What is a juice fast?
A juice fast is where you go for a certain period of time only consuming fruit / vegetable juice and water. You can do one for as little as 24 hours or as long as 60 days. Juice fasting is a great way to get rid of skin conditions, lose weight, reset your Gastrointestinal track, reset your PH balance, detoxify and give your body the nutrients it needs to produce healthy cells and function properly.
If you were not aware, the average person comes into contact with over 500 chemicals and toxins per day. This may be more or less depending on your occupation and where you live, but we all will still come into contact with various chemicals due to products we use in our daily lives. Depending on the chemical and our toxicity level, our bodies can have a hard time getting rid of these toxins. So it is good to cleanse your body of these when you can. If you don't, over time this toxicity can contribute to all kinds of health ailments and cancers. Juice fasts are a great way to get rid of this stuff for good and reboot your health. I will describe in more detail the concept of a reboot below.
What is a Reboot and where did the term come from?
As far as I am aware, the term Reboot came from Joe Cross, a juicing advocate out of Australia. He created a documentary called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. This is seriously an amazing film that if you have not seen it, you need to watch it. It starts out showing him in his current state, taking tons of prescription medications, sick with candida, type 2 diabetes, 100 lbs overweight, depressed and on the fast track to death.
He decided to make a change in his life to be healthier and his goal was to get rid of the sickness and prescriptions that he has had to take for a very long time. The documentary spans 60 days of him juicing and going around America educating, interviewing and helping people losing weight and getting healthier in the process. He was able to meet his goals by the end all through juicing. He even helped this trucker that was massively overweight get healthy and turn around his life.
Joe was able to reboot his health through a juice fast. so "rebooting" is a fancy term for saying you are going on a juice fast but its called that for a reason. If you watch the documentary you will see first hand how he completely changes his life and his health and changes those around him. It is very inspirational, so much so that I even tried it for myself.
My experiences with juice fasting
I do at least one juice fast / reboot every year. I am pretty healthy so that is really all I need to do, but your situation may vary. If you do decide to do a reboot you should definitely start small and work your way up because it can be somewhat taxing on your body because you will be releasing all the toxins stored in your fat cells into your blood stream to remove the waste and it can make you pretty sick depending on how toxic you are.
I would start with one for 24 hours then wait a week or so, then try one for 3 days and wait a week or so before trying one again. You can work yourself up to a week, 2 weeks, a month etc. The longest fast I got up to was for 31 days. So sticking with it also take a lot of will power and determination to stay on track, especially if you live with others who are not fasting with you. I did that a few years ago and this year I just completed a two week fast. I can say that this year it was about a week too long, so with how healthy I eat and take care of myself, I did not need to fast that long to get rid of the toxins. So next year, I will target a 1 week fast. I will attempt my best to describe both the good things and the bad things that you will experience in juice fasting.
In the first few days, the biggest thing you will probably experience is hunger pangs. You can drink as much juice as you like, so if you get hungry, drink some more juice and also stay hydrated with plenty of water! You will also notice yourself going to the bathroom a lot even though you are not eating. You should also notice a change in color of your urine. It should be come clear in a few days as long as you are staying hydrated.
Next you should start noticing some weight loss. It is typical to lose 1 lb or more per day. My first fast, I was losing up to 2 lbs per day, but I did not work out as extensively as I do now, so I don't lose that much these days. After about the 3 day mark, your body starts kicking into overdrive to start removing toxins. This is where you will feel sick. You will get pretty irritable, you might have cold sweats, headaches, mostly flu like symptoms.
You will be going number 2 A LOT. Sorry to be gross, but that is a really good thing. Your body is processing out all the toxins out of your body that has been stored in your fat cells for years. Again, these symptoms completely depends on your toxicity level. With my last juice fast, I did not experience any of these, not even the hunger pangs. I only felt a little sluggish on day 3 but other than that, I was high energy and very positive the entire time. I am just trying to describe what I went through so that you might know what to expect if you decide to try it.
Once your body starts detoxifying you will notice is that you will STINK... bad... like onions... especially under your armpits. No matter how many times you wash them you cannot get the stink out. So just be aware of that. Of course the less toxic you are, the less you will stink. I actually use that as a gauge of when I am done detoxing because once you stop smelling like onions, you are pretty much done :) This year I stopped stinking on day 6, so that's why a week is a good duration for me.
What kind of Juicer should I use?
There are different kinds of juicers such as centrifugal, masticating / press, augers and triurating.
Centrifugal juicers are probably the most common type which has a spinning blade that will cut and grind the matter will spinning at high velocity, through centrifugal force will extract the juice through a metal strainer and the waste will get blown into the waste container. These are the cheapest kind of juicers, but also the hardest to clean and probably do the most damage to the juice. It is important to consider the heat and oxidation being applied to the juice. The more heat and oxidized it gets, the less effective its nutrients are and the juice enzymes break down. So I personally would not recommend these types because you don't get the best quality product on top of being a pain in the ass to clean. I have owned two of these in the past, one on the lower end and one of the higher end and they where both a pain to clean. Something else with these types of juicers you cannot juice things like wheat grass. So unless you are on a super budget for a low end one I would not recommend these.
masticating / press juiciers are what I use now. These types of juicers will crush the juice out without disturbing and oxidizing the juice. They are of course more expensive than centrifugal juicers but they have really come down in price in recent years. This type of juicer is the best of both worlds as they are not super expensive, can juice pretty much anything and are super easy to clean. These usually run around $250-$300 for a good one and a great investment in your health.
I can't really speak to augers and triuating juicers because I have not personally used them, so I would not feel comfortable recommending them.
I am already healthy, why should I juice fast?
It is important to consider that some things are hard to get out just by normal means, like heavy metals such as aluminum and mercury are very hard to remove from the body and are neurotoxins to the brain. So you don't want that stuff hanging out in your body for 20,30,50 years. Otherwise these things will promote cancer and other diseases of the mind and body.
Juice fasting will also give your digestive track a rest as under normal circumstances, it is processing food and drinks constantly. This will allow things to stop and help your gut rebuild some of the gut bacteria that is critical for your immune system.
Other things to consider
If you are juicing you should also take a multi-vitamin to ensure you are still getting all the minerals and nutrients that you get normally. You should also take a fiber supplement because if you are juicing you are not taking in any Fiber and you can become constipated. That is not something you want to create a blockage when you are trying to rid yourself of toxins. Also consider not drinking out of plastic containers or straws. Mason jars are great for storing juice and if you like straws, glass straws work great. Eating and drinking off of plastics will only continue to add toxins into your body, so avoid them where possible.
I would be happy to answer any questions in the comments below. Happy juicing!
Love to all.
Photo Credits:
Juice photos - RawPixel
Man pull up - Edgar Chaparro