{journal} The Final Days of my First Juice Cleanse.

The big question today is:

What are some of your favorite memories that are tied to food? 

Grandma's cooking, a wedding cake, picnics with friends--share your memories with me :)

Day 2~ How Important is Food in Our Plans?

The juice cleanse experience is definitely becoming a spiritual journey for me. It's not just cleansing my body, it's cleansing my mind of bad habits and negative thoughts. I've realized how much our lives revolve around food--every trip to the store, every date, everywhere we go we are thinking about food. The question that comes up constantly is "what am I going to eat?" or "where are we going to eat?" 

Eating is important.

I think back to when I was a child/teen and I would hang out with my friends/brothers and we'd go do something together, like go for a walk. Those walks were so much fun; we really got to know each other and support each other through whatever was going on in our lives at the time. We also played games together like, cards, board games or hide n seek. When I think back on my friends/family (and even my first real relationship), what I remember is the fun we had, the places we went, and the conversations we had... not everything we ate. Sure, there were some really spectacular meals that deserve remembering (family recipes, first date, cakes that were only made once a year by my Nanny etc), but overall, it's a collection of memories of people, places and ideas. Although, I definitely see how food and memories tie together...  Conflicting feeling here, y'all. 

Memories are sensual, so the thought of/smell of/taste of food can trigger memories... that's pretty amazing, isn't it? 

No Counting Calories

This juice cleanse has released me from the burden  of having to count calories, plan my meals, log food into MyFitnessPal and the guilt of eating the typical American diet that's all around me. I feel free. I feel like I can think about other things besides what I should/shouldn't eat and what I should/shouldn't buy. I really like the way I feel today.

I'm not sure how I feel about food and it's role in our lives just yet, though. I can tell that it's nearly an obsession with most people (including myself) and I'm curious to see how I feel about this tomorrow. Are we obsessed with food because we need it or because we're in love with it? If there was no food to be in love with, what would we do with the extra time and love we were giving to food before? 

Love is important.

Day 3~ The Truth is Real.

I'm writing this after-the-fact (the next day). I've been through so many different feelings over the last three days and here's where it all ended. Honestly, on morning 3, I wanted food, but felt too guilty to eat it. The juices were tasting sweeter and sweeter as I continued to go without my "regular" food and I'm thinking about what I'd change if I did this again... I'd make the morning juices less sweet as the days progress, because my taste buds adjust to the juices. It's like the first day, I want something sweet; I'm programmed to eat sugar and I crave sugar. By the third day, I'm off of my sugar-binging-ways and I want something a little more savory. 

I missed food and I was hungry. I could have continued a fast beyond 3 days, but I couldn't keep drinking juice as my only "food." Its just easier to eat nothing than to keep drinking juice in the place of food (for me, in my experience), because I my appetite was getting smaller and I couldn't drink the whole 16oz juice anymore. 

I liked what I learned and I did the whole three days. I learned a lot about myself and I learned that I can show some self-control and work toward my "healthy-me" goals. I still want to do short juice cleanses, though. I might do it once a month for a weekend or for 1-2 days instead of the full 3-day cleanse. I'm definitely going to start adding juices to my weekly meal plan and even to my recipes. 

The Spiritual/Philosophical part

I've realized that food is what ties us together. When you can't eat, you feel like you're being excluded from all of the social activities. It's like everyone is eating, except you. Everyone is changing their flavors and textures with each meal, except you. I felt kinda lonely, really. Its like I wasn't "normal" or something. 

Being included is important.

I thought about how it feels to be "different" in other ways and how you feel excluded when you can't do what everyone else is doing... it was a spiritual/mental/emotional journey for me and I definitely have put extra thought into what other people feel like when they're around people who are different from them. Drinking juice all the time--for three days-- made me feel different and left out of the "game" of life; the social game. 

Socializing is important.

How Much Weight Did She Lose, Though?

That's what you want to know, right? Well, I lost a little over 5lbs in three days. I'm someone with a big appetite (remember the beaver post?) and I'm a girl who's not in great shape (remember I resolved to work on this before) and I still did the juice cleanse. The company I used offers more variety as well, if you don't want the same juices day-after-day; I love that option. It did reset my eating habits by making me buy all healthy stuff on my first grocery trip post-juice cleanse. It's one week later and I'm still eating healthy and only having minor "slip ups"-- since someone gave us a boatload of candy for Christmas and I have a chocolate weakness. I'm still resisting it for the most part. I'm going to make the biggest difference by planning all of the meals here 1-2 weeks in advance and that will save me time, money and prevent impulse buys and those "I'm starving!" meals that are always full of great-tasting, high-calorie ingredients.

I also learned that drinking your salad isn't as bad as it sounds. It tastes very similar (but better) than the very popular vegetable drinks that are on the juice aisle at the store. Since making "mean green juice" at home or buying "green juice" from a company allows you to skip the tomatoes, you don't have to deal with the high amount of indigestion that comes with tomatoes (and juicer-juice is strained, so it's smoother).

What do you think of juicing? Have you ever had this many "reflective" thoughts about food before this post? Yeah, me neither.