Throughout the last 10 days, many of you watched
& read my daily entries and statuses on my goal of fasting for 10 days off
of pure organic juice. You saw the pics & recipes, if you missed out on all
the fun, I'll be posting the recipes here too. You may even questioned, “what
h#*@ is she doing?” Or maybe you've juiced before yourself… Well, I didn't
quite make it 10 days... I made 5 full days on pure organic juice & 5 days
on a modification maintenance to avoid instant water retention, weight gain, and inflammation.
I couldn't believe the amount of knowledge I had
gained in a short period of time!!! I knew nothing about the reasons on juicing prior to Sunday
March 3rd until I watched a documentary on Netflix called
Fat,
Sick and Nearly Dead. I would encourage you to watch it, rent it, ready
about it… it's so amazing. Frankly, for me this was another life-changing
moment of my journey! I’ve seen people juice, I’ve heard about it before, I
thought myself that juicing was a radical and unhealthy way to lose weight.
Conceptually, you eat nothing and you're
drinking juice.. DUH.. you're going to lose weight!!!!!!! But there is far more that happens within the
body and I am excited to share what happened to me…the good and the bad!
What the The h#*@ is she doing????
The purpose of a juice fast is to turn off your digestive system, which is constantly
working to breakdown all the foods we eat, turning, churning, turning, churning.
It needs a break. By not having to digest food in our stomach, our body is
forced to find stored food, aka stored FAT. So that hamburger I ate 3 years ago
that is still being stored in my gut… YES… that’s what I wanted my body to “eat!”
So again, it forces our body to burn stored fat to function! The easiest way to
explain it is what I like to call the “bear theory” … your body goes into a
hibernation-type mode and burns stored fat. It's quite fascinating because it
starts to work instantly. Our bodies are a beautiful machine that will run
properly when treated properly.
How toxic am I?
You can tell how toxic your body is as you start any diet elimination, food modification,
detox or fast. Most people experience several "detox " side effects
for the first few days. Imagine the alcoholic coming off alcohol…very similar and
not fun at all. The most common symptoms are sleepiness, diarrhea, headaches, cramps,
mood swings, energy peaks and lows. Sign yourself up for about three of these
that
will happen especially if who
consume caffeine, meat, dairy, gluten, sugar, and have a high carb diet. Unless
you are eating clean (organic greens and no meat consumption) you will have
what my friend KG calls the “deets.” My body is still very toxic, I was smoker
for 11 years (gross), eating clean now for about year but I still get some of those
side effects; however, I was fortunate I was coming off a 5 day gut detox two
weeks prior. I didn’t have any detox effects. But by Day 4, my brain was not
processing information at its regular speed, I was sloooowwww. Complex carbs fuel
your brain to produce energy that moves and motivates you. That’s why I was
slow… my brain was deprived of complex carbs. This very same thing (sluggish
feeling) can happen if you consume a large amount of simple carbs at one time
too!
QUICK TIP:
There are two types of carbohydrates:
complex
carbs: (legumes, grains, nuts, seeds, raw vegetables) made up of three or
more sugars, are rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, very important for
overall nutrition &
simple carbs (Fruit, table sugar, honey, white
flour, chocolate, cake, jam, soda, cereal, FRUIT SNACKS) make up of one or two
sugars, very little-to-no nutritional value to the body.
Trusting My Healthy Body & Mind
to THRIVE!
I received multiple private messages through Facebook, several people
concerned, some people interested in knowing more, & the best part of all,
my supporters (insert applause): the people encouraging me all along the way
and wanting to try it themselves. I even was questioned & encouraged by a
few workout buddies, my trainer was supportive but concerned at the length of
time I chose. Day 3, I spoke with my doctor's nurse to get the “stamp of
approval.” Read articles online daily, exposed myself to both sides of juicing,
the pros and cons.
My belief is that
juicing is a form of detox only if you're using pure organic vegetables and
fruits “juice”, where juice is from raw organic vegetables and fruits (not
from concentrate and not in a damn container).
My belief is that juicing is healthy in short periods of time (less than 7 days)
and the maintenance after is equally as important. And like everything
else I'm finding our society is very misled on the perception of juicing due to
the media's influence. It’s eye-opening and life changing when you embrace
change and live-it! It was truly a moment in my life where I trusted my healthy
body to not only survive but thrive! I lost 9.6 lbs & 2.5% body fat in the
5 days on pure juice. That is amazing!!! Friday afternoon, my body told me I needed
food. Or it was GOD saying, “EATTTTTTTTTTT.” LOL! I was just ready. It wasn’t that
I wanted it.. let me explain, the willpower you have when you realize you don’t
“want food” isn’t even something I put in words.
I needed food for the first time in my life (I’m 28). At first, it was hard for me to accept that I
didn't make my intended goal of 10 days on pure juice, other people have done
30, 60, 90 days and I
wanted to be
accountable to that number of days I set for myself. But I listened to my
body and chose to eat again. The first meal I ate, was sautéed vegetables
(mushrooms, zucchini, onions), and OMG the flavor. I was in heaven. The
following morning, I gained 1.6 lbs. I decided I needed a plan ASAP. I heard
and read the horrors stories on the rapid gain back and just KNEW there had to
be away to avoid it. I decided I will eat light food, foods with lower sensitivities
– basically back to the raw vegetables I put in the shakes and slowly add back
foods. I transitioned to 3 Veganmax protein shakes a day, and gradually added
food on one meal. Not only did that offset the gain,
I ended up losing more! From Sunday, March 10th until today (Thursday,
March 14, 2013) I am down another 2.6 lbs. For a grand total of 12.2 lbs in 10
days.
“The
measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Albert Einstein
Anything unfamiliar triggers questions. That’s healthy! I exchanged chat
conversations & happily answered questions and I can only speak on experience
from my own journey. I am finding that this is my calling. This is my way that I
can help others change their life as I have changed mine. I want to be an
advocate for people who want to have similar life-changing experiences. Not
everyone is ready and not everyone understands what that even means. I don’t even
know what is in store for me from here on out! That’s okay! My friend Rain has
seen similar success in her own life and her children, simply by exposing and
educating herself to what is in our food and embracing an organic-plant-based
diet since January of this year! My friend Jackie, is so intrigued, she
messages me at least 3 times a week asking questions. I love that!
As I mentioned before, I was
questioned on my choice to juice. It hit me like a brick wall, I didn’t see
coming. At first, I didn’t know WHY this was happening. Up until this point,
everyone that had every reached out to me was positive. This was different.
This was meant to be hurtful. Thankfully, when you juice you become more
spiritual and visual, the “old me” would have responded and reacted. I’ve
learned not to react to the point of being able to transfer energy and control
my atmosphere. If I don’t like it, I’ll leave it. I am in control. I am not
afraid to be alone. I am not afraid of stepping outside of the box. In those moments
of intended negativity, discouragement, and judgment, I relied on my mind and
my willpower…. You don’t have food to comfort your emotions or to escape. You
pray and live through the emotions. It’s quite fascinating and unreal to grasp
without an open mind. The ability to “transfer energy” to the closed mind is a
tough concept. Whatever their belief is or isn’t, whatever my belief is or isn’t
I’m open to sharing mine and I’m opening to always being able to learn and make
changes without judgment.
I have
determined that it’s hard for people to adapt to “my change” especially those
who have been so closely tied to my journey, my success, and my life. As described
to me, it’s like rewriting a contract without a contract being written in the
first place. Theory one: I rely on someone to educate me, I learn from that educator,
I am become educated and implement, I want to educate more people so that
knowledge is shared, all while the original educator loses their sense of
control. I was able to see more clearly those who were truly on my side, those “friends”
of mine who have and stood on the sidelines, not encouraging or discouraging, yet
existing. Something at some point will impact those “friends” to implement
change in their life and I want to maintain those relationships and be open to
helping them when they are ready. As I’ve shared before, I am here for you.
Sitting in the HOT seat
In my chat conversations, in person, and private messages… wherever “that
person” was at in their journey, I had over 15 conversations and received the
same questions from everyone! I thought I would share a few of top questions:
#1: Why are you doing this?
I'm always looking for ways to shock my system & becoming more pure. My
overall all goal is to lose body fat, so I'm depending on my body to work off
of fat that's been stored for a while.
#2: Aren't you scared you'll gain it
back?
Yes. Will I gain it back? No. By maintaining my current diet, high protein,
high complex carbs, low sugar, no dairy, low gluten, no soy.. basically staying
plant based and eating organic greens, I will continue to lose more with ample
exercise.
#3: Are you getting enough protein?
No.. I am not getting any hardly any protein. The purpose of the juice is to
allow my body to work off of what I already have stored.
#4: Are you losing muscle?
Probably… by removing the fat which is harder to burn when I go back into my
normal routine gradually increasing my protein in each meal, I will rebuild any
lost muscle.
#5: Are you starving?
No. I never felt hungry. At first it was weird not to chew anything – I didn’t
allow anything but the juice and water – so when I chewed for the first time
after 5 days – my jaw actually hurt it was weird!
#6: Are you constantly running to the
bathroom?
To pee yes.
#7: Will you do it again?
Yes! My goal is to juice once a month for one week.
One common assumption:
#1: You're not eating so of course you're going to lose weight!!!
Well, that’s actually quite the opposite! If you allow your body to go into
starvation mode, it will actually hold on to fat rather than burn it having the
adverse reaction of not losing weight or fat. Raw juice contains many nutrients
and with the amount of nutrients of over 50 servings organic fruits &
vegetables in a day on a juice fast the body is not in starvation mode.
UNTIL NEXT TIME...... XOXO ms. GREEN P
