Days 5-9: Strong and steady

So the answer is yes: I’m still juice feasting. I disappeared for a few days, as tends to happen to my creative/work energy as the week drives on (Sundays through Tuesdays are usually packed active days from 8am-midnight, Wednesdays are in-between, and Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays are more of the less stress, follow your mood kind of days.) So, I didn’t get around to posting, because a lot of my energy has been working on the forward momentum of many projects. Launch into the future!

If there’s one thing I have been remembering to do: it’s take photos of the juice. At the end of the whole juice fast, I will compile some recipes. I go about juicing just by picking a bunch of different green things (usually cucumber or celery, broccoli or cabbage, and a leafy green plus others) , an herb (cilantro or parsley), maybe ginger, and maybe an apple or two. So far, every time I decide to add in carrot, which I’m mostly just doing because I need to use them up, I become disappointed in the juice.

Day 5 was a nice day to treat myself. I went to Whole Foods and stocked up on big nice leafy greens and vegetables. We sell plenty of nice stuff at Fertile Underground, but its just not ideal for juicing. We try to source as much local as possible, so we only have the staples right now, and greens are not very abundant. When I went to Whole Foods, I also treated myself to a new yoga mat, cork block, and yoga DVDs. I wished for a better local option to walk in and buy some yoga stuff, and I couldn’t really find anything with a quick search online (any suggestions?). I tried REI, but they ended up being of a higher quality/more expensive than I would have liked. Since I was going to WF anyway, and they had exactly what I wanted within my budget, I figured it made sense than wasting the gas to drive around trying to find something else. I also bought a grow-your-own-wheatgrass kit! CANNOT wait for that!

Getting my designated space for at-home yoga and weight lifting set up. I did about 60 minutes of free-weights and stretches, and also managed to get one push up! My first push up ever. Maybe it sucked, but it felt like one, although I haven’t quite been able to duplicate since. Still working on it!

This was how glorious my fridge was after stocking up with all the big veggies from Whole Foods. I was impressed with the quality, for sure. Check out those collar greens up top! I was also very excited to find bagged organic green and red apples. I absolutely love the Granny Smith apples for diversifying the flavor of juices. A sour greens juice – yes please! I should have grabbed some organic lemons and limes, I’ll have to remember next time. I’m also slightly intrigued by lemongrass, although I wonder if you can just throw that in a juicer. Turmeric root is a lot of fun for veg juices w carrots and pepper, but like I said, I’m just feeling the lighter green juices more this time around.

Day 6 was actually a day I could have done without. For some reason, I found a lot of frustration and anxiety this day. I’m sure I had other good feelings too, but I remember the aggravation standing out. But its over now, so no need to attempt to rehash it.

Started with a collard, celery, cucumber, parsley, green pepper, carrot, ginger juice. Again, not really my favorite this time around, although I am definitely digging the collard green juices. It’s so interesting to watch the course of juicing evolve. I remember when I first started juicing, I would drink maybe 4-6 32 oz juices every day. Granted, there was a lot of melons and pineapples and fruit being used too, which is usually juicier and yields more volume. This time around, I’m hardly doing any fruits, only apples, and not a lot of sweet vegetables either. Perhaps the lower sugar count is actually curbing the appetite too. I’ve only felt hungry when there is an active smell of delicious healthy food around me (like right now, while my evening broth simmers and my stomach is growling. I can’t wait to dig in – I have a feeling this post will end kind of abruptly. Advance apologies!)

What was not very effective on day 5, and surely led to some of the grumpiness, was the fact that I made one giant juice in the morning and drank it throughout the day. I didn’t stop at any point to revere the juice as a meal, and this definitely impacted the quality of nourishment it gave my body. I felt kind of disgruntled and pessimistic at points that I could finish the cleanse. But I knew they were just feelings, and persevered on to my goal.

I did perk up my mood Friday night with a nice big bowl of broth, eaten with a spoon, to recover from the days feeling of “without.” Consuming the broth with a spoon instead of sipping it out of a jar provides that sense of eating a meal, and I felt totally nourished and content after.

Saturday, I did make similar mistakes of juicing and not slowing down to consume the juice as a meal. Although, with the increased darker leafy greens and more organic choices, I started to feel a sort of ‘excavating’ going on in my stomach. I never quite had anything release, but I could feel things shifting.

Bokchoy is one of my absolute favorite things to juice. I can’t say that I can actually pinpoint the flavor it gives, but I just seem to always love the juices that its in. Plus, the green apples with all of the greens – mmm, another favorite combo!

The couple that nourishes together, stays together! I’m so psyched to have a guy who loves the flavors and feeling that juice gives just as much as I do. After just 5 full days, my face has started to slim out, my energy is way way up, my brain function is right on, my mood is improved, my sleep quality is, well, I’m actually sleeping! It’s unbelievable. I have the most difficult time with my sleep rhythm usually, but I’m finally establishing one right now, during this feast.

That’s really one of the big reasons I do a reboot. It more than reboots my diet, or body: it reboots my entire life. I become more organized, focused, healthier, clean, READY. I am sooo ready for life post juice-feast. There are so many things I want to do and keep doing and feeling as good as I do, the world is my stage, man. Get out tha way. (Or join me!) 🙂 I can’t wait to climb a mountain this spring.

Monday rolled around, time to start day 8 – week 2! Felt so ready to have 1/3 of the cleanse behind me. Felt at this point like I could definitely continue on and finish this cleanse. I started getting a little congested, but more just like mucous releasing and not getting sick. My body has not been feeling any aches and pains since the juice cleanse started. And when I see someone is sick, I don’t feel vulnerable – I feel strong, alive, and my body is ready to defend me. What a good feeling after spending so much of the winter this year feeling sick and miserable!

One of my favorite juices so far, although I don’t think I could drink it every day, was this sweet and spicy concoction with chard, cilantro, radish, green pepper, jalapeno, celery, and apple. At first it would taste just like juice and then the jalapeno would kick in, providing a nice kick and making me feel like I was consuming something much heartier by the way it heated up my body and throat. What a nice change of pace to the juicing.

Today’s juice was quite beautiful too, loving the green apple as you can see. The daikon radish actually seems to give a nice root flavor as well.

The biggest thing I need to keep remembering as I move forward on the next 12 days: consume water, herbal tea, juice, AND broth every day. I’ve actually only been doing maybe 32-48 oz of juice a day, which would be 4-6 cups so I suppose that’s about right. Of green juice. The greens are very strong and pack a fantastic nutritional punch. My body is just letting go of all that it doesn’t need. It’s melting right off. But in order to stay satiated, the water, tea, and juice are necessary to continue the cleanse, stay hydrated, and stay in control of my choices.

My scale is kind of unreliable, and my hallway floor is also really crooked, but it seems that I may have lost somewhere between 14 and 18 pounds so far of just excess junk. The first few days, I was peeing every 5 minutes, just washing everything away. All of this extra weight was just fat that had been temporarily pumped into my blood cells from all the crap (mostly white flour – this is the most noticeable cause of inflammation and fatigue for me and I will NOT be having any when I am done with this fast!)

I leave you with some other photos from the past several days, just because I can.

Sunday night, we had a meeting/neighborhood potluck with Transition the Ocean State. It was a nice gettogether, sparking new conversation and enthusiasm about community-building and resilience. We are going to be hosting a kind of ‘pay-it-forward’ sustainability tutoring book club every other Monday starting March 18. Stay tuned for more info.

The Armory, looking as majestic as ever against a mid-afternoon cloudy sky. This was taken on our way to pick up an order from Virginia & Spanish Nut Co on Dexter St. Just found out their almonds that we use at the store to make the fresh almond milk are non-GMO (thanks to some fact-finding from local foodie Molly, The Food Digger!)

Natural Home Solutions workshop at Fertile Underground featuring Karma Clean (Raw soap nut laundry detergent, locally produced), and some house-made “Eat My Face” raw avocado fudge which doubles as a face mask. Colleen from No Trash Project was also there with an awesome handmade lotion, slingin’ no trash ‘secrets’ like usual. (I put ‘secrets’ in quotation marks, because exposing no trash ideas and upcycled projects often invoke a “DUH! Why didn’t I think of that?” feeling in myself.) We are going to host a workshop the last Monday of each month around upcycling, reducing packaging, and DIY ventures.

After all that, we still made time for bowling Monday night! I felt honestly a little weak and tired at first, only had one juice but no tea and broth again! I wasn’t very sure how good of a job I would do, but just wanted to go have fun. I bowled a 120, 121, and 151 over 3 games! 151 is my second highest score ever. Schwing! Also, shoutout to Lang’s Bowlarama in Cranston for having new local Foolproof Brewing Company on tap! Way to be hella awesome and support local. I didn’t drink it of course, but it’s great to know that a bowling alley so close, and so awesome and clean, also has an amazing local brew available. Eat Local! Drink Local! Bowl Local!

Some new local products at FUG including Narragansett Creamery hand-dipped whole milk ricotta, Proofed Artisan Bread boules, Equal Exchange organic fair trade Peruvian coffee, Top This Pizza Crust, and Nettie’s Kettle Corn. So proud of all of our local products and am thrilled to keep expanding!

This is from today, what an accomplishing day! Made tons of fresh almond milk for the store. Redesigned, printed, and labeled all the jars for the almond milk and peanut butter. Stocked new local food order, including a new gluten-free (but not vegan) fresh pasta from Nantucket Pasta Goddess. I’m admittedly a little bummed it’s not vegan, but still psyched for the new option for our community!

This is just a sneak peak at a special project I can’t tell you about. But these guys are awesome.

And this is my cat, Curry. ❤

Until the next time….