My Juicing Adventures

So for the past few months I've been playing with the idea of doing a juice cleanse, to reset my tastebuds and give my body a break from the sugar overload my body is used to.

In theory, I subscribe to an "everything in moderation, avoid processed foods as much as possible, buy local, don't abandon an entire food group to lose weight"mantra.

In practice, I have limited options as far as grocery shopping goes, and limited will-power when it comes to eating in moderation.

My baby is going to turn two in three months and I still have twelve pounds to go before I'm back to a "normal" weight for me.  Feeling a bit desperate, I read a bit about the pros and cons of juicing.

Pros:

It's a great way to increase your consumption of fruits and vegetables.

It limits your calorie in-take.

You can free yourself for awhile from the power your cravings have over you.

You might lose weight.

You'll feel a sense of accomplishment.

Cons:

It removes all the fiber from your fruit and veggies, which some nutritionists believe leaves produce devoid of any nutritional value.

Fresh juice is not pasteurized, leaving you at risk to consume dangerous bacteria that could cause vomiting, diarrhea, or in very severe cases kidney failure.

Irritability, nausea, fatigue, and dizziness are a few side effects of drinking nothing but juice.

You aren't going to feel satisfied or full after a day of just drinking juice.

Juice lacks essential proteins and fats that your body needs to function properly.

It is expensive! More on this later.



Basically, long-term juice fasting is probably not a good idea.

Still, I wanted some sort of kick start in my effort to get rid of these last twelve pounds before my daughter's second birthday.

I'm spurred forward by  USA Today's assertion that "drinking juice in place of one meal to lose weight may work for those without health concerns, especially if it's part of a balanced diet."

So I decided to try a weekend juice fast and then switch to replacing a meal a day with a freshly pressed fruit and vegetable juice. I waited for a weekend when my husband would be home, because I didn't want to inflict my irritable and fatiguey self on my daughter. 

I bought enough fruits and vegetables to make nine juices. This cost about $140 and if you were surviving solely on juices, would only last you three days. Add in the price of a juicer (anywhere from $30 to $300) and you can see how expensive this gets. It is also time consuming, because even if you prep all your fruits and veggies ahead of time, and suck down your juice in a few minutes, cleaning every piece of the stupid juicer three times a day takes FOREVER. 

Day one went pretty well. I found some juice recipes in justonjuice.com that were not too horrible to drink. I definitely missed solid food. I felt like my blood was running cold inside my veins, so I wore a few more layers than usual. I had a that dull headache that occurs when you are hungry, but overall it was not as awful as I thought it would be. I kept busy sewing to keep my mind off of food, which wasn't easy because my husband made a delicious looking pizza that he and my daughter devoured, and there were so many yummy goodies around the house left over from our toddler Halloween party on Friday.

Day two has been a bit harder. It's hard to make yummy breakfast for the family, and then slurp down a frothy green juice with the smell of scrambled eggs wafting through the air. I'm determined to power through, and will reward myself tomorrow with a healthy, solid breakfast.

I'll keep you posted on the transition from nothing but juice to juice once a day. We'll see if any weight loss occurs.  I'm hoping to phase back into running in a few days as well which should hopefully move things along as well. 

Have any of you out there been a part of this juicing fad? Did it work for you? Is it just another form of yo-yo dieting? Let me know!