Juice fasting is not for the faint of heart. It requires mental strength and commitment to stick to the plan, but this gentle detox is well worth the health benefits, including a cleaner colon, glowing skin, fast weight loss, mental clarity, concentration, stress relief, and internal healing, to name a few.
I can validate that juice fasting makes the body and mind feel great. As a young woman who had never tried a detox in her life, I thought I would go out and try a six-day juice fast. A juice fast cleanses the colon and gives the extremely hard-working digestive system time to rest.
Just like smoking requires willpower to quit successfully, juice fasting requires mental strength. To do one successfully, you must get rid of temptation, and there is enough of that through advertisements on the TV.
What Do I Need For a Juice Fast?
For vegetable juices, the bulk of the juice will include carrots. Carrot juice is sweet, nutritious, and fantastic for cleansing. It floods the body with nutritious goodness. Buy lots of green leafy vegetables, celery, peppers, cucumber, and tomatoes. They all provide a lot of juice, giving you the best bang for your buck.
For fruit juices, a delicious combination is pink grapefruit, pineapple, orange, and lemon. Unless you have the money, avoid berries and grapes, as you will need a lot to provide a glass of juice.
Enema kits are widely available from a pharmacist or online, although they do not feel pleasant because of the constant urge to visit the toilet. An enema will flush out the colon faster than popping two psyllium husks, although the latter is still effective. When taken with water, psyllium husks fill the colon with water, absorbing nasty toxins. The stools can smell rather foul until the colon has been cleansed of the old fecal matter.
Throughout a juice fast, however, it is beneficial to do either perform daily enema once per day or take two psyllium husks three times per day before your juice. It is okay to drink herbal beverages throughout the fast, but avoid caffeinated drinks.
I used a centrifugal juicer throughout my juice fast. I found it easier to juice large carrots and whole fruits. What is annoying though is having to clean the juicer and its many internal parts several times per day, but this kind of juicer works quickly to provide fresh juice.
My Experience with Juice Fasting
Day One of a Juice Fast
During day one of a juice fast, the colon will still contain undigested food. Blood sugar levels drop, causing hunger and fatigue. Drink as many juices as possible to rid the body of hunger pangs; they’ll diminish after two or three days. For the body to rid itself of its steady blood sugar supply, glycogen from the liver is converted into glucose and then released into the bloodstream.
The metabolism decreases to conserve energy, and the blood pressure and heart rate reduce. The body utilizes glycogen from muscle tissue for energy, causing one of the first cleansing symptoms—weakness.
Day Two of a Juice Fast
The released glycerol — formed from fatty acids in fat cells — found in the glyceride molecules convert into glucose. Further symptoms of cleansing can occur, including pimples from oily skin, bad breath, dizziness, headache, and a pale complexion.
Until the colon is fully cleansed of undigested food, the hunger pangs will grow more intense. This is where using an enema can help; it will get rid of undigested food in the colon to help the body enter a fasting state.
Ketones begin to suppress the appetite by linking to the hypothalamus, the hunger and satiety portion of the brain. The hunger you feel during the fast is only temporary, but it will require extreme mental strength. I drank more juices, probably four or five pints of juice over the first two days, to try to kill the hunger.
It is a positive sign to feel hungry during the early stages of a juice fast. It means the cleanse is fully underway, and when the body feels hungry, it is also detoxing at a rapid rate. I found the hardest part to resist was my memory of certain foods, especially pizza and KFC. Also watching adson TV become difficult, even cruel. On the plus side, my stomach looked and felt flatter.
Day Three of a Juice Fast
Hunger starts to subside, but the memories of and cravings for favorite foods continues to linger. The colon is free of food, and the digestive system is able to fully rest. The nutritious goodness of the juices feed and heal each of the body’s cells. Immune system and white blood cell activity increases.
Large amounts of mucus are excreted through the sinuses and/or throat, but this will gradually clear. The tongue may still feel fuzzy, and the breath foul, but this will subside during the cleanse. Any old undigested waste will be caught and absorbed by the psyllium husks ready to be dispersed through the colon.
Day Four of a Juice Fast
The benefits of the juice fast start to show. You will feel more energetic, you will need fewer calories to sustain the body, and the mind will become clearer. I only needed one pint each of vegetable and fruit juice at this stage of my juice fast. I felt incredible, full of zest, and I was able to fully focus on my projects.
Hunger vanished, and I needed only a bare minimum of calories to sustain myself for the day. The carpel tunnel syndrome that often plagues me did not irritate me as much, and the pain dispersed the longer I remained on the fast.
Day Five of a Juice Fast
I hadn’t weighed myself up until now, so I was shocked to find I had lost 11 pounds. By this time, the body is turning to its fat stores to use as energy. The craving for pizza still dominated my mind, but I found that my willpower increased as I stuck to the plan. Every time a juice enters the body, the nutritious goodness goes straight to the cells, boosting them with vitality.
Day Six of a Juice Fast
I felt excited about breaking the fast, and all day I thought about the taste of food. It made me feel grateful for tasty meals, that’s for sure. My stomach felt content, and I had not suffered any hunger pangs since day two. In total I lost 13 pounds over six days. I felt leaner, brighter, and glowing with energy.
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Juice fasting definitely works. My aim through this was to help to clear my mental fogginess and writer’s block, and juice fasting definitely offered that. It does require concentration, willpower, and dedication to stick to the plan, but the health benefits of glowing skin, a reduction in arthritis pain, weight loss, and mental clarity are well worth the pain.
Words don’t adequately describe the pleasure and pain the body endures during a juice fast, but it definitely works its magic. Be sure to check back soon for juicing recipes and methods for using the leftover pulp!