My Tenth Day Of Green Juice Fast
by Robbie Clapham
(New Zealand)
Well today is day ten of my raw green juice fast, when I set out to do this, ten days was the first goal and I have made it here.. I must say there were a few key moments in there, I'm gonna point out a few of them to those interested here ..
From day 1 I decided if I was gonna do this I'd do it right, also I would not change my outdoor lifestyle at all so all through this I have continued diving almost everyday (missed 2 days) and been out snapper fishing 6 of the nights so far.
I went out and bought a new Breville juicer with the 84mm feed chute, which now claims to be the number one best selling juicer around, and its been amazing! (highly recommend it- cost me $170)
Day one; really I couldn’t get food out of my head and almost broke but knew if I broke I'd never do this thing. I kept thinking to myself, 'a quick sandwich wont hurt', then I said to myself, 'ohh maybe I should make this a raw food diet and just eat some sashimi' (thats sushi without the rice :) ). This thought came to me a few times actually but always after I had my green juice I was fine and full of motivation for a few more hours.
Days 2–5 were the easiest. I got into it and with good bursts of energy after each green juice, I thought this is gonna be a breeze. Really, when you think about all the nutrients and vitamins this is putting into your body you get a high just from that. I was drinking 1 liter of almost pure spinach juice at times hahaha but my secret was; I always dropped two pears into my juicer to sweeten the deal. Here's an example of a juice I just made.
- 4 Big bunches of spinach (I'm talking a lot of spinach this is the main ingredient)
- 2 sticks of celery
- half a lettuce
- two hand fulls of green beans
- 2 shoots of Asian garlic
- 3 big bushes of parsley (need lots not much juice here)
- 2 green peppers
- 1/4 of a bunch of green grapes
- 2 green pears
- 1 green apple
- 3 carrots
- 1/2 glass of water
I had this three times a day and I guess I spent about $200 on fresh veggies from the markets over the 10 days, give or take.
I didn't do this for weight really, I was more interested in what it would do for my mind but I did have a few extra kilos on and I did find myself on the scales most days checking out what was happening. Honestly, not much was happening - well at least that's what I thought. As it turns out, in the ten days since I started, I have now lost 8kgs and seems the biggest losses came in the last 2 or 3 days. Also, those 8kgs were the ones I didn't want, you know those bits in places hard to lose from.. so completely happy with that weight being gone! (BTW I got abs again :)
On day 6 I was ready to give up, really I had had it, I couldn't stop thinking of food and, what made it worse was that night before I had been out drag netting for flounder and we got a great catch!! Now, flounder fresh is just the best and I was ready to down tools pack away the juicer and get my flounder on. I even remember saying to myself, '6 days that's heaps well done!'. But there was still something very strange happening that I didn't understand and it was that that helped me stay the path and I'll share that with you now.
For anyone who has never done fasting before be warned from here I'm talking about body functions so if that's not you move on ..
The thing I couldn't understand was, I was still going to the toilet and passing solids. I hadn't eaten a thing for 6 days! I was drinking 5 times more than I would ever drink in a normal day and that was showing when peeing. I was taking much longer pees that's for sure, so somehow I must have strengthened my bladder. But why am I still passing solids??? Could it really be that there is still food in me from 6 days ago?
This was one of the main motivations for me to continue for at least 10 days. I thought there must come a time when everything inside me is gone … Also i had a special someone say, 'you can do it, I believe in you', which certainly helped, so thanks Daisy :) for being the person to encourage me along it did help.
Anyway, I was right and it was the 7th night when everything changed with a bang! No more solids, after 7 full days of drinking only raw green juice finally I had got all the old food out of my system. For me this was a wow moment, it took 7 days to clean the system out completely .. But with that came just another excuse .. I said to myself, 'cool, I have cleaned out my system completely I can now start eating again :)' .. Got to love the mind trying to trick me into giving up on
what I wanted to do. Fortunately I'm aware my mind loves to do this as does everyone's minds and I told my mind, 'why not now when we are completely empty spend a few days to flush clean and again - flush fully everything out', so on we went with the ten day target in mind.
Sleeping: .. Now I have never had a sleeping problem, I may go to bed late at times and wake up late most times but I have never had a problem with sleeping.
Well at least I never thought i did .. Since i have done this, my sleeping has been like a blackout! I go to bed and when I wake up, it's fast and I feel like I have slept a truly good sleep. It's hard to explain but I would say I sleep about the same amount of time yet I feel like I have had 2 times as much sleep. Certainly don't wake up feeling like I need more, it's such a deep sleep now .. All I can say is my sleep is much much better from something I never even knew wasn't good.
Now the problem of getting all the solids out is that from day 7 to today I have the problem of after I have my morning juice, within 1 hour it's coming out and not as pee! So it's kinda stuffing up my diving and fishing, I can't really go out fishing because I need to be close to a toilet - when you got to go, you got to go .. And well diving with a wetsuit that certainly doesn't seem like a clever idea..
But still at least i know i have cleaned out my system completely.
So, in order to get back to enjoying diving and fishing I'm guessing that I'll break tomorrow the juice only part of this with some freshly steamed flounder, which is really the only food I crave. Of course the normal smelling senses are way up and my eyes are like super white! But I'm pretty happy on the green juice and certainly wont be stopping .. I just want to get back to solids ;)
Since doing this I know I'll never not have my green drink, for me it's common sense. If greens are so good for you and raw greens are the best .. Then why not drink as much of their juices as possible?
So I will continue to have morning and lunch time green juices and will make a nice meal at night, by eating some form of healthy fish, raw or cooked. In fact, I even believe if someone couldn't give up their food they could simply add green drinks to their day and huge benefits would come. I just feel getting rid of everything old is a great platform to start from.
I hope some of you thinking of doing this find this helpful, leave a comment below or ask a question.
Also, if you have any sick friends, think about telling them about raw green juicing, and ask yourself does this make sense? Does raw green juice make sense of being the healthiest logical easiest preventive and cure of all our illnesses? The body can heal itself from anything if you give it the right fuel. In the last 10 days I have fueled my body with the highest quality fuel available on the planet, for less money or maybe about the same money as I spend on fuel for my car in a few months .. Whats more important my car or my body?
Stop eating rubbish! ... Just for ten days! You only live once, give your body everything it needs to build up the force fields against the big ugly C that's killing all our friends and family (C is the one we don't say its name). Fill your body with BILLIONS of micro nutrients in just ten days in the comfort of your own home. Why wouldn't you?
I have realized Life is for what you can do for other people, which is why i decided to make the worldwide fishing club .. I love fishing and I love the internet, and I'll only be the best of the best if I'm doing what I love. So I intend on making the worlds biggest fishing club for everyone to enjoy. You are all welcome to join it and I hope you do even if you have never been fishing before. Every member helps me, you can join via facebook it's all very easy .. If you do great and thanks .. just google the worldwide fishing club you will find me there.
If you don't, no worries .. but please just do me one small thing .. Ask yourself .. Am I doing everything I can .. to live happier, longer, stronger and be the best I can be? ..
Would ten days be worth it to see what its like to recharge my body to its full strength and reboot my system?
One last thing ..
I started this straight on the back of a diet of burgers, beers, take-aways, ice cream and fresh cream binge!
I did no pre-fast, and really you can't go wrong when all you are doing is putting the best of the best inside you each day..
Big smiles .. Look forward to hearing your thoughts ..
Rob