Well, I did it.
Eight days of juicing.
It was a lot easier than I thought I would be in some aspects and harder in others.
I started by purchasing all that would be needed for the first five days – yep everything on that long list. I figured since the bulk of my experiment would take place during the workweek, I should have it mapped out a bit before I started. I borrowed four Nalgenes for the week – one for each meal. For my juices, I chose to use the five days that are provided for in the Standard Meal Plan on Joe’s website, RebootYourLife. The last three days were various juices from those days and ones that I made up.
Each day, I got up a bit earlier than I normally would have and made my juice. The first day it took me about an hour and a half to make three juices - I was a bit late for work! However, the time it took reduced each day until I was getting all three done in about 45 minutes. I decided to juice the workday juices at home before work and then do the dinner juice when I got home from work. Looking back, I would have just done all four juices at once and got it out of the way. Ultimately, I am sure it would have taken less time had I proceeded that way. Only cleaning it once a day would have also saved a lot of time!
I was using my co-worker’s Breville Juice Fountain Compact and found (or so I think I found) that not having different speeds really affected the amount of juice I was able to get out of some of the softer fruits and vegetables. My solution to this problem was running all of the scraps through the juicer a second time. I scrapped out the veggie/fruit bit leftovers into a bowl and then ran those scraps back through the juicer. Sometimes it was successful in getting a lot more juice, other times I just got sludge, but that sludge was usually yummy!
All in all, the juices weren’t too bad. My first day’s dinner juice had all sorts of interesting items – tomatoes, jalapeno, beats, carrots, celery, parsley and radishes. I was dreading it since I am not a huge fan of radishes, however, it was good and it didn’t get the gag reflex I thought that it would. Some of the juices were absolutely delicious – these usually had strawberries or the like in them. One or two I didn’t care for, but I think that is a good percentage seeing as there were different juices for each meal.
And, it was actually fairly easy to juice. Meaning, I wasn’t hungry, so I didn’t go out and stuff my face on something else. I did have a few chips one night out with co-workers. I was the odd man out drinking water, so I just ate a few chips, you know, so I didn’t look suspicious! Otherwise, I was totally faithful.
I wasn’t tired either. Although, I am convinced that all the natural sugar in the fruit was keeping me wired. I am now wondering if the sugars from all of the vegetable and fruits just keep you wired for a whole week (or whatever period of time you do it). I will say though, I didn’t crash at the end, so if the energy was because of the sugar I didn’t have any ill aftereffects. I did have this gross film on my teeth after drinking each juice and had to brush my teeth a whole lot because the sensation was bothering me. So, that was a downfall.
It was really only hard because I wanted to eat. I wanted to eat very badly. It was all I could focus on sometimes. I wasn’t hungry at all mind you. It was a little bit of juxtaposition. As a big snacker, I enjoy the sensation of eating. By day two I was already planning the meals I would have once I started eating “solids” again. Again, I wasn’t hungry, just wanted the sensation.
Additionally, because I couldn’t snack and I was limiting my caloric intake, I lost about 5 pounds in those 8 days. Not too bad. I wasn’t really in it to lose weight, but that’s always an added bonus. I didn’t notice any tremendous uplift in how I feel. I was never like, wow, this juice makes me so awake and alive and energetic. It was just like every other day, except I didn’t eat solid food. I suppose an argument could be made that I required a bit less sleep that week, but I would have to do this all again to really put that to the test. It might have been that I had just come back from vacation.
All in all, I would definitely do it again. I felt like I accomplished something! Even if it was just a battle of my own desire to munch. I was able to control myself for 8 days. And I think that is pretty good!!
Gnocchi was one of those beloved things that I was leaving behind. Traditionally, it is made with eggs, or sometimes cheese, and those were two things I didn’t care to eat. And, I thought it would be impossibly hard to make myself.
I like this cookbook because she went through the Mediterranean finding those dishes that are naturally vegan. She notes that the Orthodox Lenten fast is particularly strict, essentially vegan, also that due to the economic conditions, most people do not eat as much meat as we do. As a result of her search is an amazing cookbook.
