Brian's Juice Fast Recap

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

From Tuesday, January 10, to Saturday, January 14, I completed my very first juice fast. If you know me...this is a miracle.

Some backstory:
I am not and have never been a healthy eater. A regular breakfast at school (college school-not high school) for me consisted of a "Cup of Noodles," two corndogs, and a Pepsi. And should I even mention anything about Skittles? I would give Marshawn Lynch a run for his money on love of Skittles (Seahawks fans will get that). Anything coming out of the freezer, I loved: Hot Pockets, those little Jeno's pizzas, corn dogs, etc. were an easy meal, so why not eat them?
If I ever did get into a health-kick, my ignorant mind would tell me to go grab something that said "Low-Fat" or "Low in calories" on it. Makes sense, right?
Being an athlete for all my life and then being a Marine where they make you work out every so often, I have always been persuaded that health was about 80% exercise, 20% nutrition. I remember after watching the movie "Supersize Me" a few years back, I bet someone that I could live on all McDonald's and as long as I exercised, there would be no issues whatsoever.
This thought process carried on for at least 5 years of our marriage. Regular dinners were out-of-the-box, Betty Crocker style - and I can't tell you how many nights consisted of packaged mashed potatoes and microwave popcorn.
Soon Keri started getting really smart about food and nutrition (as I'm sure most of you dedicated readers have already figured out). Being the loving husband I am, I played along for awhile and as long as Keri was cooking, I was eating. One month, I decided to go on a fast from all fast food. That was tough for me since I would regularly go to Jack-in-the-Box at least twice a week on my way home from school. After that month, fast food really just didn't taste that good anymore. A couple of months later, I did a month without any pop (some of the less-intelligent type might call this "soda" or "coke.") That was REALLY tough 'cause I LOVE me some Pepsi. After a month, however, it just didn't taste as good as I remember and it was actually pretty hard to get down. Since then, pop just doesn't sound good anymore. I can happily say that I have been pop-free since June of last year.

So how does this all get me to a juice fast? Well...I'm not totally sure. Recently I have been eating pretty healthy thanks to my incredible wife and I still work out often, so I was in pretty good shape. We watched a movie recently called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" and saw some incredible results from juicing. Keri and I have been juicing in the morning for awhile now and the benefits are very obvious once you start. The days I had juice in the morning I would have a ton of energy, while the mornings I skipped I would be dragging. After watching this movie (with my parents) my mom called me up and asked if I would do a week of juicing with her. She had already started the day before so I agreed to do it until Sunday, which would have made it 6 days. So with no preparation, I started a juice fast to be an encouragement and support for my mom. That brings me to the specifics of the actual juice fast and some commonly asked questions about it that I hope I can shed some light on:

The first question everybody asks is: Don't you feel hungry?
Well, no, not at all really. On the flip side of that, I never felt full either. I was consistently satisfied and never had the hungry, then stuffed, hungry, then stuffed feelings of a regular diet. If you ever DO get hungry on a juice fast, drink more juice. You can have as much as you'd like.

How much did you drink?
On average, I had 5 Blender Bottles full of juice each day. A blender bottle holds 28 ounces of juice, so that comes out to around 140 ounces of juice. I would have one right after PT around 7:45, one around 10:00, another one around 1:00, a fourth one on my way home from school at 3:30, and then I would have a final one around 6 or so. Some days I had more, some less.

What kind of juicer did you use?
Our juicer is a Champion. I'm sure Keri has talked about why it is better. Something about the difference between centrifugal and masticating and the amount of time it takes for the nutrients to die. I don't really know the specifics, but Keri can fill you in. If she already has, I'll have her put a hyperlink to that post.

Did you lose weight?
Yes, I just don't know how much. I never weighed myself. I wasn't wanting to lose weight, but it was definitely obvious looking in the mirror that I had lost. I could tell, Keri could tell, others mentioned it as well.

But how are you getting protein without meat?
I don't blame you for asking this, I would have asked it too a few weeks ago. Contrary to popular belief, other foods besides meat have protein. Vegetables have protein, and a lot of it. My regular juice had two heads of romaine lettuce, a handful of spinach, a handful of kale, a beet, and about 10 carrots. That's plenty of protein for your daily needs. Oh, and that's only 1 one of my 5 juices each day. Trust me, protein deficiency is not a problem on a juice fast. For more on this, watch the movie "Forksoverknives" (Keri and I will be doing a review of this later).

Is that healthy?
The first person to ask me this, no joke, had a piece of Papa John's Pizza in one hand and a Dr. Pepper in the other hand. I did 5 days of drinking nothing but fruits and vegetables. How can it not be healthy? Keri is way better at talking about the nutrients and what-not, so I'll leave that to her, but short answer is yes: it's very, very healthy. Also, watch the movie "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" for better answers to this.

Was it hard?
The 2nd and 3rd day was tough and I really wanted to quit. Not because I was hungry, I just really missed the taste of food. After the 3rd day, there was no problems at all and you get used to it. A mistake I probably made that made this tougher was that I had the same exact juice every time. Once you made different kinds of juices, you could get a different taste which made the process a little more enjoyable.

What did you put in your juice?
My "normal" juice consisted of:
2 heads romaine lettuce
1 handful of spinach
1 handful of kale
1 lb bag of carrots
1 beet
4 apples
2 pears
1 lemon

Other times Keri would make my juice for me and I'm not really sure what was in them. I think she mentioned what was in some on a couple of posts back with the picture of the 4 blender bottles in the fridge. Check the comments of that. Maybe she'll edit this post with a hyperlink to the post. (Elbow nudge to Keri)

Would you do it again?
Absolutely. I will probably make a habit of doing a week long juice fast at least once a year, probably more when I start to get older.

Any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. Stay tuned for my mother's juice fast recap.






10 comments:

Emma said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Emma said...

"some of the less-intelligent type might call this "soda" or "coke."

Amen.

(And aren't you glad I *obviously* got the point of the whole post?!)

Sonja said...

That's awesome. I want to hear Terri's recap now!!!

Emily said...

So glad you did a recap! My one question was if you could work out... Glad to know you can :)
I didn't have my
Juice this morning and my entire day was off! I just horrible and didn't get a good work out in and was zoned out for most of bible study. Won't be missing my morning juice anymore! Ha

Emily said...

Don't mind the grammar errors. When I comment from my phone it won't let me fix anything :(

KMom said...

I LOVE this!!!! :)
the first time Kimbe (Keri's sister) got to have a bottle, she was about 6 months old, it had carrot-beet juice and Keri got to give it to her :)
this really motivates me to 'get back into it' :)

Emma said...

I have another question...how much do you spend on produce each week?

Keri Ronk said...

We spend quite a bit on produce a week. I usually make 2 grocery trips per week. A few months ago I calculated how much we spent per day on our morning juice and it came to about $4.20 per day for both of us. That is all organic, 2 heads of romaine, 1 lemon, 4 apples, and 1 bag of carrots all purchased at Trader Joes. Next grocery shopping trip I will write out the prices for some of the other ingredients and do a full post about it! Probably next week!

Goodfellows said...

Ok Mr! U motivated us....well I had to work on Gary, but he has decided to try it with me! We plan to do it for 3-4 days. We started it this morning. We will see how Gary is doing by supper time! Haha! And, by the way, I resemble that remark about the coke!

Goodfellows said...

Gary was laughing at your comments about fast food and just going along with it because it was what I was cooking! That is so him!

 
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