Juicing Forum

I think I'm getting good at this. Threw together a giant dinner juice and it tastes great. Doesn't even have any fruit in it, unless you count lemon and butternut squash. I did add coconut milk, though...makes it a little thicker and I figure some added fat is a good thing for me right now.

1. My first juice fast isn't over yet, since I'm planning to go for 7 days. I'm hungry, and tired from sleep deprivation, none of which is really the fault of the juice. Other than those complicating factors, I actually feel lighter and healthier. AND I fit better into my clothes, which is the whole point.

2. I lost 5 lbs so far, as of this morning. Mostly water, but my belly fat is way squishier than it was 3 days ago, which means it's mobilizing. Yay!

3. HUNGER. But really, I like the juice. It's all the stuff going on in the rest of my life that has been difficult this week. Luckily, I'm good at compartmentalizing.

4. I honestly never tried a recipe. But my Pepper Jelly energizing lunch drink today was probably my favorite. (@ Donnie: I think I forgot to mention that I did juice a lime into that one.)

5. I will do this again, although I'll probably stick to the 3 day fast after this one.

I'm so glad I found this forum...like Jeanne and Stefanie have said, I would probably not have come this far without the support and accountability I have here. Thanks Donnie, and everyone else for this!

Yay I made it!

How do you feel now after your juice fast?
I feel great. After day 2 my headache went away and I wasn't thinking about food so much!

How much weight did you lose?
I think about 3 lbs.

What was the hardest part or most trying time?
Day 2 with the headache. Also I had to go to the store everyday for vegetables/fruit. I underestimated how many it actually takes to make juice for a day!

What was your favorite juice recipe?
I like Green Giant.

Will you juice again?
Definitely. I think maybe even late next week. The week after I'm traveling so I may try to drop a few lbs to combat vacation weight gain.

Thank you everyone. I'll be back!

Congrats to everyone that completed their 3 day fast! So a little back story for me is that I have been struggling with extreme hand excema for that last few years, and it has been so bad the past few months I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring and I had read while searching around right before I found this site that juice fasting could possibly help it if your excema is in part being caused by gluton intake, and I thought well that would be awesome and amzingly this morning I noticed that the patch in between my ring finger and middle finger has almost completely disppeared, in just these 3 days! This is huge for me and if nothing else came out of this, that would make it totally worth it! Now onto day 4, and I feel great! I have really aquired a taste for the juices and I am hoping that will roll over into me liking to eat more vegetable when the week is over (wishful thinking maybe)! I had initially decided not to weigh until the end of the week because I didn't want to discouraged if I didn't see a change on the scale but I couldn't wait and to my huge surprise I was down from 135 to 126! So grateful to everyone that has contributed to this post, I know it has helped me thus far and will continue to help me finish out the week! I tend to be a creature of habit and stick with something that I like which is just about what I have done with my juices but I am headed back to the store this afternoon and am defintley going to be trying some of the awesome looking recipes you all have suggested! Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Congrats everyone, you have all done so well and accomplished so much!

@ Stefanie, isn't it amazing what your body will fix if you give it the means to do so? I had extremely high blood pressure and after juicing my blood pressure was down to levels my doctor couldn't believe. On top of that you lost 9 pounds!!! You Rock!!!

@Laura I'm still with you, day 4 and going strong! I have an extreme amount of energy this morning! If your feeling fatigue try to cut out more fruits during the later part of the day. Like John said, some herbal tea will help.

@Allison Congrats for doing your 3 days of juicing! Let us know when you're ready to do another fast, I'll do it with you! Have a blast on your vacation!

Laura, add a little more fruit to your drink for some more energy. I prefer to add an orange in place of the granny smith apple when I feel like getting an extra boost in energy.

More fruit it is. Incidentally, the juice I bottled to take to work with me was downright vile today. A little bitter and otherwise completely devoid of flavor. I bet it would have been fine, though, if I'd remembered the darn apple! Oops...

My energy level has actually been pretty good today. In fact, I feel an energy spike coming on since my dinner juice, so I'm going to try a little light exercise before bed to see if that helps me sleep at all.

The hunger issue, on the other hand...definitely no improvement. I had 6 juices today, several cups of tea, lots of water...but still, hungry all day. Grr. I do realize that hunger is something that doesn't need to be addressed as soon as it's felt, but still...this is not a long-term sustainable condition. It pretty much sucks. But I'm over the hump, just 2 1/2 days to go. Since I started Sunday at noon, I'll go through this Sunday for lunch, and have actual food for dinner. Something to look forward to...

Speaking of food, I think it's interesting that not once during this thing have I craved junk food of any kind. BUT, when I'm juicing, it takes everything I've got to not just pick up those gorgeous delicious looking veggies and start crunching away. I'm really looking forward to tasting things individually again, and enjoying the texture of food.

Meanwhile, I'm in this thing. Let's rock on!

@Rich That's great Rich! 7 lbs in 3-4 days is good! Keep up the good juicing! As far as your GF, tell her not to trust the scale but how she looks, feels, and how her clothes fit! Glad to see you two still going strong!

@Laura A tip when bottling your juices, make sure you fill them to the top. I was pouring in my juices and filling the gap with a little bit of water to make sure they were air tight. That might help a bit. Cut out any as much fruit as you can in your dinner juices to curb that energy spike, or have your dinner juice a little earlier.

It takes some people longer than others to curb that hunger feeling. Just keep doing what you're doing since your seeing good results.

You are so right, the only cravings I got after the first few days were the the ones where I could picture biting into an apple or a fresh cucumber with lemon over top. When you get back to solids you will just savor everything you eat. You'll be amazed at how different things taste too! Some of the foods I used to enjoy were just not as appetizing anymore.

Keep Rocking On!!!!

Laura, yes, it's a possibility you were diluting your juices too much.

Fruit juices taste really great and it's okay to add more fruit to your juices at this stage as your past the rough part. It's still super healthy for you, just make sure you are still keeping more veggies than fruits per juice minus the morning juice.

Just keep doing what you're doing and you'll keep getting progress. You are really kicking butt Laura!

Jeanne, sucks that you have a cold. When I was juicing everyone in the office was sick and I was the only one not sick. Just keep taking the juice. I bet you would really be down if you weren't on the juice right now. You are almost at your weight goal! Congrats!!!! Also, we are doing another 3 day group juice fast on May 5th so head over to that board and post that you'll join me

So...5 days done. I'm happy to report that the hunger thing was definitely better today. I still got hungry, but at appropriate meal intervals. Whew. I wasn't sure that would happen!

I had a really busy day, and didn't even make it to physical therapy because a client had an emergency and I had to go. But since I'm on my feet and up and down all day, work is more or less a form of PT anyway. My energy level was great, and I had no problems getting through it.

I'm going to go do my mini-workout now, then shower and bed. I do have to say that I'm really happy to only have a day and a half left to go...I REALLY miss eating food. I have been completely obsessed all day with the thought of natural peanut butter on celery. That my be my first snack after noon on Sunday...something to look forward to!

Can't wait to crunch on some cabbage...

Oh, man, that sounds GOOD!

I'm so glad it's almost over. My results have really been pretty spectacular, but I can't wait to eat food again. I think I may have mentioned that before...

I actually woke up this morning feeling pretty fantastic, and went to the gym after my morning juice. I did a good upper body workout followed by 20 hard minutes on the stair stepper, and my energy level way pretty high. The protein-spiked spicy purple juice I made for after my workout tasted phenomenal, and I don't know if it was just a really good juice or if I've gotten used to drinking this stuff. I was pretty hungry during the rest of the day, but it was manageable, and weight training ALWAYS has that effect on me.

I'll juice until noon tomorrow...and then eat something CRUNCHY. Funny how it's not flavors I'm craving, but textures...