Juice Feast - Day 2

So far it's only day 2 and I've already been struggling to maintain my discipline.

I woke up at 7am and drank some juice from yesterday (watermelon, banana, ginger, mango, kiwi). I didn't notice any change in sleep patterns, nor any strange dreams. I had plenty of energy for a morning game of tennis, but the 35 degree heat, not the juice feast, soon sapped it. Yesterday's sunburn didn't help either. I have been drinking a lot of water because of the heat but also to keep my stomach feeling full. Quite often I think I'm hungry when actually I'm just thirsty, also want to avoid possible dehydration in this heat.

Around lunchtime I was out shopping when hunger pangs suddenly struck. I had to buy juice on the street, so they may have added sugar syrup to it. I had two glasses; one honeydew melon, the other watermelon. Throughout the day it got increasingly harder to control my food cravings and even the nastiest stuff began to look appealing. I felt like grabbing Portia's Big Mac out of her hand and gobbling it down.

Now it's 5pm and I've just beaten back more hunger pangs with three juiced bananas with honey. I already had a mix of Chinese pears and green leaves, so that was my first green juice! It was quite palatable thanks to the sweet pears. I also made one with carrots, mango and orange, which I stored up for later use. It smelt pretty good and should be palatable, maybe even tasty.

So far, I haven't experienced any notable side effects. I had sudden diarrhoea this afternoon, but more in the sense of things being cleared straight out, no stomach pains etc. I've been feeling a little irritable, but that's probably more due to the heat and the food cravings.

Juice Feast - Day 1

I woke up at 4.30AM feeling very energetic and lively in anticipation of the first juice feast day.
A morning walk round Labour Park kick-started me for the day ahead, watching the usual fan dancers, joggers and tai chi enthusiasts. I bought a large amount of mixed produce from the street vendors and headed home to juice it up. Before starting with the juice, I made a bottle of 'Master Cleanser' which is hot water with honey, pepper (I substituted cayenne for black) and lemon juice. Drinking this will start the flushing out process, getting a head start on those tasty buckwheat noodles I ate last night at the Japanese place. Then I checked out the fridge and yesterday's stored juices. The carrot one looked and smelt pretty bad, but the watermelon one seemed ok, so I drank about half of that. Then it was time to make some new juice. This morning's breakfast recipe was: 3 Chinese pears, 1 apple, ginger and celery. After blending it together I was left with the usual pulpy mass. The juice feasting websites often mentioned using a 'nut milk bag' to strain out the pulp. I tried straining pulp through a tea towel, which surprisingly worked perfectly (although messy). I was left with a lovely bowlful of clear juice. This one tasted deliciously refreshing and went down smoothly. I feel really good now, and am going to spend at least two hours today lying on the beach listening to podcasts and working on my tan. Life in China does have occasional moments of luxury.

In the afternoon things weren't quite so rosy. I had a sunburn for starters. Then I made my first veggie juice for lunch (carrots, green leaves, ginger, celery) but it smelt foul. I even added some watermelon in an attempt to improve matters, but it didn't work and now this juice is sitting in the fridge while I'm still building up the courage to drink it. I met a friend at Starbucks and by this point was craving FOOD, any food at all as long as it was solid. Even grease-ridden Chinese dishes were immensely appealing. I temporarily suppressed the cravings with a cup of herbal tea. When I got home, four bananas with honey soon fixed the problem. Now my stomach feels peaceful and relaxed, like it's in hibernation. It's a very comfortable feeling which I hope will last. I'm going to meet friends and go to a massage place now. I need to be distracted from possible thoughts of food. Tomorrow should be interesting, as many experienced juice feasters report that the second day is the most uncomfortable because the body starts pushing out all the toxins, which may cause some side-effects like headaches or nausea. I really hope I'll have enough energy for an early morning tennis game.
I'll see what happens tomorrow, and post another update.

Juice Feasting in China

China can be a toxic place, with MSG, oil, salt and sugar rampant in most dishes. So for the next 5 days I will consume nothing but juiced fruit and veggies.

Aptly named 'juice feasting' this will be a small attempt to counter-act China toxins and flush out some of the nasties that have built up in my system. The original juice feast idea came from an American guy who studied nutrition and then developed the detox programme. Steve Pavlina tried the juice feast and blogged about it, but he didn't make it to the recommended 92 days. I won't be feasting anywhere near that long, my goal is 5 days. I want to see if I have enough self-discipline to spend a large portion of each day blitzing fruits and cleaning the blender (arrgh! I hate doing that...)

According to the internet, juice feasting can do a lot for you, from increasing energy levels to reversing a number of serious diseases. After reading the blogs, I immediately went out and bought three large plastic bottles (you need to drink at least a gallon of juice every day). Then I visited my usual fruit and veg sellers and came away with an extraordinary amount of stuff. The fruit lady asked me why I needed so much fruit, so I translated the concept of juice feasting to her in Chinese. Hauling the produce home, I put the blender into action and made the following juices:

#1: Veg Juice. Carrot, celery, tomato, ginger and garlic.
#2: Fruit Juice Type One. Watermelon, ginger, mango, kiwi.
#3: Fruit Juice Type Two. Mango, banana, kiwi, apple, orange.

The original plan was to kick off the feast tomorrow morning, but I gave into juice temptation and finished off the whole bottle of #3. Today doesn't count because I already ate some of the IKEA cheese and the jam biscuits that were languishing in the fridge. I'll give the rest of those to Carol, she'll be pleased ;-)

My juice adventure starts tomorrow with #2 for breakfast. I'll let you know how it goes over the next 5 days.