The Juice--capades! Day 2

My second day of juice began much better than I'd anticipated. Despite having rather vivid dreams, I slept well and woke with virtually no joint pain and no reflux symptoms. Yay! Lately, I've have to all but drag myself out of bed because my shoulders hurt and my throat is coated in mucous and a little sore in the mornings. But not yesterday! I jumped out of bed (ok, that's a wee exaggeration) because was excited to create another juice concoction for breakfast. Behold:

I drank it down in a jiffy. It was really good. I used one huge Fuji apple, two whole carrots and one gigantic navel orange. Very breakfasty!

I did feel a bit of a headache coming on in the early afternoon and realized I hadn't been drinking nearly enough water. That's pretty important as it helps with the detox process. I had a big glass of water, took a nap and felt immensely better when I woke up.

I've been compiling a list of juicing FAQ's and I've decided to answer a few of them at the end of each Juice-capade post. Here are the first of the batch.

1) Is your whole family juicing with you? Nope! Just me, myself and I. The kids and Dill have tried some of my juices, though. Buckwheat really liked the hot pink beet juice from Sunday. I also made the kids fresh apple juice and they loved it. But everyone else is still eating solids and it's hard not to get envious at times, especially when I have to prepare a meal.

2) Are you trying to lose weight by juicing? No way! This cleanse is a reboot only. I suppose as I detox I may inadvertently lose some weight. I'm not aiming to lose weight, though, so I'm making this cleanse fairly short and trying not to expend too many calories as I do it.

3) Why not just eat the whole foods you're juicing? Whole foods are great and under normal circumstances, I feel like we should eat all the edible parts of a fruit or vegetable. But my digestive system is injured at the moment so I want to give it a break. By drinking only juice, I am allowing it to rest and I'm also providing my body with essential healing nutrients. In turn, I'm abstaining from protein, which is difficult to digest, and things like wheat, processed sugar and dairy which can cause harm to the delicate tissues of the digestive tract.

4) Do you feel hungry? As I mentioned before, I'm trying earnestly to maintain my recommended caloric intake so no, I usually don't feel hungry. But when I do feel hungry, I know it's time to drink more juice! Some juicers complain of starvation and it's because they're simply not getting enough. My produce yields roughly 24 ounces each time I make a batch of juice and I drink 4 - 5 servings a day. I will say that it takes a LOT of produce to make that amount of juice. You look at what you're putting into the juicer and think if you sat down and ate all that, you'd be full for the rest of the day. But it's important to remember you're only getting the juice and none of the fiber, so you need more to feel full for longer.

I hope I can survive Day 3. I'm not really craving solid foods yet, but I hear the worst part is yet to come. If you're the praying type, send some up for me! I'm scared!