If you’ve been reading my blog for longer than a year, you might remember that I am all about nutrition. I especially enjoy challenging myself with annual juice fasts.
I had planned to do my fast during Spring Break. That plan did not materialize. Then, I’d planned to do the juice fast a couple of weeks ago, but again, my plans changed with the arrival of my chicklets.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that you have to be in the right frame of mind going into a fast. If you’re not, you are going to be resentful the entire time. I had one fast like that, and I wound up coming off of it early.
Now, why would I, at 5’3″ (on my tiptoes) and between 105 and 110 pounds want to fast?
Well, first of all, my belly has accrued what I like to call Soda Pop Fat.
As a vegan, I don’t eat meat or anything else produced by an animal.
I don’t, in fact, eat a whole lot.
My weakness is Mt. Dew. I’ve also taken to enjoying a Coca Cola.
In fact, visiting convenience stores is fun.
Folks, when your children leave for college, you’ve got to get your jollies where you can. 😀
Such indulgences lead to a little bit of extra skin around the middle, and when you’re small in stature, it is easier to spot.
So, that’s one reason why I wanted to do the fast.
A second reason for doing the fast is that I’m not a fan of allowing things to control me. Fasting provides me with a time of focusing my energy on kicking bad habits. I like the discipline of fighting my physical and emotional needs because, in reality, the body does not need a whole lot of food to survive.
With all of that in mind, I headed to Sams and purchased my produce. I had to run by Publix when I couldn’t find the big bag of carrots I was looking for…
When I got home, I fired up the juicer and made my apple/orange/pineapple juice. You can find the how-to information in this post.
Chicky’s allergies have been acting up, so I wanted to give her mega doses of Vitamin C. I made extra so we would both be happy…
I then spent over an hour prepping my vegetables. Doing this saves oodles of time when the juicing begins.
I took a couple of hours off and then got up and made two glasses of carrot juice.
The body can only efficiently use eight ounces of juice at a time, so I put the other glass away for an hour. It’s important not to make too much ahead of time because freshly made juice quickly loses its live enzymes…which is the whole purpose for juicing.
I have a goal for this year’s fast. I’d like to go longer than in the past. We shall see. The hardest days are the first three and the last couple…especially when I know that I’m about to end a fast. Of course, it’s also very difficult to begin eating again, so I get stuck in a vicious emotional cycle that’s completely different from the one I battle about not eating.
Ultimately, I am excited to be getting this year’s fast underway.
I’m looking forward to my abs reappearing and a clarity of mind taking over.
Think I’ll drink my second glass of carrot juice to that!
Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: juicing, nutrition | Leave a comment »
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