Juice Fast, Day 4

Breakfast: organic celery, ($1.25, Kroger), cucumber (.75, farmer’s market), organic lettuce ($1.25, Kroger), organic parsley (about .30, Fresh Market)

Results, about 3 cups. Cost about $3.50

You might notice there’s no fruit in this juice. That’s because we semi-spontaneously decided to make an overnight stay away from the house. My original brilliant plan was to just make green juice and mix it with our supper juice leftovers since that turned out to be so much juice. This could have actually been a brilliant plan except for how very minty the supper juice turned out.

Colton mixed his green juice with half supper watermelon juice and it was still unbearably minty. I drank my green juice straight and it was very green and not at all sweet.

Colton snacked on some red juice when he got to the office and I finished off the container of coconut water and had some dandelion root tea.

Lunch: pineapple ($1.20, Aldi), organic beet (about $1, Azure Standard), oranges, (.80, Aldi), organic carrots (about $4.50, Azure Standard)

Result, about 7 cups of juice. Cost about $7.50.

Again I didn’t get a picture of the lunch juice, but it looked like the other beet/carrot juices. (Except maybe for the fact that it sat a little longer and it started to get an oranger layer on top and a redder layer toward the bottom as the juices separated.)

I set out to make a really good tasting juice to make up for the rough patch over the last couple meals, and mostly succeeded. But regardless, by the end of the meal I very suddenly hit a moment of my body being done with juice, to the point of feeling kind of sick to my stomach and really not wanting to do this juice fast thing anymore.

Colton had already been feeling kind of shaky and ready for food. Neither of us finished our lunch juice.

We’d already been planning to cut our juice fast a little bit short so we could eat before playing frisbee tonight, and we stepped that up slightly with a plan to snack in the afternoon on real food leading up to a light supper. I had a grand plan of how to come off the juice fast with homemade cheese (made from organic raw milk), but it really didn’t sound that great at first so I started with a mango, then an hour or so later had a carrot stick, and shortly after that a couple small bites of cheddar cheese. A little later I did start on the homemade cheese with a few crackers.

I’d never gone so long without solid food before (unless maybe sometime I was really sick when I was little, but if so I don’t remember it) so while I knew in theory about going slow  to reintroduce my body to solid food, it was odd to experience it. I wanted to just keep eating and eating, but at the same time even the small bits of food I let myself eat were sitting heavy on my stomach.

We ate a light supper (chicken and a couple spoonfuls of leftover homemade baked beans), played frisbee (my stomach continued to feel heavy, but I had better energy than usual), came home and had a second light supper (quesadilla with sour cream and fresh salsa). Colton even ate ice cream, and did just fine with eating real food again.

I’m still struggling a big with the transition back to solid food, even after eating nothing but raw milk for the whole morning today. On the plus side, I think I lost about 6 pounds on the juice fast, which is very encouraging if only because for the past couple of years I hadn’t lost weight at all, even doing the GAPS diet. Either juice fasting really worked well for me, or my thyroid is finally functioning better. Either way I’m pleased with the results.

Based on how Colton’s system reacted to the juice fast and how easily he went back to solid food, I’m pretty sure that juice fasting isn’t the best match for his metabolism. It was still a good cleanse for both of us, and I would definitely consider doing it again, and I think even Colton might eventually consider doing it again, especially to replace a water only type fast.

The whole cost of an almost four day juice fast for two people came to about $65, counting the coconut water we drank, and allowing a little more for the tea and honey, which I didn’t figure up the exact cost of.

Juice Fast, Day 3

Breakfast: cantaloupe (1/2 a $2.40 melon, Aldi), spinach (3/4 of a $2 bag, farmer’s market), organic parsley (maybe 1/8 of $1.69 bunch, Fresh market), organic apples (1/4 of $5 bag, Kroger), cucumber, (.75, farmer’s market), organic celery (1/2 a $2.50 bunch)

Result, about 7 cups of juice. Cost about $6.25

This juice tasted a lot like cantaloupe, with some green undertones. I enjoyed it very much, drinking the entire leftover pint and a half over the course of the morning. Between coconut water tasting so good yesterday, and cantaloupe tasting so good today, I wonder if my electrolyte balance had been thrown off over the course of juicing.

Colton was having some metallic taste in his mouth, and especially when drinking water, which I think points to the effectiveness of the juicing as a cleanse to get rid of toxins.

Lunch: organic carrots (maybe $2, Azure Standard), organic beet (about $1, Azure Standard), mangos (2/$1, Aldi), orange (about .40, Aldi)

Result about 5 cups of juice. Cost about $5.50.

I forgot to get a picture of this one, but it looked a lot like the other beet carrot juices we’ve had.

Beet carrot juice is still the best, and mangos are still amazing. What more can I say?

I probably would have snacked on juice or at least tea this afternoon, but instead I accidentally fell asleep and napped for almost the whole afternoon.

Supper: watermelon (I only used half what was in the picture, so 1/4 a $5 watermelon, Kroger. I could have gotten it cheaper at Aldi, but I mistakenly assumed the sale Aldi watermelons would be significantly smaller and not such a good deal.), cucumbers (2/$1.50, farmer’s market), apples (1/4 of a $5 bag, Kroger), lime (.25, farmer’s market), Young Living peppermint essential oil (about .30 worth)

Result, just over 8 cups of juice. Cost, about $4.75.

I was aiming for a good refreshing electrolyte juice, but I slipped with the mint oil so it was extra refreshing… I’ve really enjoyed a touch of fresh mint in juices and I was wondering if a drop or two of mint oil would have the same effect. At this point I’m still not sure what effect a *proper* amount of mint oil would have on the juice. I tasted the juice pre-mint oil, and it was really good, so I can at least recommend that combination of fruit.

We mixed some of it with leftover carrot beet juice to cut down the mintiness, and I’ll probably have some more cut with water later in the evening.

Overall I’d say day 3 was slightly easier than day 2, though the lack of food is also starting to get a bit old. Also I woke up from my nap feeling like I was about to come down with a cold. This eased off as I got up and started moving around, but I’m not sure if I’m getting sick or just getting rid of old toxins.

Juice Fast, Day 2

Breakfast: cucumber (.59, Kroger), organic celery (1/2 a $2.50 bunch, Kroger), organic parsley (maybe 1/5 of a $1.69 bunch, yesterday I said this was from Kroger, but this particular bunch was from the Fresh market where it’s the same price as the ‘snooty Kroger’ on N Knoxville, though cheaper than other area Krogers), organic leaf lettuce ($1.25, Kroger), oranges (about $1.40, Aldi), pineapple ($1.19, Aldi) plus lemon juice, not pictured (about 20 cents worth, Aldi)

Result about 6 1/2 cups of juice from the produce, plus a few tablespoons of lemon juice. Cost about $6.

This was a mild juice with lots of tart overtones. I’ve been using lemon in the morning  juice to help with getting rid of toxins, but I’m already starting to cut back on it for flavor reasons, and I might start skipping it entirely.

Colton didn’t quite finish his breakfast juice so I sipped his leftovers plus the juice that wouldn’t quite fit in the canning jars for most of the morning and never needed more of a morning snack than that.

Lunch: organic carrots (about $3, Azure Standard), mango (.49, Aldi), organic beet, (about $1, Azure Standard), organic cranberries (again I used about half what was in the picture, so maybe .50, Azure Standard)

Result about 3 cups of juice. Cost about $5.

Though I was very hungry shortly before lunch, by lunchtime I was barely hungry at all, and we had leftover juices building up, so I made a much smaller amount of juice than previously. It was also very good, with lots of mango flavor and a bit of tart from the cranberries and earthy undertones. I think beet/carrot based juices are quickly becoming our favorites.

My stomach was increasingly confused over the course of the afternoon, ranging quickly from very full to starving to kind of sick and back again for no apparent reason. I had a cup of dandelion root tea which was a bit of a nice change from juice, and is supposed to help cleanse the liver and gallbladder. I put in just a bit of honey and didn’t miss my normal large spoonful of honey at all. Just when I was hitting the stage of ‘I’m hungry and really tired of drinking juice and this is no fun at all’ I remembered coconut water and drank two small glasses of it. It tasted really good and evened out both my stomach and my mood again. I also had a cup of Good Earth tea (no sweetener) late in the afternoon, but no more juice.

Supper: leftovers

Who knew you could have leftover night on a juice fast?  We had just over two pints of leftover juice in the fridge between yesterday’s leftover lunch juice and this morning’s leftover breakfast juice, so we combined them for supper. I’d carefully filled canning jars almost to the brim when putting the juice away, so as to minimize oxidation as much as possible, but I still wanted to use it up as quickly as we could so as to make the most of the nutrition in the juice. Colton still has some juice in the fridge at the office for between meal snacking, but we managed to use up all our leftovers here so we can start with a clean slate again.

Reports are day 2 is the hardest and day 3 is when the real energy boost comes. If that holds true the rest of the fast should go pretty easily. On the other hand, if it just gets harder the longer we go without real food we’re going to have lot of conversations about pizza while we drink our juices…

Juice Fast, Day 1

Breakfast+Morning snack: spinach ($2, farmer’s market), cucumber (.50, Kroger), organic celery (1/2 a $2.50 bunch, Kroger), parsley (maybe 1/5 of a $1.69 bunch, Kroger, I used most, but not quite all of the parsley pictured), organic apple (1/4 of a $5 bag, Kroger), canteloupe (1/2 a $1.49 melon, Aldi), lemon juice ($1.89 a bottle, Aldi) and mango (.49, Aldi, not pictured, because I added it to the second half of the juice when it tasted light on the fruit)

Result, about 6 1/2 cups of juice from the produce, plus another 1/2 cup of bottled lemon juice. Cost of about $7.

Colton said it tasted healthy, but not bad. I liked it, though it had a lot of green flavor, and was a little light on the fruit.

As when I was doing morning  juice on GAPS, my original glass of juice of was very filling and I suddenly got very hungry mid morning. After having another pint of juice I was afraid I was just going to feel very hungry all the way until lunch, but a glass of water made me feel completely full again. Colton and I both had a bit of low blood sugar brain fog, but not nearly as bad as with normal fasting.

Lunch+Afternoon Snack: carrots (maybe 1/6 of a $33 25lb bag, Azure Standard–I used most of the carrots in the picture, but there were about 14 left. Also, I could have gotten these cheaper at the ‘snooty Kroger’ on N Knoxville.), pineapple ($1.19, Aldi), beet (maybe 1/6 of a $12 5lb bag, Azure Standard), mangoes (.49, Aldi)

Result about 8 1/2 cups of juice. Cost of about $9.

This was our favorite juice of the day. The beets and carrots gave it some earthy undertones of flavor, but there were plenty of sweet and tart notes also, and overall the beet flavor was pretty well hidden in this combination.

I only needed a half pint of juice for an afternoon snack, and Colton didn’t need any juice at all between lunch and supper.

As far as energy goes, it’s a hard to describe what it feels like to be on a juice fast. The closest I can get is to say that I feel like my body has plenty of energy, but it’s all being directed to the cellular level for repairs, and none if it is actually at my discretionary use.

Supper: sweet potato (.59 each, Aldi), cranberries (maybe 1/2 lb of 10 lb for $12–I used about half the cranberries in this picture), orange (1/2 a 4lb bag for $4, lemon($1.89 bottle, Aldi), ginger, cinnamon

Result about 3 1/3 cups of juice, plus another 1/3 cup of bottled lemon juice. Cost of about $4.

This juice was very heavy on the orange. I kept the ginger and cinnamon low key, which I think was a good thing, but also meant they didn’t help tone down the orange much. It wasn’t bad, but it was noticeably acidic on my empty stomach. If I were to make this juice again I’d use more sweet potato and less orange.

I got through most of the day without missing food at all, but after supper Colton and I both started thinking that real food sounded really good. Tomorrow we’ll probably add in some coconut water for more variety, and I may cave just enough to make myself a cup of herbal tea.

Also, between supper and bedtime I drank about half that leftover juice that I didn’t drink for an afternoon snack. That means altogether Colton drank just under 2 quarts of juice today and I drank 2 1/2 quarts of juice. Since I’d tried to allow for enough produce to let us each drink up to 3 quarts of juice a day, that means we’re on track to have more than enough produce to finish out the four days.

Starting a Juice Fast

So, Colton and I started a juice fast today. I’m blogging about it mostly because I wanted to take pictures of all my pretty produce and juices and then I thought I might as well post the pictures on the internet since I’d taken them. I’m also documenting some things like amount of juice we got from our produce and how much juice we drank, just because this is the kind of information I really wanted to find somewhere on the internet while planning, and only found in small, spotty doses.

I was trying to do a juice fast as inexpensively as possible (though that still doesn’t mean juice fasting is even close to cheap…) while not sacrificing the healthiness, which is, after all, the main point. This means I used some organic produce (anything from the dirty dozen list, plus organic carrots, because they’re still relatively inexpensive when you go organic) and some conventional produce that was on sale at Aldi. I bought bottled lemon juice instead of fresh lemons. I planned juices where the bulk of the juice would come from juicy and/or inexpensive ingredients, and threw in a sprinkling of slightly more expensive ingredients for more flavor variation.

I also went with a higher fruit to veggie ratio than is generally suggested by obnoxiously healthy people, because if we drank mostly veggie juice we might get through this juice fast, but we would never, ever consider doing it again. Just the way it is… Flavor=morale. (Which should mean you can defeat Cylons with fruit juice right?)

I didn’t have any great scientific plan for what types of fruits and veggies we should juice, but I did try to make sure we had a good range of colors, which generally means a good range of nutrients. I hit green, orange and yellow pretty solidly, with some red thrown in, so we’re only missing the blue range (which tends to be berries that expensive and pesticide ridden, or just even more expensive).

Also, I’m avoiding juicing any cruciferous veggies (cabbage, broccoli, kale, etc) because when raw they can have a dampening effect on the thyroid, and my thyroid is quite sufficiently dampened already, thank you very much.

The general plan is green based juice for breakfast (alternating between lettuce and spinach for the leafy greens) and carrot/beet based juice for lunch with some variety in supper juices, mostly based on recipes I found somewhere on the internet.

I have some hope that a four day juice fast will involve losing some weight, but I’m not convinced that even that will convince my low-thyroid, low metabolism system to let go of any extra fat. I figure either way a super nutrient boost is going to help my health to head in the right general direction somehow or other.

The Vocabulary of Tiredness

My husband made me take a sick day today. I’d go into a rant here about the difference between people’s perception of headship and submission and the reality that my husband couldn’t really take care of me if I didn’t have to listen to him, but this rant would probably just make me want to go find someone to smack, and I don’t think that’s an approved sick day activity.

Sometimes I wonder if people assume that I milk this whole Lyme disease thing for all it’s worth and sit around eating bon-bons and watching Vin Diesel movies. (Mental note: my husband is also right about the fact that I should really not care what random people think. I should really listen to him.) In reality it’s more like I drag through my chores taking three times as long as I should because I’m too stubborn to just go take a nap, and when I really do need to sit down, instead of relaxing I research health problems and discount codes for household items we might need to buy.

I’m getting better about this, mostly because it makes my husband very unhappy when I make myself miserable trying to do to much. Since I like to make him happy, this means trying very hard to remember to rest when I need to, and overall trying to get healthier and have more energy so I can bake more cookies, keep up with the dishes and reorganize the pantry. (Okay, so maybe a reorganized pantry is more to make me happy.)

For instance, this morning, after several days of kind of having a cold I woke up feeling exhausted and congested. I tried to convince myself that I might feel great once I got up and around, and it didn’t really take. Four hours of extra sleep later, I was once again dragging around trying to convince myself that I should feel great with all that extra sleep, and it would be a great time to attack my Monday chores, maybe after one more cup of tea.

My husband got home and told me I looked horrible. Usually this statement makes me snicker and he then rephrases to what I knew he meant anyway. This time it just made me feel better about feeling horrible, because if I looked horrible too, I probably really did feel horrible.

I’ve been feeling a lot better overall the last few months. Still lots of ups and downs, but with the occasional entire week where I feel great and get a lot done. I’ve started to get used to feeling better.

I had the startling realization that after a full day of productivity I could be ‘tired’ and still feel better than I had all day on a bad energy day. Which made me realize that (a) I’d been functioning on a much deeper level of tired than I’d even realized and (b) I’d probably completely failed to communicate what ‘tired’ actually meant to most people who asked how I was feeling. Naturally this left me contemplating the subtle differences between ‘sleepy’, ‘winded’, ‘worn out’, ‘exhausted’ and ‘I think if I focus I can talk myself through getting dressed and starting my day, but I might cry if I have to exercise this morning’.

The best part of taking a sick day today is that I have a reasonable expectation of actually feeling better in a few days, instead of just getting back up the level of functional in a few days. It’s a lot easier to enjoy my sick day when I finished almost my entire backlog of to-do list last week and can look forward to starting in on my giant list of potential projects.

Plus, no guilt for taking a sick day, because I *had* to. My husband said so.

Cranberry Sunflower Seed Chocolate Bars

If, like me, you’re looking for more ways to get sprouted sunflower seeds and coconut oil into your diet, you’ll like this post. The rest of you can move on and ignore it. You know, if you hate eating chocolate…

I based this recipe on Three Ingredient Chocolate Bars, but modified it to use turbinado sugar because I’m slightly skeptical of stevia and good raw honey is stinking expensive.

I used sunflower seeds that were halfway between soaked and sprouted. I’ve found that if I soak them is saltwater overnight, drain them and stick them in the fridge, they very slowly sprout with no further attention needed.

For the mixing coconut oil and sugar stage my actual process looked more like, “Try to mix turbinado sugar with coconut oil. Try harder. Leave it for a while and see if turbinado dissolves in oil. Discover that it just doesn’t. Try heating it again. Finally try adding a splash of water and declare the odd, gloopy almost mixed substance a success.” You get the modified version below, and once you mix in the cocoa powder everything blends together just fine.

Cranberry Sunflower Seed Chocolate Bars

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup turbinado sugar, slightly heaping unless you like very dark chocolate

1 TBSP water

1 cup +2 TBSP cocoa powder (I used raw cocao powder)

2/3 cup dried cranberries

2/3 cup soaked sunflower seeds

Sprinkle cranberries and sunflower seeds across the bottom of an 8×8 pan. (I didn’t actually measure them, just used enough to almost cover the entire bottom of the pan.)

Melt coconut oil in medium saucepan. Remove from heat and mix in sugar and water. Return to heat if necessary get sugar to dissolve. It doesn’t have to mix neatly, but if you still have granules your chocolate will be grainy.

Mix in cocoa powder.

Pour chocolate mixture evenly over cranberries and sunflower seeds, smoothing slightly if necessary.

Freeze for 15-30 minutes.

Remove from freezer and let soften slightly before cutting. (Or I suppose you could just take it out before it gets really hard and cut it then, if you’re an organized person like that.)

Makes 15 ‘fun sized’ bars.

 

Sushi

It’s americanized, kind of sloppy and served on a foam plate with a mayo and tabasco sauce, but it almost looks like… sushi.

 

Late March

early spring

thickly winter frosted

trees blossom snow

Haiku

shopping list

from a distance

looks like haiku