I haven’t done as many juice fasts as people think. I do a longer fast that starts on New Year’s that lasts either 30 or 40 days and this is my forth.
I may do a shorter 3 or 5 day fast from time to time throughout the year. I do incorporate fresh juice into my typical week. For some reason many of my friends call me the juice man. People come to me for advice on juice fasting. Most people are doing it for the wrong reasons and I try to discourage them from it. The reality is that much of my weight loss has come from juice fasting or as I call it, “juicing”. I attribute many of my health issues being resolved directly to juicing. Juicing can be an amazing tool and it consistently works for me to become more healthy and to lose weight effective and efficiently. So why would I try to convince people not to do it?
1. Don’t juice to lose weight. If you are fasting to lose weight you will likely be successful. The problem is that after you lose the weight and finish the fast you will gain everything back and then some. UNLESS you change what you used to eat before you started your fast your body will revert to it’s former self. A juice fast is temporary whereas a dietary lifestyle change is long-term and hopefully permanent.
2. Don’t juice because it’s trendy or a fad. People juice because they think it’s just the thing to do. The problem is that without the proper information and research you have no idea what or why you’re doing it. This usually leads to passing on misinformation and prejudice for people who really need to do one.
3. Don’t juice just because your friend did it. If you are not juicing for the right reasons you will never stick with it. It’s hard enough to have the discipline to stay in a fast for the right reasons let alone just because someone else did it.
So, why why would I possibly do a thirty day juice fast when I just told you 3 reasons not to? There are many reasons why you should juice fast but in fairness of the 3 reasons you shouldn’t I will give you only 3 reasons you should so you can make your own decision.
1. For healing. The simplest way I can explain it is when body doesn’t have to digest food it has time to fix and heal stuff it normally wouldn’t get a chance to. Digestion takes energy, in fact over 10 percent of your total energy. You are flooding you body with massive amounts of nutrients from the juice and giving your body a break to heal. When your dog gets sick it stops eating until it feels better. So juice for your health. If you want to see some amazing stories on juicing for healing check out Max Gerson’s work with cancer. (Click here for a good place to start )
2. Detox . I eat very clean but I didn’t always. The first few days of a fast the detox stage is very noticeable. Similar to the healing, your body gets a chance to take a break from normal operations and “take the garbage out”. And boy does the garbage come out, if ya know what I mean. 😕 Even now that I eat cleaner I still feel like I need a good detox once in a while.
3. Reboot. Every so often it’s good to hit the reset button. When you do a fast, especially a long term fast, your entire body goes through some serious changes. Your metabolism slows down to accommodate the lack of food. At first glance this seems to be a negative effect but when it slows down for a period of time it will reset to a fast pace when you start eating again. (This has been my personal experience ) . The best things that reboots are your taste buds. Food tastes so much better after a fast, good food that is. By the same token processed foods and sugar taste disgusting. You actually start craving the foods that you are running through your juicer and stop the cravings for junk food. So if your feeling a plateau or a lack of energy maybe a reboot needs to be in your future.
So, at the end of the day I am a fan of juicing although in many of my health communities it’s frowned upon. It’s certainly not for everyone and you should definitely check with your doctor before you make any changes to your diet or exercise routine. I always refer to a juice fast as one of the tools in my box. It is definitely not the end all solution to weight loss or a healthy lifestyle because it is unsustainable. The one thing that works well with my personality is that the fast is either on or off, there’s no in between, do cheating, and no borrowing. It’s “all in” and that’s how I like to roll.
Go do some research, read from people’s experiences, and watch the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead.
Also, this is a fantastic read on the stages of a longer-term fast.
Stages of a juice fast.
Cheers
“Eat plants and move your body, all ya gotta do is a little more than ya did yesterday;) ”
Until next time,
