Juice Fasting
A fasting diet where the dieter takes in nothing but fresh squeezed vegetable and fruit juice in place of solid foods. It is thought to be a cleansing process to clear out all the processed foods and junk from our regular diets. The fast can go on from 3-90 days depending on the desired results of the dieter. For this particular fast, I will be doing 60 days - starting tomorrow 9/5/12.
Juice fasting has been around for a while. It recently had a resurgence of popularity due to the movie, "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead"(on Netflix now) in which a fat Aussie juice fasts while traveling the U.S. He has some pretty remarkable results dropping weight, healing a skin disease, and eventually ceasing the intake of many prescription medications. If you haven't yet seen the documentary, I would strongly recommend checking it out. Pretty inspirational shit.
The Plan
For the next 60 days, I will be consuming 80-100oz of fresh juice a day. I plan to adjust accordingly once I'm a few days in and see what my demands are. Along with the juice, I will be keeping well hydrated with water. These are the only items I will be consuming. No beer, no liquor.... :(
The recipe I decided on is called the 'Mean Green' and is a green vegetable based juice. I will make my breakfast and snack the morning before work. I will come home from work and make lunch/snack for the afternoon. I purchased several BPA free Nalgene bottles to transport my 'snack' juices to work. During the fast, I will continue with cardiovascular exercise (running) but will discontinue weight lifting at my doctor's advise. I may supplement my diet with whey protein powder if deemed necessary, since there is an extremely low amount of protein in the fruits/vegetables i'll be consuming.
Mean Green Recipe
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| Mean Green Ingredients |
- 6 Kale Leaves
- 1 Cucumber
- 4 Celery Stalks
- 2 Green Apples
- 1/2 Lemon
- 1 piece of ginger
Why are you doing this?
1) Let me go back in time for a minute here. It was December 2011...I was sitting at my desk in my former employer's office and couldn't get comfortable. I kept shifting one way in the seat and then readjusting another way. THAT was my wake up call, I was too fat to comfortably sit in a chair....
Immediately after I finished college, I obtained a position at a software development company in Jacksonville Beach, FL. It was my first desk job and I continued the sedentary life style I had begun in college. I ordered fast food every day and typically ate at my desk. I ballooned up to my heaviest weight and was out of control. I had tried dieting unsuccessfully several times in the past. But this time I told myself I was actually going to FOLLOW THROUGH. I didn't want to diet through the holidays (HA) so I started dieting a few days after new years.
I dropped about 40 lbs from January 2012 - July 2012 through mostly diet. Since July I've been stuck in this rut from 198-210 lbs. I've been eating pretty clean, and started exercising regularly for the past 4 months. It's just not moving fast enough for my liking. I feel like this fast can break the plateau to make me reach my goal faster. After the fast, I plan to reintroduce proteins, carbohydrates, and alcohol back into my diet in moderation while ramping up my exercise routine to keep the weight off.
2)The other reason I've decided to start this juice fast has to do with a competition at my workplace. About 20 people are in the office's version of 'The Biggest Loser'. Our official weigh-in was today, 9/4/12 and the competition will last 60 days. I don't particularly like losing and there is a cash prize to the contestant that loses the largest percentage. A few people have also made side bets on me to fail, so I'm feeling especially motivated to prove them wrong.
Grand Prize
$3.00 per % loss per contestant to winner
Example - winner loses 10% - $30 from each contestant
Side Bets
- $10 - I will break down and eat solids prior to Nov. 4th
- $10 - I will not lose more % than a certain co-worker
- $30 - I will not lose more than 30 pounds
The Weigh in
Over the weekend I absolutely gorged out in preparation for the weigh in on Tuesday. I needed to put on as much fluff weight before the weigh in since I'm going up against others with more the lose than me. Gain to lose baby...This was the first time I've deliberately tried to gain weight in my life....I gained 9 lbs from Friday to Tuesday. I was supplemented by chicken, ribs, subs, pizza, chocolate, and my last meal consisted of an Italian buffet for lunch today. After lunch and chugging about a gallon of water....I weighed in at 214.2 after lunch today!
My goal weight is to reach 180lbs after 2 months of fasting. That is a loss of 34.2 lbs in 8 weeks.Let's see what happens. I start tomorrow. No solids, no booze, just juice.
I'll be updating the blog daily, please check back often.
