Juice Feast, Take 2

By: Matt Frazier

Before we start, let’s get one thing out of the way.  Whoever euphemistically called this a feast should be shot.  While it’s not a fast, it’s no Fat Tuesday either.

I didn’t beat myself up over failing at my ill-fated first attempt at a juice cleanse.  It ended, one and a half days after it started, in my chasing my wife around the kitchen for a loaf of bread, followed immediately by a glass of wine, followed immediately by a beer.

I like to think that failing in my attempts to qualify for Boston for so long taught me to handle failure pretty well.  To use it as motivation to do better, rather than as a reason to quit trying.

So this time, I did it better.  Last night I completed four days of taking in nothing but liquids in my first successful attempt at a juice cleanse.

Why I Did It

In short, I got all pumped up after going to Tony Robbins’ Unleash the Power Within seminar earlier this month.  (If you click the link, you can see me over Tony’s right shoulder for about a quarter of a second at 6:06!)

When my wife and I got back from that, we committed to a 30-Day Challenge, an extended version of the 10-Day Challenge that convinced me to go vegetarian.  More on that once it’s finished in about another week.

Part of that challenge though, is a cleanse in some form or another.

Did I need a cleanse?  Maybe, maybe not.  But it was a challenge and a chance to experiment, and I’m not one to turn those down.

The ‘Clean’ Details

With talk of cleanses comes talk of shitting.  I’ve kept that to a minimum, and relegated it to the “Dirty” Details section so as not to contaminate the food.  Here’s the happy puppy-dogs and lollipops stuff.

I based my cleanse on the guidelines Tony gives in his cleanse pack, which are somewhat flexible.  Here’s what I decided on for the daily rules:

• At least 32 ounces of fresh, raw fruit juice per day
• Lots of fresh, raw vegetable juice
• 64 ounces of water per day, with greens powder
• Cold-pressed oils
• Lots of sea salt
• Supplements, including Senna Tea, fiber, probiotics, and antioxidants
• Seasonings okay, including a tablespoon of miso soup mix

(Big thanks to my experienced juicing friend, Shane, for helping me figure out what to eat.)

As you can see, the diet is almost entirely fluids and completely raw, except for the seasonings, which I used sparingly.  The point here is to give your digestive system a vacation by letting the juicer do most of the work.

But what made this cleanse SO much easier from the last one I tried is the inclusion of fruit juice.  Fruit juice tastes good.  To drink it for breakfast and throughout the day is Christmas compared to drinking pure vegetable juice, especially the green variety.

Dinner was the hardest part.  Come 5 or 6 pm, Daddy wants his dinner and he wants it salty.  Not fruity.

Problem is, every soup recipe I could find was either (a) not raw or (b) pureed, not juiced.  So I had to improvise, and I couldn’t believe how great the results were.  At the end of this post, I’ve included two soup recipes, one that I made up and one that I adapted to juice-only from here.

At the end, I’ve also listed every single thing I ate during these four days, for those who are thinking about giving it a try.

The ‘Dirty’ Details

So here’s how it went.  I bought Tony’s cleanse pack, which consists of Senna tea, some antioxidant pills, some fiber pills, some immune system pills, and probiotics.  (As it turned out, I think I could have saved myself 150 bucks and assembled it myself at Vitamin Shoppe for around 30 dollars.  Oh well.  Tony has done a lot for me.)

I’ve seen Senna tea sold as “Smooth Move tea,” in case you were wondering what it does.  The fiber pills do the same thing, the antioxidant and immune pills keep you from getting sick, and the probiotics repopulate your intestines with good bacteria, since you pretty much shit out whatever is in there.

Really, this part wasn’t that bad.  Let’s just say the cleanse wasn’t quite as “gentle on my body” as advertised, but it wasn’t that horrible.  And if nothing had happened, well, I’d have wondered why I was drinking all this juice.

How it went

Day 1: Love it.  Fun.  Exciting.  Amazed at how you can mix any three fruits together and get something delicious.

Day 2: Hate it.  Craving chocolate chip cookies, kettle corn, and anything that smells like anything.  Taco Bell Grilled Stuft Burrito on TV looks fantastic, as does raw piece of steak I see in woman’s cart in grocery store.  Grocery store trip derailed by emergency bathroom run.

Day 3: Easy.   Cravings have subsided.  Completely sick of miso soup and vow to never eat it again.

Day 4: Body has calmed down and seems same as yesterday.  Realize I’ve slept six and a half hours or less the previous three nights and not felt tired during the day. Thinking about food less, as cravings disappear once I put some juice in my stomach.  Noticing that I feel good, but nothing extraordinary.

So why did I stop after four days?

I’m not quite sure.  I kind of just got tired of drinking juice.  If my body had still been expelling random things from it, I might have been tempted to stay longer, and with the right motivation, I have no doubt I could have.

A lot of people say that with a cleanse, Day 3 or 4 is the worst, and then you feel great afterward.  I hated Day 2 the most, and then Days 3 and 4 were very similar and pretty good, so I figured maybe I was just a day or two ahead of schedule.

Next time, in six months or so when I do one of these again, I’ll try to stay on it a little longer.  For now, and  in comparison to the last one I tried, this was a victory.

I figured out at Unleash the Power Within that I need to celebrate my victories more by rewarding myself.  So that’s what I’m going to do now.  Maybe a cup of coffee. 🙂

The Blow-by-Blow

This is me harking back to my food blogger roots and listing everything I ate for several days. Enjoy!*

Day 1

• Senna Tea
• Apple/Orange Juice
• Water with Greens Powder
• Miso Soup w/ Bragg’s Amino Acids
• Apple/Orange Juice
• Rooibos Tea
• Water with Lemon
• Tomato/Celery/Cumcumber/Basil Soup
• Pineapple/Mango/Coconut Water Juice
• Carrot/Ginger/Lemon Juice with Flaxseed Oil
• Yogi Bedtime Tea

Day 2

• Senna Tea
• Apple/Orange/Grapefruit Juice
• Water with Lemon and Greens Powder
• Miso Soup w/ Bragg’s
• Apple/Lime/Carrot/Celery/Kale Juice
• Water
• Apple/Carrot/Grapefruit Juice
• Carrot Soup with Ginger (recipe follows)
• Coconut Water
• Grapefruit Juice
• Grapefruit Juice Again

Day 3

• Senna Tea
• Grapefruit/Orange/Mango/Apple Juice
• Water with Greens Powder
• Apple/Lime/Carrot/Celery/Kale Juice
• Carrot-Ginger Soup
• Water with Lemon Juice
• Sweet Potato/Orange/Pineapple Juice
• Butternut Squash/Apple Soup (recipe follows)
• Honeybush Tea
• Orange Juice

Day 4

• Senna Tea
• Carrot/Celery/Apple Juice
• Grapefruit/Celery/Carrot/Apple Juice
• Water with Greens Powder
• Carrot-Ginger Soup
• Peppermint Tea
• Carrot/Celery/Apple Juice
• Miso Soup with Braggs
• Water with Lime Juice
• Grapefruit/Celery/Carrot/Apple Juice

*Bowel movement schedule available upon request.  (That’s a joke and if you actually request it, you are banned from this site.)

Carrot-Ginger Juice Soup

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

• 5 large carrots
• 1 celery heart
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper
• thumb-size piece of ginger
• 1/4 small shallot
• 1/4 cup coconut water
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Seasonings:

• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• sprinkle of cayenne pepper
• cold-pressed olive oil to drizzle

Juice all ingredients except lemon juice and coconut water. Warm soup in a saucepan until just barely warmer than room temperature.  Add seasonings to taste and finish with lemon juice, coconut water, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Butternut Squash and Apple Juice Soup

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

• 1 butternut squash, peeled
• 1 apple
• 1 large carrot
• 1/4 small shallot
• 1/2 cup coconut water

Seasonings

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh-grated nutmeg
• cold-pressed olive oil to drizzle

Juice all ingredients.  Warm in a saucepan until just barely warmer than room temperature.  Add seasonings and adjust to taste, then finish with a drizzle of olive oil.

What do you think?  Ridiculous?  Ready to try it?  Leave a comment and let me know.