Wrapping up last year's juice fast

I'm gearing up for another juice fast and realized I never finished posting last time!
Day 21 was another Jewish Fast day and I got through it just fine.  No juice, fully fasted the entire day. Broke the fast on a bottle of juice.  The next day was set to be my first day of SOLID FOOD!

I have to admit, I was nervous to eat after so long.  I still had juice for breakfast each morning.  For other meals I ate fresh spinach, cucumbers, and carrots.  I did my best to stick with raw vegetables...except for the first night.  

COOKED FOOD
The first night I tried to eat some vegetable soup.  I made it very mild with just some leeks, lemon, onion, sweet potato.  After about 4 spoonfuls my stomach was saying STOP!  So I did.  It took about another week until I was able to eat cooked food and even then I had to do it slowly.  

PROTEIN
I continued to mix protein into my juice since I wasn't ready to eat protein just yet.  I made edamame (frozen pack, already shelled, boiled).  Even though it was cooked my stomach took it fine.  About 4 days after the juice fast I started adding some nuts and seeds in.  Sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (unsalted!)  went well.  A week after starting back on solids I added in some raw fish - sashimi.  And then graduated to lox.  Again, a little at a time.  



All of this culminated with a weekend away in Utah.  I ate very carefully but DID successfully eat cooked food.  Small amounts at a time.  Oh and dairy!  I was able to slowly incorporate a little dairy back in, but I stayed away from starches and gluten and continue to.  I also kept drinking some juice every day for the first couple weeks back on cooked food.  

HEALTH & FITNESS
For months after the juice fast I still felt incredible.  Lots of energy and still stayed at my reduced levels of medications.  My yoga and cardio practice took on a whole level of AWESOME.  

WEIGHT LOSS
With the weight I lost before the juice fast, during, and even a little after I lost a total of 20 pounds.  I kept that weight off all the way through January/February of 2013 actually.  That's over 8 months.  Of course everyone expected me to gain everything back the moment solid food went into my body.  Even though my intention was not at all to lose weight, it was pretty nice to have that side effect last so long.  

MORE JUICING
I did two five day juice fasts at separate time in the Fall.  Helped me reboot and stay on track with overall health.  Felt great to briefly cleanse my body again.

TMI ALERT:  (remember I sometimes share details you may not want to read...so don't continue!)
I was a little concerned after the juice fast about my digestive tract.  Everything I read about juice fasts indicated that I would have extensive bowel movements during the fast while my colon cleansed itself.  I had them for the first couple days but that was pretty much it.  I was regular during the rest of the fast but not what I was expecting for my colon to be emptied out.  My curiosity took over and I went to get a colonic to see if really was "empty" and starting with a fresh digestive tract.  My colonic was actually clear the entire time.  I was in shock.  In my opinion, that was insane success!  Pretty fascinating if you ask me.  

Day 18, 19, & 20

Upcoming menu, without being juiced

Getting really excited to eat solid foods...a little nervous though.  I will have to be very careful with eating solids again.  Pretty much only raw foods; so vegetables and fruits, and some nuts and seeds.  I think I will also attempt some vegetable soup.  I will have to avoid animal protein for a while and slowly include different items in my diet.  Should be another adventure! 




All in all, still doing really well.  I have lost a total of 13.5 pounds but have plateaued.  Have not lost weight in several days.  Which is fine.  My purpose was not weight loss, it was cleansing and health, so I am still satisfied.  Even though I am not losing more weight, my body is still changing.  I have definition in new places

Still working out regularly but I honestly am feeling a little weak.  Sort of feels like my body might not be getting everything it needs.  On Wednesday I had some sharp pains in my muscles after working out.  My guess is lack of protein so I quickly stirred up some protein powder.  I think it is clear though that it is a good time for this to be coming to a close. 

Thursday I got a colonic because I was concerned about lack of regular bowel movements.  To my surprise, it was not a lack of movement but actually a lack of bowels.  I mean not completely, but comparatively to colonic in the past this was clean.  I was pretty shocked to see how clean my colon is!  Pretty cool feeling.  The cleaner my colon is, the healthier my body is since I don't have all those toxins just sitting in my body.  Let's keep it that way!

Elana's dinner!  Sure smelled good!

Oh and Thursday night I hung out with my best friends and everyone was eating all night.  They made breakfast for dinner!  Check out this yummy-ness! 
And guess who was fine with her juice?  :)







On Friday I prepped all my juices for Shabbat.   I decided to make my favorite juice - tomato, basil, and lemon.  Made A LOT of that to get through the next 24 hours.  Good decision!  I even prepared some food for guests we had for the Third Meal on Saturday and it didn't bother me at all to help prep yummy food for everyone else even though I couldn't eat it myself.  Yay for learning self control!  Another win for Kaley, take THAT MS!

Days 16 & 17

Still doing well.  Strangely on Monday I was up four pounds which seems impossible to explain since I have not changed my intake AT ALL.  Even more strange is that on Tuesday I was back down four pounds.  Weird!  I'm an alien...but we already knew this.

Workouts just get better everyday.  I actually did half moon for like 3 seconds.  

Half Moon

I had an unpleasant mishap though!  As you know, I keep my juice in bottles to take with me to work each day.  On Day 18 I took a liter plastic bottle which apparently I did not rinse enough before filling it with juice...First sip at work - soap!  EW!  Not fun at all!  I replaced it with a bottle of "The Green Machine" which is juice I bought bottled at CVS.  The ingredients all seemed fine so that was safe and got me through the day.  You'll find this disgusting but I still drank the soapy juice after checking that soap would not be dangerous at all.  This juice fast has taught me the strength I have to ingest things that taste terrible haha. 

FINAL STRETCH!

OK one week left and I am really REALLY looking forward to solid food.  I'm still happy with the juice fast and how my body is feeling but the experience of chewing is so amazing, who knew I would miss it?  Haha.  I've developed a gum chewing habit which will have to end soon after the fast but for now I just need the experience of chewing!

I checked out the Beverly Hills Farmer's Market this week instead of the Larchmont one...mainly because I was too lazy to drive to the other side of town.  Definitely a little pricier and less variety but still a great experience.  They GIVE you a cart to use while you are there!  So convenient!  Again everyone was friendly and helpful.  But the vendors did not provide ANY deals, which happened frequently at the Larchmont Market if for example I picked up 5 tomatoes instead of 3 for $2 deal and they did not charge me extra. 

Anyway, still feeling good.  I've lost a total of 13 pounds so far, so the weight loss has definitely slowed down.  But my energy continues to increase.  I have more focus at work and for other activities.  Overall, all is well :)  This is my final push and I'm excited to make the most of these last few days. 

Days 13 & 14: Juicing Away From Home

So I am staying at Chabad of USC, my LA home away from home, for Shabbat in order to attend a speaking engagement at the Natural History Museum for kids with MS.  Which means LOTS of juicing for me today in order to be prepared with plenty of juice for the rest of Friday and all of Saturday.  This led to a serious amount of stress because it took SO LONG to juice everything.  I arrived at USC right on time for Shabbat - literally the minute before Shabbat started.  Crazy!

All went well with the speech and the juice!  I actually left the juice at the Chabad house Saturday morning so I was pretty hungry for most of the day but just maintained plenty of water intake until I could get some juice again.  Surprisingly I did fine.  Was not even maybe tempted to even take a bite of the sandwiches and cookies around me.  Being there with those kids was really inspiring.  I got to spend most of the day with them and it was an important reminder of why I am doing the juice fast.  I was so glad to see each of them feeling well and living their lives without letting MS stop them.  It made the juice fast very meaningful for me as an example of being in control of one's body and health.  I love that I am taking charge of my health and doing so much to get better!  It feels amazing!  And I know I will continue to protect my health by eating right and working out every day from now on.  This experience is paying off in so many ways!!!


In honor of our location, I told those kids to FIGHT ON!  And I intend to continue to do so myself!

"It's YOUR fault you stopped eating!"

Felt great all day!  Finally beginning to recognize my body, feel beautiful, and feel ABLE.  I was able to focus throughout the day, even through some really important meetings.  My mind feels sharp.

Plenty of energy, much stronger with my workouts.  Each time I do a workout I get better at it.

The juicing is still very, very tiring!  Looking forward to being done but not for the food - just to get some time back!  Ironic!

My roommie was making mashed potatoes, and when I jokingly expressed my frustration with the amazing smell of the mashed potatoes, she responded 

"Well it's your fault you stopped eating food!"

AMAZING!  I found this hysterical.  Yes, she is so right!  But in all honesty, I am finding that the more I am being tempted with incredible food and yummy smells, the stronger I become.  So I am now going to welcome and encourage others to eat delicious smelling food around me.  Developing this self control and discipline is important for my long term health maintenance even after the juice fast. 

I can totally resist this!

As of today I am down 10.5 lbs since the first day of the juice fast!  I'm already nervous about how I will keep it off so I have to start planning my food for the end of the fast.  

My appetite is increasing so I need more juice.  I put protein in my juice every morning and then again in the evening before I work out which also seems to be essential for successful workouts.  

Looking forward to bed time when I get to sleep again better than ever before in my life!

Day 12 - OVER IT!

Don't worry, I'm not over the juice fast.  I'm pushing for 20 days!  But I AM over the cleanse .....

I did that gallbladder cleanse thing again this morning with the garlic and ginger and about 5 minutes later threw everything up.  I think that pretty much solidifies that I am done following a set plan with specific recipes.  Still going to continue the juicing but this way I can just make any juice I want.  Tonight for example I just made a full 2 liters of anything I felt like and now I have all my juice for tomorrow.  It took me about half the time to prepare for tomorrow than usual because I wasn't continuously rinsing the juicer and making a new recipe.  SUCH RELIEF! 

My energy level was actually pretty low all day today and I was incredibly pale which co-workers kept noticing.  I think it's because of how the icky morning went but in any case I will increase sleep and protein. 

I have decided to end the juice fast on Sunday the 29th which is when the Jews will be observing the fast day of Tisha B'Av.  That would put me at a total of 21 days.  A little hard to believe, not gonna lie.