I've had a few people ask what goes into a juice fast, so I will do my best to thoroughly explain this amazing yet difficult thing.
First, one must understand that juicing is not better or worse than say smoothies. It is the purpose behind the juicing.
When one juices you are getting massive amounts of easily absorbed vitamins and minerals from
living fruits and vegetables.
When you make a smoothie, not including protein powder, but a true vegetable and fruit smoothie you are doing it for other reasons. When juicing, yes you are not getting the fiber from those fruits and veggies, but if you were to see how much fiber I eat in a day, it is not a concern of mine to miss out on that fiber. So if you are eating a mainstream diet, and a smoothie is the best thing you will get in your body that day, then I suggest smoothies. But you MUST have a high enough powered blender to masticate and break apart the vegetables and fruit.
Juicing is detoxing, vitamin and mineral rich drink I give myself every day, that my body gets a break from the constant digesting of food 24 hours a day.
What are toxins and why would we want/need to flush them out of our bodies?
Toxins are anything not natural, man made that we ingest/drink into our bodies. Toxins are also external things found in our air, clothing, makeup, body products, etc.
When we eat something that is not natural and our body doesn't know what to do with it, it takes that toxin and stores it in a fat cell It takes too much energy to figure out what it is, so by storing it in a fat cell our body is basically saying "I'll get to you when I have a chance". So when you are looking at your body and your fat, just think that is all the stored toxins my body hasn't known what to do with.
If you don't believe me about this stores in our tissues/bodies stuff about toxins, go get a massage.
What's the first thing they ask you to do when the massage is over?
"PLEASE, when you leave make sure you drink plenty of water today."
When you get a massage, the massage therapist is breaking apart (based on my limited knowledge of massage) and releasing toxins from the skin. During the massage the toxins are released into your blood stream and need to get flushed out of your body. SOOOOO how do we "flush" things?
1.) GO PEE
2.) GO POOP
3.) SWEAT
So, now that we understand toxins, how does "juicing" release these toxins.
Remember when I stated above that when we eat something that our body is unfamiliar with or doesn't know what to do with like say food coloring RED-40.
We eat a strand of Red Vine Licorice. These are the following ingredients:
Corn Syrup, Wheat Flour, Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Red 40
Corn syrup...quickly used up but not a great way to get "energy", wheat flour...difficult to digest...citric acid...a little more easily digested depending on source which is probably not natural, artificial flavor...definitely not natural, and RED 40...I don't even think I know what that is, except a food color, which is SCARY!!!
So our bodies takes all these ingredients and pushes what isn't immediately used into our fat cells so we can use that "energy" later.
As we juice, we give our bodies a chance to rest from digesting, which is the biggest job our body has. I can't remember the exact percentage but it is anywhere from 70% to 90% of our bodies energy is used to just digest the food we eat.
JUST DIGESTING!!!!! Not chasing after your kids, running a mile, washing your hair, or doing the laundry.
So when our body is free from digesting and given the nutrients it needs, the body can go to work working on other items in your body of importance. It can now go to work after that thing you ate that it didn't know what to do with. Your body is an amazing I can go break apart that fat cell and see what it is and dispose of it properly.
Have you ever wondered how we can have cancer in our body for years and it never surface until something triggers it...what if that trigger is an overabudance of toxins in our body that our body was never able to get to because we were constantly bombarding it with poor food and things it was busily trying to figure out what to do with?
This is why detox symptoms can be so nasty. Think of all the heavy metals you've eaten in your fish, seafood, antibiotics, medicines, etc, etc, etc,. They get released. Think of all the addititives, fillers, fake things that are found in our processed foods. They get released. And I'm not talking about the In and Out burger you ate last Friday, I'm talking years and years are in your cells, wanting and waiting to be released. This is why I am still "cleansing". Trying to get deeper and deeper into my cellular wall to release all the bad food I've eaten and eat (which is significantly on the better than worse).
I truly love juice fasting. As I lay out the three days below I hope you'll also see why.
Prefast Juice preparation:
I suggest you eat as cleanly as you can a few days before the fast begins, or just do smoothies for a day or two before. You want the most easily digested foods to be going through your system.
The night before you start Day 1 of the juice fast, you need to have a good bowel movement or administer an enema. This will help significantly with detox symptoms. I am not all about taking a product to help you go. There is nothing wrong with sending water in to help clean out what's coming out. If you decide to do the fast the info from Natalia goes into great detail on this portion. Just know enemas are not as bad as you think. I do not give myself one every day or every week for that matter. I am not doing it to just lose weight SO fast. I am doing it with cleansing in mind, not weight loss, but it took me a bit to get to this point. So also don't feel bad if you are wanting to do this only for weight loss purposes. You're understanding will increase on this and you'll definitely feel more enlightened as to our bodies functions/processes. What's especially great is that doing a juice fast actually increases your metabolism so if you have some weight to lose you should feel a great "boost" from doing a fast.
Fasting is almost a forgotten thing in the American society, so it is no wonder it is often frowned upon by outsiders. It is either used religiously or holistically. We will be doing it for holistic purposes but you'll be amazed at the religious and/or God given revelations through this fast. I love the deep connection I feel to my soul during these fasts as I am more forced to face my true feelings and addictions.
Day 1:
Upon waking make yourself some juice.
What constitutes a juice? You can alter and change and add whatever you wish, the only requirement that it be a truly fresh pressed vegetable or fruit juice.
For example my new favorite drink, and this changes all the time, but it is like a juicy tropical drink.
1 kale steam/leaf
1 small head of romaine lettuce
1 lime
A handful of cilantro
1/2 of a cucumber
green apple
1 small beet
2 carrots
I add a little stevia to taste ;)
Put in juicer, this yields 2 to 3 cups of juice with my juicer. If you have a Breville or something like it you'll want to double the above to yield the same amount. YUMMO!
But you mainly want to have a small base of dark greens followed with a LOT of light greens.
Jordan's Juice
1 or 2 kale stems/leaf
3 to 4 stalks of celery
1/2 cucumber
3 or 4 carrots
green apple
lemon
Just juice it and drink!
You can have as much juice as you need/want. You can also have broth, herbal teas, lemonade (fresh pressed with stevia), orange juice ( fresh pressed with stevia), you can make lots of different types of juices and I'll forward that info on once I know you are on board!
Day 2:
Continue juicing and drinking as you did the day before.
You will want to do either a colonic or enema today.
Day 3:
Continue to juice and drink as you did the last three days.
Day 4:
Juice until lunch. At lunch you'll want to have an easily digested meal. I will give examples on the cleanse, once I know who is doing it. ;)
LASTLY!
Enema or colonic...
These are my feelings on this topic. My opinions, not a medical doctor, dietician or certified hydro therapist.
For the price and effectiveness an enema will do almost as well as a colonic. Yes, a colonic can go much deeper and pull out more waste, but a properly done enema can get a lot out as well. When I do my enemas I do 2 to 3 bags of water, so by the end I know I am getting a lot out.
The cost of 1 colonic can range from $40 and above. If you have it in your budget to do colonics, by all means do them. But for a $10 enema kit that you can use over and over again for months, and get great results...I'll let you choose.
And nothing makes me more crazy than to hear this lifestyle is extreme...
No, going and getting your stomach stapled is extreme
Having your stomach divided and then somehow rerouted to your lower intestine and colon is extreme
Working out for 2 to 3 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week is extreme
When you do a juice fast, all of this is done, except for a colonic, in the privacy of your home. You are making the choices. You are putting good things in your body and helping to get the bad things out.
By mid to end of day 2 and onto day 3 you feel so much energy and almost euphoric...why?
Your body can take the energy it typically devotes to digesting and put it everywhere else in your body. And when I say energy, I mean the clean your house in an hour type. It is amazing!
Please let me know if you are interested in doing this. I will send you a prefast email a week before and then again a few days before so you are prepared and can buy all the veggies and fruit you'll need so you stay on track!
xoxo Natalie
