juice fasting

There are few things that make me feel better than juice fasting. Fueling the body exclusively with fruit and vegetable juice for a few days is a great way to alkalize and saturate the body with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants etc... When I fast solely on juice I also add a bit of spirulina into the mix to supply my body with ample amounts of B12, iron, complete protein and vitamin A. I hit the juicing last fall, just before winter arrived, and kept it happening for about 7 days which was a good amount of time for me. The thing about fasting is it takes a few days before the body adjusts to the program, so to only fast for 3-4 days is pure agony, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel but you never really get there. After a few days your physical body begins to adjust to the lack of solid food as does the emotional body. Around day 5 of my last juice fast I began to realize how little the body actually needs to survive, especially when it is being fueled with 100% pure nutrition (veggie/fruit juice + spirulina). Often times hunger is an illusion, the body needs food to live, but the amount of useless food that is often consumed is staggering as is the amount of completely dead food consumed. Fasting changes the way you look at food. I typically live on a pretty fantastic diet, I'm borderline obsessed with healthy eating, but every now and again I will catch myself bingeing on certain "junk foods". Right now my biggest "junk food" is organic medjool dates, which are perfectly fine, but super addictive especially if your body thinks it loves sugar like mine does. For me, fasting gives me a clean slate and it resets the way I see food and fuel.

One thing to watch out for when fasting is the potential for excess sugar intake. Fasting on fruit juice is never something I would recommend to anyone. Too much sugar, even fruit sugar, disrupts the fine balance of microflora in the digestive tract and fruit fasting can often leave its victim as a candida mess. Also, too much sugar spikes blood sugar, so although you need some sugar to run on while fasting, its best to have it in small doses throughout the day. This is also where the spirulina comes into play. Spirulina is a blue green algae super high in B12, iron and complete protein (among other things). This algae supplies the body with energy and it is completely absorbable, meaning you don't really have to worry about how much of it is actually being used by your cells. As long as you don't have a malabsorption disorder, you can pretty much assume that all the green goodness is going to the right place.

Juicing and weight loss. The point of the juice fast is not to lose weight. However, you will lose some weight, a lot of it is water due to the lack of sodium intake, which is not a bad thing. The point of the fast is to saturate the body with amazing vitamins and minerals, which is an important thing to remember throughout the fast. The idea is not to starve yourself rather to give the body a rest and let the overworked organs of the digestive tract take a nap. This being said, if you have really low body fat, a fast might not be the best plan for you because you likely will end up losing some weight.

If you need some moral support, I will be juicing for at least a few days (hopefully) so send me a message and we can be juicing partners. My recipe for the day, probably one of my favorites is...

1 large cucumber
4 stalks celery
3 apples
1 grapefruit
2 bunches of beet greens
2 lemons
2 inches raw ginger root

This makes just over a liter of juice. When fasting I like to take in about 2L of juice a day plus a few tbsp of spirulina, mixed in with the fruit juices. About half fruit and half veggie is good, any more sugar than that is probably a bit much. Remember small sips of the fruit juices through the day! When adding the spirulina its good to blend it together with a magic bullet or hand blender, spirulina doesn't stir very well.

xoxo kby

HAPPY JUICING