(no subject)
Hey Tina and all, so here it goes, this is information some of which I read and some of which I learned for myself.
- Juice fasts should ideally last at least three days. Ending it before that means you're basically gonna be in a bad mood for three days because your appetite is still in full swing and your system hasn't had a chance to even use up all the food in your stomach yet. After three days, you start feeling the real effects of the fast and not the leftover effect from food. So, to start with, it should be at least three days.
- It might be easier to kinda wean yourself off food. If you're going to do this, cut meat and dairy out first. Then starches, then vegetables and fruit, over a few days (two or three I think). Smoothies might be a good way to go if you have access to the materials for them.
- Cold turkey is how I did it last time and it worked pretty well.
- For the actual fast, you want to be drinking tea, fruit juice, vegetable juice and water. You could probably also drink soy milk too although I haven't had experience with that. No milk or other dairy, because dairy does funky stuff to your system if there's no solid food to flush it through.
- Don't drink those "juice cocktails" that are mostly water and sugar and like 1% juice. It's better to just drink water if you don't have access to real juice. Of course ideally you should be drinking freshly squeezed juice but hey we're college students, so a trip to City Market will do the trick.
- Don't drink too much acidic stuff (all citrus juice or cranberry juice will make you miserable). Balance it out with carrot juice, etc. Try not to drink too much citrus in general. Vegetable juices are really good, I try to get blends of both fruit and vegetable juices because I don't like the taste of veggie juice but if you do so much the better.
- Don't gulp, just keep sipping throughout the day.
- I usually like to dilute my juices at least halfway with water, that way the juices last longer and I don't have to keep remembering to alternate with water. Plus that way if you do end up drinking something strongly acidic (or whatever) it won't shock your system.
- Some people advocate enemas for juice fasts. I think these are icky and haven't ever used them, but whatever floats your boat...
- Don't drink caffeinated teas if you can help it, since you don't have food in your system the caffeine will wreak havoc. For the love of god don't drink coffee. No alcohol either, obviously - the point is to flush toxins from your system, not introduce more of them!
- You'll probably want to quit in the first three days. You won't be able to stop thinking about food. You'll be sitting in your room trying to work on some reading and all you'll be able to think about is toasted herb and cheese ciabatta with sprouts and soy cream cheese. I find that just writing down all the foods I want helps, since that way they're on a page and not bouncing around in my head. Also, keep drinking to kill the hunger pangs. They'll go away; it's just your stomach being used to being full with food and going, "...what the?" Once it gets used to being empty, things will get better.
- You might feel crappy in other ways for the first few days, too. You might have headaches or bad breath or stomach cramps or you might break out. You probably will feel pretty tired. Don't worry! It's normal, and it'll get better. (This is why I'm starting it over this weekend, so I can get the gross part over with when I don't have any academic obligations.) Again, after three days it'll go away. Take a lot of showers and keep drinking - you'd be surprised how much showers help.
- Since your energy will be low, keep your physical exertion to a minimum. Absolutely no working out. You could faint and other nasty stuff might happen.
- Some purists think you should fast for as long as your appetite goes away; that is, wait until you're not hungry anymore and then don't eat anything until your hunger comes back (your body's way of telling you you NEED to eat). I'm planning on going a week and then seing how I feel; you can go longer or shorter as you like. Just remember that the longer you're off food, the longer it should take you to get back on it.
- On that note: if you go for more than three days without eating, you have to be really careful about how you reintroduce food back into your system. Liz and I had a celebratory dinner when we broke our four-day fast last semester...we ate some stuff we shouldn't have, she ate far too fast and was sick/throwing up the whole night (I was more careful about chewing slowly and whatnot but still felt pretty gross myself). Eat slowly, don't eat much (stick to greens, preferably stuff like steamed spinach or something that doesn't take a lot of effort to eat; or smoothies) and keep drinking a lot of water and juice. For the first few days afterward it should be no meat, no dairy, and as little starch as you can get away with; just fruits and veggies and slowly reintroduce the other stuff. Veggie soups and steamed veggies are good since they don't take a lot of effort to digest, which is really the important bit; the whole point is to give your digestive system a rest from processing all that complicated food so your body can contribute that energy to fixing oter stuff, so you should be eating stuff that's easy to digest above all.
I hope that helps. I think I hit all the basic points. If you feel like asking me questions during the process feel free. I'll let you know how it goes.
In other news, I think I might start slowly introducing a more vintage look to my wardrobe. I'm sick of this jeans and t-shirt thing. It's kind of hard to go away from that during the winter months but in the spring, look out. I'm going to start wearing skirts and heels and stockings and nice shirts a lot, hopefully.
Also! My sister and I have been looking for places to live this summer and I stumbled on this place, in Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (we used to vacation near there, in Nags Head, so I have a bunch of good memories of that place). All of those cottages are rented specifically to college students. The rent is $120 a week. Jobs are easy to find (it's obviously a huge tourist area). And do you see all the sand? That's because the cottages are on the beach.
ON the beach.
Anyway I e-mailed the office in charge of renting those places and haven't heard back yet. If I don't hear back by Monday I'm going to call and see what they say. I really hope we can get a place there. I'm not sure if it's like a random roommate kind of dealie or whether my sister and I could get a cottage to ourselves but really, who cares? It's NORTH CAROLINA. ON THE BEACH. IN THE SUMMERTIME.
Also (shameless plug alert!:) all of you SMCers should be submitting to the Onion River Review. Why? Because I'm an editor and I said to. Dust off that poetry, those short stories, that essay in your desk drawer and send them in!