The first thing I heard this morning from my husband was “I want a cinnamon roll”. Um, no dear, cinnamon rolls are not on the juice fast menu. Though, a cinnamon roll does sound really good.
With day four and five behind us though, we are heading into the home stretch and have made it passed the hardest part. I did have a slight disaster on my hands Wednesday when one of my juices turned out pretty yucky tasting. My husband couldn’t drink it and was starving when I got home. Luckily, I had a couple of “emergency” store bought juices in the fridge – the kind that are pressured pasteurized instead of heat pasteurized. I cracked one open to avert disaster.
One new recipe we have relied heavily upon is fresh vegetable broth from Julia Morris’s Superfood Juices cookbook. Tomatoes, celery, sweet potato, parsley and carrot are all juiced and then very, very gently heated to about room temperature (the books says to warm it up to soup temperature, but we are trying to keep our juices as raw as possible). This has been an absolute savior for us. The juice is actually drinkable cold, but having something a little warm is the ultimate comfort.
What has surprised me the most during my fast is other people’s reactions. When I first did a juice fast two years ago I was met with some strong opposition by friends and co-workers. I heard a lot of things like “that’s not healthy”, “you don’t need to lose weight”, “that sounds terrible”, etc. I patiently would explain that a juice fast is not all about losing weight, nor are you actually fasting in the sense of not eating at all. You’re just not consuming solid food. Instead you are giving your digestive system a much needed break while pumping in tons of nutrients via a mountain of fresh veggies and fruit.
This year it’s been a 180. Not only are people more open to the idea, but I’ve had more than a few ask me ok, how do I do a juice fast right? It’s got me thinking about putting together a short juice fast guide. If I do, I’ll be sure to share it.
If any of you have done a juice fast before, let me know if you have any tips or tricks for being successful!
Photo Credit: “” is copyright (c) 2007 Luke Redmond and made available under creative commons 2.0