After watching the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead on Netflix a week or so ago, I decided that I wanted to do a juice fast. Today is my third day. The first day was easy, and it really helped that Nick and I went to the beach. Yesterday was terrible.
I did a four day juice fast a few years back when I still lived in Greensburg. At that time, I was pretty darn healthy. I was eating very well, mostly vegan, which was particularly easy because I worked in a fruit market during the summers. I used to walk with my friend Kevin (who I miss!) all the time, plus we were starting to ride bicycles pretty often, too. I had a gym membership at the local YMCA and would go there a lot.
I'd recently lost a decent amount of weight, and I decided a juice fast was a good way to kick it up a notch. I can't remember the exact program that I followed, in terms of what I was juicing, but I do remember drinking green tea and spending a lot of time in the bathroom. I also remember that I felt like hell for a few days but by the end of it, I felt awesome! I might have continued the fast longer, but I was getting a lot of flack from my friends who thought the fasting was unhealthy, (at the time, I agreed with them) so I broke fast with a fruit smoothie on the fifth day.
I've always meant to do another fast, but just haven't done it. This could contribute to why I've gained so much weight in the last few years. A lot of it came from changing my lifestyle: I just don't walk and bike as much in Rhode Island as I did when I lived in Greensburg. I have a car now, which makes me lazy, and I live in a bad neighborhood, so walking at night, like I did all the time in Greensburg, really isn't an option I like.
When my dad died a few years back, I definitely turned to food for comfort. Old habits die hard. I started smoking again, too, but I quickly nipped that nasty habit in the bud. (I haven't smoked a cigarette for at least three years now; I haven't smoked the other stuff for about two.) The eating, though, continued. So did the weight gain.
I went gluten-free for the first six months of 2011 because I'd been having health issues, all digestive related. The diet definitely helped a lot, but I "fell off the wagon" so to speak as we were moving into our new apartment and I haven't been hardcore about it since. I guess it really is a pain in the ass, though I enjoyed the foods that I was making. I guess it's because it's the summer and it's hot. I don't feel like cooking at all, so we end up with takeout more often than we should.
The point of all this? Things are really out of hand, with my diet, my eating, and my health overall. I feel like crap all the time, though I try not to complain about it as much as I feel it, because who wants to hear it all over and over again? I'm having digestive issues that are really scary (think blood where there should be none) and even though I did fight for a referral to get checked out, because I have no insurance, I'm on a long wait list.
I also got diagnosed with hypothryoid earlier this year,which means it's really difficult for me to lose weight and incredibly easy for me to gain it. I haven't gained any weight this year, thankfully, but I have also failed to keep any off. If I was at a healthy-ish weight, this wouldn't be such a problem, but I am quite decidedly obese. Things have got to change.
So I'm juice fasting. I'm on day three, and to be perfectly honest, I have no idea if I'll make it to the end of the day or not. My goal is to make it a week, but if today if anything like yesterday, ain't happening. Yesterday was awful. I don't remember feeling nearly as terrible the last time I juice fasted, but maybe I was just a lot healthier then. I felt ill and unwell all day. I felt nauseated and I had a terrible, splitting headache. I couldn't even stomach the juices I was making, which meant I was definitely not getting enough nutrients. The juice I did make tasted awful, even though everything had tasted good the day before.
If there's a toxic reaction from juice fasting, I definitely experienced that yesterday. I spent most of the day in bed. I did one drawing, and that was an effort. Usually I sketch a lot or work in my art journal, even if I'm not feeling great, but yesterday I had no interest in anything except getting through the day. By the end of the day I felt so completely awful that I decided I need to have soup. Not exactly juice, but still liquid (I went with a all-organic soup that had no chunks). I only had a small amount, but I felt way better after having it.
I'm hoping today goes better. I stocked up on unsweetened coconut milk, mineral water, and a green juice from Bolthouse Farms. I figure if the juice I make tastes awful, I'll drink the BF stuff. Sure, it's not fresh-squeezed, so it doesn't have as many nutrients, but whatever, at least it won't make me barf. One thing that makes me feel a little bit better is that when I weighed myself with the Wii Fit this morning, I was shocked to see I'd lost 5 lbs! Yes, I'm sure it will all come right back after I'm done fasting and is probably water weight... but I'm not positive since even though I couldn't stomach the juice, I did drink a lot of water to make up for it.
Have you ever fasted? How did it go for you?
(Note: In case there are any haters out there: I'm not juicing specifically to lose weight, though it's a nice side effect. I'm juicing to give my digestive system a break and a chance, I hope, to heal. It took me years to gain the weight and I'm expecting it will take equally as long to lose it. My plan for after the fast is to eat mostly fruits and vegetables, possibly some sort of paleo diet. While I'm not under a doctor's care, I certainly would be if I could get an appointment sooner than three months from now. Doh!)
