My First Juice Fast

The day is Monday, March 1st, 2015 and it starts off just like every other typical day. I wake up to my alarm clock and slowly get ready for another tiresome and dreadful day at work. After I finished my breakfast, which was usually anything with a ton of sugar to help me wake up, I headed to work. As I headed to work, nothing felt out of the ordinary, just another typical day. However, as the day goes on, it turns into the beginning of a new chapter of my life. As the day gets going, lunch time soon approaches, and I head to the lunchroom to heat up some left-over pizza from the night before. As I’m sitting there enjoying my very unhealthy meal, a co-worker walks in drinking some kind juice out of a plastic bottle. Once he sits down, he turns his attention to me, to ask what I’m eating. Following my response, he immediate ask me if I have ever considered doing a juice fast before. I responded by saying no and that I was not interested in ever doing so. The thought of a juice fast seems ridiculous to me and I told myself that I would never consider it. He responded by telling me about a documentary that he claimed changed his life forever. The name of the video was Fat, Sick, and nearly dead. He insisted that I watch it and insured me that I would see similar results. Although skeptical at first, I decided to trust him give the video a chance. Later that evening after my shift ended, I set some time aside to watch the video. To my surprise, the video delivered on all aspects that my co-worker promised would happen. The video had such an effect on me that as soon as I finished watching the video, I immediately went to the store to purchase a juicer and produce. The next day, I set off to complete my goal of a 60-day juice fast. Some of the obstacles that I faced when I first started out, was the lack of guidance and juice recipes. I had no idea where to start, but I was so determined to accomplish my goal that I didn’t care what I needed to do to get it done. The first day of my fast, I completely winged it and started making juice with way more fruits and vegetables combinations then I was supposed to. I found out the hard way and ended up with an upset stomach. What I learned right away was that our bodies produce different enzymes for fruit that it does for vegetables, which means that you could end up with an upset stomach if you don’t mix them properly. The next day I finally found some legit juice recipes and started to experiment with different kinds until I found some that I could tolerate. Although I found some great recipes, I had no idea what I was in for. Typically, the first 10 to 15 days is considered the detox phase, in which mostly water weight is lost. The detox period is a normal part of juice fasting and the length of time that someone detoxes completely depends on how many toxins that individual has in their body. The reason why most diseases are introduced to the body is because our immune systems are too occupied trying to rid our bodies of toxins, leaving us vulnerable to attacks from viruses. The best way that I can describe what a juice fast can do to the human body is with an analogy. Imagine a camp site with 1000 campers and only four showers for them to share. The showers represent the organs in our bodies that are responsible for cleaning our cells that are riddled with toxins, which are represented by the campers. Each day every camper gets in line to take a shower, but only about a quarter of them have time to do so because of the length of the line. Every day the line for the showers continue to grow and it continues this way until all the showers are completely overwhelmed. At this point, parts of the showers start to break down and that’s when diseases and organ failures are introduced. What a juice fast essentially does is wash everyone that is waiting in line, so that the lines can catch back up. This allows our organs to focus on their primary job duties. My first 30 days were some of the toughest days that I have ever been through in my entire life. Not eating food is NOT normal, and my body was withdrawing from several different addictive substances that are found in our food and drinks (coffee). During the first 30 days, all I could think of was fast food and every time I left the house there was no escaping the smell of food, which hurt my stomach. My neighbors grilling food, the lunchroom at work, and all the wonderful smells that linger throughout the town that I live in were constantly making my life harder. I learned so much about myself during those first 30 days and discovered that my will power was way stronger than I thought. The main fuel that kept me going was the results that I was seeing on the scale every day. At first, I thought the scale was broken because I couldn’t believe that I was really losing that much weight. I remember weighing myself one morning and realizing that I lost 12 pounds overnight. It seemed like the fat was just melting off. I never felt so happy in my life because I knew that the results were real. The last 30 days were much easier to get through. I felt like a brand-new person and I had energy that I haven’t felt since I was a kid. I remember most nights having trouble falling asleep because I had too much energy that I knew what to do with. There wasn’t a moment that I felt bloated, tired, or sluggish. I had energy all day long and it continued when I started eating food again. I ended up completing my goal and actually went past it because the day that my fast was set to be over, was in the middle of a work week. I ended up going for another 2 days, for a total of 62 days, to ensure that I was at home while my body was transitioning back to solid food. I lost a total of 72 pounds and I never felt such happiness before. I kept the weight off by completely changing my lifestyle. I couldn’t go back to eating bad food and being inactive. That is the recipe to where I was before, which was a life filled with depression and bad health. What I learned is that any diet can help you lose weight, but the key is to change your lifestyle. If you go back to what you were doing before, it is guaranteed that you will gain all the weight back and most likely more. This completely defeats the purpose and is harder on your body then just being overweight. After I finished my fast, I had a whole new love and appreciation for food that I never had before. It taught me a lot of patience and respect for the food that is naturally provided for us by nature. My first juice fast was a complete success and I would highly recommend a fast for anyone that is ready to change their lives around.