My 3 day juice fast

I was very excited to try doing a juice fast. I have met several people who have done extended (7 days and more) juice fasts who have spoken to me about how amazing they felt-The clarity, the energy, the flat stomach. They all swear by them.

I have also been doing some research into the benefits of fasting and that we humans are designed to go through periods of fasting. It gives our digestive system a break so it can repair and heal and the latest study I read was about how your whole immune system can be rebuilt after fasting for just 3 days.

I love trying new things and experimenting on myself when it comes to health. I never feel comfortable recommending anything to my clients unless it is something I personally have tried. So I thought it cant hurt, I may as well give it a go. Worst case scenario I waste 3 days and maybe lose some weight.

After a big vegetable shop (my organic grocer sure did love me this week), and convincing my mum to join me on the adventure I was ready to begin.

Each day consisted of 5 juices. I had a template I was following but really just made up my own combos using the template as a guide. I also made sure to drink plenty of water and herbal teas. Lets just say I couldn’t venture too fat from the toilet for the 3 days. Lucky I chose a week where I didn’t have too much on.

The daily routine:

7.30am Glass of warm water with the juice of ½ lemon

8am breakfast juice

9am Green tea

10.30am morning tea juice

1pm Lunch juice

2pm Green tea

3.30pm afternoon tea juice

6.30pm Dinner juice

8pm Chamomile tea

To be honest it wasn’t as hard as I expected. After reading several blogs where people found it very challenging I was expecting the worst. I didn’t suffer from any extreme symptoms. My head was a bit groggy, especially the first day but it never developed into a headache. The second and third day I did have a bit of a stomach-ache but it certainly wasn’t present the whole time. I felt a bit hungry at times but the juices were so big and I felt so full of fluid that the hunger was short lived. I also expected to not sleep very well as in the past I have never slept well on an empty stomach but I was feeling quite exhausted and really had no trouble in the sleeping department. The chamomile tea and Epsom salt baths I was having before dinner probably aided too.

I think I felt the best on the second day, which may have been because I was busy and distracted that day. I felt quite energetic and positive. The third day I was feeling a little irritable but certainly not as bad as I expected.

What I found the most challenging was my thoughts. The fact that I couldn’t eat food meant that I was constantly thinking about it. Although I wasn’t that hungry, food was always on my mind. It certainly didn’t help that my husband decided to enjoy food that we don’t normally have at home and bring home a pizza for dinner. I think the mind games we play with ourselves are always our biggest challenges.

The other challenge was all the preparation. It took about half an hour to cut the veggies, make the juices and wash the juicer. Doing this 5 times a day became a bit tedious. By the third day I had simply had enough of the juicing!

I didn’t quite experience the huge positive effects others had spoken to me about but I think 3 days probably wasn’t long enough to really feel light, free and clear. It was just long enough to give my body a nice break and recharge. It will be interesting to see how I feel over the next few days but today I still feel a bit tired. I definitely do feel lighter in my stomach (I lost about 1.5kgs) and not as foggy in the head. I am truly glad I gave it a go, especially since it is spring. A little internal spring-cleaning J. I could see myself doing it again and possibly for even longer next time!

I certainly do advocate doing some for of detoxification at least once a year and think spring is the perfect time. The juice fast is just one of many ways to aid the body’s natural detoxification pathway which is so important in our society where we are constantly bombarded with toxins and pollutants.

If you would like more information on what type of detoxification might be best for you feel free to contact me.

I would also love to hear your juice fasting experiences!