New adventure: juice fasting
Being a typical food loving bengali guy, it is hard for me to believe I actually started juice fasting. This was not planned from before, but I think several factors made it happen. Priti was going out of town for a hike Friday. The night before I was on facebook, about to go to sleep when I ended up at our dear friend Gurmeet’s website and spent a good hour reading a few of his fantastic posts on meditation and plant based diets. Somehow I realized I have had enough of automatic food habits and it is time to focus on health. I already had a breville juicer, used once or twice, so there was nothing stopping me starting the adventure right away.
Here is the Gurmeet’s inspiring post on his personal experience of juice fasting.
The basic juice I am making is this one: mean green juice.
Basically a lot of veggies with little fruit is the key. I have made varieties of the mean green juice by mixing and matching kale, celery, spinach, chard, cucumber, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, green apple, pears, oranges and ginger. They do make very delicious juices.
I am going to record my daily experiences here:
Day 1 – Fri 3rd March: After work I noted down a few simple recipes and headed to whole foods. For the first time in my life, I actually got excited seeing organic produce. I considered them as fuel for my body. I went past the greasy pizzas and fried chickens. The smell really hurt. I tried to visualize them as nothing but poison and moved on. The mean green juice was actually great. Gulped down 500ml. Didn’t feel hungry through the night. Weight: 190lb.
Day 2 – Sat 4th: Bought a bunch of veggies from Sunnyvale farmers market, enough for 2 days. Drank 4 times, 500ml each. And a lot of water. Energy level was great all day, worked on backyard tiles from morning to late afternoon. Skin seems to be better because I noticed a small wound is healing up fast. Still no bowel movement since start. Weight: 189lb.
Day 3 – Sun 5th: Picked up tomato, cucumber, beet, broccoli, ginger, spinach and oranges from Mountain View farmers market. Going to farmers market on 2 consecutive days is another first for me. Just felt happy to appreciate the continuous availability of organic produce here. Fridge is looking like amazon forest as per roommate. Weight: 187lb. Wish I could buy put options on my own weight. Finally went to #2 in the night, greenish-black stuff, expected because of juice plus I ate some peas in between. New challenge tomorrow – have to take 1L juice to office for lunch and evening refuel.
Day 4 – Mon 6th: Took 1L juice to office. Coworkers were surprised but they enjoyed hearing about this. Few even tasted the mean green juice and liked it. It was hard to drink juice while everyone had pizza. I smelled the pizza box for a while to tell my mind that I just ate some so it would shut up the craving. Might have worked. Priti also started a 5-day fast in the evening. Weight 186lb. I can’t believe it, have not seen this number for a very long time.
Day 5 – Tue 7th: Felt slightly sleepy at work and had some craving for normal food. At one point even the thought of a simple chapati made my mouth water. Bowel movement in the evening. Weight: 185lb.
Day 6 – Wed 8th: Jumped out of the bed to check weight and found 183lb! Slipped into my old 36″ jeans and decommissioned the 38″. Feels light and great, still a long way to go. At work I did have some oranges, but only sucked out the juice. Also had a few slices of watermelon, they are mostly juice anyway. The best part of the day is that I did 100 pushups in between working. Unbelievable because I never had an urge like this before.
Day 7 – Thurs 9th: Morning weight showed 184lb. No idea why it gained 1lb. Maybe a fluctuation. Did 70 pushups, had sore muscles from previous day. Had a little normal food in the night as a flavor coat of the tongue after a stomach full of juice at a friend’s house. It was an experiment that worked well in taking the constant thought of food away from the mind.
Day 8 – Fri 10th: Morning weight showed little under 184lb, good enough. Planning to eat some normal food in the night again, over fruits. I am ramping up a little normal food but will keep the juices on for a while.
Day 9 – Sat 11th: Weight is still 184lb, could be because of ramping up normal food intake. Lots of photoshoot activities, have to see if it reduces weight even more.
Day 10 – Sun 12th: Morning weight 185lb, no idea why. Juiced up breakfast and lunch, but had a little food at lunchtime on top of juice. This tricks seems to work, I feel like having just had a feast where it is only a few spoonfuls of flavory stuff. Got a lot of veggies from Milpitas farmers market today for the upcoming week.
I will keep juicing for a while with food as a top up. Will see how it works, and report back.
