few days.

Stats and stuff

I lost 9 pounds this week (WOW!).

Usually, I wake up and feel fine, but drinking a green juice makes me ungrounded, unfocused, and sometimes sleepy. Fruit juices have quite the opposite affect. About ten minutes after I drink a fruit juices (usually a melon juice), yawning stops and I feel wide awake and wonderful. I often use that time to go for a walk.

I manage to get in about half a head of celery and a little over 1 pound of leafy green veggies per day on average. I get most of my green leafy veggies from spinach, kale, beet greens, and cilantro. I have bought some baby green mixtures to try as well. I am going to look into some new juice recipes to try some new greens as well.

I am using about 60-70 percent organic produce. Organic produce I buy is:

• Carrots
• kale
• beets
• beet greens
• spinach
• baby greens

Non organic produce is:

• apples
• oranges
• cantaloupe
• watermelon
• cilantro
• celery

I read in my juice feasting research that it was most important to get get organic leafy greens over organic fruit if you have to choose.

Unfortunately, where I am right now, there is not an abundance of organic fruit anyway, but I do pickup what I can organically. I am looking into other places to try and up my organic produce intake.

Emotions

I tend to be a very emotionally stable person. I don’t really get angry much. I tend more towards bouts of annoyance, and then I change the situation so I am not annoyed.

I find on juice feasting my emotions are even closer to the surface then when I am doing raw. Today, I got angry over someone taking my juice and drinking it when I was hungry and wanted it. Normally, I would have been slightly annoyed but I would have compensated. But I found, I got angry, then frustrated, and I had to deal with it before I could move on. Then it passed over.

I don’t think I am being moody or irritable at all. I find I am more expressive of things that bother me and things that bother me that I usually just grin and bare it, I no longer feel the need to do that. For example, I HATE when things are messy. But right now I live with some people who are far far far messier then I am. Normally, I try just to let it go, but I juicing it is just a constant source of aggravation.

On the bight side, I also enjoyed some sensations I have not enjoyed for years and years. I often stop and pet animals, but for the first time in years petting and playing with a puppy was a very joyful experience. I played with the puppy every day and my heart felt so good and light. Normally, I would have enjoyed the puppy, but not to this level. It felt wonderful to sit for an hour and pet the puppy. Normally, I would have wanted to get back to work or do something else, but I was happily immersed playing.

Cost

Melon juices seem to be the cheapest and are also my favorite juices! I am totally loving (and probably a bit obsessed with) watermelon and cantaloupe juice. I buy cantaloupe in bulk at Costco, 3 for 4.99. That makes 1 juice per cantaloupe. The only watermelon I could find right now is seedless, and it was 5.99. That made 4 juices.

Kale and beets are the most expensive things I buy at 2 dollars per bunch. There are 3 beets in a bunch. I buy dino kale (which is my favorite of the kales) and use about 1 head in my green apple kale juice.

In a week, I went through about 12 green apples and 12 Fuji apples. I bought those at Costco as well.

I also used 10 pounds of carrots (4.49$), almost one bag (3 large heads) of celery (2.99$), 24 tomatoes (11$), 3 cucumbers(4.99), and 1 pound of spinach (3.49$)

I spent about 80 bucks this week, but I still have some food left over. When I was a omnivore, I spent about 30 dollars per week on food. I ate things like 10 cent top raman, 1$ pasta roni, 1$ can of red sauce plus 1$ box of pasta (good for 4 meals!), etc. I still ate some salad stuff and banans, but I bought a lot of things when they were on sale.

Then I became a vegan, and my food cost went up to about 45 dollars a week. I thought this was crazy that I had to pay more when it really should cost less, but I could no longer eat top roman, Mac and cheese, and all the foods that typically went on sale for under a dollar and with an apple or a small salad made a very cheap meal.

As I cooked vegan, I bought things like brown rice, beans of all sorts, whole wheat pasta, fake meat, and vegan ice cream (which cost about 5 dollars for a pint, as supposed to regular ice cream which cost 5 dollars for a gallon!). I did up my standards a bit (for example, buying whole wheat pasta and whole wheat tortillas instead of white ones) and fake meat was a treat since it was 6 dollars a pound (as supposed to regular ground meat which at the time was 2 to 3 dollars a pound and often went on sale).

Then, I became a raw food vegan, and my grocery bill jumped again to about 70 bucks a week. Green leafy veggies are most expensive per pound it seems then meat.. How is this possible?????

As a raw food vegan I buy things like: raw olive oil, raw smoothie powders, lots of lettuce, avocados, and tomatoes. I also end up going through about .25 pounds of nuts per week between nut butters, nut desserts, and nut salad toppings (gotta dress those salads up so they don’t get boring!). I do a lot of huge online orders (over 200 dollars on average) because I can’t buy what I want locally.

And now doing juicing, I have yet again upped my grocery bill.

Drinking Water

Drinking as many juices as I am, I find it hard to drink a lot of water.

The juice feasting protocol calls for about 2 quarts of water per day, one in the morning upon waking and one throughout the day (more if you work out or are thirsty). I am managing to drink about 1.5 quarts of water.

I find in the morning, after I drink about .5 quarts, my stomach wants a break for while. It is having to process a lot more liquid then it is used to.

I am working on drinking more water throughout the day, and I think upping my level of physical activity (which I plan to do in 3 to 4 weeks) will make me want to drink more water.

Juices

Today I drank:

• 1 quart watermelon
• 1 quart green apple, kale
• 1 quart watermelon
• 1 pint spinach, apple, carrot

Exercise

I managed to take a walk of at least 20 minutes every day except yesterday. A couple days, I took an hour or more walk, and a couple days, 20 minutes was all I really felt like. I loved my walks on the beach though and I felt like I could do those for hours.

Walking is supposed to be good to pump the lymph system (along with rebounding). I plan to continue to talk at least 6 days per week for at least 20 minutes. This will be fun this week because it is supposed to rain all day!

Today, I took a 30 minute walk in between rain storms. I love to walk in the rain, but I have been so cold and it was windy out that I couldn’t do it.

Energy

I have noticed my energy fluctuates a lot throughout the day. On raw, I pretty much woke up and was awake and alert quickly and stayed that way all day. Then at night, I would feel sleepy about 5 minutes before I needed to be in bed for the night.

Juicing sometimes I yawn throughout the day, but I still feel ok. I don’t feel quite as good most of the time as I did on raw vegan, but I feel better then I did on cooked vegan.

I noticed when I go walking, I don’t get as tired or as winded. (I don’t typically get tired or winded when I walk). I found that when I would get home even after a 2 hour walk on the sandy beach, I felt good like I could do it all over again. It felt like my internal energy barometer did not deplete at all doing an activity that would normally deplete some (but not much) energy.

I am interested to see how this progresses as I move further into the juice feast.

Routine

I have fallen into a pretty steady routine.

Wake up, teeth brush and tongue scrape, enema, shower, water, juice, work, walk (or some other exercise), work, relax, bed. All in all, lots of good times. I find I have to brush my teeth within a few minutes of waking up or the fuzzy teeth bothers me a lot.

It is now taking a little over an hour to make juices every morning, I have it pretty streamlined, and I am working on getting it down another few minutes to make it an even hour.

My morning routine is down to about 60 minutes as well which is about 40 minutes longer then I usual take, but doable for the next couple months as I live out the juice feast. Also, after day 14, enemas don’t need to be done every day, so I may recoup some time there.

It has been an interesting 8 days! This week I plan to add some supplements back in, rest up a bit, and try to find more juices I like that are easy and fast to make.

Adrienne

Juices

Today I drank:

• 1 quart carrot, spinach, apple
• 1 quart celery, tomato, cilantro, garlic (much better with only half a glove), cucumber
• 1 quart cantaloupe

I started with a green juice today, but I was up early (4am) because I had to leave early, and I just could not stomach anything until about 12:30. Even then, I was forcing myself.

I only drank 3 quarts today and that felt like way more then enough.

Exercise

None today.  I was in the car most of the day.

Energy

I yawned the day away today, not sure if this is due to not enough sleep (got 7 hours and that is usually enough for me), or not drinking juice earlier in the day.  I yawned until I had my last juice of the day, a cantaloupe juice.

Other Food

I had the same issue today where being on the road all day creates want for fast food.  The more I thought about it, the more think this is a left over habit from when I was a kid.  On car trips, it was the time I could have a lot of junk food and fast food.

On car trips as a kid, on a 6 hour car trip, we would usual stop 2 or 3 times.  Once or twice for food usually McDonald‘s, and we always then stopped for ice cream at Fosters.  Even though, I was not hungry at all, I thought of (and semi wanted) a McDonald’s cheeseburger and fries.  I wanted Foster‘s ice cream which I have not had in over a decade.

When I took the time to really think about it, I didn’t actually want that food.  It was just a habit. The actual idea of eating it made me a bit ill.  Eating junk food on a car trip for years has become a convenient reflex, but a very unhealthy one.

I didn’t eat at any of the restaurants today.  Instead, I enjoyed my juices when I got home.  And I am glad I made the decision to do this juice feast, and I am glad I didn’t stop at the passing restaurants.

Adrienne