Day One

My husband's friend suggested he watch "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". A documentary about a man named Joe Cross who did a juice fast for 60 days in order to cure himself of his autoimmune disorder and just feel better. Well, hubs and I watched the documnetary and saw the people that were fasting were really no different from us. We aren't morbidly obese, nor do we suffer from diseases, but who couldn't stand to get healthy? So we filled our fridge with organic fruits and veggies, shined up our juicer, and prayed for willpower.

We started our first day with a green juice filled with kale, spinach, green apples, celery, and ginger root. YUCK! I mean, don't get me wrong... we could drink it, but I would've MUCH rather had a Croissanwich from Burger King. And that's the problem right there. (Fragment sentence, I know... get over it :P ) For "lunch" we had a sweeter juice. I was hoping that if the next juice was palatable, this wouldn't be such a daunting venture. "Lunch" juice included a grapefruit, pineapples, carrots, green apples, a cucumber, celery, and grapes. Much better flavor but I'm not a big fan of grapefruit. So the verdict is.... "meh". Our third juice of the day was another greenie. I threw in some grapes for good measure. At this point, the smell of ground kale was making me nauseous. I'm not one of those people that turns their nose up to food. I'll eat kale... I love kale, but something about the juice just makes me shudder.

Everywhere I've read says the first few days are the toughest. They were not kidding. I'm cranky, I want to eat something greasy and bad for you, but I'm trying to show I have willpower to control what I put in my mouth. Speaking of controlling what I put in my mouth: I don't know how many times I almost just popped a grape in my mouth, or stole one of my son's graham crackers from his plate. It is like I'm not even aware I'm doing it!  

Also, the juices do keep us satisfied... well, not as much as a Big Mac would, but after I've had a juice, I'm not hungry. I stay satiated for a few hours too. It's really odd. I figured I would be ravenous all day, and I haven't been (as long as I'm busy and not thinking about food). Now if an Olive Garden commercial comes on, or if I smell my son's spaghetti dinner, that's another story. We all went for a walk after our juice and we could smell someone's grill. Oh it was heavenly! Hubs and I even discussed breaking the fast and just getting a burger. Or maybe we could just juice 2 meals a day, then eat a sensible dinner. I think we both knew that wouldn't work with us. We pushed through the temptation to quit and we'll juice again tomorrow (I hope).

Oh, and we do NOT plan to go 60 days on the fast. I can't handle that kind of pressure! My thinking is we will go one day at a time. If we make it to 60 days, then AWESOME! If not, no big deal. If tomorrow morning we both throw in the towel, then oh well. Hey, at least we went one whole day! The point is that even trying is half the battle. That's pretty awesome. So I sit with my herbal tea, dreaming of medium steaks and baked potatoes, and I hope we are able to continue our journey into juicing.