Day one has arrived and I have survived!
I will tell you I was so excited and slightly nervous about this day that I did not sleep well last night—crazy anxious dreams. I slept like I had a career-changing meeting ahead…or maybe it was a mix of my juicing excitement and that I finished the Hunger Games series a couple of days ago. My reading always finds a way to incorporate itself into my sleeping hours.
Anywho this entry will probably be my longest. To break up the reading material and subjects I have made several Day 1 entries. I will include links throughout entry. I am not going to include photos or recipe breakdowns in the future days. Since it is my first juicing fast and the first day, I thought it would be appropriate. In the days to follow I will share more experiences, thoughts and maybe a few tips.
Day 1 Breakdown
Wake up: Warm water with lemon
Breakfast—Juice #1: Carrot Apple Ginger
Mid-morning—Juice #2: Mean Green Juice
Lunch—Juice #3: Gazpacho Juice
Afternoon—Juice #4: Citrus Inspired Green Juice
Dinner—Juice #5: Sunset Blend Juice
Before Bed—Warm water with lemon
All my juices for the first 4 days are from Fat Sick & Nearly Dead with only slight modifications, if any.
If you are like me and do not rise with the first shift world, then I suggest you do what I do. Make your first juice after your lemon water has settled. Then pace your juices every 2.5 to 3 hours. And remember you can drink as much water as you want.
Every day starts and finishes with a warm lemon water.
Every day starts and finishes with a warm lemon water.
You may be asking why warm lemon water? That is not a juice! You cheater!
Nope, but all the benefits from warm lemon water aids in the juicing fast. Simply put, it gently cleanses the digestive tract and intestines. If you want more info the subject see my post on Benefits of Warm Lemon Water.
I was a little skeptical about how I was going to handle lemon water twice a day. I am the person who quickly removes the lemon wedge from her water at restaurants and I can still taste a slight lemon flavor, yuck.
Maybe it was mindset or maybe it was the warmth of the water, but I actually enjoyed my first cup. Personally I like the idea of starting and finishing the day the same way—bookends to a healthy day. Start your morning off with a clean palette and finish the night off in a celebration drink.
Juice #1: Carrot Apple Ginger
This is a perfect starter juice. It was so smooth, naturally sweet and clean. The consistency is that of water. Amazing.
Tips
- Since I know ginger is strong, I used it sparingly until the taste is acquired.
- Also remember beta-carotene is a powerful natural dye used in my everyday items. Do not clean up this juice with white kitchen towels.
- If you do not buy organic carrots, cut off the ends. This is where most of the pesticides reside.
- No need to peel the carrots or deseed the apple. The juicer does all the magic and work. You may have to cut the apple into smaller pieces so it fits down the juicer chute depending on model.
GoodLuckTina Overall Rating: 4.5 stars
Juice #2: Mean Green Juice
Looks like something the Incredible Hunk drinks.
I got a head start on this one, the night the juicer arrived we tried out this recipe. It was barely drinkable because of the overpowering taste of celery. So I cut the celery quantity in half and hoped for the best and guess what? It went from barely drinkable to delicious! Funny what two stalks of celery can do. Oddly enough, I could taste a hint of banana. As for leafy greens, kale has the most subtle flavor but packs the punch in vitamins and nutrients.
Tips
- Some recipes will tell you to peel your citrus fruits while other say throw the whole thing in there. Maybe this is the juicer company bragging that their juicer can handle thick skins, but I would suggest cutting away the outside edge of the peel for two reasons. First, the more white skin you leave on the fruit the more juice it will yield. Secondly, if you throw the whole thing in the juicer your juice will have a peel taste. Have you ever bitten into an orange peel? That is what your drink will taste like. I know, I did it later in the day.
- If you are not using organic celery, cut off the ends. This is where most of the pesticides reside.
- Peel the waxy skin off your cucumber.
- With kale and other leafy vegetables, keep the stalks on the greens for more juice yield. The juice is throughout the veggie not just in the leaves.
GoodLuckTina Overall Rating: 4 stars
Juice #3: Gazpacho Juice
Whoa! What kind of recommendation was this? Not to be used with a novice juicer. I told myself when I started this thing I would try everything once no matter how bad I thought it was going to be. Well, I did and I wanted to throw up. I love onions. I eat onions on almost everything, but drinking onions, not my thing. The parsley tasted like grassy dirt. Isn’t parsley a garnish not to be eaten?
Tips
- Peel waxy skin off your cucumber.
- You do not need to deseed the sweet pepper.
- Remove peel from lime.
GoodLuckTina Overall Rating: smudge of a star because it is healthy, but not drinkable. Live and learn.
Juice #4: Citrus Inspired Green Juice
This is the juice that I didn’t remove the citrus peels which left a bitter peel aftertaste. Next time I will peel those bad boys. Other than that this one that went down the drain pretty easily which is good because I was hoping my #3 was the fluke not the other way around. Whew! Clean, smooth juice with the exception of those peels.
Tips
- Bet you can guess this one, remove citrus peels.
- Add the Swiss Chard a leaf at a time to make sure you can handle the taste. It is quite powerful. I cut the quantity in half.
GoodLuckTina Overall Rating: 3.75 stars
Juice #5: Sunset Blend Juice
Nice way to end Day 1 of juicing. Crazy how much juice is in a dense sweet potato. The color of this juice was so pretty and soft looking. Finally a name that reflects a little foreshadowing and creativity! This recipe yielded the most juice. I had to pour some out to make room for the remaining. Sweet peppers are great tasting, but the overall juice smells of red pepper which is not sweet, at first it was mentally challenging to get past the smell and enjoy the taste.
Tips
- If you do not buy organic carrots, cut off the ends. This is where most of the pesticides reside.
- Peel your orange.
- No need to peel your sweet potato. The juicer is quicker than you at removing skins.
GoodLuckTina Overall Rating: 4 stars
Overall tips from Day 1
Brushing your teeth. When do you do it? Cannot be first thing because you are drinking lemon—lemon and toothpaste do not mix. Then you are off through the gate to juiceland baby—again, no room for toothpaste. Then you are sipping your juice and enjoying the flavors and experience, well that takes away from teeth brushing time. Okay, I know this isn’t huge because you can brush after you drink your first juice, but it is definitely worth noting.
I do not have cable and do not have to watch commercials, thankfully. But I do have Hulu and listen to (not really watch, too busy for that) a couple of shows. Although Hulu doesn’t have as many commercials as cable, it still has some and today majority of their commercials were of one subject—FOOD! And not McDonald’s crap or anything like that, no. Hulu has “bettering your ad experience” so they show commercials that are geared specifically to you. That was tough. I had to turn it off.
Did I hit the recommended nutritional values for Day 1? See Day 1—Nutritional Information
How did I feel after Day 1 of my Juice Fast? See I Feel Good—Day 1
How much waste did these recipes make? See Day 1 Veggie Pulp—Wowza!
Within the next week I will have all these recipes available in PDF for download with 95 others.
Day 2 of my Juice Fasting
goodlucktina 