single day of juice fasting

Sunday we had an at-home day. Even as a 'stay-at-home parent' those days are rare. LOL So the night before, I decided to juice fast for the day. It's been about a year since I've done any juicing in earnest, and I can certainly tell. I feel sluggish, moody, and when I think back to the times I've done longer juice fasts - 30 or 45 days - the difference is incredible. I had a thought a week or so ago that I, personally, need to continually reaffirm my choice and commitment to a healthy, long life. If I'm not constantly working towards and making choices that support that decision, then I'm going backwards. And this year, in particular, feels like I've really stumbled backwards. Ideally, right now I would juice for at least a month, preferably longer, but I find committing to longer fasts is harder when I've got so much going on in my life. I find it much easier to commit to juicing when I'm at home for the entire day, or most of the entire day.

When I recently read Helen Nearing's Loving and Leaving the Good Life, one thing that struck a chord was that her and Scott would fast one day a week all year, and once a year for 2 weeks. Like Terces Engelhart, who juices the first week of each month, this seemed completely manageable.

So for the next few Sundays (which I'm planning on being home all day), I'm planning on juicing.

Yesterday went just fine. Despite the mental struggle of changing from a solid to a liquid diet, the day was relatively easy. I had apple juice, apple/carrot/beet greens, a glass of kombucha, and a couple mugs of nettle tea with stevia. Funny that in the morning I was making juice hourly, but as the day wore on, I went a couple or several hours between juices. Making juices hourly or close-to makes it difficult to leave home (and your beloved juicer) for even shorter periods of time, which is one of my mental blockages towards longer-term juicing right now. However, I did the math that if you fasted one day a week for an entire year, it's still 52 days a year fasting - which is very decent indeed.

This is the funny part, though: I woke up at 4:30 this morning having dreamt of ordering a veggie burger and fries!!! LOL Still, I'm not starrrrrrving right now. It feels really neat to tune into the body as it releases all its build-up in the colon... to get a sense of the body becoming lighter and less bogged down with waste.

Looking forward to next Sunday. :)