Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Journey To Improved Health Commenced

My two week juice fast has been completed! With minimal cheating along the way I was able to reverse some rather uncomfortable health problems, lose weight, detox, and retrain my food cravings. I’ll break it down into three sections,“The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” and discuss just what happened during the juice fast as well the wonderful results I got.

THE GOOD:


I’ll jump off from a positive starting point and discuss the good. By day three I was feeling AMAZING! I experienced some really great improvements in my health in just two and half days. I started sleeping rather well. My back pain had virtually disappeared. My mood began to significantly elevate. I have suffered with spells of slight depression throughout most of my days and now gone! I also enjoyed less fatigue than what I was used to. I no longer suffer from the atrocious gas that was something new for me. I started having gas problems soon after I allowed the ‘hack’ (gall bladder removal surgeon) to steal my gall bladder from me before I knew better. Thank God that unpleasant symptom is gone!
Fortunately for me, I did not experience any horrible side-effects the first couple days from detoxing as many claim to experience. It’s possible that I aided the detoxification process the day before I started my juice FEAST with a warm water enema and that is why I did not have any yucky symptoms. I’ll talk more about that in “The Ugly” section. Another noticeable improvement was my pee. Yep, that’s right my PEEEEE! It was completely clear. I don’t think I have ever witnessed my urine to be clear before the juice fast. Clear urine is a good sign of improved internal health and proper hydration. I was very excited about that!

In addition, I transformed my food cravings! This was my main goal and reason for doing the juice fast. I no longer crave sweets anymore. I don’t have the urge to eat cookies and cakes anymore. Those cravings were a big problem for me as I felt completely out of control over what I ate. I would sometimes eat 3, 4, or even 5 cookies at a time (the big cookies) and made myself sick just to reduce the insatiable craving for sugar! And as most of you know, the craving doesn’t subside for very long even after over indulging. Another 24 hours later I would be right back in the cookie jar. I have to insert a funny little story here.

About a week after starting my fast, my lovely, baking neighbor brought over a giant hunk of double layer chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting in between each layer and topping the whole cake. This cake sat on my counter in front of my face for about three days. I glared at it. I fantasized about diving face first in the cake and eating with no utensils, just my face! I imagined my husband walking in on me with my head in the cake and I would look up with a chocolate mask covering my face and him saying, “WHAT THE BLEEEEP?!”Thankfully this embarrassing daydream never took place; however, the following actually happened. I snuck a bite of the scrumptious looking cake one evening while my husband ran to town. I was absolutely shocked when I ran over to the sink and promptly spit out the piece of cake and felt the urge to rinse out my mouth. The cake was actually disgusting to me. Weird right?! Cake was a huge weakness for me before. I haven’t eaten any sweets in 24 days and I can’t say I ever crave any.
Another great bonus is that I lost 8 pounds in 14 days. 6 pounds was lost in the first 7 days. I have probably lost even more than that by now but I haven’t weighed myself since stopping the fast.




THE BAD:
One negative thing to talk a bit about is my bouts of anger. On one hand, I think I got angry because of simply abstaining from food and I just wanted to crunch on something. This can make anyone slightly grumpy or make others want to slam the juicer over the head of someone who is eating! You choose which category you think I fall under. However, on the other hand, it was that time of the month which could be the biggest factor in why I was sort of unpleasantly irritable at times.
Speaking of wanting to eat something, let’s talk about ‘cheating’. Going from eating darn near anything and everything my little heart desired to not eating anything but mashed up and sprayed out juice is TOUGH! On day one I did break down and scarf down a banana. Just the sheer joy of having something with texture in my mouth kept me going onto day two. On day two I cheated as well. I ate a few grapes and strawberries but I chewed them so well it was darn near like juice. I didn’t want my body to have to work too hard to digest the food since that is one of the main reasons to go on a juice fast – give your body a break from digesting and instead focus on healing. The evening of day two I cheated again but this time with romaine lettuce wrapped around ½ avocado, diced tomatoes, sliced onions, and salsa. You may be thinking, golly, that’s no fast! But let me tell you…this is far better than cookies, pasta, chili, meat, dairy, and all the other junk I was usually eating so I am still very pleased with myself. Oh yeah, I also broke down late one night and ate one cracker. The salty cracker and its marvelous texture with the oh so pleasant crunch that invaded my mouth was another amazing treat that actually – believe it or not - kept me going on with my goal to become more healthy. You see, for me it is not merely about abstaining and succeeding at not eating a lick for two weeks. It is more about changing habits, retraining my body to crave healthier foods, recognizing when my body could get to the point where I shove 3 or 4 cookies down my throat or simply eat an organic cracker to subside my urges to break the fast entirely.
I think it's worth mentioning that a couple days during the two weeks I did feel very tired and knew that my body needed to rest. I expected this because while detoxing your body just needs to take it easy at times. After all, it is doing the huge task of repairing and healing things that have been out of whack for some time!

THE UGLY:
Now then, what could be uglier than what comes out of the poop chute? Yeah, I’m guessing not much. But you won’t believe it. I barely had a BM the whole time I was on the fast. This is probably surprising to many people in the health-conscious world because it is common knowledge that having a lot of rather strange bowel movements is expected when starting a juice fast. This is from the idea that after years of eating all the junk of the SAD (Standard American Diet) we have compacted feces in our colon and what not. I actually believe that I did have this compacted crap - pardon the pun – but I eliminated much of it with a coffee enema about two weeks before the fast and then a warm water enema a day before launching the juice fast. Can I just take a minute to talk a little about an enema? This is a power house way to quickly and effectively aid your liver to flush out toxins, especially using organic coffee. What it does is dilate the ducts and allow maximum room for the body to flush out impurities. The caffeine stimulates the liver to detoxify and through the liver the blood is filtered and cleaned as well! In the future I will write a post focusing solely on enemas so all you people out there that think that is the craziest thing you've ever heard will get a better understanding of just how beneficial it is and just how easy it really is.




Conclusion:
So there you have it, some of the highlights on my journey to better health. The mental process is something that cannot be put into words. You simply have to try it and experience it for yourself. It is a roller coaster ride that you won’t soon forget! I encourage everyone who has any health problems, minimal such as just annoying gas or severe such as arthritis and chronic disease to try a juice fast. If you suffer from chronic diseases and want to try the juice fast, do it under the supervision of your doctor. You may have to find a new doctor though because the great majority is not educated about nutrition and detox. If you are like me, young and rather healthy with no major health problems, feel free to surge ahead with a juice fast as soon as you can! It may just change your life!
Take your health into your OWN hands,
In the words of a mother




Here are a couple pics of some delicious juices I made!

Cantaloupe Juice - This is great if you freeze it. It's like sherbet!




Strong detox drink - Beet, Carrot, Apple, and Pear Juice!

4 comments:

  1. Good honest post! The juice looks yummy!

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  2. Can you do enemas while nursing?

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    Replies
    1. In a word, no.
      I wouldn't recommend it. It is a very powerful detox and you don't want to be moving toxins around while nursing because they will end up in your milk. Also, the caffeine in the coffee will end up in milk too and that's no good for baby. If you are interested in some mild things you can do (detox wise) while nursing shoot me an email and we'll discuss it further. :)

      mamasworldview@yahoo.com

      P.S. That's AWESOME you are nursing! Kudos to you!

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